Butterfly Amicus Table Tennis Robot: A Tutorial with Timo Boll and the Amicus Professional Table Tennis Robot
Butterfly Amicus Robots are easily assembled and set up. Remove the Amicus from the carrying bag by holding it at the tube. Put the robot onto the table and lower the bars holding the net on both sides about halfway. Turn the table mounts towards you and fix the robot onto the table. Now completely lower the net bars. Mount them onto the net post of the table by fixing the rubber bands to the turning screw of the post.
To adjust the height of the robot’s head, loosen the wingnut on the backside of the tube. Select one of four different height settings, marked by the metal rings on the tube. We recommend using height level 3 as the ideal setting. NOTE: Selecting a height level between the metal rings can result in ball jam or irregular balls.
Start your training by connecting the control panel to the robot base and turning the “BALL/MIN” control dial. Before starting any exercise, make sure the robot is calibrated correctly to ensure precise ball play. To calibrate, press and hold both “TRAJECTORY” buttons and play one sample ball (no spin) into the middle of the table using the “SAMPLE” button. If the sample ball is not played into the middle of the table, re-calibrate the robot head. To check the correct setting use the “SAMPLE” button once again.
To play an exercise from memory press the “MEM.T” button and use the arrow buttons to select a memory space. TIP: Videos of the pre-saved exercises can be watched online at www.butterfly.tt/amicus. To play a selected exercise, simply turn up the “BALL/MIN” dial. For beginners, we recommend a setting between 40 and 50 balls per minute.
The Amicus Professional offers interval-training using the “CYCLE” function. Select one of four different timing options by pressing the “CYCLE” button, then start playing by turning the “BALL/MIN” dial. TIP: Select a high frequency (between 70 and 80 balls/min) to get more ball contacts. When selecting a 20-second interval, the Amicus robot will pause for 10 seconds before re-starting gameplay. Butterfly Coach Richard Prause: “The CYCLE function with its high training intensity promotes short and explosive techniques and simulates perfectly the physical demands of long rallies”.
If you want to save your own exercises, you can select spin, trajectory and speed individually for each ball. TIP: Each ball can be tested using the “SAMPLE” button. Using the remote, exercises can be started or stopped, single balls can be sampled and the ball frequency can be changed – even from a distance. TIP: To simulate exercises starting with services, select a low trajectory for this ball. The Amicus robot will make a short break before each service to simulate a realistic game situation. To save your exercise, press the “MEM.T” button to enter the memory mode. The exercise is saved by pressing the “SAVE” button one more time.
More information about the Amicus robot can be found at www.butterfly.tt/Amicus