The official debut of Toyota’s seventh-generation basketball robot took place on April 12 on the court at Toyota Arena in Tokyo, during halftime of a local Alvark Tokyo game. Watched by 8,400 spectators in the stands, the machine autonomously picked up the ball from the floor, executed a series of precise dribbles, and then flawlessly sank a free throw. Released with perfect rotation and arc, the ball dropped straight through the net.
The secret to CUE7’s effectiveness lies in its advanced imaging technology and arm mechanics. The robot utilizes a suite of integrated cameras to instantly measure the distance and angle to the rim. This data is immediately analyzed by algorithms that feed instructions to specialized end effectors – the mechanical equivalents of human hands. These components are responsible for releasing the ball with repeatable precision, drastically reducing the margin of error.
The CUE project itself is the culmination of nearly a decade of systematic research and development. The initiative kicked off in 2017 as a voluntary side project by Toyota engineers in their spare time. Since then, successive generations of the machine have consistently broken world records. In 2019, the CUE3 iteration entered the Guinness World Records by making 2,020 consecutive free throws without a single miss. Fast forward to 2024, the CUE6 model set the record for the longest successful shot made by a robot, sinking a basket from a staggering distance of 24.5 meters.
The latest, seventh iteration is no longer focused solely on static targeting. Engineers placed a heavy emphasis on smoother, more natural movements, maintaining dynamic balance while dribbling, and the ability to handle objects directly from the floor level.