Limpet Team meet the Public

It has been a busy time for both the Limpet and Limpet team as a whole. In the past month we have:

1. Demonstrated our research to Edinburgh South West MP, Joanna Cherry
2. Exhibited the Limpet system at DemoFest 2019
3. Run multiple ‘Day of Robotics’ at Heriot-Watt University

As part of ORCA, we engage with the public through different events, during the summer the Limpet team were part of the Royal Society’s Sumer of Science Exhibition, demonstrating the research done at the ‘Robots in the Danger Zone’ exhibit to over 12,000 people! During the Royal Society Exhibition, we met Edinburgh South West MP, Joanna Cherry who tried out our robots and discussed the research we were conducting. More recently she visited Heriot-Watt University to see the work being done as part of ORCA such as the Limpet and Fatigue monitoring and also our broader public engagement events.

Edinburgh South West MP, Joanna Cherry and Dr Alistair C. McConnell discussing robotics in schools.

We have also just taken part in DemoFest 2019 where Dr Alistair McConnell and Dr Tushar Semwal exhibited the Limpet system to an audience of academics and industry (50:50 split). We had deployed multiple Limpets around Dynamic Earth where DemoFest was being held and showed the live data from each sensor, allowing visitors to see the movement of the structure due to the stormy conditions outside.

Dr Tushar Semwal and Dr Alistair C. McConnell explaining ORCA and the Limpet system.

As part of the ongoing RAEng Ingenious award: Robosense, Dr Alistair McConnell has been hosting multiple Day of Robotics workshops at Heriot-Watt University where schools from all around the Lothians and Fife come to HWU and learn about engineering and robotics. Primarily through hands-on activities with our robots, they start with Cozmos and Spheros before progressing to the Husky.
All of these activities come from a drive to show the research that is part of ORCA to a broad and diverse audience and to encourage the next generation to enter into STEM areas.

Pupils from Leith Academy learning about the Husky before taking it for a test drive!