Robotic game with perimeter boundaries

Abstract

A method and system are provided for identifying when and which robot targets fall into which pockets of a billiard table or pass through gates in the walls of a perimeter boundary, as well as boundary walls and gates that may be used to form various shaped playing areas. The identification of a robot target in a pocket may be used for scoring traditional games of pocket billiards, or for scoring robotic based games played on the surface of the billiard table. The identification sensor in certain embodiments may be mounted on the user configurable gates. Numeric values may be printed on the face of the robot targets to determine a winner of a game based on a total score of values of those robot targets knocked in by a player by themselves or by controlling a robot that pushes the robot targets.

In the claims: 
     
         1 . A boundary wall system for robotic gaming comprising:
 a set of wall sections;   a set of gates with joining terminations; and   wherein said set of wall sections are joined together with said set of gates to form a boundary enclosure for a playing surface.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said boundary is configurable to at least one of a rectangle, square, octagon, circle, oval, or into a combinations of these shapes. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said joining termination further comprises clips for attachment to said set of wall sections. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said gate is formed from a stamped flat blank that is folded to form said gate. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said joining terminations are set at a fixed angle relative to a gate from said set of gates; and
 wherein said fixed angle ranges between 0 and 90 degrees. 
 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said joining terminations are hinged to set at any angle. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said of set of wall sections further comprise a latch for securing said boundary enclosure to said playing surface. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said playing surface is a round, oval, square or rectangular table. 
     
     
         9 . The system of any one of  claim 1  wherein said playing surface is any relatively flat surface. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said playing surface is a billiard table. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a vision system mountable to said gates configured to recognize a set of machine readable markings or colors on targets or a set of game playing robots; and wherein said machine readable markings comprise colors, barcodes, quick response (QR) codes, or other coded representations of uniqueness. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said gates are motorized to open and close. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising a set of facades that attach to said boundary enclosure with clips or latches. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  wherein said gates or said facades have one or more indicator lights to indicate and enable the changing of the scoring of one or more targets and target modules from positive to negative points during game play, changing the scoring of different targets, or the availability of said one or more targets or target modules for scoring. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13  wherein one or more target modules are configured to mount in said façade or wall section, said target module comprising a projectile, light beam, laser beam, IR beam, water, gas, flame, missile, rocket, or firework sensor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13  wherein a target ball supply is configured to mount to said façade or wall section. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said set of gates are sized to allow target balls to pass through and not a robot. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said set of gates and a set of target balls can be different sizes, where a set of small gates will only allow a set of small targets balls to pass through, and where one or more robots are larger than the largest gate. 
     
     
         19 . A method of playing a game comprising:
 placing at least one robot into a system of  claim 1  or on a billiards table;   maneuvering the at least one robot to move a ball on the playing surface to urge the ball from within the boundary enclosure or a surface of the billiards table.