DuoPong

DuoPong is a two-player robotic ping-pong arcade machine engineered entirely from the ground up by the Neo Spark student builders cohort. Two robot paddles slide horizontally along a custom wooden playing arena, driven by DC gear motors and L298N dual H-bridge motor drivers under precise analog joystick control. When the ball arrives, players hit a dedicated strike button to swing an MG90S servo-actuated paddle flap that propels the ball across the table.

The electronics architecture splits duties between an Arduino UNO handling Player 1 inputs and motor actuation, and an ESP32 microcontroller coordinating Player 2 and master game logic. Goals are detected automatically by two HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensors stationed at each goal line, configured with a deliberate cooldown window to eliminate false positives and echo reflections.

An I2C LCD display serves as the real-time digital scoreboard, accompanied by status LEDs and a piezo buzzer that produces sound cues on strikes, goals, and match victories. Powered by a self-contained rechargeable battery setup, DuoPong underwent ten documented validation tests to ensure tournament reliability across public exhibitions.