Limpets in Space

I was part of the delegation from ORCA to present our work at the TCC – Automation, AI & Robotics workshop hosted by the NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas on the 27th and 28th of March.

The trip began with a short flight from Edinburgh to London of 1 hour and then a considerably longer flight of 12 hours to Houston. Arriving in Houston mid-evening and taking a quick taxi ride to the hotel I was then able to rest for the day.

From the next day onwards we were hosted and chauffeured about by the UK Science and Innovation Network and British Consulate-General in Houston who provided guidance on companies and facilitated the event.

Dr Adam Stokes, Dr Alistair McConnell and Dr Valentin Robu post presentations.

On the first day, I was able to visit the NASA Johnson Space Center providing a fascinating and inspiring tour of the history of NASA as well as several excellent photo opportunities.

The workshop ran over the next two days and featured a plethora of speakers from all different areas or robotics, AI and associated fields in the Houston and surrounding areas. As well as the ORCA Hub our fellow Hubs the RAIN and FAIR-SPACE gave presentations.

It was inspiring being at such an event and an excellent chance to build connections with companies and groups previously unknown by myself as well as to be exposed to the staff from NASA and their methods of working.

We were also taken on a tour of Houston Mechatronics on the final day of the event which proved to be productive, motivating and an excellent source of potential future collaboration. After this tour, we took another short taxi ride to the airport followed by a repeat of the 12-hour flight to London and the 1 hour back to Edinburgh.