Robot can hit 300-km pitch, theoretically

Once it can run... We are getting one for the softball team!

A Hiroshima University researcher has developed a robot theoretically capable of hitting a baseball traveling as fast as 300 kilometers per hour by instantly analyzing its path using images captured with precision cameras.

Idaku Ishii, 35, an associate professor at the university's Graduate School of Engineering, said he plans to exhibit the robot at the Prototype Robot Exhibition opening next Thursday as part of the ongoing 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture.