04/26/24
July 31, 2009
First 'roids, now robots: Japanese researchers are developing robots which can throw and hit. Don't know about their range; likely they'd be DHs.
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Umm, I have no idear what happened up there. It looked good on preview. Please mentally add spaces to make the attempt at humor work slightly better.
posted by THX-1138 at 03:09 PM on July 31, 2009
I'll keep that in mind. Would they throw at batters then claim a skewed transistor?
posted by jjzucal at 05:09 PM on July 31, 2009
A machine? That automates pitching?! What will they think of next?!?! Ah, but it's got three fingers; so I guess that at least would be new to baseball! :)
Ah, but seriously- the hitting aspect would actually be a fun AI project. Obviously with good software/hardware combination it would be quickly developed to hit 1.000 since it'd have a perfectly placed swing and perfect batting eye, so it's not like you could realistically build a robot that pitchers could train against the way hitters train against pitching machines.
The pitching side, though... there could be some legitimate revenue and use for that, with work. I can't find a link, but some years ago Rob Neyer wrote in his ESPN column (back when it was free to read) about a pitching machine develop a little south of Seattle that was not only a very high quality pitching machine, it combined it with a human-sized video display (presumably behind shatterproof plexiglass) that would display video of for example an actual Randy Johnson windup from the batter's perspective, with the ball appearing to come directly out of the pitcher's hand. The pitching machine itself could adjust its delivery, spin, velocity, and "arm slot" to simulate a number of pitches by the best pitchers in the game. Rob asked then why every team wasn't jumping on such technology, since it was priced at around $150-200,000.
I also couldn't understand then, and can't imagine now, why every team wouldn't have their hitters training against just such a machine that could simulate the delivery and pitch of any pitcher in the league. If sliders are your kryptonite as a hitter, then what about facing 200 of them in a row? Then some other day, you mix in sliders and fastballs and you have to learn to distinguish between them in the split second you have. The hitting coach could make workout routines around his hitters finding their weak spots- either in pitch selection or batting eye- and improving them.
This pitching robot, if you give it 5 fingers and a realistic delivery, could be programmed- with the help of high-speed HD footage- to "pitch" just like any pitcher in the game, including the arm speed and length, grip, and finger motions. Imagine the advantage a thoughtful team would have if their hitters took batting practice not from a geriatric baseball lifer but from a robot that could emulate not only the pitches, but even potentially the pitch habits (using good ol' MLB pitch-by-pitch game data and some good Bayesian analysis) of that night's opposing starter.
posted by hincandenza at 02:40 AM on August 01, 2009
By coincidence, linked from metafilter today: this link to an impressive demonstration of robot dexterity. Yeah, if they ever played baseball, it'd be with 300mph pitches and 2000fps visual processing in the batters. :)
posted by hincandenza at 06:15 AM on August 01, 2009
hincadenza, I hope that for the spectators sake they don't use maple bats.
posted by apoch at 08:14 AM on August 01, 2009
Terminator: Rise of the Free Agent I Designated Hitter Field of Transistors It Came From Beyond the Bullpen! Do Robots Dream of Electronic Umpires?
Ugh. I'm done.