Robot to throw first pitch at Phillies game

[Drale]

HILADELPHIA (AP) - PhillieBot for Cy Young? It's unlikely.

But the one-armed, three-wheeled robot, designed by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers as part of Science Day festivities at Citizens Bank Park, said Evan Lerner, a spokesman for Penn's engineering school.

The pitching robot has been in the makings for a month and a half as Penn engineers Jordan Brindza and Jamie Gewirtz assembled parts and wrote software in their spare time, Lerner said. They started with a Segway, gave it a robotic arm and added a third wheel. They also gave it a pneumatic cylinder, which delivers a burst of compressed carbon dioxide to power the pitch. The robot's computer brain can be tweaked to change pitch velocity and trajectory.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42666637/ns/technology_and_science-innovation

[marmar]

1. Gotta lower those labor costs......

..... How long before Roy Halladay gets a layoff notice?

[arbusto_baboso]

2. Damn Mechanical-Americans are taking all the good jobs.

Send 'em all back to the factory where they were spawned, before they start dropping anchor 'bots.

If it's REALLY necessary here: :sarcasm:

[FSogol]

3. Now Wireless Joe Jackson, there was a blern-hitting machine!

Bender: Now Wireless Joe Jackson, there was a blern-hitting machine!
Leela: Exactly! He was a machine designed to hit blerns! I mean, come on, Wireless Joe was nothing but a programmable bat on wheels.
Bender: Oh, and I suppose Pitchomat 5000 was just a modified howitzer?
Leela: Yep.

[El Supremo]

4. It's already been done.

Remember?

[Snoutport]

5. why not let a kid do it? actually make it important to someone

[FSogol]

6. They play 162 games a year. It won't hurt to let a robot throw one.

Maybe it'll inspire some kids to go into Robotics or Engineering instead of Business Administration.