Tigers JUGS Machine On Steroids

[LSUDad]

 

 

The Seeker is the first robotic quarterback

• by Steve Wiltfong
• Aug 27, 2019

(Photo: Monarc Sport)

The world’s first robotic quarterback has been built to serve football teams. But it's not pigeonholed to one position. The talented machine also punts.

It’s called The Seeker.

“It’s time to bring football into the 21st century,” said Monarc staffer John Kenny who played his college ball at Arizona.

Obviously Monarc is hoping The Seeker will be a staple in every major football program in the years to come. It's certainly an interesting and innovative machine and Sonny Dykes and the SMU football program are already utilizing it.

“It’s incredibly innovative and allows our guys to get more reps and more out of the workout," Dykes told 247Sports’ Billy Embody. "The players are really enjoying it and it’s making us better since we’ve gotten it. It's been very useful for our specialists, as well.”

The closest thing to our "competition." Notice how the other machine throws to a static location and less than half the reps, get the most out of your time and demand more out of every rep with a dynamic ball every time. #PonyUp@SMU_Football @CoachDykesSMUpic.twitter.com/hyhivdsYDT

So what is it?

Whether in a group or alone, and regardless of skill position, through the combination of artificial intelligence and other state of the art technologies, The Seeker’s mission is to allow athletes to practice autonomously. The Seeker’s ability includes throwing passes to any body position at a speed desired for all players to practice precisely which part of their game they want to improve.

The Seeker aims to eliminate guess work on how far a ball will travel, how much hang time it has and where the ball will be located relative to the athletes body. The machine has six ball holders and can shoot them out in nine seconds to various body locations if a receiver wants to randomize it. From sideline toe taps to end zone fades, Kenny says The Seeker has the technology to do all of that.

“We saw a real need,” Kenny said. “Football is the only sport you can’t go out there and train alone as far as a receiver catching balls and running routes. With The Seeker you can do that and much more.”

We being founder Nate Pierotti along with a couple other Iowa grads in Connor Early and Sawyer Theisen. Pierotti’s co-founders and the mechanical engineers on this are a pair of Northwestern grads in Igor Karlicic and Bhargav Maganti. There was two years of development, eight to nine prototypes and now it’s on the field at SMU. There’s video of NFL receive Mike Evans using it and the Hawkeyes utilized it in camp as well.

 

 

 

 

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NFL players always perfecting their craft! No more offseason excuses for not having anybody to throw you some routes. Did you get better today? ?????? @mikeevans @trainerkb @hunchojack_

A post shared by Monarc(@monarcsport) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:31am PDT

Along with The Seeker comes software allowing coaches to track workouts. With a virtual grid of the field it can be program to throw the ball or punt the ball to the spot desired every time.

 

“Basically a JUGS machine on steroids,” Kenny stated.

[MikeC]

We have been using the Snap Attack Football Throwing Machine for our practices and it works great, but this looks like it takes practices up a few levels. Might reach out to see what kind of pricing they offer. Have to imagine its out of my school's budget.

[dachsie]

8 hours ago, MikeC said:

We have been using the Snap Attack Football Throwing Machine for our practices and it works great, but this looks like it takes practices up a few levels. Might reach out to see what kind of pricing they offer. Have to imagine its out of my school's budget.

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