Patent ID: 8758174

Claim:
A robot server assembly for serving table tennis balls comprising: a back panel having an upper end and a lower end, said back panel having a first side wall and a spaced apart second side wall, said side walls being perpendicular to said back panel; a ball feed collector plate at the lower end of the back panel and configured to collect table tennis balls and direct them toward the lower end of the back panel; a ball pickup mechanism at the lower end of the back panel and orientated toward the ball feed collector plate, said ball pickup mechanism having a rotatably mounted pickup wheel and a ball feed motor operatively connected to the pickup wheel, said pickup wheel having a plurality of ball pickup structures extending from the pickup wheel toward the collector plate; a ball guide at the upper end of the back panel, said ball guide having a open bottom and an open front; a front cover attached to the back panel having a substantially U-shaped cross-section, said front cover and said side walls of the back panel defining a ball passage, said passage having a first open end in communication with the open bottom of the ball guide and a second open end in communication with the ball pickup mechanism; a pivot guide pivotally mounted at the open front of the ball guide and having a passageway in communication with said open front; a serving head assembly attached to the pivot guide and comprising at least one discharge wheel and a discharge tube in communication with the pivot guide passageway; and an oscillator at the top of the ball guide and operatively connected to the pivot guide, said oscillator having a servo and pivot pin arranged to move the pivot guide and the attached serving head assembly in a side-to-side pattern when the servo is actuated.