Robot Reviews

If you're hankering for a baseball game that's devoid of all strikeouts and misses, you should watch out for the first official game of these baseball-playing robots. But you'd have to fly to Japan first.

Designed by University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Ishikawa, this pitcher and batter double act should make for a fast paced, entertaining game. The pitching robot, which was put together with an arm from MIT and a three-fingered hand created from their own labs, can throw a pitch that's within the strike zone 90% of the time. 

A pitcher that won't let him walk? No problem for the bat-bot counterpart, seen here in the background. The robot is equipped with a 1000 fps camera and sensor that allows it to track the pitch, determine if the ball is within the strike zone, and hits strikes 100% of the time!

What this batter and pitcher dream baseball duo can do should be enough to get Hanley Ramirez and Tim Lincecum either dropping their jaws in amazement or shaking in their shoes with fear – or both. Are robots destined to take over Major League Baseball someday?

Not quite yet. For now, the pitching bot can only throw the ball at 25 mph, although its creators are hoping to up this figure to 93 mph soon, with curve balls and siders thrown in. 

Baseball with the bots, anyone?