Robots take up ice skating at San Jose event
The robots came the ice rink, as onlookers pressed up against the glass to watch. But the winner was instantly clear - a square-shaped red robot so fast that when it crossed the finish line it had time to spin in celebration and take a victory lap before the second-place bot could even finish.
The race was one of several events at the Silicon Valley Ice Skating Association's annual Robots on Ice event on Saturday, which featured robots large and small skating at Sharks on Ice in San Jose.
Crowds clustered by the glass to watch the robots take the ice - everything from miniature dog and cat bots to a full-sized replica of a Dalek from the TV show "Doctor Who." One robot slid around the ice tossing out yellow balls. Participants controlled their robots during the games and events, while spectators watched from the stands and high school robotics teams clustered near the walls, completing repairs or putting finishing touches on their entries.
The event, which began in 2020, is hosted with the aim of inspiring attendees to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning, said Sarah Feldman, CEO and president of SVISA. SVISA is a nonprofit organization aimed at cultivating ice skating throughout Silicon Valley.
"We've got (kids) as young as toddlers looking at the robots and bringing bots on the ice, some amazing high school teams, as well as established, real seasoned roboticists," Feldman said. "We've got folks from all sorts of robotics backgrounds."
Feldman said that almost any robots are welcomed at the event - as long as they can ice skate.
And many robots and their handlers return to the event year after year. The Marauder, a 250 pound, six-foot long robot with six legs, for instance, has attended since the beginning, Feldman said.
The Marauder's handler, Nick Donaldson of Oakland — who also designed, programmed and built the bot — said that it is a fourth-generation version of a walking robot platform that was originally commissioned by the CEO of Intel. Donaldson was controlling the robot from the edge of the ice rink, wearing a top hat with a robotic monkey that jumped out on command.
For Robots on Ice, Donaldson designed custom ice skates for the robot, he said. He even had them professionally sharpened the day before the event.
"He's skating a lot faster than he was last time," Donaldson said. "He's still struggling a little bit."
Another participant, Kai Mai, chief operating officer of Petoi, which designs open-source robots that kids can build themselves to learn about robotics and coding, brought along some pet-shaped robots that walked around the ice.
"All the kids, … they're very excited about robots," Mai said.
Amit Bnerje, a resident of Belmont, brought his kids to the event, where they could show off the Petoi robots they had built in front of other people.
"They've been coming to this event annually," he said. "This is their main exposure to robotics, just in front of people, otherwise they are mainly playing on their own."
Donaldson said he appreciates the event's ability to get more people interested in robots.
"Robots are getting more and more accessible," he said.
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This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 8:42 PM.