Episode 1 Robot Wars

Fighting robots represent

probably one of the biggest challenges in engineering,

because there is no perfect design.

40 robot-fighting teams are about to take on

one of the most intense engineering challenges in the world.

Advice I'd give to roboteers entering the arena

is don't panic and try not to die.

To design, build and battle heavyweight fighting robots

to compete for the ultimate prize.

Through chaotic group battles and fierce head-to-heads,

new and veteran teams of robot engineers

must push their reinforced war machines to the limit.

Their robots are harder, faster, stronger,

designed for one thing -

total destruction in pursuit of victory.

CHEERING

Welcome to Robot Wars,

where the greatest engineering brains have come together

to create ever more fiendish ways of smashing lumps out of each other.

Teams from across the globe, from all walks of life,

determined to leave here as the new Robot Wars champions.

And the machines are still evolving.

Tougher armour, spinners that reach speeds of over 250mph,

and a couple that look like

they fell off the back of a carnival float.

They will, of course, have to impress our trio of judges

with their aggression, damage and control.

And it all takes place right here

in our bulletproof arena.

Here's how the competition works.

We begin with two huge group battles.

The top two robots from each group progress to the head-to-heads.

After three fights apiece, the two teams with the most points

face each other in the final.

The winner of tonight's show

will progress to the Grand Final

for the chance to be the Robot Wars champion.

In the first group battle is...

Let's meet our teams.

Rapid is billed as being

one of the most advanced and expensive flippers ever built,

and 15 times more powerful than champion Apollo.

This is, by some distance, the most polished-looking -

literally the most polished-looking -

robot that we have.

This is Rapid. Also, I believe, it's the most expensive robot

-in the competition this year.

-I can't comment on that.

No, of course not. But I can - it is.

What does it do?

It's got probably the biggest flipper you're going to see today.

-Does it have any weakness?

-It does scratch quite easily.

-It scratches?

Really? Well, I'm sorry, boo-hoo, that your robot scratches(!)

Give it up for Rapid, ladies and gentlemen.

APPLAUSE

Having defected last series from people's favourite Nuts,

Dave Lawrie has made his new robot from reclaimed materials,

including a trampoline,

bike tyres and a horse-tooth file.

Let's talk about the weapon.

-This arm runs across the entire width of the machine.

-Right.

So we'll retract it to the side.

-Yeah.

-We'll ram a robot.

We'll bring the arm in,

give them a gentle cuddle,

and then we can then drive that robot with ours.

We've used four tools,

we've used no computers,

there's no welding,

literally anyone could put it together.

And we just want to show you could still succeed

with a design that thinks outside the box.

-I for one cannot wait to see this one.

-Yeah, me too.

Give it up for Jellyfish, please!

CHEERING

Last series this flailbot

entertained the crowd with its spirited but chaotic performance.

The new Nuts is four times more powerful,

but can they control it to beat previous team-mate Jellyfish?

The wingspan looks a little terrifying.

Oh, yeah, it's got about a metre and a half of flail.

Should hit about 150mph.

It was quite out of control last time.

-Will you be able to control it this time?

-Even less.

-It's going to be so good.

-That's what I thought!

Let's talk about Jellyfish, your old pal.

They went off and they've done their own thing,

good luck to them, but once you get in the arena

it's every robot to themselves,

and our aim is to really make Jellyfish our sushi.

Ho-ho-ho!

Please go nuts for Nuts!

CHEERING

This experienced axebot never fulfilled its potential last time,

but with a new improved weapon system, could this be their year?

Here we are with Terrorhurtz -

but improved Terrorhurtz.

More terror, more hurting.

How will it inflict terror and hurt?

Big axe. It's all about the big axe.

Hopefully it works this year.

What was the problem that stopped you firing last year?

We had this ridiculously complicated system.

-We had two transmitters cabled together.

-OK.

It was just not very good. Sort of complete change now,

-we've got two independent systems now.

-Brilliant.

-So we're going to see the axe firing?

-Yeah, with a bit of luck.

Fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Terrorhurtz.

APPLAUSE

Our four teams head into battle.

Tactics and experience will play a big part

in surviving our hazard-packed arena.

But this series there's a fiendish new twist -

the rogue house robots.

Hitting the tyre now has a deadly new dimension.

At random, the huge Doom Dog

will either swing left to lower the pit...

or to the right, unleashing a house robot

to escape its base and go marauding for ten seconds.

So sit back, and for the first time this series

it's over to the master of the arena, Jonathan Pearce.

Thanks very much, Dara and Angela.

And before we introduce the weird and wonderful robots

competing in tonight's group battle, there's a bit of housekeeping to do.

Battles in the competition are fought over three minutes.

A robot is out if they find themselves immobile,

are thrown out of the arena or find themselves in the Pit of Oblivion.

If there isn't a clear winner at the end of the fight

then it's up to our judging panel,

Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, Dr Lucy Rogers,

and head judge - the man, the legend - Professor Noel Sharkey.

The roboteers, for our first group battle,

are in the arena.

'From Hampshire...

'Nuts 2.'

Nuts now reaches a top speed of 20mph and will spin at 540rpm.

The boys say being attacked my Nuts

will be like being hit by a sledgehammer 18 times a second.

'From central London, Rapid.'

Team Rapid run a research and development engineering firm

with offices around the world.

Rapid cost £25,000 to make

and the team say it can flip a transit van a metre in the air.

'From Antrim, Northern Ireland, Jellyfish.'

Team captain Dave is a writer and wife Gemma is a horse dentist.

They built Jellyfish to absorb damage with its

high-density polyester armour.

'From Oxford, Terrorhurtz.'

16 years in development, Terrorhurtz is back.

Team captain John Reid is a design engineer,

and team-mate Nick is a rocket scientist.

Their CO2-powered axe develops a tonne of force.

The house robot for this battle is the delicious Matilda.

Swipe left, or she'll take a swipe at you.

Weighing in at a trim 350 kilos.

'Roboteers, stand by.'

I can't wait for this.

The teams are in the control booths. It's battle time.

'Three...

'two...

'one...

'activate.'

I love the smell of the Robot Wars Arena in the morning.

Oh, and immediately Jellyfish is up in the air!

The lowest, smallest robot in the competition in terms of height.

The flailing chains of Nuts.

A three-metre diameter on that fearsome weapon.

Jellyfish in trouble.

Come on, Jelly.

Dave Lawrie at the controls, with Gemma alongside him.

They'll try and clamp and hold on and hold on to their reasoning

and hold on to a place in the competition.

I'll tell you what, they aren't doing bad...

Oh, look at that attack there!

A mighty blow for the Terrorhurtz.

And the little clusterbots are out there as well.

Belonging to the Nuts team.

There we see Rapid in underneath and flipping Jellyfish into the air.

Rapid with that incredible flipper.

Well armoured, too.

15 times more powerful than any other flipper ever built.

But...

where are they in the competition now? In after Nuts.

Turning, spinning, control problem?

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

What about this?

Oh, Matilda!

Don't mess with the rear end of Matilda.

Oh, it's a grisly place to be.

And that's a doomed place to be. Nuts.

Oh, the nutty boys. Out!

One robot forlorn and forgotten.

Three remain. The little clusterbots are still out there.

Trying to create nuisance value more than anything else.

No, no more firing, no more firing.

That mighty axe of Terrorhurtz, the experienced John Reid in there.

And here we have Terrorhurtz chasing after Rapid.

They're leaving Jellyfish alone because they think Jellyfish

is immobilised and spinning awkwardly, but going nowhere.

This is all about the damage now

that Terrorhurtz can cause on Rapid, thinking about later

in the competition - good planning, good tactics here by John Reid!

KLAXON

'Cease.'

Cease is called.

Just did enough, probably. Just.

-Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!

-A bit of cat and mouse at the end.

One booth buoyed by victory, one booth beaten.

The attack on Jellyfish, I think, damaged the controls there,

they were never really active on those dirt-bike tyre treads.

And you can see there, Nuts having problem with the controls.

That onslaught from Matilda ended their dreams.

-Rapid, you should be very happy with this, presumably.

-OK.

You got under some, but didn't get under others.

Well, it's a balance between getting it low enough and not getting

caught on every screw at the bottom of the arena.

So, we've got to find that balance.

And at one stage, though, you had a chain caught in your mouth.

Yeah. Eating it.

However, there was a significant part of the bout where you

were running away backwards from this lot.

-You did very, very well there.

-Nice little driving test that was.

-Were you happy with how the axe did?

-No.

-Really?

It was down on power, very limited. It's not happy at all,

-so we'll have to look at that.

-Nonetheless, you're through.

-Rapid and Terrorhurtz, well done to both of you.

-Well done, guys.

APPLAUSE

'It's an early exit for friends turned rivals Nuts and Jellyfish.

'But John has expertly driven Terrorhurtz into the next round.

'He now has two hours in the pits to fix that axe.'

The axe mechanism is really, really stiff.

It looks like we're going to have to disassemble,

strip the whole machine down to its base and look at the ram,

look at the inside of the ram, see what we've got.

'Rapid managed to coast this group stage nearly intact.'

Bent our front fork. But otherwise...

We should be able to bend that.

And that one's come off a bit. We can add some weld onto that.

'Our second group battle is between TMHWK,

'Aftershock, Crank-E, and Sabretooth.'

'A complete rebuild since last series. Team Sabretooth is back.

'The colour scheme is all that remains,

'as the team pin their hopes on their new spinning-drum weapon.'

It's been 16 years of televised fights. You've never won a battle.

-We've never won a fight.

-You're a glutton for punishment.

We've learnt so many lessons.

-The key lesson is, this time, it runs both ways up.

-OK.

The drum is a monster.

So you're just going to mow everything out of the way?

-That's the dream.

-Sabretooth, everyone.

APPLAUSE

'This experienced international team plan to rain down hits with

'their dual-edged weapon.'

APPLAUSE

How far have you travelled?

Quite a long distance. From Holland, from Rotterdam.

Well, welcome, welcome. Or as you say in Holland, "Welcome,"

-because your English is excellent.

-Yeah. No problem for us.

What can TMHWK do?

TMHWK has a very strong axe that has two ways we can use it,

a point to make inserts and other sides to just do damage.

Now, sometimes we've found if the axe misses

you can do yourself some damage with the axe.

We know, yes, so we won't miss.

'Having taken out Robot Wars legend Razer in the last series,

'Kill-E Crank-E has been overhauled and now claims to be spinner-proof.'

It's very subdued here, everything's under control.

Yeah, we're just making the final preparations, ready for battle.

Does that include roasting your robot in tinfoil?

Er, yeah, something like that.

It's to keep it cool inside in case we put...get put on the Flame Pit.

It's just like when you put a chicken in the oven and you

put it in tinfoil, it keeps it from burning on the skin.

'Last series, they made it to the grand final with Shockwave.

'But hungry to win, they've completely redesigned

'their new robot, Aftershock, with its vertical spinner.'

APPLAUSE

-Welcome back.

-Thank you. It's good to be back.

-Different iteration this time round.

-Definitely.

We've been refining this design with a vertical spinner for over

ten years now, and it should rip anything to pieces.

-Right, that's the plan, right?

-If it works.

Are you confident that it will work?

Well, yeah, we've not really tested it, that's the trouble.

You can't test these things, so we've had it spinning,

we've had it driving, but we've not had it doing it at the same time.

-THEY LAUGH

-Good luck, Aftershock.

-Thank you.

It's the moment of truth for the teams.

All that stands between them and a shot at the title are five

hazards, four house robots and three competitors. Over to you, Jonathan.

Thanks once again, Dara and Angela.

Yes, the teams in the second group battle tonight

now entering the arena.

'From Haslemere, Surrey, Sabretooth.'

Father-and-daughter team the Strouds, back with Rob Pickford and Al Cannon.

Sabretooth is back and now has the biggest spinning drum

in the competition, spinning at an intimidating 7,000rpm.

'From Reading, Aftershock.'

Last year, father and son Will and Ian Thomas competed with pusherbot Shockwave.

The robot has a 500mm, 23kg spinning disc

that can spin at 3,500rpm.

'From the Netherlands, TMHWK.'

TMHWK has interchangeable axe heads for spearing opponents or

bludgeoning them.

The robot's axe hits are controlled by a microcontroller which gives

them four different kinds of hits for ultra-tactical combat.

'From Caithness, Crank-E.'

Team captain Robin Herrick decommissions nuclear power stations.

Crank-E is a two-wheel drive with a 22-kilo central vertical spinner,

with a tip speed of 223 mph.

For the first time tonight, he's an axe to the max -

it's the titanium-tipped axe of Shunt.

'Roboteers, stand by.'

After this battle, two of these robots will be going home.

It is battle time.

'Three...

'two...one...

'activate.'

Interesting to see how Crank-E gets on.

Oh, not very well from the start.

Flipped up and over, hasn't been tested.

The wheels could be vulnerable.

We see the mighty spinner of Aftershock,

and we see very much a robot in peril.

Pincered between the two.

And Crank-E very much in trouble.

Look at that, 3,500rpm spinning blade of Aftershock.

Now, the attack on the girls from the Netherlands.

The TMHWK team.

Just keep hitting.

That is the big rolling blade of Sabretooth

to launch another machine two metres in the air.

Aftershock... Release the tyre!

And this time the Pit of Oblivion descends.

-ALL:

-In the pit! In the pit!

Look at the damage on Crank-E,

on the armament there.

-The armament...

-Oh!

Oh, wow!

Immobilise machines, not Aftershock.

Certainly there, Tomahawk, and another...

It's all double Dutch for them.

-KLAXON

-'Cease.'

-We went up in a puff of smoke.

-Our LEM went.

-Did it?

Wait, wait, did we...?

Who's through? Who's in trouble?

That's the question they're asking.

Well, Aftershock was the most impressive in that group battle.

The most damage to Crank-E.

It looked to me as if Sabretooth were in control

and capable of going further.

The road has ended for Crank-E.

I mean, it looks like Aftershock are back and better than ever before.

-The improvements have certainly paid off.

-It seemed to work.

The disc caused a lot of damage, by the look of things.

-I think we might have blown it up, though.

-You think it's blown up?

There was a small wisp of smoke coming out of it.

Yeah, puff of smoke and...

-We thought that was just for dramatic effect.

-Special effects.

Team Sabretooth, 16 years you've waited for a little sniff of glory.

-But have we won?

-What?!

Sorry, what?! No wonder it took 16 years!

Yeah. Well, I mean, you're through, yeah.

Yay!

Was there a question...?

I need it confirmed, I need it confirmed. It's been so long.

Can you write it down for him?

-Yes, you're through to the head-to-head.

-That's amazing.

-Well, good luck in the head-to-heads and well done.

-ALL:

-Thank you.

Aftershock already a force to be reckoned with but that great

power comes with its own problems,

in the form of an overworked electrical system.

We're probably drawing well over 1,000 amps at maximum power.

So it's burnt out some wiring.

If we replace that, we should be good to go for the next fight.

After their first-ever televised victory,

it's a jubilant Team Sabretooth

who return to the pits to check for damage.

The only issue we really had was

it was catching the floor with the scooper, it's so flat.

So we'll just increase the spaces underneath so it sits a tiny bit

higher and it will run round much more easily.

At the end of the group battles, four teams have made it through

to the next stage of the competition...

First to face each other in the head-to-heads

are Sabretooth and Terrorhurtz.

In the pits, Team Terrorhurtz have been working

on their slow-firing axe, but rather than stripping the machine apart,

they've opted for a quick fix.

I've had a look at the problem - so stiff.

So we just squirted some lube in the cylinder and it's...

It's better.

It's not as good as it should be, but it's a lot better.

Opponents Sabretooth have also been working hard trying to raise

the clearance on their 7,000rpm spinning drum.

These essential adjustments can be the difference between

victory and destruction.

For Gabriel, daughter Esme, and the rest of Team Sabretooth,

the extensive repairs are keeping a dream alive 16 years in the making.

I'm Gabriel Stroud, I'm team captain of Sabretooth.

I run my own company,

Esme is a student,

Rob is a builder

and Al is an engineer.

After all the effort for last series,

and all the work we put in, to go out in the first round was terrible.

Our drum spins at 150mph.

When it hits an opponent, it's going to rip them to pieces.

To win Robot Wars would mean so much to my dad.

I think it's probably his ultimate dream!

On this series of Robot Wars, you'll hear Sabretooth roar.

Team Terrorhurtz are relying on their quick fix to unleash

the potential of their axe.

For John and Nick, this is a culmination of years of hard work.

I'm John, I'm from Oxford. Our robot is Terrorhurtz.

I'm a mechanical-design engineer.

I design racing-car simulators.

Also on the team we have Nick.

He's an amateur rocket physicist and he operates the axe.

Terrorhurtz is all about the axe. Very powerful - powered by C02.

So it's really built around the weapon.

I've spent a lot of time on the design side of things.

I probably must have spent thousands of hours designing Terrorhurtz.

I think my combat strategy is always attack, just full-on attack.

Just get stuck in and go for it, see what happens.

The house robot in the arena - he's not grumpy,

he's a bit spiky...

it's the vertical saw of Dead Metal.

'Roboteers, stand by.'

Sabretooth against Terrorhurtz.

Terrorhurtz's armour perfectly suited to deflect blows, then,

from Sabretooth's drum.

Sabretooth have their work cut out for them here.

'Three, two, one...'

'activate.'

KLAXON

Is the Terrorhurtz weapon a mere toothpick at the moment?

Sabretooth's weapon, a bit of a humdrum affair?

But there is that question about the Terrorhurtz armament

around the side.

There you can see they're going full-frontal attack on Sabretooth.

One improvement for Sabretooth, by the way, fully invertible.

It's the best evolution for me... Oh!

In terrible trouble there for Terrorhurtz.

It's very bad. OK, let's get out of here.

Oh! And off goes the aluminium tail

and that is absolutely crucial...

..for the weaponry to work properly. Terrorhurtz in trouble now.

And all of a sudden, Sabretooth, after 16 years

of misery and hurt...

are looking delightful.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Didn't even know they'd won the previous bout,

so unused to victory!

There is smoke. Do we have wiring issues?

Do we have a burn-out there?

Which machine will last the longest?

At its best, one tonne of force in each hit.

At 100mph, they are going for it.

Wait for it, wait for it... Ready... Ready...

No, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it!

Wait for a good hit.

Wait for a good hit.

A waiting game. A patient game.

-OK! Good one. Excellent.

-Oh, the tail...

It's fine, it's fine.

I'm not too sure whether it is fine, John.

Because for me, at the moment,

Sabretooth on top if it does go to the judges.

That's a chunk out of that drum, isn't it?

-Is the drum dented?

-Do we have another drum?

-No.

Well, well, well, a battle of attrition now.

No, wait for a good hit. It has to be a good hit.

One big hit is needed.

-Do you want to go for the pit, Gabe?

-No.

-He's not moving, look.

He's done his wheel in.

-Unless we get rogue house robot.

-Yeah.

The wheel has been damaged. They know that.

The pit release, which way will it go?

-'Rogue house robot.'

-This time the house robots are rogue!

-Who hit the button?

-Into the arena.

Shunt getting involved with the big power, the big push.

Death Metal awaits.

The crowd want them in the pit. The crowd merciless, cruel.

Delicious.

No, no, wait for a good hit. No, no more. No more. No more.

They're going to be counted out, immobile.

KLAXON

Big, big win here, I think, for Sabretooth.

There's the damage caused on Terrorhurtz.

They were never really fully active after that.

But damage to the Sabretooth drum and maybe the electrics -

that could count against them later on.

They don't have a replacement drum and that's where the final

damage occurred for Terrorhurtz.

Thank you to both of you. That was a great bash.

That was a proper taking lumps out of each other.

There was smoke coming out of yours at one stage.

-Oh, yours was smoking as well, was it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, yeah.

-There was bits of wheel coming out of yours.

-Yeah, God knows what.

-What happened?

-Just bad driving.

-No, come on!

-You exposed yourself to them...

-I exposed my bottom, yeah!

At which point you then bumped into the tyre to release...

-the house robots.

-Oh, it WAS you.

And then you let the house robots finish them off.

-But it's a win!

-Yay!

My commiserations to yourselves,

but congratulations, the three points...

three points go to Sabretooth!

-Well done, guys.

-Thank you.

Sabretooth's clever use of the rogue house robot paid off,

as Shunt crucially dealt Terrorhurtz the killer blow.

That was a stupendous fight. A crazy, crazy fight.

We've taken damage, though.

We've taken some damage, which we need to repair.

I hope we've got all the bits.

But the joy of victory is short-lived,

as the extent of their own damage becomes apparent.

Oh, we've lost a great chunk of the drum.

We've got to somehow get that screwed back in.

There's a lot of work to do to fix that.

It's going to be touch-and-go but we'll see what happens.

-Oh, it's fine. There you go.

-It's fine!

We've got some sticky tape.

There's trouble, too, for Team Terrorhurtz, who've

got a hole in their firing ram, courtesy of huge house robot Shunt,

and a crucial part of their design that was destroyed by Sabretooth.

It's a very long tail.

So you basically lever against that for the axe to fire,

but if you don't have that tail, the whole robot rears up in the air.

In other words, without a tail, there'll be no axe.

Next into the arena is flipper Rapid versus huge spinner Aftershock.

Rapid rely on getting under their opponents to flip them

but the hard steel alloy has been bent

and it's incredibly hard to repair quickly.

We've got these forks that come down to the floor

to keep the robot close to the ground

and they've got bent in the last fight. We're trying to replace them.

We need a bit more support but we've only got 30 minutes to do it.

This stuff is really hard to work with, so we're up against it.

Opponents Aftershock's biggest fear is controlling the power

in their untested spinner -

a design Will has come to after ten years of trial and error.

We're Team Shock, from Gravesend, and our brand-new robot

is Aftershock.

I'm Will Thomas, I'm the team captain

and the driver of Aftershock.

My dad, Ian Thomas, is our main engineer,

responsible for building the robot.

After getting knocked out in the last series,

we wanted to build a brand-new robot and come back even stronger.

The day after, I got into CAD and started designing the beast

that we've got now. You really don't want to get in its way.

Our major worry with Aftershock is flippers.

If we get turned over, we're not sure how well it will self-right

as it's currently untested.

The ultimate dream for Aftershock is to become

the Robot Wars champion.

That's what we've built it for, that's what we're here for

and that's what we're going to do.

Having now sharpened their machine to get them as close as

possible to the floor, this incredible ominous-looking

robot hides a world of hi-tech engineering.

Team Rapid is made up of me, Josh Valman, as the team captain,

Andy, the engineer and driver, and Letitia, our tactician.

I started my engineering career when I was about ten years old

and that started with Robot Wars.

For the last five years, I've now been running a company

making everything from consumer goods

all the way through to aerospace components.

Rapid is completely over-engineered.

Most robots have valves this big

and we're standing here with a valve this big.

I think if we go out of the competition,

it's going to be our fault.

I don't think it's going to be the opponent.

The adrenaline of robot fighting comes down to three minutes.

With months and months of work,

it all comes down to that one moment.

In the arena for this bout,

oh, we've all got a crush on this house robot - Sir Killalot.

And Shunt.

Three...

two,

one...

activate.

Bent front forks against blown-up wiring -

who has done the best repairs?

Rapid on the drive, very quick.

Here comes that Aftershock spinning blade.

Can Rapid flip Aftershock over?

We know it doesn't have a self-righting mechanism.

It needs one of its own, Rapid, now,

because look at the power and the punishing factor

of that Aftershock 23kg spinning disc.

Ow, ow!

I think they've killed Rapid.

Leave him. Let's not do anything silly, then.

They don't need to do anything silly because they know they have

the victory against THE most expensive robot of the series.

£25,000 worth of machinery,

hours and hours of work

ends up like that.

Sympathy? None here.

Good attack early on from Rapid.

That's what they needed to do, they needed to get Aftershock over.

But Aftershock actually used the arena wall to bounce off clean,

on the drive again.

No effect of the flipper that time and in fact,

when the flipper opened up, Aftershock went in and attacked.

Good value on that attack. Rapid now in real problems.

Upended. And it all went pear-shaped.

Aftershock now know they can self-right.

But powerful machines like this often do themselves

a huge amount of internal damage.

We have taken a little bit of damage.

We're not quite sure what the problem is yet,

but the disc is not spinning very easily.

So I think we've got to replace the motor and I think we might have

bent the bottom chassis, but we're going to find out what's gone wrong.

Team Rapid's plan to build the toughest machine in the arena

may have bizarrely backfired.

This is the solid billet of titanium.

The vibration and the shock seem to be wearing it down.

The material isn't so expensive on its own,

it's the cost of machining it.

Because it's such a hard material,

to machine a solid piece of that size takes, you know,

a good eight or so hours on the machine.

So that's where the price comes from.

With less than two hours until their next fight,

there's a limit to the repairs the team can make.

If Rapid can't fix it,

they'll forfeit their place in the competition.

After the first round of head-to-heads,

this is the leaderboard -

Aftershock and Sabretooth both on three points,

Terrorhurtz and Rapid yet to score.

Preparing to fight next are the two spinners sitting at the top

of the table, Sabretooth and Aftershock.

At this stage of the competition, the pits begin filling up

with teams busy with make-or-break repairs.

While Aftershock only have a motor to swap out and batteries to charge,

Team Sabretooth have had to work out an ingenious

repair system for their shattered drum.

What we're going to do is we're going to screw this piece back on

to hold the bar in.

And then we've made up some steel rings,

which we're going to put on there

so that it supports the tooth, weld it to the other side

and then drill holes all the way round and screw it onto the drum.

Hopefully, it'll stay put.

With the teams working hard to prepare for their next fight,

we're catching up with judge Professor Sethu Vijayakumar.

Why is Angela playing Four in a Row against a robot?

This is an example of a robot which is able to change

its behaviour in response to something that changes

in the environment, or in this case, a person playing a game.

Although, as simple as it may seem,

it's exactly the technologies that we're using in driverless cars

right now to create a strategy for not hitting a person.

-Exactly like that.

-And also reading a situation.

So it's not mapped out ahead of time, it's reacting to my moves,

-which obviously it can predict.

-Absolutely.

In the next five to ten years we have a concept called

shared autonomy, where humans and robots work

much more closely with each other.

Robots are very good at doing very repetitive stuff,

humans are much better at understanding context,

so collaborating to do things faster, better,

much more efficiently.

-We're just slowly watching Angela being beaten.

-I'm on defence.

Yeah, and defence will always lose.

I don't think you should underestimate her.

-Maybe she's played the perfect game.

-Perhaps, perhaps. I...

-I don't think so.

-I haven't!

-THEY LAUGH

-Sethu, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Time is up and the teams head to the arena.

Team Sabretooth have done an incredible job,

but must hope they've done enough to survive

a duel with top-of-the-table Aftershock.

In the arena for this match, it's...

Three...

two...

one...

activate!

They are not banging the drum now, Sabretooth.

How effective will the weaponry be?

Wheels exposed. Metal flies.

Aftershock on the attack.

Nearly got caught by the Floor Flipper there!

No!

There's no life in Sabretooth now.

Oh, they needed a drummer out there.

Phil Collins anywhere? No, he's not here.

Aftershock certainly on top now,

and one of the most impressive robots we've seen.

KLAXON

Down goes the Pit of Oblivion.

Sabretooth hit by Killalot.

The armaments gone from the top.

Their hopes are gone.

Oh...

Oh, dear. Dreams shattered.

-Machine in shards.

-Stop!

They're dead, Will, they're dead. Back off.

And they know they've won.

No further punishment,

the coup de grace already given.

Cease.

Oh, dear.

No bite on Sabretooth in the end and the drum was always a problem,

and Aftershock, well, they needed the disc to spin properly

and it certainly did, up to almost full speed if not full speed.

That was the moment of danger, when they got themselves pinned in.

Not great driving there. Will will need to do better, he knows that,

but almost flawless, the performance.

Sabretooth took a real beating and now the drum looks to be

the least of their worries.

We've got an open gearbox on one side.

We didn't quite finish repairing that trap on the drum,

so that needs to be dealt with.

Speed control has gone in the middle.

It's a different story for Aftershock, who are already

proving themselves to be worthy contenders for the title.

That was awesome. A little bit speechless.

Really feel for the other team but, you know, it's Robot Wars.

With Aftershock powering ahead,

it leaves the second-place spot wide open.

So it's all to play for in our next bout between joint-last-place

Terrorhurtz and Rapid.

But Team Rapid are in big trouble.

So, basically, what you can see with this is that the wheels

just go round, normal drive, easy-peasy.

-However, this one, you can see how it doesn't turn because of...

-WHEEL CLICKS

..the noise it makes,

which means that we'll basically go round in circles.

Something's got into the gearbox and the problem is the gearbox

is just too deep inside for us to fix that in time,

so I think we're going to have to forfeit.

We're going to be too long to get back into the game.

This robot may have huge potential,

but ultimately it's proved too complicated to repair.

Rapid are packing their bags and they're out,

which means third place from the group battles are back in.

This guy!

This is a bit of a curveball.

Yeah, we weren't expecting this at all.

I mean, Rapid is quite a high-spec, fantastically technical robot

-and it is now being replaced by Jellyfish.

-Yeah.

There was a lot of talk before the group battles about

the rivalry between you and your old pals Nuts,

but they seem to be back in the zone.

Yeah, well, we had a thing about reuniting the old team

and they've been very gracious in coming over and, you know,

the boys are back.

-Back together again, the old gang.

-Oh, yes.

Good luck, and we'll see you back in there.

And so the competition's most expensive machine

is replaced with the cheapest.

We are the Lawries from Antrim in Northern Ireland

and our robot is Jellyfish.

I'm Dave. I'm the team captain and the driver.

Jemma's a horse dentist, believe it or not.

She brings a lot of the stuff from that trade in,

so she's handy with tools and things.

We really want to show that anybody who wants to build

a robot can get involved with Robot Wars.

Jellyfish is a 1.5 metre wide clampbot, designed to latch on to

the opponent and control them, drive them where we want them to go.

I think that not having specific engineering skills

has actually given us an advantage.

It's allowed us to think outside the box and do things

that other teams wouldn't even think of.

A group of jellyfish is called a smack.

We're coming to Robot Wars to lay the smack down.

Beginning with zero points,

their first opponents are joint-last-place Terrorhurtz,

who have patched up their firing ram and welded back their tail plate.

So with the help of Team Nuts, the outlandish Jellyfish is good to go.

For Team Terrorhurtz, after such a huge repair job,

it's fingers crossed their work will bear fruit.

In the CPZ for this bout, it's Matilda.

And Dead Metal.

Three...

two...

one...

activate!

Can Terrorhurtz give Jellyfish the hairdryer treatment?

They're in underneath Jellyfish,

trying to batter them into submission.

Dodging away there from Matilda.

Oh, no, he's not dead already, is he?

One more hit.

What's happened to Jellyfish here?

John Reid's having a cursory glance.

Jellyfish, the team from Antrim in Northern Ireland,

doesn't seem to be moving at all.

Three, two, one...

No wonder the Nuts team-mates have been back to help you,

-by the way. Their machine's out!

-KLAXON

Of course, they had something to do,

and they're not going to go very far!

Oh, Jellyfish, Jellyfish,

the world's not your lobster, my son.

Down comes the axe! Goodness me.

And there is a happy end to that Terrorhurtz tale, ultimately.

Back and fighting and winning, John Reid and Nick Lynch.

Terrorhurtz walk away with the three points,

so the scoreboard looks like this.

Aftershock are still on top with six points.

That win has put Terrorhurtz level with Sabretooth

with three points each.

After being immobilised, Jellyfish stay on zero.

So, an easy ride for Team Terrorhurtz,

but they're keen to use their repair time wisely,

as they face league leaders Aftershock next.

Jellyfish only sustained a single blow from the axe,

but it proved to be lethal.

I can't even find where the axe actually hit it.

So we'll have to do a diagnostic.

The impact has damaged the speed control,

which is Rory's area of expertise.

However, on a robot built from toothbrushes and bike tyres,

it's hard to imagine where to start.

The next head-to-head is Terrorhurtz versus Aftershock.

Still suffering from mechanical weapon issues,

John needs to think tactically for this fight.

So, the last one we've got to fight is Aftershock,

but that's a beast of a machine.

But we've got this amazing front armour,

that's what it's designed for,

so as long as I keep my calm and keep the nose at him,

we should be OK.

Aftershock may be the robot to beat but it's still relatively untested,

and against the experience of Terrorhurtz, anything could happen.

The house robot in the arena for this bout,

it's king of the ring Sir Killalot.

And Shunt.

Right, just do what you've got to do.

Oh, we'll go for them, John.

Do not use that at all. Do not use that.

Three...

two...

one...

activate.

Very interesting tactical talk there,

John seeming to say don't use the axe.

I wonder if he's worried about the axe getting caught into

the spinner, sucked in.

I think that would be his methodology here.

In comes Shunt.

And again.

You can see the sparks flying there,

really flying off the Aftershock spinner.

Lad and dad are both very, very bad and evil,

but it's not going all the way for Will and Ian Thomas!

And up goes Terrorhurtz, and look at the speed and recovery!

We tripped!

Being pushed across the arena floor.

Little bit upended when it was caught by the Flipper

and Aftershock at the same time.

It used the back tail to balance and right itself

and then brilliant driving away from one of the best drivers

in the history of Robot Wars, John Reid.

Beyond the Floor Spikes. This is a good battle, isn't it?

This isn't the way we thought it would go.

I have to admit,

I thought Aftershock would win this easy-peasy.

And that's not the way it's happening,

but they're prowling around, trying to get the weaponry in.

Down goes the axe now.

Getting bolder by the minute!

Nick Lynch, defying the orders of...

Oh!

..John Reid, but is that the end?

Is that the end?

It's surely the end.

Well done.

Aftershock is quaking the world of Robot Wars.

They had to wait their moment. The moment has come.

They know they've won it. That is the famous Robot Wars spin to win.

Good start by Terrorhurtz.

Then it went up in the air,

but I think this is a brilliant piece of Robot Wars here.

The way they controlled the escape, got away,

Aftershock buffeted by the floor spikes.

Then that vertical spinner creating

damage to the arena floor, but not itself.

That's crucial. That's a crucial development.

That was a crucial moment in the fight.

That was THE moment in the fight.

Yet again, Aftershock have put on a masterly display.

Terrorhurtz have fought their last head-to-head, so now need Jellyfish

to beat Sabretooth by three points for the chance to go through.

Let's take a look at the leaderboard.

Aftershock are on top with a full nine points.

Sabretooth and Terrorhurtz remain on three, with Jellyfish on zero.

Any of the bottom three teams could still join Aftershock in the final,

so every point matters. Next, it's Jellyfish versus Sabretooth.

Sabretooth have had to create ever more ingenious ways of

repairing the extensive damage they've sustained.

The team are shattered

after working nonstop for hours on end.

And they're nowhere near having a machine that works.

Competitors Jellyfish are in the midst of their own huge repair job.

The sheer force that came from Terrorhurtz's axe has actually

managed to shear one of the magnets into an awful lot of pieces.

This here needs to be fixed before we can do anything,

or else it'll be a one-wheeled jelly.

Having worked tirelessly to repair their robot,

it's now time to test if Sabretooth will work at all.

If the drum fails to spin, the team will be out.

Two hours ago, I think that was in pieces,

and there's so many people helped that, erm...

No, I'm just... Yeah, we're back on track.

Thank you.

They've done it. It's time to head to the arena.

Team Sabretooth, back from the dead!

-I... It's magic, isn't it?

-Literally magic.

We've had so much help in the pits, but we've all been...

Al's been doing...

He is the lucky charm and he's also the super expert.

He can fix anything. Rob has beaten these rings out of flat steel.

He's beaten them like a blacksmith.

It's the stuff of legend, and I don't know how.

I'm just shocked myself of how we've actually got to this point.

Aftershock went a bit...

I do feel... I don't know. It feels funny after Aftershock.

He's, like, totally distraught.

Good luck. Please, give it up for Sabretooth!

CHEERING

-Before their final bout, I'm with Jellyfish. Do you have a plan?

-Yeah.

What are you going to do?

I'm going to beat 'em.

The best of luck. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Jellyfish!

CHEERING

750 kilos of Sir Killalot in the arena for this bout.

And Matilda.

Let's prove a few people wrong, eh?

Three, two, one...

activate!

KLAXON

It's magical. It's wonderful.

It is a shock that Sabretooth are back and fighting after

the rebuild to the gearbox, the speed control, the drum strap.

And we know that Jellyfish would love to give it a big hug.

Is there going to be a Jellyfish sting in the tail

-of Robot Wars? Can they yet make it to the final?

-Come on, Jelly!

It is unconventional, as a robot.

The tactic's unconventional but it is working as planned. Look!

They're hugging, they're pushing it in towards the CPZs and onto

the arena floor dangers as well, and

Sabretooth, for all the repairs, are they running freely?

I think the steering's backwards.

He wanted to prove a few people wrong here, Dave.

Gemma and her magnetic charm working in the pits.

They've got those magnets working now.

And this is all Jellyfish.

That's it. Jelly's having his cuddle.

And it's Jellyfish's hug and they pinch them in.

-That's a nice little dance, Jelly.

-Well, well, well. This is a stunner.

Stuck on him.

They are stuck.

Gabriel and Esme Stroud and Rob Pickford, their team...

..is ending the dream.

Yeah, don't do the drums. We're wound up in his thing.

They are trying to nudge Jellyfish away.

-I'm trying to get off him but...

-He's caught on the bent poll.

They are caught, they are trapped.

Will one of them be deemed immobile?

In comes Killalot to free things up, I think.

Well done, Sir Killalot. Knight of the realm after all.

Gentleman of the Robot Wars arena, we know that.

-This looks as if it could go all the way.

-Oh, no.

I did it on purpose, just to show it's still working.

They need to show it's still working, otherwise they will be out.

They need to move beyond a complete circumference of themselves.

No, don't, he's stuck on him. Come on!

-Who is the quick or the dead?

-KLAXON

Well, neither of them are quick, let's be honest.

This is going to be close.

It's a judges' decision.

Certainly is.

Tattered wheels, tattered armaments.

I think Jellyfish was the more aggressive.

I've been badly wrong before.

But it looks to me as if this could be a huge shock.

Just getting away... Oh, goodness me!

Jellyfish just getting away from Killalot's pincers in time.

Aggression from Sabretooth. A little bit of damage

came off Jellyfish but it's all superficial.

The stickers are pretty but they're not greatly effective. That was.

Let's have one small, just brief moment of realistic analysis of that.

-Yes, you got it back up and running again, right?

-Yes.

-And... But...

-I can tell you a thing.

-Yeah, go on.

So, the drum, in our haste, we wired it the wrong way, so it was going...

-So the drum was going backwards...?

-So instead of...

So instead of hurling them into the air, we rode over the top of them.

This is the matter at hand, though.

There was a judges' adjudication on this bout and it was

a close one and it went on for some time and the judges were split.

It was 2-1 at the end of this.

And at the end of the adjudication, the battle was awarded to...

Jellyfish.

CHEERING

So the scoreboard looks like this. Aftershock end on

a maximum nine points.

Both Sabretooth and Terrorhurtz have three points each.

But as Sabretooth won their head-to-head, it means they

join Aftershock in tonight's final.

Although Jellyfish now leave the competition,

they do so with their heads held high.

Over eight battles, our two finalists have tested their

brains and robot brawn to breaking point.

Redesigned from the ground up,

Team Sabretooth easily navigated the group battle.

Wind it back now, wind it back.

16 years you've waited for a little sniff of glory.

-Their monstrous spinning drum proved lethal in the head-to-heads.

-Yes!

It's very bad. OK, let's get out of here!

But a bout with Aftershock had the team facing

a gargantuan repair job.

Stop!

Miraculously, they made it back to the arena.

Now battle-hardened, can they pull out all the stops and defeat

their biggest fear - Aftershock?

I think this time round we'll give the Aftershock boys

a little bit of a taste of their own medicine.

Aftershock are pushing their brand-new spinner to its limits.

In their first outing, they waltzed through the group battles.

-The improvements have certainly paid off.

-It seemed to work.

-The disc caused a lot of damage, by the look of things.

-Yeah.

Since then, they've grappled with a 24kg disc,

throwing them and their opponents around the arena.

They'll have to unleash its power one more time

in their quest for victory.

The journey to the Robot Wars final is never easy.

For 16 years, Sabretooth honed their craft before earning

their place in tonight's final.

Their opponents, Aftershock, completely rebuilt their robot

after total destruction last series.

So after blood, sweat and tears, literally,

it's time to find out who's going through to our grand final.

So for the last time this evening, over to you, Jonathan.

In the arena for this bout, it's Shunt and Sir Killalot.

Both deserving robots, both brand-new designs.

Who can pull a victory out of the bag one last time?

Three, two, one...

activate.

Has Sabretooth taken too much damage?

Oh, and immediately Sabretooth feeling the effect of

the Aftershock spinning disc.

They needed to ride the problems of that spinning disc early on.

And there are certainly good disc jockeys in that Aftershock team

because look at Sabretooth. Ooh, wonky!

All right, steady, steady.

Let's wait... Wait.

They're calm, they're composed,

they're patient, because they know they can come in for the kill.

It was just too much to ask for Sabretooth. One bridge too far.

Killalot toys with them. They've done brilliantly.

-Speed down, speed down. Speed down!

-No, in case they start up again.

Don't, cos he'll hit you.

It's been an emotional night for the Aftershock boys,

Will and Ian - we've got a real contender here.

And an emotional night for Gabriel, Esme, Rob and Al.

-Four, three, spin down.

-Cos he was trying to drive.

-Spin down.

KLAXON

-Aftershock the heat winners.

-Well...

Well done, Will and Ian. First attack...crucial attack.

And there on the Flame Pit, torched. Ashes to ashes.

This has been more emotional for you than it feels for most.

We've rebuilt it twice, I think, pretty much, in the pits, from scratch.

And the fact that we've got to this point is, I think,

an amazing feat of skills, engineering, everything.

And it's all down to these guys and we've had an amazing ride

-and it's been really good.

-Brilliant.

-Please, cheers for Sabretooth. Absolutely wonderful.

-Thank you.

-Bring Al back as well.

-He's awesome.

What is this monster you have created?

It has powered through this entire episode without anyone coming

-close to it.

-We genuinely cannot believe it.

It's a big departure from Shockwave but it definitely seems to have paid off.

We learned some lessons from Carbide last time and, yeah,

we just can't believe it.

Three weeks ago, we blew it up when we tested.

We had to start from scratch with our weapon motor.

We had to lose 8kg, which is a massive amount of metal to

cut away from it, so we really put the hours in.

-So the bigger challenge now awaits.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Yeah.

-We can't wait.

-It won and it won well, the entirety of the show.

-Your winners tonight, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Aftershock.

-Thank you.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, we'll see them again in the grand final but, for now,

-that's all from Robot Wars. Thank you and goodnight.

-Goodnight.

Coming soon on Robot Wars...

We're going to make it two-times Robot Wars champions.

It would be good to have another pop at Apollo, definitely.