Baseball-playing robots are able to throw pitches and get hits with great accuracy. created by University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Ishikawa.
(Baseball robot pitcher)
The three-fingered pitching robot shown in the picture above is able to throw 90 percent of its pitches into the strike zone.
'The demand level of the robotics technology of each robot is very high,' Ishikawa said. 'What was difficult was to create a mechanism to satisfy such a high level of demand.'
The batting robot has a sensor to determine whether a pitch is a strike or a ball, and can hit balls in the strike zone almost 100 percent of the time.
'The demand level of the robotics technology of each robot is very high,' Ishikawa said. 'What was difficult was to create a mechanism to satisfy such a high level of demand.'
Take a look at this video of an eternal struggle - near-perfect robot pitcher versus near-perfect robot batter. The two robots are just 3.5 meters apart; yet the pitcher's 25 mph throw does not challenge the batter, whose 1000-frame-per-second camera slows the robot's perception of the ball to a near-standstill. Legendary human batter Ted Williams could see the ball in contact with the bat; this robot batter could probably do even better.
(Eternal robot battle - near-perfect pitcher versus near-perfect batter)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'