January 6, 2022
The Ever-Evolving AI Basketball Robot, CUE!
CUE was originally developed by Toyota volunteers in their free time as an AI basketball-playing robot in 2017. Since then, CUE had been steadily increasing its shooting rate and distance, and participated in the three-point shootout in the B. League All-Star Game in January 2020. (Please refer to the development diaries of CUE for more details). In the summer of 2021, CUE also participated in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which was a dream of the CUE development team, and demonstrated a long shot from half court and dribbling, surprising many people from all over the world. CUE and the members of its development team were featured on the TV program Car & Future1 by Aichi Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. Please take time to watch the video clip (The video is available until 0:00, January 1, 2030).
Links to previous updates
1st story: An in-house challenge: novices embark on a new project from scratch
2nd story: CUE3 Shoots for a Guinness World RecordsTM Title
3rd story: CUE4 Attempts to Join a B. League All-Star Game
4th story: CUE5 Developers Continue to Forge Ahead to Give Back
History of CUE’s development (as of March 17, 2022)
- April 1, 2017
- The CUE project started as a voluntary activity.
- March 28, 2018
- The first generation CUE debuted at the home games of the Alvark Tokyo.
- May 1, 2018
- The CUE project decided to continue as an official task.
- November 24, 2018
- The second generation CUE2 debuted at the home games of the Alvark Tokyo.
- April 10, 2019
- The third generation CUE3 debuted at the home games of the Alvark Tokyo. Its related clips recorded over 30 million views worldwide.
- May 17, 2019
- CUE3 sets a Guinness World RecordsTM: "Most consecutive basketball free throws by a humanoid robot (assisted)―2,020."
- November 16, 2019
- The fourth generation CUE4 debuted at the home games of the Alvark Tokyo.
- January 18, 2020
- CUE4 participated in the three-point shootout in the B. League All-Star Game.
- May 10, 2020
- CUE4 won the BREAK THE BORDER AWARD2 for the B.LEAGUE AWARD SHOW 2019-20.
- July 25-August 8, 2021
- The fifth-generation CUE5 debuted and showcased its skills during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
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- CUEs played against professional and college basketball players in several TV programs.
References
- 1.
- Airing every Thursday from 22:58 (JST) on Aichi Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. Available in Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures in Japan (as of the end of March 2022).
- 2.
- The award given to activities that contribute to the Japan basketball industry through efforts that break the borders of existing mindsets.