Kagome Co manufactures and produces foods and juices from fruits and vegetables, but especially the tomato. Shigenoru Suzuki says that he envisioned the Tomatan to deliver nutrition to people involved in endurance sports, with a focus on marathon runners. A development video on the Crunchyroll website shows Suzuki watching runners fumble to open a banana and bring it to her mouth, and then developing different methods to get food into the athlete’s stomach without heavy effort.
Realistically this is advertisement for a company who wants to promote tomato foods and juices, but the idea of strapping on an eighteen pound robot and running a marathon is right on the edge of inspirational and ridiculous. A heavy amount of development and engineering went into the tomato delivery robot, right along with marketing and promotional considerations. Maywa Denki is the art unit / development company that worked with Kagome to develop the robot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk-nzWxj-P0
The acrylic chute on the back of the robot looks to hold a full sixpack of tomatoes, and two shiny arms reach behind the athlete to grasp the tomato and then swing forward to the mouth. A switch on the ‘foot’ of the bot activates the arms and brings that sweet sweet tomato goodness to the runner. Suzuki plans to wear the robot during the 2015 Tokyo marathon (he’s only running a 5k race, but he’s running for two.)
Maywa Denki spent colossal amounts of effort checking the kinematics of the arms, the manufacture and assembly of the robot’s frame, and the durability of the materials. If nothing else the phenomenon of the tomato delivery robot highlights once again the fascinating differences between Japanese and North American culture. The fact that a man is wearing a highly specialized robot strapped to his back is barely news at this point because of the proliferation of robots in our media and society, but the specific application is what sets this idea apart from others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk-nzWxj-P0