Toyota’s latest version of the AI robot was unveiled in a recent Japan B.League game.
Remember CUE, the sharpshooting basketball robot? In case you need to jog your memory, here's the AI robot back in 2019 casually hitting a shot just a little inside the half-court line.
The robot is now on its sixth generation, so we'll call it CUE6. And on this latest update, Toyota's hoops bot has gained a new set of ballhandling moves, switching its dribble from left hand to right hand, and back.
The shooting touch is still there, and from the looks of it, it seems like CUE6 is swishing the net even more often.
Toyota's team first made the dribbling breakthrough for the robot in 2021. It was programmed in the previous version, CUE5.
But actually, back in 2017, this robot was just designed to make free throws. The Toyota volunteers in charge of the project were inspired by the phrase, "Will 20,000 practice shots be enough?" This comes from the 1990s basketball manga series, “Slam Dunk.”
The AI robot uses advanced sensors and artificial intelligence to analyze its surroundings and make decisions on the court.
The developers continued to upgrade CUE until it eventually sank jumpers from farther distances without breaking a sweat — literally. Now that it has learned how to dribble, maybe it could give Allen Iverson and Kyrie Irving a run for their money in a few years.
CUE6 and its previous iterations have also gained popularity as a training tool for coaches and players, as it can simulate game-like situations and help improve individual and team skills. It has also been used for entertainment purposes, such as in halftime shows and exhibitions — most notably, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In 2019, CUE set a Guinness World Record for the highest number of consecutive free throws made by a humanoid robot.
What’s left now for CUE6 to do is to be able to dunk the ball. By then, teams can probably look at signing it for a professional contract.