One of the more tedious parts of playing tennis, or just practicing your swing, has to retrieve all of the tennis balls you have knocked around the court. Every tennis player has wished at some point that there been an automatic way to get the balls up…and now they’re finally will be. The winner of this year’s Tennis Industry Innovation Challenge was the Tennibot. It is a patent-pending robot that picks up tennis balls for you, so you can enjoy your time on the court.

Why Tennibot?

Tennibot will help you enjoy tennis more and get the most out of your time on the court. Whether you are practicing serves or volleying with a friend, or improving your groundstrokes. It will clear the court while you step up your game.

How does it work?

It uses computer vision and artificial intelligence (along with a wide-angle camera) to autonomously roam the court, locating and sucking up tennis balls, then depositing them in its removable 80-ball-capacity rear bucket. Also, they are using their own onboard sensors to find its way around, it also wirelessly communicates with an included net-post-mounted “Tennibot station”, which is a camera that continuously tracks the robot’s location.

If users don’t want Tennibot getting underfoot as they’re practicing, they can utilize an accompanying iOS/Android app to stipulate what part of the court it should stick to. That app can also be used to manually remotely-control the device, should users feel the need.

Can be used in a number of situations on the court, such as:

  • Hitting with a ball machine
  • Practicing serves/forehands/backhands – Tennibot will pick up stray balls along the net and fence
  • One or more players hitting from a large ball basket – Tennibot will collect balls along the perimeter of the court
    During a coaching session

How to use the App?

  1. Just turn you’re Tennibot and the app will connect to it and guide you throughout the process.
  2. The app will let you decide where you want your Tennibot to pick up balls. It can be both sides, single side or even at the net only.
  3. It automatically keeps track of the number of balls you hit. You can share your achievements with your tennis friends on social media.


Tennibot is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. To know more you can visit on Kickstarter.