Demoing Our Robot to a Live Audience
April 7, 2024, 3 a.m.
My partner and I attended a maker space meeting with a section about showcasing the projects you're working on. As we found our seats someone turned around and mentioned to us that they were thinking about us and the project. When they take their dog out for a walk they have to constantly be on the lookout that their dog doesn't randomly eat cigarette litter.
We waited anxiously from all the excitement for our turn to present. When our turn finally arrived we set up the project and with horror we thought that the IPV4 address had changed: meaning that it may not work. I facepalmed in my inner monologue as we had tested this possibility the day earlier by driving to this location. This is not an easy task as we live faaaaar!! However, as we waited we saw the message "Successfully connected". It was officially go time! (cue anime style hero shot)
We showcased its capabilities and talked about why we were going through all this effort. There was one little hiccup though; we accidentally plugged the motors wrong so forward was back and left was right ,etc. In order to not destroy the robot by driving it off the table, I had to control it reversely in my head so that it showcased to the audience properly.
We finished the presentation and had a Q&A segment. The audience was really inspired; they had lots of ideas for ways they could adapt it for their own use. One guy wanted to use it to pick up his kids Legos. All this was useful as it was a positive experience and gave me fresh motivation to continue the project.