Hawaii 24/7 Staff

The Evolta Robot continued to motor along Queen Kaahumanu Highway all day Tuesday, gobbling up another chunk of the Ironman triathlon bike course.

Shortly before midnight, the little dude had powered its way through 57 miles of the 112-mile bike course, which continues to Hawi and back into Kailua-Kona.

About 11:30 p.m., he Tweeted: ‘Going smooth.’

According to the schedule, the 10-inch cycling robot should be back at Kailua Pier sometime Thursday, to hand the batteries over to the runner robot.

The Evolta Robots are taking on one of the world’s toughest Ironman courses this week, following more than 1,900 triathletes who competed earlier this month at the Ironman World Championship.

Built by Tomotaka Takahashi, the trio of robots are specifically designed to tackle each of the three triathlon disciplines. The swimmer robot finished the 2.4-mile ocean swim about 90 minutes ahead of schedule Sunday evening.

Takahashi said he wants to finish the grueling Ironman course to prove the durability of the Panasonic batteries.

The trio of robots are about 1/10th human size and are challenged with finishing the course in about 10 times the usual 17 hour cut off. So they have a goal of 168 hours – or one week – to cross the famous start/finish line at Kailua Pier.

That should be sometime Sunday afternoon.

Follow the robots progress at: http://panasonic.jp/charge/evolta/challenge/2011_e/index.html

Follow the robot on Twitter: @EVOLTA_Robot