Intelligent Pool Decision System Using Zero-Order Sugeno Fuzzy System SHING CHYI CHUA, ENG KIONG WONG and VOON CHET KOO Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Multimedia University, Bukit Beruang, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia; . e-mail: scchua@mmu.edu.my (Received: 8 October 2004; in final form: 16 June 2005) Abstract. This paper describes the approach of using the zero-order Sugeno fuzzy system to design an intelligent decision system for a game of pool. The decision system consists of three types of playing strategies for a normal game of pool: direct, combination and bank shots. For each of the playing scenario on the pool table, the decision system comes out with one output shot (or best shot): presenting which ball should be chosen and which path should it follow. The system has been tested step-by-step on a real pool game and results are tabulated in the paper. The decision is designed as the brain for a robotic pool system. Key words: intelligent decision system, pool game, zero-order Sugeno fuzzy system. 1. Introduction Pool is a well known game to all of us. Many online games feature it as a pastime entertainment for the web-surfers and game-savvies. It is a game that requires very precise geometry for aiming the shot and good strategy for final victory. The physics of the balls and cue as well as the pool table together with the human interactions have made it an interesting model to implement an intelligent pool system. Target (or object) ball and path determination in a game of pool are of extreme important to a human player. Once the right target ball is chosen by carefully analyzing the distribution of the balls on the table, a player can thus execute a shot easily with the least difficulty by traversing the chosen path. If the Fwrong_ ball is chosen (not the best one), the chance of sinking the object ball would probably be low. Although an expert pool player might proof well in any circumstances regardless of the object ball’s position, minimizing the chance of choosing the wrong ball is still, by far, a safer way, and also much reliable if one is playing against an opponent of equal strength or better. Very little works in this area of games are found in literatures. Related works in pool sports can be found in [1Y6]. Most of these articles focused on the design of the hardware system [1, 3, 5, 6], thus, did not present a full detail on the intelligence at how a shot is being selected for execution. For example, a robotic pool player consisting of a simple 2 degree-of-freedom manipulator and sensors Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (2005) 44: 161–186 # Springer 2006 DOI: 10.1007/s10846-005-9009-1