JAPAN: Researchers develop robots that can play baseball

Record ID: 401547

  • Title: JAPAN: Researchers develop robots that can play baseball
  • Date: 31st July 2009
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JULY 28, 2009) (REUTERS) RESEARCH STUDENT AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY AND PITCHING ROBOT STUDENT PLACING BALL ON PITCHING ROBOT'S HAND PITCHING ROBOT THROWS BALL AND BATTING ROBOT SWINGS STUDENT CHECKING PROGRAMME ON COMPUTER COMPUTER SCREEN SHOWING PROGRAMME ARM OF PITCHING ROBOT HAND OF PITCHING ROBOT TAKU SENOO, PROJECT RESEARCH FELLOW AND STUDENT AT TOKYO
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA5DAPR9CU2ZQJWPRCMZZ7CB7Y1
  • Story Text: Japan mixes its passion for baseball with its love of robots, to create a field of dreams.
    Japanese researchers recently developed a set of baseball pitching and batting robots using Japan's latest robotics technology.
    Using a fast-moving arm and three flexible fingers, the robot is able to pitch straight at a maximum speed of 60 kilometres (38 miles) an hour -- a speed designed to throw a ball across 3.5 metres (11 feet) without hurting anyone in the lab room.
    The three fingers are designed to open and close at least 10 times per second.
    The batting robot takes about 0.2 seconds to bat with the assistance of an eye sensor.
    An engineering and information systems lab at Tokyo University created the batting robot in 2003 and began programming the pitching robot a few years ago.
    "We wanted to create a robot that can move very fast, unlike other robots. So we worked on accelerating the motor as well as the eye sensor movement, which is the core part of the robots," said Taku Senoo, a project research fellow and student at Tokyo University.
    The batting robot is linked to the eye sensor called "fast vision," which processes a thousand pictures per second.
    The sensor chases, detects and reads the ball movement and sends a signal to the batting robot.
    Both the fingers and eyes react and operate faster than humans.
    The lab's goal is to create a robot that far exceeds the flexibility and speed of a human body, but Senoo says reflecting human motion dynamics onto a robot is no easy task.
    "The robot used to throw balls like a beginner pitcher like how a child would throw without much coordination. So it was very difficult for us to make the robot throw like a baseball player with each movement and joints in coordination with one another in order to bring maximum speed to its fingertips," said Senoo.
    Tokyo University, home to many of Japan's top robotics and innovations labs, does not have any plans to sell the baseball robots at the moment, but hopes to adapt the technology and programming used on the robot's fingertips and arms into factories in the future.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register