Mini Japanese Robot Preps for Ironman Triathlon

It’s no bigger than your hand, but a Panasonic robot is ready to take on a supersized task: The Evolta, which has already clambered up the walls of the Grand Canyon, will soon take on one of the hardest triathlon courses on the planet. Hawaii’s Ironman Triathlon “is very tough even for a sportsman, but I think it is worth a challenge,” says the robot’s creator. Evolta will have to run, bike, and swim more than 140 miles, Reuters reports.

The robot has three bodies suited to the three triathlon events, and it runs on batteries that can be recharged 1,800 times; the sporting challenge is a marketing campaign for the batteries, Mashable notes. For the late October triathlon, the little machine is being given a handicap proportional to its size. Evolta will have a week to finish the course, 10 times what a human gets. “Evolta's height is just one-tenth of a grown man, so we figured out that it would take it 10 times more time,” creator Tomotaka Takahashi says. (More Japan stories.)