Robots on Ice 3.0
Written on March 4th, 2023 by SVISA
Robots on Ice 2023 was a huge success! More than 150 people turned out for the icy STEM event. Dozens of robots and their human counterparts attended. The event was featured on KCBS and in the Palo Alto Weekly.
Such robots as Dash One (A-1), Bittle, and Rover skidded and trotted across the ice. Bittle could be seen hopping on the ice. 3D printed, Rover, with its 4k cameras feed into an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier, was spotted gliding and sliding, accentuating the unique, fun, and challenging aspects of robot traversal on the ice. Sawppy x 2, outfitted with RasPi with plain Python code and sometimes an i7-laptop with ROS, could both be seen traversing the icy continent of the rink, leveraging it’s rover like maneuvering skills. Dagger was also seen trotting and dancing on the ice with its brushless motors and compliant actuators.
CEO of SVISA, Sarah Feldman, welcomed the crowd to Robots on Ice, with event MC Leya Aronoff. Followingly, Palo Alto City Councilman Greg Tanaka kicked off the festivities, with a keynote about the importance of STEM and Winterlodge ice rink in his family.
Outstanding ice skating performances gracefully skated by the audience at the outdoor rink. The skating performances included adorable synchronized skating by the Tremors Aspire team, and the mechanical-seeming Robot Duo.
The event inspired attendees so much that our organizers received emails after the event, that kids went home and immediately opened up robotics kits. Some started tinkering away, working on creating a new robot to bring to the next year’s event.
The robots on ice attendees and team can’t wait for next year! Stay tuned for more information on where to register your bot or purchase a ticket.
Warmly, -Robots on Ice 3.0 Team
When: February 26th, 2023 11AM - 12:30PM
Where: Winterlodge in Palo Alto
What: The event will include
- Robots playing on the ice!
- Robots on display around the ice.
- Robot inspired figure skating performances by the Tremors.
- An opportuinty to drive RC cars on the ice.
Palo Alto City Councilman Greg Tanaka will be joining SVISA to help kickoff the Robots on Ice 3.0 event. With his extensive background in tech and entrepreneurship, he will be speaking on the importance of STEM. We are excited to welcome Greg to his first Robots on Ice event!
Updates about the event
Click on the following for more information about robots or activities at the event.