The Blind Juggler is a robot that is able to juggle a ball on a paddle. The robot does this without any sensing; there are no cameras, no microphones, or any other sensors that could tell the robot where the ball is. Imagine yourself juggling a ball blindfolded. Try it: it's no easy task!

How does the robot do this? The key elements are the shape of the paddle and how the robot strikes the ball. We used mathematical analysis to learn which shape and motion would make "sensorless" juggling possible. What we found was that a slightly concave paddle keeps the ball on the plate and that a decelerating motion keeps the ball in the air.

You can learn more about how the robot works in the math and robot section. You can watch the robot juggling in the video section. Find out about where the Juggler has performed live and where it will be next in the live section; there are also pictures of the events. In the v2.0 section, we present our newest prototype, the Pendulum Juggler.

The Blind Juggler is an ongoing project at the IDSC at ETH Zurich.