Let's face it, technology will soon run rampant over humanity. We will eventually rely on it to do everything for us. This relates to everything. This even includes sport. Players and officials will lean towards technology for clarification. Robots are slowly being developed. Soon enough, itwill make modern officials obsolete as they will be able to make clear decisions without creating any doubts.
Major League Baseball (MLB) will test the use of robot umpires as part of a challenge system during Spring training next year; with the aim of implementing the system in the 2026 regular season. The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will be trialed at 13 ballparks and hosting 19 teams in 2025 to allow players to experience the new technology as the league works out how best to implement it; according to MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred.
He said, "I think we will have a Spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all Major League players to see what the challenge system will look like. This was said on Wednesday, at the league’s owners meetings.
He additionally said, "It won’t be in every single ballpark but we actually have a plan where every team will get meaningful exposure to that."
He additionally expressed an interest in bringing in the ABS challenge system for the 2026 regular season. The commissioner added that the players’ experience with it will go a long way in deciding when it will be implemented. He said, "It depends on how the test goes. From my perspective, there are two sides to that test: it’s what do clubs think about it and what do the players think about it? We’re going to have to sort through both of those.”
Through the new system, human umpires will still call balls and strikes but teams have a limited number of challenges with which they can appeal on-field decisions. Teams retain the challenge if they are successful.
The ABS technology uses Hawk-Eye cameras to track the location of each pitch in relation to the strike zone. ABS has been used in Triple-A baseball – a minor league – since 2022 in various formats and was also used for the second year in a row at the MLB’s All-Star Futures Game in July.
Despite the possible takeover, there are possible positives to sport being run by robots. Both front-end and back-end logistics in stadiums will be hugely impacted by robots in the future. Imagine yourself on your way to the stadium in a self driving car (which is a robot in itself) with a smart navigation system. Your car is parked automatically after you have been dropped in front of the stadium. That should make your traveling experience an awful lot more pleasant and it saves you the walk from the parking space. Moreover this way queues will be avoided both when you enter and leave the stadium.
Crowd management systems will be connected to ensure a perfect travel experience to your seat. Replenishment of kiosks inside the stadium will hugely take place by robots; both before and during the game. This process will be largely automated in order to never be out of stock.
There will be ba time when robots are equipped with the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will guide you inside the stadium and deliver you with the latest info or just entertain you. Imagine robotized kiosks which will quickly deliver your oder or just drones delivering your order straight to your seat. It will again reduce waiting times and queues. It may sound a bit artificial, but you will get used to it.
Order fulfillment and stock management will be fully automated and largely done by robots. Sensor embedded shelves will track inventory and in time replenishment. Obviously, this will require huge investments, which might well result in only the bigger players surviving.
Certainly, in combination with sensors and AI, a robot will be much more precise and accurate than a human eye ever can be. Clearly, the robot referee is still some time away as long as human behaviour and conduct can't be interpreted properly but this is a matter of time. Until that time, robot linesmen and referees will particularly be used to assist the referees in making "measurable" decisions.
It will be a matter of time before the first robots will challenge humans in playing a game of football or any other sports. It will be great to see humans battling robots in the future and as long as humans win, it will attract plenty of fans. We have seen what happened in chess, where it took a long time before AI (admittedly not a robot) defeated the human world champion. The next challenge is human movement combined with the human mind embodied in a robot, beating top athletes.
Robots aren't just a vision for the future. Robots are being played against in various sports. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is like a superhero in the world of sports robots. It can do amazing things, like jumping and flipping over obstacles; just like a parkour athlete. You might have seen a video of it doing these cool moves, and lots of people were really impressed. This robot is not only fun to watch but also shows us how smart and agile robots can be. It’s like having a robot gymnast, and that’s why we included it in our list of awesome robots in sports.
Cassie is a runner, the runner robot. It is legged and not wheeled. It can finish 100m in around 24 seconds. It's not very impressive running record. However, it’s learning and may surpass the world champion sooner rather than later.
The Bola TrueMan, a robotic bowling machine that has an LED display. This machine smartly bowls to the batter at a different pace, line and length to mimic an actual bowler.
Admittedly, it would be awesome to see robots participate in some manner in sports. Although it would make humans unnecessary, it would get rid of any doubts or controversies. Fair and unbiased decisions will be made.