Film première - Southampton's Robotics and Autonomous Systems UK-RAS Network Grand Challenge - Event

Come to the world première of our Grand Challenge short film on emergency resilience and disaster response, showcasing robotics and autonomous systems research in this area from universities in the UK-RAS Network. Plus we have an exhibition of robots and autonomous systems. Everyone is welcome including members of the general public, especially young people. Our aim at this event is not  only to illustrate the importance of robotics research but also to demonstrate that such research can confer vital benefits to society. It can do this is many ways. The robots themselves can go safely into areas too dangerous for people and send back a stream of essential data and they can do this for as long as we need them to.  Robots can help in situations that are too extreme for humans. They can go far below sea level or into space at no risk to humans. Come and see the film and get to know some of the robots.Our film will be an exciting look at the range and scale of robotics activity in the UK and will showcase both current and future potential impact.

WATCH THE TRAILER!

Much of the film will be shot at the now decommissioned, Fawley power station. This location is very dramatic and featured in the 2015 movie ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and the 2017 Channel 4 programme Spies . Members of the Autonomous Systems USRG have worked with Hampshire Fire and Rescue and the Police on research and these organisations also participated in the film as you can see from the accompanying image, taken at the end of the first day of filming. The group also includes, the students from New Forest Academy, the team at Fawley and the film crew from Robin Creative Media.

The filming benefitted from the amazing contribution from the students and their teacher, from New Forest Academy. They were given the script  a fortnight before filming and apart from their own preparation had one chance to rehearse with the film crew. On the day, their responsiveness to taking direction and their accomplished acting with the cameras on them won the admiration of all. They were patient in bearing with the process of filming and impressed everyone with their cheerfulness and good  humour.