These Remote Controlled Cars Are The Closest We’re Getting To Motorsports In The Olympics

Achieving greatness at the Olympics in track and field events like javelin, shot put, and discus requires time and dedication. It also means going to retrieve one’s javelin, shot put, or discus after practicing with it after each throw. Once one makes it to the games, though, a tiny robot does that heavy lifting for you.

Known as Field Support Robots or Object Retrieval Cars, these tiny remote-controlled vehicles complete an important task: They carry objects around the playing field to speed up the pace of play.

On top of that, they reduce the need for additional workers (that’s right, robots stealing jobs again). In this case, though, they improve safety as well since they literally lighten the load that event staff must bear. If you’re not sure what I mean, just take a look at these cute little things.

We are set for the Monday morning session at Athletics.

But first a riveting race of the object retrieval cars.

These cars zip around the infield and retrieve the discus, javelin, shot put and hammer. pic.twitter.com/GELyKOgSa6

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 5, 2024

Yes, those are tiny-ish Toyota BZ4xs ‘racing’ down one of the tracks at this year’s Paris games.

Toyota actually jumped on board to help with this task back in 2015 and has the contract to continue doing so through 2025. FSRs made their debut appearance at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In that setting, several of them appeared as little off-road desert runners.

As a worldwide partner, #Toyota supported #Tokyo2020 with not only vehicles but also a variety of robots. #ToyotaTimes turns a spotlight on the #autonomous field support robots (FSR) featuring the tireless efforts behind the scenes of the Games. https://t.co/u0RjaEB9UK pic.twitter.com/kQvd2aDDk2

— Toyota Motor Corp. (@ToyotaMotorCorp) December 9, 2021

Back then, they were fully remote-controlled, but Futoshi Ito of Toyota’s Olympic and Paralympic Division tells Toyota Times that he saw the remote-controlled cars and thought “Four years from now, I want there to be a support car with the Toyota emblem operating on the field and I want to provide this support using Toyota’s robot technology, not radio-controlled cars.”

Beginning in 2020, they became semi-autonomous. The video below shows a quick demonstration of how they work. The event staff simply picks up the object and sets it in the FSR before tapping a button to send it back to its destination.

Here is what Toyota said about its FSRs back in 2020.

The robots will determine the optimal path to follow when retrieving items such as hammers or javelins thrown by athletes, guiding staff along paths that avoid obstacles. This will help reduce both the amount of time needed to retrieve items and the amount of human support required at events.

This isn’t a task reserved for just a few events either. These little vehicles end up being used all over the games. Here’s one retrieving and moving rugby balls from place to place. It even comes complete with a grassy field and some uprights.

???? We have robots carrying #rugby balls on the field ????#StartYourImpossible @Toyota pic.twitter.com/mJoAzOVYm4

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2021

In the case of rugby, the robot can automatically take the ball to the center of the field before kickoff. They also come in several shapes and sizes. Here are several at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Interestingly, Toyota wasn’t the first company to help with object retrieval cars. They actually date back to at least the 2012 Olympics in London where tiny remote-controlled MINI Coopers were on duty. According to the description in the video below, they take about 80 minutes to charge and then have about 35 minutes worth of usability before needing to go back on the charger.

That’s not an amazing charge-to-usefulness ratio but hey, at least none of the Toyota BZ4xs wheels have fallen off of the 2024 FSRs.