Field Robot Systems
Skating & Skiing Robots for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Hexapod robots modified for skating and skiing, field-tested at real winter resorts, and built for the Olympic torch relay.
- Period
- Nov 2020 – Feb 2022
- Platform
- Modified hexapod robots
- Methods
- Locomotion Control · Environment Perception · Remote Operation
- With
- Feng Gao (SJTU Mechanical Engineering)
Overview
For the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic torch relay, we converted hexapod walking robots into machines that skate and ski. This was a complete-system project: mechanism modification, control algorithm design, perception, and remote operation, all validated outdoors in real winter conditions.
What we built
- Mechanism: modified hexapod platforms for skating and for skiing — two very different contact regimes, both far outside normal walking assumptions.
- Control: skating and skiing locomotion controllers, where propulsion comes from blade/edge interaction rather than discrete footholds.
- Perception and teleoperation: an environment-perception and remote-control framework so operators could supervise the robots safely on ice and snow.
Field deployment
The robots were tested in real skating rinks and ski resorts — freezing temperatures, glare, uneven snow, and spectators. Very few learned or model-based controllers survive that environment unchanged; the engineering lessons from these deployments shaped how I think about robot systems research.