<p><br /> The world's first robot marathon has started in Osaka... Slowly.<br /> </p><p><br /> Five competing robots will run 422 times around an indoor race track located in Osaka's Asia Pacific Trade Centre.<br /> </p><p><br /> Of the contestants, two of the robots owned by race organiser Vstone, got off to the best start.<br /> </p><p><br /> Vstone chief executive officer Yamato Nobuo was reasonably confident of victory and tentatively predicted his robots would finish the race on Saturday morning.<br /> </p><p><br /> "At the latest they will finish on Sunday morning," he conceded.<br /> </p><p><br /> Nobuo hopes that in the future the marathon will turn into an international competition similar in scale to the Robo Cup.<br /> </p>
