At first it seemed just an amusing idea - why not teach a robot to play snooker? A little eccentric perhaps, but good for a laugh. Soon it became a project of startling technical complexity. Koorosh Khodabandehloo tells the story of how, with the help of Professor Richard Gregory , world champion Steve Davis and a team of computer experts, he painstakingly gave a mechanical arm sufficient artificial intelligence to challenge snooker commentator Ted Lowe to a match he will not easily forget.