RoboBuggy® Ball Bounce — Complete Guide
Purpose: A colourful, adjustable game for practising visual tracking, sideways hand movement, timing, reaction speed, and eye–hand coordination. Three key settings — Game Duration, Ball Amount, and Target Avoid — allow the game to be tailored to a wide range of abilities, goals, and training objectives. Suitable difficulty and support must be chosen individually. This is a practice activity, not a diagnostic or validated rehabilitation treatment.
1. How to play
- Choose a difficulty level, starting with Level 1 for a new player.
- Set your preferred Game Duration, Ball Amount, and Target Avoid options before starting.
- Press Start / Restart.
- Watch the round spinning ball (or balls) as they fall and rebound from the walls and ceiling.
- Touch the playing area and slide a finger left or right (or use a mouse) to steer the wheeled RoboBuggy bar beneath the ball.
- Hit the ball on the top of RoboBuggy to send it upwards again. Move to meet its next descent.
- If Target Avoid is ON, some balls will be marked as red targets. Do not hit these — move away or hold still to avoid them. Only hit the yellow balls.
- If you miss a yellow ball, a new ball appears automatically. The game does not punish the player with a game-over screen.
- Use Finish & Save Result to record the session. Pause whenever needed.
For supported devices, each successful hit produces a short vibration. Some Android browsers support vibration; many desktop touchscreens do not.
2. All seven difficulty levels
| Level | What changes | Suggested focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Very Easy | Slow ball, very wide RoboBuggy | Initial tracking and basic left/right movement |
| 2 — Easy | Somewhat faster, wide bar | Repeated hitting |
| 3 — Moderate | Faster ball, narrower bar | Timing and directional adjustment |
| 4 — Challenging | Faster and less forgiving | Anticipating where the ball will land |
| 5 — Advanced | Small ball and narrow bar | Precision and sustained attention |
| 6 — Very Difficult | Very fast ball, narrow RoboBuggy | Rapid tracking and correction |
| 7 — Extremely Difficult | Fastest ball and narrowest bar | High-demand visual–motor control |
Higher levels are not automatically better. Choose a level where the player can participate successfully without distress or excessive fatigue.
3. Settings and controls
3a. Game Duration
The Game Duration setting controls how long each session lasts. Four options are available:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| 30 seconds | A short, focused session. Useful for initial attempts, fatigue management, or brief structured activities. |
| 1 minute | A moderate-length session suitable for building consistency and tracking performance over time. |
| 3 minutes | A longer structured session for players who can sustain attention and movement over a greater period. |
| Unlimited | No countdown. The session continues until the player chooses to finish. The timer counts upwards, showing how long the session has been running. The game does not end automatically. |
The Unlimited option is particularly useful when the aim is to practise without a countdown ending the session. It allows the player to continue for as long as they choose, making it well suited to developing endurance, sustaining attention and concentration over time, and repeatedly practising hand-eye coordination and reaction speed at their own pace. Therapists, trainers, and users can adapt session length to individual goals and tolerance without being constrained by a fixed time limit. A fixed duration may be preferable for shorter, structured activities where a defined end point is helpful.
Settings are locked during active play. Choose your duration before pressing Start.
3b. Ball Amount
The Ball Amount setting controls how many balls are in play simultaneously. Options are 1, 3, 6, and 10 balls.
| Amount | Effect on gameplay |
|---|---|
| 1 ball | A single ball to track. Provides a clear, manageable starting point for new players or those developing foundational coordination. |
| 3 balls | Moderate increase in visual complexity. The player must begin monitoring more than one moving object. |
| 6 balls | Higher demand on visual tracking and attention. Decisions must be made more quickly as balls arrive more frequently. |
| 10 balls | Maximum challenge. Multiple balls compete for attention simultaneously, placing high demands on reaction time, visual scanning, and decision-making. |
Increasing the number of balls raises the speed and complexity of the decisions the player must make. It requires monitoring multiple moving objects at once, challenges visual tracking, anticipation, and hand-eye coordination, and places greater demands on reaction time by requiring responses to more frequent or competing stimuli. Fewer balls provide a more manageable starting point; increasing the amount can progressively raise the difficulty as the player develops their skills. The setting allows the game to be adapted to different abilities, experience levels, and training objectives.
3c. Target Avoid: On / Off
When Target Avoid is ON, some balls in the game are marked as red targets. The player must not hit these red balls — they should be deliberately avoided. Only yellow balls should be hit. Red targets are reshuffled periodically during play.
This setting introduces an important additional layer of cognitive-motor challenge. Rather than simply reacting to every ball, the player must first identify whether the ball is a target to hit or a target to avoid, and then select the correct response:
- Reactive response: recognising a yellow ball and responding appropriately to hit it.
- Inhibitory response: recognising a red target and deliberately withholding the instinctive action to hit it — moving away or holding still instead.
This distinction matters because fast reactions are not always the correct reactions. With Target Avoid enabled, success depends not only on reacting quickly, but on reacting correctly — interpreting the stimulus and selecting the appropriate action rather than automatically responding to every ball.
Target Avoid can challenge:
- Reaction time and response selection: the player must decide which response is appropriate before acting.
- Visual discrimination: distinguishing between yellow balls (hit) and red targets (avoid) under time pressure.
- Selective attention: focusing on the relevant stimulus while filtering out the inappropriate one.
- Inhibitory control: the ability to suppress an automatic or impulsive response when it is not appropriate.
- Cognitive flexibility: switching between situations that require action and situations that require restraint.
When Target Avoid is OFF, the player can focus on the core ball-hitting gameplay without the additional target-avoidance requirement. This is useful when learning the game, developing foundational coordination, or choosing a less cognitively demanding session.
Results when Target Avoid is ON are recorded separately in the analytics, showing Avoids (successfully avoiding a red target) and Incorrect Hits (accidentally hitting a red target) alongside the standard Hits and Misses.
3d. Other controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | Chooses Levels 1–7. Changing it restarts play and saves the active session. |
| Start / Restart | Begins a new game; saves the current active session first. |
| Pause / Resume | Stops or continues ball movement. |
| Finish & Save Result | Ends the session and records its performance. |
| Sound On / Off | Controls bounce and basket-celebration sounds. |
| Vibration On / Off | Requests a short vibration on each successful hit, if supported. |
| Controlled Spin On / Off | When on, sideways RoboBuggy movement near impact changes the ball’s sideways rebound. Faster movement adds a stronger effect; when off, ordinary rebound rules apply. |
| Basket On / Off | Shows a hoop on the left. Try to direct the ball down through it from above. A scored basket triggers a special four-note celebration when sound is on. |
Tip: To practise aiming at the basket, turn on both Basket and Controlled Spin. Slide RoboBuggy left or right as the ball touches it; the timing of movement matters.
4. Combining the settings
Game Duration, Ball Amount, and Target Avoid can be combined to create different types of training experience. The following examples illustrate some possible configurations:
| Goal | Suggested configuration |
|---|---|
| Endurance and sustained practice | Unlimited duration with a manageable ball amount (e.g. 1 or 3 balls). Allows longer sessions without a countdown ending play, supporting practice of sustained attention and coordination over time. |
| Reaction-time challenge | Increase the ball amount (e.g. 6 or 10 balls) to create a more demanding visual and motor-response task. More balls arrive more frequently, requiring faster and more frequent decisions. |
| Selective reaction and inhibitory control | Activate Target Avoid so the player must decide whether to hit or avoid each ball. Challenges response selection, visual discrimination, and the ability to suppress an impulsive reaction. |
| Progressive difficulty | Begin with 1 ball and Target Avoid OFF to develop foundational coordination. Increase the ball amount and activate Target Avoid as the player’s skills develop. |
| Combined cognitive-motor challenge | Higher ball amount, Target Avoid ON, and a suitable duration. Challenges sustained attention, decision-making, coordination, and correct response selection simultaneously. |
| Short structured activity | A fixed duration (30 seconds or 1 minute) with a single ball and Target Avoid OFF. Provides a clear, defined session suitable for initial attempts or fatigue management. |
These are configurable options, not prescriptions. The appropriate combination will depend on the individual player’s abilities, goals, and tolerance. Not every configuration is suitable for every user.
5. Scores, last 10 results and graph
Hits count successful contacts with yellow balls; Misses count yellow balls falling below the bar; Best rally is the longest run of hits without a miss; Baskets count balls passing down through the hoop. When Target Avoid is ON, Avoids count red targets that successfully fell past without being hit, and Incorrect Hits count red targets that were accidentally hit. The last 10 completed sessions are shown in a table with date, level, hits, misses and baskets. The bar graph compares hits (green) and baskets (orange); sessions with Target Avoid active also show Avoids (blue) and Incorrect Hits (red). Records are stored locally in this browser on this device; clearing browser data may erase them. Clear Results History deletes saved records after confirmation.
Compare sessions at the same difficulty, ball amount, and similar duration. More hits alone does not necessarily mean improved neurological function. Record assistance given, fatigue, hand used, Target Avoid status, and any adaptations separately.
5. Brain networks potentially involved
The task draws on distributed networks, rather than activating one isolated brain region. The diagrams below are simplified teaching illustrations, not brain scans or measurements of this player's activity.
Illustrative overview: Highlighted regions indicate approximate anatomical areas associated with the functions described. These functions rely on distributed, interacting brain networks and are not confined to individual regions. The illustration does not represent precise anatomical boundaries or direct measurements of brain activity during gameplay.
| Region / network | Likely contribution while playing |
|---|---|
| Occipital visual cortex and visual pathways | Processing the moving ball's location, shape and motion. |
| Posterior parietal cortex | Relating what is seen to where the hand and RoboBuggy need to move. |
| Premotor and primary motor areas | Planning and producing finger, hand and arm movement. |
| Cerebellum | Timing, prediction and adjusting movement after errors. |
| Basal ganglia and connected frontal circuits | Movement selection, repetition and skill learning. |
| Attention / executive networks | Maintaining focus, responding to changes and deciding when to move. |
6. Possible links to everyday activities
Skills practised here may relate to tracking an approaching object, moving a hand to a target, adjusting hand position while using a touchscreen, reaching for a cup, pressing a lift button, or anticipating where an object will be. Basket aiming adds prediction and movement planning. These are potential functional connections; improvement in the game does not establish that daily activities will improve without separate assessment and real-world practice.
7. Using the game with people after brain injury
Begin seated and supported, with the screen comfortably reachable. Consider fatigue, visual-field difficulties, neglect, attention, pain, movement range, and sensory sensitivity. Demonstrate one hit, use brief attempts and offer rest breaks. A supporter can help position the arm or provide cues without taking over. Keep optional sound, vibration, spin and basket off if they add unwanted load. Stop if the person becomes dizzy, distressed, uncomfortable or unusually fatigued. A treating occupational therapist or physiotherapist can help align practice with individual goals.
Clinical caution: These diagrams describe plausible neural systems involved in visual–motor tasks; the game does not measure brain activation, diagnose impairments or prove rehabilitation effectiveness. Research supports task-specific movement practice as a relevant approach, but evidence for particular computer-based coordination games transferring to everyday function is limited.
8. Further reading
Reach-to-target movement after stroke: systematic review
Interventions for reach-to-grasp coordination: systematic review
Motor learning after stroke: brain networks and mechanisms