Chase Field traded baseballs for robots as Arizona high school students competed in the fourth annual Futureshaper Robotics Competition, hosted by the Diamondbacks and Honeywell Aerospace. The event highlighted STEM education with a baseball twist.

Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee approved the use of the automated ball/strike system (ABS) on Tuesday. Robot umpires will be used for the entire 2026 season. An umpire still will call balls and strikes from behind home plate, but teams can appeal, and the automated system will determine the call.

Getting calls right is part of that consideration, and MLB has the technology to help umpires with the strike zone just as they can use instant replay to review calls on the field. But “robot umps,” as the ABS system is called in passing, won’t apply to every pitch. Just contested pitches.

Robot umpires will be used in MLB next year after the league’s competition committee approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System