Battery-powered Evolta takes on Ironman route

Panasonic of Japan has brought a production crew to Hawaii to put its Evolta robots, its batteries and its newly developed battery charging pads to the test — the Ironman Triathlon test.

Evolta is a battery-powered character reminiscent of so many familiar Japanese superheroes, manifested as identical small robots, 7 inches tall and configured for this challenge as a swimmer, a bicyclist and a runner. The minibots have been given 168 hours, or until Sunday, to complete the Ironman route.

The 40-person Japanese crew, including Evolta developer Tomotaka Takahashi, is being supplemented by a crew of about 50 people from Hawaii from several local businesses.

The goal, aside from having Evolta finish the Ironman Triathlon challenge, is production of a documentary for NHK-TV in Japan as well as television commercials, said Andy Schachtel, co-president of Honolulu-based 5 X Faster Hawaii Inc.

Schachtel’s company specializes in TV commercial production for the Japanese market, and for this project it has arranged for bandwidth for daily live-streaming from Kona, remote access and other technical support.

This is Evolta’s fourth test. Previous challenges have included climbing out of the Grand Canyon, surviving 24 hours at Le Mans and a walk from Tokyo to Kyoto, the so-called Tohoku challenge, he said.

"It’s whimsical, this group of humans following this tiny little robot," said Schachtel.

Daily online live streams are archived on Panasonic’s English- and Japanese-language Evolta site, and the 4 p.m. Thursday show depicted just that.

Hosted by the bilingual, originally-from-Hawaii Casey Cummings, the stream showed Evolta pedaling along, shifting from side to side as would a human, kept on track by a pole-mounted device held by an attendant walking alongside. The rest of Evolta’s entourage, including a camera operator, followed.

The group was cheered along by a employees from the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows Wednesday night, Cummings reported. During the Thursday live stream, the crew passed a highway sign (bearing a U-down sticker) pointing motorists to Kealakehe Parkway and Honokohau Harbor. Cummings and crew had fun pronouncing the Hawaiian words.

Local girls holding Evolta-cheering posters appeared at the roadside, while other people crouched low to the ground to photograph the cute little guy.

The whole crew is staying at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel while the swimming, bicycling and running robots work the triathlon route. While the robot has been going 24/7, its attendants have been working in shifts to keep it going.

During the Thursday live stream, Cummings repeatedly pointed out to viewers the "beautful" Kona coastline and lava fields. He said how viewers "definitely should visit Hawaii, it’s beautiful here, the weather is great, the water is perfect," translating his Japanese to English and vice versa while interviewing the crew and narrating.

"A lot" of visitor dollars are flowing into Kona thanks to the production, Schachtel said, and more could follow given the vigorous Japanese media attention Evolta has evoked. More is likely, after the airing of the documentary and commercials, he said. It’s "priceless promotion."

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.