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Do you have a printer at home? It’s very easy and convenient to print out documents. Now, 3D printers are a hot issue, which can actually print out a product. Many people are buying the products and creating their own works. There is another way to use 3D printers. What is that?

The unforgiving and unstopping air hockey player in the picture is made with parts from a RepRap 3D printer. With his tools, Jose Julio, a robotics hobbyist and lover of DIY-projects, has finally created a self-playing air hockey robot! On his blog, he wrote, “I have seen several interesting projects of robots that paint or manufacture PCBs, etc. But I was looking for something different. My daughter loves air hockey and I love robotics so one day an idea was born in my mind.”

First, Jose started to build a 100 x 60 cm air hockey table. He decided to create the robot with three motors and replaced the rods along which the printer moves when printing with light carbon tubes. He attached an air hockey paddle to the rods and added a camera to the robot so that it could detect the movements of the puck. After studying the operating system, he created a new motion planning program for the air hockey robot. For example, while 3D printers need smooth movements to print a product, the robot needs to respond instantly to every new position of the puck.

It’s surprising to know that a machine can be transformed into another for a totally different purpose. Please search for the robot at YouTube and see if you can beat the amazing robot!