{"id":7196,"date":"2026-04-18T09:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=7196"},"modified":"2026-04-18T09:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T09:54:11","slug":"programming-a-robotic-golf-club-to-sink-shots-on-impossible-mini-golf-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=7196","title":{"rendered":"Programming a Robotic Golf Club to Sink Shots on Impossible Mini-Golf Holes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18005052\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\"\/><br \/>Shane Wighton of StuffMadeHere spent months poring over his robotic golf club\u2019s algorithms, fine-tuning the improvement to truly understand ball physics. It now allows the thing to completely comprehend the complexities of ball movement and plot paths to overcome notoriously difficult mini golf holes designed to confound even the best players. The cameras installed around the course monitor the club, ball, and cup with laser-like precision at all times, feeding into the raw data that the system utilizes to make choices.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-240870\"\/><br \/><iframe title=\"Robot golf vs holes that keep getting harder\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2OfjZ3ORJfc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><noscript><iframe title=\"Robot golf vs holes that keep getting harder\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2OfjZ3ORJfc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><br \/>\nTo complete the initial scan of each hole, someone must sit there and carefully drag a ball covered in reflective markings along each wall, ramp, and floor, while another person activates the optical sensor to only focus on the portions he actually needs. This keeps the captured geometry from becoming disorganized and full of errors. All scan data is then sent into a physics engine named MuJoCo. This program does forward simulations of the ball after impact, accounting for each bounce, skid, and roll that the ball makes, all of which is influenced by surface friction and bounciness levels.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18010718\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-1.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>\nHowever, matching the simulation to reality has proven to be a challenge. To ensure accuracy, he conducted a series of repeated tests, using motion capture recordings of real balls as a benchmark. An automatic solution attempted to get the numbers correct, but Wighton had to go in and manually change things until the virtual bounces matched exactly what the cameras observed in the real world.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18010723\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-2.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>Speed became the next issue he had to address. As it stands, a full simulation would take too long to complete while a player swings the club, so Wighton ended up running thousands of possible club angles and swing speeds ahead of time, for every possible ball starting position, and then each successful sequence that ended up in the cup was added to a large database of stored sequences.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18010726\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-3.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>When a real person swings the club, the cameras record the motion from the moment they begin the backswing, and the program takes action. It instantly compares the observed path of the club to a database of stored sequences, selects the winning one, and sends a signal to the motor on the club shaft. The motor whips the club head round in less than a second to the exact angle required for that sequence, and because the club head can swivel around a vertical axis without digging into the ground, the adjustment is seamless even during a quick swing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18010729\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-4.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>Bounces on the ball, however, provide a whole new level of complexity. Following a collision with a wall, the ball\u2019s spin might cause it to fly off at an angle or curve. The simulation accounts for this by considering the whole contact dynamics, rather than simply treating it as mirror reflections. Wighton devised a grid of measured points to capture slight slopes and abnormalities on the ground surfaces he dealt with, as they were not always perfectly level. This means that the physics engine may treat the landscape precisely as it is, rather than assuming everything is smooth as silk.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/18010733\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-5.jpg\" alt=\"StuffMadeHere Robotic Golf Club Sink Shots\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>The heat from the lights and bodies in the room causes the camera tripods to expand somewhat, which would otherwise throw the camera\u2019s precision off. To counteract this, he placed certain fixed reference markers in view, allowing the program to detect these little shifts and correct the entire coordinate system on the fly, ensuring that positions remain accurate even in difficult scenarios. Players simply push a button on the grip, swing the club as usual, and see the club head rotate in midair. The ball follows the predetermined course, soars past obstructions, and lands in the cup, even on holes that appear to be engineered to end your winning streak.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Programming a Robotic Golf Club to Sink Shots on Impossible Mini-Golf Holes<br \/>\n<br \/>#Programming #Robotic #Golf #Club #Sink #Shots #Impossible #MiniGolf #Holes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shane Wighton of StuffMadeHere spent months poring over his robotic golf club\u2019s algorithms, fine-tuning the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[449,304,6193,3520,6614,6612,1362,2920,6613],"class_list":["post-7196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-club","tag-golf","tag-holes","tag-impossible","tag-minigolf","tag-programming","tag-robotic","tag-shots","tag-sink"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots.jpg",1280,853,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots.jpg",1280,853,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots.jpg",1280,853,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stuffmadehere-robotic-golf-club-sink-shots-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Tech<\/a>","tag_info":"Tech","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}