Japanese researchers develop baseball playing robots, Mark Buehrle reportedly unimpressed
By Laura June 
posted Jul 24th 2009 4:25PM
posted Jul 24th 2009 4:25PM
Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa at the University of Tokyo has developed two baseball-playing robots -- one that pitches, and one that hits. The three-fingered pitching bot throws a plastic foam ball at about twenty-five miles per hour, and lands ninety percent of its pitches in the strike zone, while the batting bot has a sensor which determines whether the pitches are balls or strikes, and hits balls in the strike zone with nearly one hundred percent accuracy. They are currently working on increasing the pitcher to about ninety-three miles an hour. The robots don't have any human stylings -- though, personally, we do detect a hint of Terminator.
93 mph?
buehrle should be impressed. he has trouble hitting 90.
Buehrle's not about hitting 90 every time. It didn't stop him yesterday. I still can't believe I was at that game- so amazing. I'm counting on it to keep distracting me from the fact that the Sox lost to Detroit today. Oh well, it's a double header.
Umm... I'm pretty sure the author of the article is talking about the no-hitter that Buehrle pitched yesterday...
@BlurMagic,
*Perfect no-hitter
I'll just go to the batting cages, they have baseball playing robots there too.
BlurMagic, i know what it was talking about. and it wasnt just a no-hitter. it was a perfect game. theres a huge difference.
any details on when they are planning on making it capable of breaking a human skull?
Any details on when the robots will be able to play wii baseball?
saw this on Discovery Channel's Daily Planet a few years ago.
What, no video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0Fjkzc_gvw
Thanks Brent ^_^
Is this the prototype for the Pitch-O-Mat 1000?
And when are they going to start to Jazz-Up sucky American Baseball..
We want Blernsball
Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeern!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"gets on a hover cycle and giant spider emerges..."
Multiball! Multiball!
ummm my friend it shows you don't follow the sport. Baseball is the same where ever is play..DUH!!!
Can someone forward this to the Yankees?
actually... forward this to the Mets... as well as the video of the senior citizens playing baseball... the Mets could pick up some tips...
Imagine if they built the rest of the body to match that arm, that would be one menacing robot, it could be a real deal Terminator.
They do love their baseball in Japan. :)
Oh my, they better name one Wireless Joe Jackson - http://theinfosphere.org/Blernsball
Such a waste of time/money.
I love the two big red buttons on the table. Is that so if the arms go mad and turn against their creators, they can be shut down quickly? lol
This would be awesome for a future baseball pitcher robot that can offer extremely precise pitching for practices. It could be made to throw several different pitches with all kinds of adjustable variables so that batting coaches can really customize training for players and give them a far more realistic experience at practice.
Then again, a human pitcher works too... (to a degree)
Can anyone else see rich-ass baseball players buying a robo-pitcher for their backyard homerun derbies ?
in b4 our new baseball playing overlords