Hello Marathon Runners! You've Got Robots to Water You

Marathon of course is a long distance run that you really have to set your mind to all it takes to challenge, or else you'll never make the distance. You have to water yourself as you go, of course, and you often miss your water bottle.

Well, now a group of students at Kanazawa Institute of Technology have figured a way out for you to get your water for sure as you approach the counter. The product was made public at the Kanazawa City Hall, November 2 and will "participate" in the coming Kanawawa Marathon on November 15.

Suppose you were a runner approaching the water counter about to grab your bottle. Wouldn't be helpful if your bottle on the counter  "runs with you" for a second or two? It should be a lot easier to grab a bottle "running" than one "standing upright".

That idea motivated a group of 5 students of Kanazawa Institute of Technology under the leadership of Prof. Kenji Matsubayashi to create a robot that "runs with a cup of water".

The end product named "OMOTEN" is shaped in the image of traditional Wajima Lacquerware and runs with a cup of water placed atop. In actual application, 5 OMOTENs are lined up on the counter  running on the preset tracks with cups of water for runners to grab as they are running.

One of the students, Yasuhiro Mashita, commented:

"Our robot is the first one ever to assist marathon runners. I'm so curious how the runners will react to these robots running with cups of water atop".

Yes, this is indeed the first time robots are put to work. serving water for marathon runners. The robots will be placed on the water counter at 31.5 km point.