T.P.T. a novel Taekwondo personal trainer robot

•A novel robotic prototype for sport training is described.•The conceptual and functional design of the novel robot is presented.•First experimental tests with the platform have been carried out.•The internal odometry of the robot has been evaluated.

In recent years, robotics has been widely used in the sport sector, but few examples of robotic platforms are currently used in combat sports. This work presents T.P.T., a novel robotic prototype used in the context of Taekwondo, an Olympic martial art sport, able of interacting with children and with adult athletes. In this paper, the conceptual and functional design of the robot, including some preliminary tests aimed at its calibration, is described in details. The robot has been presented at the 2013 Italian Championship of Taekwondo, and it is in a patent pending status (Muscolo and Recchiuto, 2013).