Acemate

Acemate starts from a familiar problem for club players: a reliable, consistent hitting partner is not always available. The maker's answer is a robot that, it says, can reproduce human-style rallies. The project was incubated by SwitchBot, which the campaign describes as an embodied-AI home robot brand, and developed by AI vision engineers with backgrounds at companies including Microsoft and Google, alongside an established hardware team.

Eyes, hands and feet

The maker frames Acemate as more than a smart ball machine. Binocular 4K cameras act as its eyes, a built-in net hopper collects incoming balls, and four metal-core mecanum wheels with rubber treads let it move in any direction. Unlike single-camera systems, the stereo setup is said to capture depth and speed, enabling 3D tracking and real-time shot analysis at centimeter-level accuracy, with no wearables or complex setup required.

According to the campaign, Acemate supports full-court rallies with adjustable pace and speed, covering forehands, backhands and cross-court shots. Beginners can warm up with gentle short-court rallies, volley drills get fast, controlled feeds at the net, and a rally mode is said to recreate thousands of rallies from ATP and Grand Slam highlights.

Coaching, line calls and serve practice

• Real-time capture of swing technique, contact point and shot data, with rally intensity adjusted to the player and personalized performance reports
• Instant in/out calls on each shot, plus session summaries on Apple Watch covering training time, shot count and calories burned
• Flat, topspin and slice balls, with multiple serving modes
• Split-step monitoring: the next ball is fed only after the player completes a correct split step and recovers position
• Discreet Apple Watch taps signalling in or out during serve drills
• High lobs up to 8 meters for smash practice, which the maker says exceed human coaching in precision
• Serve tracking for in-bounds checks and serve-speed measurement, plus ball-boy duty returning balls to the player

Acemate connects over Bluetooth to Android, iPhone and Apple Watch. The app lets players set ball speed, serve height, landing spot and shot type before or during a session. The maker says it works on any court, has a pull-out handle, fits in a car trunk and can be moved via phone control. A single charge is rated for up to 4 hours, and the battery is designed to be swapped quickly.

A pickleball version with AI algorithms tuned to that sport's pace and trajectories is in development; the campaign says early testing has been completed. The team also states it has moved from prototype to full production, drawing on SwitchBot's manufacturing and logistics experience, while acknowledging that hardware projects can face production and shipping risks.