Intermission: The Robots Can Now Fly and Juggle at the Same Time

Researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control in Zurich have developed flying robots that can juggle ping-pong balls in midair. The whole scene is tracked by an overhead motion capture system and the robots are controlled by a pair of computers. Like nearly every cool advance in robotics, this research is being pursued with military applications in mind, which is kind of a bummer. Why can't we just have science in the service of racket sports?