Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/1312261
Going bananas at Bluedot! Outreach under the Lovell Telescope Our outreach glovebox It's great to ask questions! PUBLIC OUTREACH Communicating the challenges faced by the nuclear industry, and the robotics solutions able to solve them, is a core aim of the RAIN Hub. Nuclear power provides 20% of the UK's energy and is fundamental to our current energy security. However, the nuclear industry can be an emotive topic due to potential risk and future consequence. Similarly, whilst robotics and AI can be hugely beneficial, there are many unknowns and reasonable public concerns. We think it is important to have more conversations about nuclear energy, as well as the robotic and AI technologies that we are developing and how they could change the future working environment. To communicate the nuclear challenges we are trying to address with RAI technology we have developed a number of games. One is a glovebox task, coinciding with our remote handling working group. Participants are asked to complete a simple task within a glovebox, under a time pressure. This simple task is made far harder using industrial gloves. The game leads to conversation around the future of gloveboxes and the technology that can improve the safety and comfort of people handling hazardous materials, as well as some competition! We have a similar task based on remote inspection. Particularly popular with younger children, participants have to feel around an "unknown room" and map what they think is in there. They can then design what an inspection robot might need. This summer we joined forces with the Dalton Nuclear Institute to have a stand in the science field at Bluedot festival. Dalton brought activities related to radiation and geological disposal facilities, and we brought the nuclear challenge games as well as a robot maze and some small manipulators. The core of our stand was a conversation pillar that developed as visitors contributed questions, answers, drawings or votes on relevant polls. We had beanbag seating and encouraged people to stay and talk to researchers about anything robotics, AI or nuclear. Our priority was to listen and engage people, not lecture them on science. 30