The robot uses a Microsoft Kinect 3D camera to capture a photo of the green and then replicates hundreds of random images taken from various perspectives. It considers elements such as the rolling resistance of the grass, the weight of the ball, and the initial velocity. Annika Junker, a PhD student at Paderborn University, told IEEE Research that training Golfi on simulated golf strokes takes five minutes, as opposed to 30-40 hours if the team fed data from real-life shots into the system.
