A Robotic Dummy Makes the Perfect Virtual Reality Boxing Opponent

The technology going into virtual reality headsets today is pretty impressive, and allows for a very immersive experience. As far as your eyes and ears are concerned, you’re actually being transported into another world — or, at least a decent approximation of one. But that immersion breaks down the second your other senses get involved, particularly your sense of touch when you interact with virtual objects. That’s why YouTuber It’s Triggy! built a robotic boxing dummy to act as a physical counterpart to virtual reality opponents.

The idea behind this project is very straightforward: when you fight an enemy in a virtual reality game, your mind expects to actually feel physical resistance. If your fists are passing right through the enemy without so much as a tickle, your brain immediately knows that something is wrong and your immersion is shattered. The solution, at least in this case, was to create a real world avatar for enemies in the virtual reality world, and to make sure it is always in the spatial location that your brain is expecting it to be.

They accomplished that by mounting a boxing training dummy onto a wheeled robotic platform. The dummy is, of course, designed to be punched, and provides tangible feedback that corresponds to what you’re seeing in the virtual world. Most importantly, the robotic wheeled base allows it to move around in relation to the player, so that it’s where you’re expecting your opponent to be. While this is a very early prototype and proof of concept, the creator has started a company called Cy-Fighter to potentially develop commercial products. There is even a sword-fighting robotic opponent in the works.