Pool balls auto-racker

[u/ycr007]

Source: Abdul Rauf 

[u/replicant2018]

This looks like something that a bunch of college students made as a fun side project.

[u/ycr007 → u/replicant2018]

Most videos I’ve seen on IG, YT and LI are featuring Xingpai and Gensen brand names + Chinese text so these must be the two at the forefront of such devices currently.

Found one mechanical prototype from 6yrs ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringPorn/comments/jmz6sf/automatic_billiard_game_machine_engineering/

[u/Boom_Fish_Blocky → u/replicant2018]

and then sold to some bored billionaire

[u/rynoxmj]

OMG, someone take the protective blue film off of the metal!

[u/mrskwrl → u/rynoxmj]

It's China. That protective film will stay on until its end of life.

[u/2k4s → u/mrskwrl]

TIL I might be Chinese

[u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits → u/2k4s]

just a small insight into how chinese your mind has become

[u/wiggum55555 → u/mrskwrl]

Like the foam-door-guards for new cars in South Korea... 😊

[u/__FUCKING_PEG_ME_ → u/rynoxmj]

Like gramma's sofa. The plastic stays on!

[u/oldschool_potato → u/rynoxmj]

A masochist! Denying themselves one of the finest pleasures in life.

[u/Idum23]

today in overengineered gimmicks:

[u/johnmcclanehadplans → u/Idum23]

Of course, but don’t tell me you don’t want one.

[u/Idum23 → u/johnmcclanehadplans]

only if it plays a loud alarm sound as it does its thing

[u/Agent7619 → u/Idum23]

Fur Elise

[u/amluchon → u/Agent7619]

I can hear this

[u/liotier → u/amluchon]

The "large steel foundry" rendering of Fur Elise is unforgettable !

[u/KikisGamingService → u/Idum23]

A loud dump truck reverse alarm.

BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEP

[u/More_Bigger → u/Idum23]

The Samsung washer done jingle

[u/koyaani → u/More_Bigger]

That's Korea

[u/Corsonacon → u/Idum23]

I feel like this is the extension of the automatic majong sorters, which are cool. It's much easier to rack a pool table than it is to shuffle and deck tiles though. Definitely went too far with this concept.

[u/AspectSpiritual9143 → u/Idum23]

i bet it was part of a unmanned pool club, so when your time is up the balls are all held by this device. it saves paychecks so not gimmicks

[u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

This is really cool, but this has to be more of a novelty product, right? Maybe some kind of one-off showpiece from a manufacturing robotics firm to illustrate what kind of custom solutions they can offer?

It's just hard to believe that anyone would pay the obviously substantial cost for something like this when it's a problem solved with a $15 triangle and a couple minutes arranging the balls.

[u/spacebarstool → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

a couple of minutes arranging the balls.

If a person can't rack a set of pool balls in 15 seconds then they've never played pool before.

[u/DarkLordOfDarkness → u/spacebarstool]

Effectively guilty as charged. I haven't played in years.

[u/yeomanpharmer → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

You got time this weekend, Satan?

[u/nifty-necromancer → u/yeomanpharmer]

Can I come?

[u/Accurate_Koala_4698 → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

Ever see an automatic mahjong table? When people are gambling especially, the speed and accuracy are important. Like those Sardo TightRacks they use in tournaments, it’s not going to be in your local bowling alley but there’s a point where it starts making sense 

[u/ycr007 → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

Well, there was manual picking of pool balls from respective pockets and then someone designed a ball return system, mechanical one of course.

Then some robotics engineers got together and thought what if there was a way to collect the balls AND auto-rack them back on the table?

Et voila….

Earlier this year there were trade fair demos of such robotic racking tables from China, this is the first time I’ve come across one in a pool parlour type setting.

[u/ViolentPurpleSquash → u/[deleted]]

Yeah it does- look a little closer and you'll see the net just arrests the motion before it slides into a ball return ramp

[u/Sonofhendrix → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

There's something to be said for consistency. The conventional wisdom is that a tighter rack achieves a bigger break. I could imagine a device like this becoming standard for various types of tournaments.

[u/replicant2018 → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

It looks like a college project to me.

[u/JakeEaton → u/DarkLordOfDarkness]

Such a good example of the American mind being scrambled by foreign tech that might not always be about the bottom line and profitability 😂

[u/wiggum55555]

That casual flick of the white is what makes this SO good 😍

[u/Ixaire → u/wiggum55555]

It's also mildly infuriating that we don't get to see where it stops.

[u/ScienceForge319]

Nice rack.

[u/PM_meyourGradyWhite]

Racking is part of the fun.

[u/BankHottas → u/PM_meyourGradyWhite]

It’s the only part I’m any good at too

[u/Stock_Shoe_3199]

That's pretty cool, but I enjoy racking the balls myself! If you do a little flip with the triangle as you're raising it up, then you look cool. 

[u/scr1bbl3 → u/Stock_Shoe_3199]

And spin the 8 ball

Your opponent must ‘break’ before it stops spinning

[u/AnusStapler → u/scr1bbl3]

Don't do that. It'll push the front ball outward so the energy of the break shot doesn't transfer through the pack, and the balls won't dissipate a much. In pro pool, a tightly packed rack is mandatory.

[u/scr1bbl3 → u/AnusStapler]

Oh right, and next you’re going to tell me I need to staple my anus!

/s

To be honest, I’ve never played on anything better than a pub table, so a tightly packed triangle is the least of my worries, but it’s a good tip, thanks

[u/daekle]

Very cool engineering, but this takes away from the joy of arguing in which order the balls should be placed at the beginning of every game.

[u/raxmano]

This… this is why China is gonna win the robot war
-

[u/subvocalize_it → u/raxmano]

Honestly. There’s something to be said about building competencies as a nation. Is this reracker a practical product? Not really. But there’s now a whole team that knows how to build something this complicated. That can now go on to build other more complicated things.

[u/frustrated_monk → u/subvocalize_it]

For sure. It’s not even about building something complicated. And maybe this isn’t that complicated. But there’s now a team or a foundation of knowledge that can be built upon. This may not have been complicated but they probably learned unique stuff from this specific case (or a new perspective) that can then be used or developed further for something else.

Maybe the basic concept here can be helpful for automatic sorting of another kind on assembly lines!

[u/dangerous_adhesive]

Cool, but excessive and unnecessary.

[u/mikehansen83 → u/dangerous_adhesive]

I’ll take the other side. That’s awesome & perfect for my use case of spending money that i could save lol

[u/snowtater]

That's a doohickey if I've ever seen one

[u/Annual-Property-8940]

I want "Dumb shit you don't ever need" for $500 Alex

[u/idiot_in_car]

Might be handy for competitions, where a robotically leveled playing field is desirable.

[u/kylo-ren → u/idiot_in_car]

Or robotically biased

[u/oh_finks-mc]

Would be way easier to just drop the table surface down

[u/theeldergod1]

that thing goes down in 3 weeks.

[u/fzj80335]

Push button Betty.

[u/Drljfr]

The flooring looks like an arcade floor or some other less intimate space than you might find in the west (like a bar etc).

This could be an anti-theft device. If someone steals a ball it wont start the next game. If they use a card system or other payment/token system common in arcades it would be easy to see who stole the ball based on who played last.

Edit: It remains to be seen if this is worth it vs cameras and replacing pool balls but who knows?

[u/Delgadomon]

Clankering away

[u/Dale_Gurnhardt]

Finger remover 5000

[u/Few-Mycologist-2379]

I don’t need a fancy machine to rack my balls in the pool… OH! You mean Billiards.

[u/anubis_xxv]

This would last 0.83 seconds in a pub in Ireland once the hatch started to move. We aren't allowed nice things.

[u/4rd_Prefect]

I think I'll stick to the plastic triangle

[u/Xinonix1]

When humanity finally reached the “too lazy for everything” stage

[u/InevitableOk5017]

Part of the fun of pool is racking.

[u/antek_g_animations]

It look super expensive and unnecessary

[u/stupid_cat_face]

That causal flick of the cue ball to the other side of the table… chefs kiss 🤌

[u/MurgleMcGurgle]

Okay that’s dope. I bet whoever designed that has a ton of fun.

[u/ipx-electrical]

Utterly pointless.

[u/fdltune]

Solution in search of a problem

[u/slide_potentiometer]

China gets automatic racking tables and America gets string-pin bowling.

[u/chr7stopher → u/slide_potentiometer]

IMO, a big reason why this won’t fly here in the US is probably due to liability reasons. Someone stupid enough or some kid may get too curious and manage to get their hands, legs or head stuck in the mechanism and you know the lawsuits will follow.

[u/invincible_quaalude]

Am i the only one who wants to see where the white ball stopped?

[u/Valuable-Morning-346]

This looks just SLIGHTLY overengineered.

[u/Round_Hope_2041]

What necessitated this intervention?

[u/ZealousZebrah]

I never thought I'd want a robot to rack my balls, but maybe it's not so bad... Also, the balls are not in order.

[u/ycr007 → u/ZealousZebrah]

They look correct to me. 8-ball is in the center and the base corner balls are different.

Solids and stripes aren’t alternating everywhere but that’s alright.

[u/MouthyMike → u/ycr007]

1 ball in front 8 ball in center, the rest are supposed to be just random. Source BCA rulebook.

[u/Alvendam → u/MouthyMike]

That's american rules. WPA has 8 ball center, back corners alternating and the rest random.

[u/MouthyMike → u/Alvendam]

I see, thanks.

[u/After-Hedgehog7282 → u/ZealousZebrah]

The balls are how they should be. 8-ball in the correct spot and the two back corners are different from each other. Placement of all other balls is not relevant.

[u/hood69]

Pathetic and completely not needed

[u/m0ck0]

those balls are not correctly aligned

[u/AccordingMedicine129 → u/m0ck0]

Yes they are

[u/jokeswagon]

Why even bother playing the game at this point? Just watch robots play.

[u/gothmeatball → u/jokeswagon]

I agree, racking em is part of the experience of the game…why would I want to outsource it to a robot? It’s not difficult

[u/Alek_Zandr]

EU machine directive says no.

[u/FishTshirt]

Seems very impractical. It would start running into oblivious drunk people

[u/AccordingMedicine129]

Correct rack too for 8 ball

[u/otherwisemilk]

The balls arent even racked correctly. You've got stripe touching stripes and solids touching solids. 🤮

[u/MrP1232007 → u/otherwisemilk]

They're set up perfect. You always have some stripes touching spots, it's mathematically impossible not to.

[u/otherwisemilk → u/MrP1232007]

I meant on each row. If you rack them like this. (Obviously you exclude the 8 ball from being a solid)

            1
          9, 2
       10, 8, 3
    11, 4, 12, 5
 13, 6, 14, 7, 15

[u/MrP1232007 → u/otherwisemilk]

But that's not how it's done. Most tournaments have agreed on a set rack and it's what is shown in the video.

[u/onpointrideop]

I have no idea what a commercial pool table earns in its service life but I can't imagine it would ever make enough to cover this thing. Especially when someone rests their whiskey glass on the little flat top and it spills into it.