What Could Robots Do at the US Open?

The robots are here, and they've got us by the ball boys and girls. I mean, they might, if they can only nail the "towel problem" that has plagued the field of ball boy robotics since the beginning. More on that in a moment.

Radhika Seth over at Yanko Design uncovered these promotional images for the Ball Boy, the robotic replacement for the actual kid who has to collect errant tennis balls from the court. A Korean duo of designers, Yu Yunjo and Kim Seunghyun, have taken their experience from designing robo-vacuum cleaners and brought it to sports, and the immediate upsides are quickly evident.

The solar-powered Tennis Ball Boy never tires, never needs a water break, and is incapable of taking it personally when tennis pros attempt to scapegoat it. It laps up tennis balls with its velcro tongue, and has a handy drawer for giving them back. As one of the most important duties of a courtside ball retriever is to "be discreet and almost invisible," and this robot is mostly clear.

While the idea of setting a Tennis Ball Boy loose on the court after, say, practice sounds good, a little research into the field of ball kiddery (as girls can do the job just as capably as a boy) makes the Tennis Ball Boy bot seem like an unlikely candidate to unseat the kids from their privileged perches by the line judges. And it's not because the ball kid provides a human touch.

I mean, there's just so much more to the job than just ball gathering. At the tournament level, ball kids are also responsible for accurately tossing 'em where they need to go. Sure, there's already a robot that accurately projects tennis balls, but it's a whole different, unwieldy apparatus.

Then there's the ball kid task of keeping players' insides wet and their outsides reasonably dry—your bottle and towel one-two punch. I mean, look at these hopefuls in this charmingly dated video. They've got arms and legs for a reason dammit. Arms and legs for following in the footsteps (and, uh, arm sweeps) of all the tennis greats who rose from the ranks of ball kid to world circuit professional, like John McEnroe.

But let's talk human touch—people can really surprise you, and like the Zamboni, the ball kid is a coveted and beloved position within the sport. Even the normally sedate tennis audience vocally loves a good ball kid play.

Which is just to say, until the robots are all doing that the ball kids shouldn't sweat it. Not that it matters if they do, because they've got all those towels.

But where does that leave the Tennis Ball Boy bot? Cleaning up the court afterwards, I guess, a marginal role that already seems ripe for disruption. It seems like picking up tennis balls isn't a task that requires a robot of such complexity or expense, especially since Yu and Kim already disrupted themselves with the even-more-graceful design of a "strip of velcro."

From your own designers, too. Be glad you can't feel emotions, because that's game, set, and match, Tennis bot.