With This Robotic Pool Cue You Can Never Miss a Shot

Pool is a complicated game that requires a great deal of skill to play well. It’s probably safe to say that you have played at least some variant of billiards and found that even when you know exactly where the balls should go, it is quite difficult to make that actually happen. That’s because the point that you strike on the cue ball will have a dramatic effect on how it will roll after bouncing off of a rail or another ball. That’s true even when your pool cue is lined up perfectly. To take the pain out of playing pool and ensure that he never misses a shot, Shane Wighton built a robotic pool cue that always strikes the cue ball perfectly.

There are dozens of games that can be played on a billiard table, so Wighton decided to focus on just eight-ball, which is the most popular variant in the US. The goal of eight-ball is to get all of your balls (either solid or striped) in the pockets before finally sinking the black eight ball. You have to hit the cue ball first and cause it to hit your balls into the pockets. Wighton’s robotic pool cue doesn’t just hit the cue ball perfectly; it also has projection system and algorithms that tell him exactly what shots he should take. The algorithms determine what shot should be taken based on many factors, such as distance and where the cue ball will land for the next shot. A projector then shines guide lines onto the table to show exactly where the pool cue should be placed. From there, the cue takes care of the rest.

There is a lot that went into this project, but the most exciting part is the pool cue itself. A Stuart platform, which was custom-machined for this purpose, is mounted onto the end of the stick. That has linkages that allow the platform to be adjusted to any angle. Those linkages are connected to tension cables that are pulled by servo motors in the base of the stick. A pneumatic solenoid is attached to that platform and is what actually hits the cue ball. The air pressure is controlled by an Arduino Uno to determine the power of the shot. A camera mounted over the table detects the positions of all of the balls, which are used to calculate the shots. When the pool cue is put into the indicated position, it automatically fires the solenoid at the proper angle to hit the cue ball perfectly.

That would have been very cool on its own, but Wighton went a step further and created an online interface so that he could play against other people. The interface shows a real time view of the pool table and has controls that let the online player setup their shot, just like a typical pool video game. The projector then shows Wighton where he has to place the pool cue in order to make the requested shot, which the cue will then handle automatically. When it’s his turn, Wighton can choose his own shot based on the system’s recommendation. This was a wildly complex project and it is incredible to see how well it ended up working.