Some schools have cheerleaders do push-ups after the football team scores. Others have mascots do the honors. At Virginia Tech, they have turned the job over to a robot.
On Friday night, as Virginia Tech was taking on Duke in an ACC matchup, the robotic pride of the Hokies was shown off to a national audience. With Virginia Tech leading Duke 3-0, the push-up robot was given a chance to get pumped up.
It should come as no surprise Virginia Tech would have a robot for this kind of sideshow. After all, Virginia Tech’s mechanical engineering department is known for all kinds of robotic innovations, including robots for farming. In fact, this particular robot seems to be a modified version of another robotic dog robot engineered at Virginia Tech designed to assist those with disabilities with walking. In 2017, Virginia Tech opened a new robotics lab as the university continues to push forward with robotic research and technology.
Back in 2011, Virginia Tech showed off a full soccer practice conducted using small robots. Maybe the push-up robot is one step closer to conducting an entire football scrimmage with robots. Honestly, wouldn’t that be more entertaining to watch than Virginia Tech taking on some outmanned cupcake on the non-conference schedule?
About Kevin McGuire
Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.