The Robotic Manipulation

Howard demonstrates a robotic arm, that he "borrowed" from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Penny comes to know of Sheldon's new friend Amy Fowler and asks him to take Amy on a date. To everyone's surprise, Sheldon announces his plans to conceive a progeny with Amy via in vitro fertilization. Meanwhile, Howard continues experimenting with the robotic arm and uses it as a massager. Sheldon asks Penny to take him on a date with Amy. It is Sheldon's first date and Penny decides to help. Although Penny tries to be friendly, she is taken aback by Amy's stubbornness akin to Sheldon's and her attempts to make conversation fail. Meanwhile, Howard uses the robotic arm to masturbate and gets his genitals stuck in an awkward position. He calls Leonard and Raj for help, and lies to them that he accidentally slipped over the arm. Leonard and Raj finds the situation funny and offers many ridiculous solutions to the frustration of Howard. Penny, Sheldon, and Amy go to a restaurant where Penny tries to bring up conversation between them. Her attempts fail and to her annoyance Sheldon calculates the number of dates that Penny might have had in her life by extrapolating the data he collected over the past three years. He comes with a number: 193. He then proceeds to calculate the number of cases that might have resulted in sexual encounters and gets the number 31. To Penny's vexation, Amy asks her whether she ever felt like a "slut". Leonard and Raj take Howard to a hospital along with the robotic arm. The nurse reboots the software that controlled the arm, and Howard becomes free. The episode ends Penny convincing Sheldon to drop his plans to have an in vitro fertilization with Amy, and Howard getting "stuck again."

Title reference: Howard's use of a robotic arm for masturbation.