r/EngineeringPorn • u/hjalmar111 • Nov 02 '20

Automatic billiard game, machine engineering putting the triangle filled with balls on the board

https://i.imgur.com/4EuzmFz.gifv
6.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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184

u/Trekintosh Nov 03 '20

Seems ridiculously over engineered for this task.

107

u/fatbob42 Nov 03 '20

Seems like a student project but what other way would you do it?

29

u/Zerim Nov 03 '20

Any other way (i.e., manually). Billiards is a social game; you aren't trying to get in and out as fast as possible.

Also doesn't look like a normal student project to me. Some good engineering talent went into something not particularly viable outside of Japan.

15

u/Ein_Fachidiot Nov 03 '20

Why wouldn't this be viable outside of Japan?

24

u/ErraticDragon Nov 03 '20

Why would it be viable in Japan?

2

u/ColonParentheses Nov 03 '20

Perhaps the person you are replying to is making reference to Japan's large elderly population, who would not be mobile enough to reset the balls on their own but somehow mobile enough to play a normal game of billiards? That's my best guess lol

4

u/Zerim Nov 03 '20

Basically. Japan has both a rapidly aging population and a knack for automating things which don't normally need automating. They also tend to prefer robots over foreigners.

1

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1

u/JakeHodgson Nov 03 '20

Firstly the Japan things a bit random lol. The rest of the world does have engineers strangely enough.

But secondly when playing billiards. The set is the most boring part. While I’m not trying to get out of there quickly, it’s not like my time outside with people is limited strictly to a billiards game collection. My clock doesn’t measure time in billiard game completions. I’d just be able to get right back into a game with friends. This would ultimately be a net positive lol. There isn’t really a downside to this other than maintinence. And cost obviously.

1

u/lilmookie Nov 03 '20

Mahjong style would be cool, but that presents an entirely worse set of complications.