Robot plays high-speed ping-pong with 0.02-second reaction time

At CES 2026, Singapore-based Sharpa introduced North, an autonomous humanoid robot designed to demonstrate human-level dexterity and rapid responsiveness. North features a remarkable 0.02-second reaction time, allowing it to process and respond to environmental changes almost instantaneously. This capability enables the robot to perform complex tasks such as winning a high-speed ping-pong rally autonomously, tracking and intercepting balls in real time without human intervention. North’s mechanical design includes the Sharpa Wave, a dexterous robotic hand with 22 active degrees of freedom and over 1,000 tactile pixels per fingertip, enabling precise manipulation tasks like extracting a single card from a deck or assembling a delicate paper windmill through a 30-step sequence. Beyond its hand dexterity, North boasts a wide upper-body range of motion and is powered by a proprietary neural network and advanced optimization, allowing it to excel in “contact-rich” tasks with sustained precision over long durations. Unlike specialized robots limited to single tasks