Better than a ball machine: I’ve looked at two tennis robots and now I want one

For most tennis fans, the year doesn’t start until next week, which is the start of the Australian Open. But for me, the tennis calendar started last week in Las Vegas. After running most days of the week in… Consumer Electronics Show 2026 In search of The coolest laptops and Latest Laptop Processors In my role as CNET’s senior laptop editor, I found some time during my last day in Las Vegas to indulge in my favorite hobby and was able to check out a pair of tennis robots in the showroom.

Overall, I like mezze mezze Artificial intelligence robots. You don’t need a bot to do this Mow my lawn, Fold my laundry, Feed my pet or Join me in bed. But an AI bot might improve my backhand? You’ve got my attention.

Assembly with Acmate

The robot’s first stop was the Acemate booth, where its tennis robot rolled back and forth on a small tennis court against a rotating group of CES attendees. I waited in line, walked onto the court and grabbed a racket to play with the Acemate tennis robot.

This isn’t a humanoid robot that moves like Roger Federer, crushes forehands like Rafael Nadal, shreds backhands like Coco Gauff, or serves bombs like Ben Shelton. The Acemate tennis robot has no arms or legs, and does not use a racket to move with you. Instead, it looks like a ball machine on wheels with a large net on top. But it’s a far cry from a regular ball machine.

The wheels are used to race around their side of the court, and the large net is used to catch balls that are hit towards them. With two 4K microscopic cameras, Acemate can track balls coming off your racket to move themselves in front of your shots to catch them in their net. Once you take one of your shots, it throws the next ball back to you, simulating playing against a human opponent.

During my time on the court, the Acemate moved surprisingly quickly and was impressively accurate at reading balls coming off my racket in order to get in front of them and keep the lead going. This was on a small court that was only a fraction of the size of an actual tennis court. Like any tennis player, I imagine it is better when given more time and space between shots.

Acemate says its robot can move at speeds of up to 5 meters per second, or more than 16 feet per second. I’m sure that’s faster than I can move on a tennis court. And with four Mecanum wheels, it can move in any direction to get to the shot. You will likely have trouble with the pace generated by higher level players, but for anyone playing at a USTA level of 3.5 or lower, I think the Acemate will be able to keep up and continue to progress.

I was also impressed with the timing between catching the ball in its net and launching the next ball towards me during the demo. There was no awkward delay between these two actions that would spoil the smooth feel of a tennis race. He did not launch the next ball too early which could speed up play to the point where it looked artificial. Acemate doesn’t look human, but his playing pace feels very natural.

The two cameras don’t just track the ball to keep the rally going. It also captures data about the shots you take – speed, depth of rotation, position and height above the net – to give you real-time feedback so you can fine-tune your shot. The cameras also allow Acemate to receive your calls with great accuracy. It divides your half of the court into 25 zones so you can target specific shots to practice.

If Acemate sent me a robot to test, I would set it up so that it hits nothing but balls in areas 16, 17, 21, and 22 so I can work on my backhand in my first practice session. You can customize different workouts using the Acemate app. I actually have one set I call the Joker Defense Drill that will push me from side to side to defend every angle like the best to ever do it, Novak Djokovic.

In addition to setting the Acemate to target specific areas of the court, you can set it to feed balls to you using topspin or backspin so you can work on returning both types of spin. And you can adjust how high the ball is fed to you over the net, including a drill where Acemate will hit high balls so you can practice hitting the ball overhead, a shot that no one practices enough.

There seems to be only one speed in Rally mode, but if you change to Ball Machine mode where the robot remains stationary, you can adjust the speed at which it hits balls at you – up to 60 mph. It also has a ball boy mode where you can place Acemate close to you and have him gently feed you balls so you can stand on the baseline and practice serve after serve. Its cameras understand gestures so you can tell it to feed you a ball with a wave of your hand.

The Acemate Tennis Robot will start shipping later this month for an introductory price of $1,599. (Full retail price is listed at $2,499.) The pickleball version is expected to be released within a month or two. The Acemate tennis robot comes with a removable battery, portable charger, and a one-year warranty. The company estimates that the battery lasts for two hours, and you can purchase a second battery for $99.

Lumistar Tennis and Basketball Training

My next stop in search of a robot tennis partner was the Lumistar booth, where tennis and basketball robots were on display — though the company calls them AI training systems and not robots, perhaps because both are static.

Its basketball robot, Carry, was the headliner, with CES attendees able to take turns setting up some shots and having it return the ball to you. Its cameras understand gestures so you can call the ball, and its AI brains will analyze not only your movements and mistakes but also your shot. The large gathering net surrounding the hoop and backboard was a bit distracting, but I probably would have gotten used to it if I could correct my form so I could stop missing jumps on the right when the ball slides off the pinky side of my hand.

As a retired junior hoops player and current tennis geek, I was most interested in Tero, an artificial intelligence training system for tennis. There wasn’t enough room in the Lumistar cabin to hit a Tero, but what I learned about him was enough to pique my interest.

It’s on wheels, but the wheels are just there to help you move Tero to the field. Once on the field, Tero stays put. (I’m told a future version will move around the court to give you a more human-like feel, with balls coming back to you from different angles.) Although it remains rooted in place, the Tero has a three-axis gimbal mechanism with dual motors to feed balls to all areas of the court with a variety of trajectories and spins.

Thanks to dual 4K cameras and an AI chip inside, the Tero understands your position on the court and where your next shot will send the ball to the right spot instead of simply relying on a fixed pattern like a standard ball machine. The wristband positioner helps it track your location and also how hard you swing — it looks like a knockoff Apple Watch on a sweat band — you have while hitting with the Tero. It has different modes so your training never gets stale, and it tracks your shots to create reports for each training session.

Lumistar will have two models of its tennis robot starting in March. The basic Tero will retail for around $1,000, and the Tero Pro that includes dual cameras and three additional AI training modes will cost around $2,000. The Carry basketball robot will cost between $3,000 and $4,000 and will launch on Kickstarter sometime in the second quarter.