I visited an unique event last weekend, Robots on Ice. This event, already in its third annual edition, attempts to marry the goals of promoting ice skating, and promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by showcasing robots on ice. A great media overview of the event, and its star attractions can be found here. Rather than repeating what the media article describes, I will provide my impressions as a first time participant.
Impressions
This event was very well organized, thanks to Sarah Feldman, CEO of Silicon Valley Ice Skating Association, and the chief organizer of the event. I found that a ice skating rink is a great venue to demo robots.
Robots look great on ice because of the combination of ambience and reflections. An ice skating rink is sufficiently big for robots to move around, and not too big to keep them far way from the audience. Most importantly, ice provides an interesting and challenging surface for robots. On one hand, it is smooth and offers less pit…