ESPN - PhillieBot, 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.
The
spectacle is 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.
On Monday, Brindza and
Gewirtz took PhillieBot out to the mound for its final test, The
Philadelphia Inquirer reported. After the press of a button, the robot's
mechanical arm reared back and then moved toward home plate; at the top
of its delivery, it flicked its mechanical "wrist" and shot the ball
forward.
The ball appeared to be traveling no more than 30 or 40
miles an hour, the Inquirer reported. But that was by design, since the
Phillies didn't want the pitch approaching Major League speeds.
This is what the world has come too?? Messing with a tradition of a person throwing out the first pitch just pisses me off. Imagine being in the crowd and they roll out this piece of shit and it gasses it down the middle for a perfect strike. Would you even be able to clap for it? Maybe being a Braves fan this makes me more pissed than I really should be, but please people.
-Dow
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