I want to build a robotic cricket wicket. What is that?

Well first let me explain how cricket works. In the gentlemen's game, a bowler throws a ball as fast as s/he can at a batter. The batter is trying to hit the ball (with his/her bat😲😲😲). If the batter misses, the ball will hit his/her wicket and the batter will be out. What an exciting game!

[Figure: Cricket Diagram - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Cricket-in-action-Two-sets-of-wickets-placed-at-the-bowlers-and-batsmans-end_fig1_338095459]

Non-commonwealth readers will be shocked to learn that it is extremely difficult for the bowler to hit the batter's wicket. At least it is whenever I bowl 😔😔.

For this reason, I want to build a robotic cricket wicket. This special cricket wicket will automatically move left/right to intercept any pitched ball. The robot will be able to move autonomously using some dollar store CV system.

Why am I building this? Because it will be ****ing cool! Or at least hopefully not cringe! Over the past years, I have been inspired by StuffMadeHere's basketball hoop and I would love to do my own spin on this project for cricket. I actually bought the materials for this project way back in 2022, but I have been procrastinating on actually building the darn thing. In fact, I have carried the materials for the project with me all around the world (literally, I have taken 20m of 2020 extrusuion in my luggage to Toronto, Pasadena, Dubai, Kigali, Boston, and now Taipei).

No more! I am going to finally build this thing. I will post updates on the project every week to ensure I stay focused on finishing the project. To keep progress ticking, I have set a personal deadline to build the robowicket by the end of Cricket World Cup 2023. Stay tuned for results and cringey robots......