Robot Umpires to Robot Tractors: Similarities Run Deep Between Baseball and Agriculture
You could argue that agriculture is just as American as baseball. With long histories that date back centuries, each can make a strong case as the true national pastime. Fans of both will also point to a number of interesting parallels that can be drawn between the two, from the cinematic to the automatic.
Take the film Field of Dreams, for instance, that features an Iowa corn farmer who listens to voices and builds a baseball diamond in his cornfields. As a side note, the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees are playing a regular season game on this iconic diamond in August. What about baseball’s “farm” system? Or how every field is different? And let’s not forget how foul weather impacts both. The comparisons run deeper than a fly ball to center field in Comerica Park.
Another similarity surfaced last season in baseball’s independent Atlantic League. For the first time in the sport’s history, a computer officially called balls and strikes in regular competition. Yes, robot umpires have arrived. What a concept! The unambiguous strike. If this automated system was in place in 1995, my beloved Cleveland Indians would have had a fighting chance against an Atlanta Braves pitching staff that benefitted from an extremely generous strike zone. But I digress.
Just as some have resisted farming’s movement toward automation and robotics, so too will baseball’s purists balk at the notion of a robot umpire. And I get it. The human element has been at the heart of baseball officiating forever. I mean, what fun is it for a manager to kick dirt on a computer after a blown call?
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Baseball is prudently testing this technology in the minors first before it’s rolled out at the big league level, just as agriculture has with robotics in the past few years. The prototypes of robotic apple harvesters developed by companies such as Abundant Robotics have been tested in commercial orchards in Washington State and elsewhere. They have cut the “stadium” mustard, so to speak, and are now inching toward field-scale adoption.
Robotics in farming is becoming a reality, whether you’re ready or not. Why else would John Deere invest $300 million in a lettuce farming robot with its acquisition of Blue River Technology in 2017. The company wants to stay ahead of the game when it comes to changing the future of farming. Its See & Spray technology allows farmers to manage crops at plant level by applying machine learning to agricultural spraying equipment. If you haven’t watch YouTube videos of this technology in action yet, I strongly recommend you do.
Raven Industries is also investing heavily in autonomy. Case in point are Raven’s 2019 acquisitions of DOT Technology Corp., a supplier of autonomous vehicles, and Smart Ag, a technology company that develops autonomous farming solutions for agriculture.
The two industries do differ in one thing when it comes to the use of robotics. While robotics can potentially help solve agriculture’s growing labor problem, robots in baseball are designed to aid the umpire, not replace him. But despite this minor difference, it’s great to see two U.S. pastimes embrace technology the way these are. Both are better for it, and quite frankly, couldn’t sustain without it. (Of course, those who abuse technology — cough-cough, the Astros — may pay for it with some Chin Music.)
So as both seasons start anew this spring, let’s be open to change for the greater good. If more testing is required, then so be it. If we continue to invest in the use of technology in agriculture and baseball, we’ll ensure our passion for both will realize a sustainable future. Play ball and start planting!
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