Pool Cue Testing Robot

Barioni Cues

Custom Cue Builder
Silver Member
Ok guys,
Here is the first video of our pool cue-testing robot. I am making a new video now of various brands of cues being tested and compared to ours. This video will be followed up by series of "Myth Busters" videos proving beyond a shadow of a doubt different theories such as tip shaping- (dime or nickel), shaft diameter- (10,11,12,13,or 14mm), different brands of tips, different brands of chalk, stiff shafts vs. flexible shafts, light cues vs. heavy cues and so on.
Here is the link to the first video in the series: http://www.barionicues.com/video_gallery
 

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Pics of pool cue testing robot

Here are some pics of the pool cue testing robot.
 

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Nice, I'll be looking foward to the results. I have one question though, is their a speed adjustment on the machine? Because it seems like it's hitting pretty hard.
What are you naming your new toy?
 
Thats an impressive effort!!

This should prove interesting...if not the actual results, the debate on how you are doing it wrong will be lol.

Rep sent by the way.

This is going to be great.
 
Great device!!!:thumbup:

Can it replicate a light grasp on the butt or a slip stroke?:confused:
 
I love it.
Golf has been doing this for a couple of decades now and has been a good tool to differentiate real equipment differences.

But how does that thing drop it's elbow:cool::)
What's it's aiming method:sorry:

I'm interested to see the differences between tips/chalk/spin etc too!
 
Pretty cool. I'm sure that Kevin Peigan will be most pleased to know his cue is ready. Although, I can't guarantee that he will be happy to see that his cue is being whacked around in your new device. He is pretty picky on how he treats his equipment. It took a while for him to trust me with his stuff.

Just teasin ya. Kevin is a good guy and he probably knows already. You don't want a big Indian knocking on your door with a tomahawk in his hand. I already saw one of your shafts that he is using. The ferrule looks great. He must like it because thats all he is using now.

I did put a Black King on your shaft too. He likes it.
 
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is this kinda like what bob meucci did, except times 10 with all the different tests ? pretty cool!
 
I can't tell for sure from the pictures but your robot may have two major problems that Predator's original Iron Willie had.

The minor one is how stiff the bridge is. Too stiff a bridge too close to the cue ball can affect how much squirt you get. With a long bridge, as shown in the pictures, I think this is probably not major.

The more important issue is the stiffness of the coupling of the "grip hand". If this is not roughly the stiffness of a human grip the results can be affected in major ways. In the case of the experiments in the Jacksonville Project this problem was discovered/understood late during the week of testing and probably polluted some of the results.

The solution was to use bubble wrap between the cue and the machine at the grip or to have humans shoot shots where the effects were objectionably large. I have heard that Predator has since fixed both of these problems. (Iron Willie Sr. also had a very stiff bridge fairly close to the cue ball.)
 
Well done! Look forward to your various experiments and results.


Hopefully, they will be objective. The pool world is in desperate need of objectivity, facts and data.


Right or wrong, truth is long overdue.
 
Nice, I'll be looking foward to the results. I have one question though, is their a speed adjustment on the machine? Because it seems like it's hitting pretty hard.
What are you naming your new toy?

Yes their is a speed adjustment. As you move the adjustible spring bracket down the arm it puts more pressure on the same spring. Also the spring can be changed from a stiffer or weaker one.
I don't have a name yet. I thought about Light Weight Willy. Do you or any one else have any ideas for a name?
 
It needs a name, so you have to run a contest, what can I win ?
Maybe we should have a poll or a contest for the most voted name for the robot. Maybe I can offer a free tip package as well as a free testing of their cue. Open for ideas.
 
Great device!!!:thumbup:

Can it replicate a light grasp on the butt or a slip stroke?:confused:

Yes it can replicate a light grip and a slip stroke and a death grip as well. An engineer that has studied robotics and myself designed the robot over about 9 years. Their was also a couple more people involved in the design.
We wanted to be able to test multiple theories and that is why every thing is adjustible. I want to test chalk, tips, tip height, tip radious, tip diameter, shaft diameter, ferrules, flexibleness, and so forth. We have test all this over the years but not with this kind of accuracy. We are now adding a laser and a radar to the mix. Lots of videos of this coming.
 
Robot info!

I have had some e-mails wanting clarification on the robot.
There is a gum label with a hole in it that the cue ball rests in. The ball falls in the hole the same on every shot. The label is very thin. I can shoot the same shot over and over and the ball strikes the same spot.
I have tried this many times and after a while the ball putts a dent in the wood striking board. The wood is made from hard Oak. I may need to replace this with a aluminum one.
There is no clearance in the moving parts. It is made like a car wheel with race bearings and thrust bearings.
It offers what no human can. A perfect stroke with the exact same speed hitting the exact same spot on the cue ball with the same follow through time after time. We can accurately test one cue to another with the only difference being the cue and see which one deflects more, which one plays the most accurate, which tip miscues more etc.
I plan on making a series of videos showing this.
I will also gladly show anyone in person that wants to come out here.
Any one that may have some skepticism or confusion is welcome to come here and see it in person and can post here on AZ what they witnessed.
 
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