Episode 3 Robot Wars

Welcome to Robot Wars, where teachers, doctors and bartenders

lead their home-made fighting machines into battle.

Facing off in our bulletproof arena, they will have to deal

with our deadly house robots and wicked hazards.

New knockout battles, even tougher competition.

Let the battle commence!

Robot Wars,

where metal fighting machines built by brilliant amateurs

battle to become the best in the world.

From every corner of the country, and every walk of life.

This time, we have more fiendish hazards.

Spinner, killer entanglement devices,

-and even a ten-way free-for-all.

-Come on!

Previously...

..monstrous spinner Carbide decimated the competition.

Tonight, six more robots compete for a place in the grand final.

So, buckle up, let's meet our first team.

From Haynes...

Our first team captain is a mechanical design engineer.

So, he's in the right place for a show all about engineering

and creating impressive robots.

Yes, yes, this show is all about engineering

and creating impressive robots.

It's not just about engineering, is it, though?

-It's about putting on a show.

-It's about putting on a show, isn't it?

Tom from Bucky. We're very, very quickly going to pan to that guy.

-Yes.

-Who is that guy?

-Er, this is Mo....

I didn't mean Mo, I meant that guy in the tooth.

-Oh, that's Bucky the Mascot.

-That's Bucky the Mascot.

I feel if it's going to be taken seriously as a sport,

you need a mascot.

Joining them in this group battle...

From London...

Josh from Team Rapid is an entrepreneur

on a very unique crusade.

He's created possibly the world's toughest, most expensive robot.

And if you can beat him, he'll give you a job.

-You are using this whole process to find talent.

-Yeah.

Robot Wars inspires engineering. It's how I got into engineering.

The best people that we want to hire

-need to be better than everybody we know.

-OK.

-So, anyone that beats us, come and see us.

-Automatically better.

People that watch Robot Wars in the next few months -

eight, ten, 12 years old are the people who are going to be

the engineers in the next 20 years.

The final team in group battle one are...

From Camberley...

The next generation of robot builders are here.

Dan and his classmates are making their Robot Wars debut

with what must have been the most exciting homework ever.

I believe that using practical work

and technology is a much better way of learning,

because you get to get involved

and know what it's actually going to be like

when you're putting those skills into use in the real world.

-Track-tion, the youngest team in the competition.

-That's right.

-Are you the boss here, Dan?

-Yes, I am. My team.

-Yes, I am!

How did the team form?

Well, we all go to an after-school club at our school.

Some of the teams have got 20 years' experience here.

-Well, I mean...

-Do you think you have the edge?

We have three weeks' experience, so...

-SHE LAUGHS

-..I think we can take them on.

The three teams head to the arena for our first group battle.

One winner from each group battle will skip around,

automatically securing their place in the semifinal.

The losers must fight again in the Robot Redemption battles

to decide who will join them.

So, for the first time tonight, it's over to Jonathan Pearce.

Dara and Angela, thank you very much.

I'm really excited by the prospect of our first group battle.

It's got absolutely everything.

Now, battles are fought for three minutes,

competitors can get a clean win by flipping an opponent out,

pushing them down the pit or mashing them into submission.

If there's no clear winner after three minutes,

it'll be up to our judges

Dr Lucy Rogers, Professor Sethu Vijayakumar,

and head judge Professor Noel Sharkey.

And in the arena for every battle are the house robots.

If competitors stray into the Corner Patrol Zones,

then the house robots can deal them unlimited damage.

Hazards to our competitors in the arena are the spikes, fire,

the flipper and the pit, as well as the brand-new

Fog Of War!

The Fog Of War!

The Fog Of War fills that arena with dense fog for ten seconds.

But within that murky mist, the deadly house robots are waiting.

In the arena for the first group battle,

and still not returning my calls...

..it's Matilda.

-It's battle time!

-Roboteers, stand by.

CHEERING

Three, two, one...

..activate!

I love Josh Valman's commitment to engineering

from the Team Rapid side.

I know Track-tion are committed to sending them out,

as we have Fog Of War straight away and that confuses things.

-Fog Of War used tactically.

-Oh, no!

Under the cover of it, what will happen? Who will emerge victorious?

Who will be befuddled? Track-tion seem to be going the wrong way.

That's dangerous territory. They're caught on the spikes!

-Oh, no, we're done.

-That was because of Fog Of War.

Now they've been ejected by Rapid. They're flung out of the arena!

So, the Fog Of War was key in the battle.

Well, this is a flipper that can lift a transit van.

Well played, well played.

Well played. They've had three weeks' experience,

the Track-tion team.

Against one of the world's most accomplished

team of engineers in Rapid,

who are now after Bucky the Robot.

I love the look of Bucky.

No!

False teeth so far,

and we know what false teeth look like

in a cup by Grandma's bed.

Eurgh, not very nice!

Anyways, in my nightmares, that.

Rapid underneath Bucky the Robot now, playing piggyback.

Rapid looks much better than when we last saw them,

when they couldn't perform the repairs

on their heavily armoured bot in the pits,

and they had to pull out.

Great attention, great focus

and well done, Bucky, until then.

-Oh, no.

-Uh-oh, can it self-right?

I can't see them self-righting from there because they're pinned!

HE LAUGHS

They have a chomp on the arena. Oh, brilliant, well done!

Come on, Bucky!

Well done!

Bucky the Robot.

Well, they are the neutrals' favourite here.

What a strange-looking machine.

Rapid in underneath Bucky the Robot again.

It's got a high ground clearance just about everywhere, to be honest,

Bucky,

but they're doing really well.

And they're still in there, entertaining.

Just exposed a ground clearance there.

Missed!

They have the pneumatics running at 60 bar,

with 120mm bore ram,

and they can create damage

and Bucky is a little bit...

..Oh, skewwhiff there!

A little bit buckled is Bucky the Robot...

..but they're doing really well in terms of control.

Steering out of trouble.

Oh, and steering into Matilda!

Can they get away again?

And we saw a quick shot of Mo Hossaini up there,

maintenance engineer and electrician in his time. Oh!

Can they self-right there?

-Might be out of gas.

-There's no more gas in Bucky.

No more nip in those mashers. It won't matter though, I think.

Are they going to be saved by the bell?

If he goes the full three minutes, it'll go to the judges.

Rapid think they have done enough.

Called, it does go to the judges! Oh, just in time.

-You did good. Well done.

-Feel sorry for the Track-tion team.

-Well done.

-Aw, look at their little faces.

-Well done.

Track-tion, straightaway in trouble from Rapid.

Using the big Killalot shreds to try and get some traction,

but it didn't last long. Rapid had them in their sights

and out went the team of schoolchildren

from Collingwood School.

Rapid one of the most expensive robots we've ever seen,

and Bucky was plucky, and Bucky stayed in.

Managed to get away from that perilous position, only just,

against this mightily powerful Rapid

who could be a dark horse in this series.

OK, that is one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

Genuinely, one of the weirdest robot fights. I mean, I love this thing

but it was just watching a set of plastic false teeth

drive around a room,

being chased by a wedge for three minutes.

-For three minutes? It lasted.

-Lasted the whole three minutes.

You're thrilled, I imagine, with that, you lasted three minutes.

-You didn't come last, by the way.

-No.

-Some children came last.

-I didn't go out.

-Didn't go out.

Plus, you've got a giant tooth in the room with you.

Hello, giant tooth.

Hello.

Nope, still blanking me,

I don't like that guy. LAUGHTER

Don't like that guy at all. Lovely, well done, Bucky. Very good.

Where is...? APPLAUSE

OK. Happy, you're happy?

Shiny and nice and delightful. Can you come here for a second?

Because technically, I have to do one thing, right?

-Even though I think we all know who won that fight...

-Me.

-OK.

Even though many of us know who won that fight,

it has to go to the judges because you didn't immobilise him in time.

-Right, OK.

-Can I confirm this? Who was the winner of this fight?

It's a unanimous decision...

Prepare to be surprised! ..for Rapid.

Well done, buddy.

-Well done.

-Great fight.

Oh, Rapid just won. Rapid just won, it was judges' decision.

-How are you?

-Good, yeah.

-Youngest team out of the arena...

-Yeah.

-..by rich Rapid.

-Yeah, Rapid.

-He just had so much speed on us.

-And then boom, gone.

-Gone.

You know, they just spent a lot of money on that

and the money has gone to...

..what it's meant to do.

It was a shame to take out Track-tion,

but the guys took it really well.

It's really quite impressive what they've done as a school

and getting these kids into engineering and giving them

experience of what real engineering looks like.

Rapid goes through to the semifinals.

The two losers must fight again to stay in the competition.

Time for our next group battle.

From Burntwood...

Craig Danby claims his robot

has one of the world's largest spinning weapons.

Apex is the biggest bar spinner ever to compete in Robot Wars.

That looks like one whopper of a spinner.

-Yeah. This is the little one. This is 38.45 kilos...

-Right.

..and its effective diameter is 1.2 metres.

And this is the really big one. This is the 39-kilo bar.

Obviously, you're here on a team with your pals and your brother.

-Yeah.

-The pressure's on here.

-Yeah, the pressure is massively on.

We'll either go down in a blaze of glory or it will win everything.

The brothers are experienced roboteers

but Craig admits that working with Chris

means the arena may not be the only place that sparks fly.

Chris is very single-minded and he likes to do things his way.

It's going to take quite a lot for me to just bite my tongue

and do as I'm told, rather than shout at him

and tell him what to do, like I usually do.

And they'll be up against...

From Newcastle upon Tyne...

Overhead spinner.

My name is Adam Hamilton.

I'm 25, from Newcastle upon Tyne, doing it for the lads.

The robot has been built, literally, just to prove a point.

You don't have to be an engineer.

You don't have to have loads of experience.

You don't have to be absolutely minted with money.

We started from nothing and we're on Robot Wars

and we're going to win.

-Are you guys engineers, are you...? What?

-No.

-What? What are you, then?

Just everything. I've had every single job you could think of.

I've been a butcher and I got sacked the same day I started.

-So...

-Not a good butcher, I would have said.

Emma, please tell me that you, by contrast, are, therefore,

the trained mechanical engineer who's built this?

Unfortunately not. Sorry.

I am a student that studies early years

-and health in contemporary society.

-Great. So, this is ludicrous.

This is fantastically ludicrous.

This is a folly. This is madness

that you would even think that you can compete here,

but this looks great.

The final team in this group battle are true veterans of the sport.

From Oxford...

John, you and Terrorhurtz, le grand fromage of the Robot Wars...world.

I have been doing this for quite a long time. Almost 20 years now.

You're, kind of, a daddy. People come to you for advice.

They come to you to get a steer on things.

It was back in 1997...

..I heard some stories of this thing called Robot Wars,

started in America, come over here.

Despite nearly two decades of experience,

John has never won a Robot Wars grand final.

And up against two young pups,

Apex and Vulture. New. The new guard.

Does that scare you a little bit, or are you excited?

-Apex is pretty...scary.

-Yeah.

That's the second group battle. Over to you, Jonathan.

Thanks, Dara and Angela.

The house robot. It's the sh-sh-shuffling sh-sh-Shunt

to give you sh-sh-shivers.

Right, here we go. It's going to be amazing.

Roboteers, stand by.

CHEERING

Three...

..two...

..one...

activate!

Terrorhurtz, immediately into slam Apex

and the 1,200 millimetres bar spinner.

And they're locked together

in a dance of doom.

Terrorhurtz is on form!

Terrorhurtz with the control.

The experience, there,

of 18 years' experience fighting in arenas.

John Reid and Nick Lynch.

KLAXON

Down goes the Dial Of Doom!

Fog Of War!

And we have the Fog Of War...

..critical in turning the tide of battle in the Arena.

It's a gamble to hit that doom dial with the Fog Of War,

it could give robots a moment to launch a sneak attack.

A great additional hazard, this series, I think.

At the moment, it seems to me that Apex

and Terrorhurtz were leaving Vulture alone.

Now, the tactic has changed.

Down comes the big, blowing hammerhead of Terrorhurtz.

That axe can turn at 180 degrees in half a second.

1,200 Newtons of force on the end.

-Good stuff.

-Ram him into a wall.

They are stuck,

which means that Terrorhurtz can push across the arena floor,

and he really knows what he's doing.

John, a little bit of pressure

on the team in the last series.

Who was in control of the weaponry?

-In the rules?

-Oh, come on!

Apex has come to play, simply to hold Vulture on the Flame Pit.

They might be scorched themselves, as Shunt comes in.

The arm is actually dead now.

-Have we lost drive?

-Yeah, we lost drive in one side.

Quick, Vulture, got across the arena floor at 16mph.

Very aesthetically pleasing machine.

They are all into art and design.

Adam works in a 3-D printing company.

But, at the moment, the design for them

will be simply staying alive.

They are not moving.

If they are immobilised for 10 seconds, they are out.

They have to be able to move through their circumference.

Just about... Ooh! I don't think they are now.

-It's not moving.

-No, it's not.

I think they are immobilised. Vulture.

Vulture looks a little bit to me

like a Robot Wars budgerigar out there.

Vulture. Are you sure?

Terrorhurtz and Apex don't care one jot.

I think they are gone.

This is good. Keep moving.

Terrorhurtz, the only machine out there, really, for me,

really creating terror.

Apex, because of the new weaponry, largely untested.

Oh! That animal!

Just as I was heading for Shunt!

I think the Danby boys,

the Foxic veterans, Team Foxic beforehand.

Apex now. Still...

And then there was one.

CHEERING

Woohoo, Terrorhurtz!

Clear winner. Terrorhurtz.

Oh, wild. John's getting wild in there.

Wow. Terrorhurtz gone a little bit rampant here.

KLAXON

Experience told.

Straight in, trying to negate the power

of that massive spinning bar.

Oh, top nut comes off there somewhere.

Vulture, untested.

Team a little bit nervous that their weapon system wouldn't work.

Partially,

without really creating too much damage.

Look at that massive axe of Terrorhurtz.

Tough roboteers team. There's the char-boiled Vulture.

Ugh!

-John! Well?

-Pretty happy with that.

-It's a very scary machine, that Apex.

-Yeah, you're beaming.

I like John when he's happy.

I'm pretty happy now.

Please, can we make some noise for Le Grand Fromage!

Nick done good.

You got plenty of good hits.

-It was excellent, excellent stuff.

-Thanks.

I know you mean it.

Nick lives in rugby, I live in Oxford,

so we don't see each other that often.

It's usually just before one of these big events...

..shouting at each other and getting on each other's nerves,

but he's one of the cleverest people I know.

He's very good at theory.

He gets me sorted, keeps me on track when I have some silly ideas.

While John basks in the glory of victory, for the two losing teams,

Adam's Vulture and Craig's Apex, the pressure's beginning to show.

BLEEP.

Apex represents about 3,000 hours' worth of work.

If Apex gets destroyed,

it would be just the worst feeling in the world.

The group stages are now complete.

The losing teams must battle it out in a head-to-head

to stay in the competition.

Now, while they are resetting for battle,

I'm going to steal a couple of moments with Lucy.

Lucy, for anyone who doesn't know, what's the role of the house robot?

Well, they are really the guardians of the whole of the arena.

First, they are there for safety.

If a robot goes rogue, if it's on fire,

the house robots can go in, move it to a safe place,

so the humans don't have to go in with potential damage there.

And they are a hazard, just like the pit, the fire,

and the flipper and the spikes.

You can use those robots to push your opponent into them

and, if you go into that zone, you are going to get attacked.

It's a free for all.

Now, with the introduction last series of the rogue robots,

hit the tyre and any of the house robots could come out,

ten seconds, and attack any robot.

Obviously, rogue robots have thrown a spanner in the works

for a lot of the roboteers.

How do you feel about the Fog Of War, our other new hazard?

For us, that just confuses us

because we can't see anything either.

Not only can the roboteers not see anything.

It's just same for the roboteers.

The Fog Of War!

I can't see where I'm going.

Well, you do see it becomes quite a tactical game.

Some of them just sit still and wait until it clears

and others are getting stuck in there.

But if you've got a spinner that needs time to spin up,

getting that is great because you've got time to spin up

before anyone else can come and see you.

-Thank you very much, Lucy.

-No problem.

Our first teams to fight it out

for Robot Redemption are...

Dan, how are you? You're in the middle of doing

some important repair work. What are you doing?

We're currently in the state of trying to bolt this new wedge

onto the front of our robot.

-But that's not your wedge.

-It's not our wedge.

This Robot Wars community is incredible

and the team from Vulture...

-Yeah?

-..have actually lent this to us so we can

have a better chance against Apex.

So we're in the Redemption Knockouts,

so we've got one last chance.

If we lose this fight, that's...

..big-time suckie.

It is just a case of putting the bar on

and destroying the hopes and dreams of some children.

While Craig fine-tunes his master plan...

..team captain Dan's also talking tactics.

If we can keep the spinner slow,

-then we can get them there.

-Yeah.

-So just drive it at them.

-That's what happened in the last fight.

-Yeah...

-We should be able to just ram them.

-That can take a lot of force.

If you think you're not going to be able to do it,

you're not going to be able to do it.

But if you keep going, you keep saying,

"We're going to do this",

you're going to get through it, you're going to do it.

I just like to keep that attitude going no matter what happens.

The losers will be going home.

Teams have to win here or the dream is over.

This is their only chance for Robot Redemption.

In the arena for this battle,

direct from the seventh circle of hell...

..it's Dead Metal,

and part-time baguette crimper,

full-time bad man Sir Killalot.

Three, two, one...

..activate!

Will that bar weapon of Apex be vulnerable to the new

wedge at the front of Track-tion?

Oh, a bit tentative here, you know?

Apex thought about it, saw that wedge coming at them

and thought again,

but now they come on the attack.

Oh! Wow, they spun horribly out of control!

What on earth happened there?! It's flying off completely!

Oh, my goodness me! I've never seen it before.

I don't even know what happened

to their hugely powerful fast spinner.

That I have not seen before!

The arena's in shards!

Boy, that was scary.

In nearly hit the judges!

Dump it down the pit.

It's cost us lots of money. There goes my bonus!

What the hell?

The robot works, we were told.

No, it doesn't.

That's the pulley, that's the belt, there's the everything.

Well, I've never seen anything like that before!

Well, the judges have never seen anything like this

and neither have I.

Whirring up to power, hits the front wedge of Track-tion.

They can't keep the thing on the ground.

It becomes a whirly bird again...

Whoa! Everything comes apart.

Oh, dear, dear, dear. And that was the result...

..bulletproof glass smashed to smithereens.

Look at that!

Wow.

It's not often I'm stunned into silence and lost for words.

No wonder they're elated.

That team of schoolchildren has just beaten

the biggest bar in Robot Wars history.

If that bar had come this way,

I'd need a change of trousers.

Sorry... Can you...?

Can you repeat that?!

Can you repeat that for us?

I quite enjoyed the end of it!

What did he just say, Anna?

He said if that bar came this way, he'd need a change of trousers.

-It was quite terrifying, wasn't it?

-It was like a missile.

It was like a missile.

-Yeah.

-Completely smashed.

-It was dramatic.

-No, I don't think...

-Agh!

AUDIENCE GASPS

Craig, do you want to come down here?

Obviously we can do nothing until the forensics teams

-have had a look around...

-Absolutely.

-..but from what

we gather from an initial examination of the crime scene,

the victim shot through the window here,

-hit that window there and then ended up here.

-Oh, no.

I know. And that is what? How many kilograms?

That's 39.75 kilograms.

That's smashing through one sheet of polycarbonate glass,

being bounced back by the other one.

We're trying to contain 106 kilojoules of energy, it's just...

There's nothing that powerful out here, so it's...

-We've never built anything like that.

-Yeah.

And we will never build anything like that again.

Oh, I don't know. I think this is fun.

This is great. You're out of the competition, that's not fun for you.

-No, no.

-But, look at that.

-Yeah...

-Look at that!

So, Apex leave the arena and the competition in pieces.

But this means Team Track-tion now go through to the semifinals.

I'd just like to mention Vulture -

thanks to them for giving us this wedge.

To be honest, I didn't expect them to turn it into a helicopter.

THEY LAUGH

Literally!

And we've sustained minimal damage...

..except for just a tiny little chip in the paint.

Our next Robot Redemption battle

is between...

It's all or nothing now as this is the teams' last chance

to stay in the competition.

How are things?

-Not good.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-No...

-OK.

-I mean, yes.

-You're saying things are good.

-It's fine.

Well, we have a 20 minute window.

That's all we've got. The timer's on now.

So if we're not ready in 20 minutes, on a trolley

-and on the way to the arena, it's curtains.

-Yes.

-Can you do it?

-Yeah, it's just little fiddly bits that need doing.

OK.

We're trying to get the scoop level with the floor

so that we can get under them,

but it's a bit fiddly and it's trying to reposition it, and stuff.

We haven't got long, but we'll do it.

-We need to get the lid on. What about the arm?

-Sorry?

-The arm.

-It's fine.

-I tested it.

-The arm's working.

Are you absolutely positive?

-Can you prove that the arm is working?

-Yes!

-Yes?

-Yes.

Can you guys come back in, like, five minutes?

Like, this is really stressful and I'm not so keen

on having the camera pointed at me

while I'm really stressing out over this bolt.

Can we just finish this off first, please?

We've just got a quick thing to finish quickly.

-HE MOUTHS:

-Sorry!

Even Bucky's mascot is feeling the pressure.

In these high-pressure situations,

the mascot tends to wander around a lot.

Picks up team morale.

Time's up for the teams

as they must now make their way to the arena.

This is the last chance for these robots to redeem themselves.

The winner stays in the competition, the loser leaves Robot Wars.

In for this fight, it's the mighty, bitey Dead Metal

and the robot that stole the best years of my life...

..Matilda.

Three, two, one...

..activate.

KLAXON

Those almost wind-up clockwork teeth of Bucky The Robot, then,

against Vulture.

Bucky I just love.

Do Vulture have linkage problems

as the Bucky team thought?

Will Bucky have too much ground clearance as Vulture thought?

They say they chomped Terrorhurtz,

but they can't avoid the Floor Flipper,

and now they're in the big bite of Bucky The Robot.

Ooh!

Smash into Dead Metal.

That hurt. I could feel that from where I am.

KLAXON

Well, we saw the tyre push.

The Dial Of Doom goes left,

that means the Pit Of Doom And Gloom descends.

-AUDIENCE:

-In the pit! In the pit!

They're in that Corner Patrol Zone danger. Now they're out...

Oh, very nearly the pit.

-Oh!

-There's a bit of smoke action out the back.

Good contest, this.

For a place to stay in the competition,

let's not forget that.

She is the flag bearer,

Sabrina, an events manager.

I think the arm's dead.

Mascot in there as well for a bit of luck.

They need a lot of luck!

Oh, they're over, they're over.

Oh, leave him, leave him, leave him.

Can they self-right? Do they have enough CO2?

-Come on!

-Come on, self-right yourself. No!

-Oh, dear.

Vulture waiting to prey, as vultures do.

A gruesome bird.

And I don't think Bucky will be lucky.

It's like a pair of dentures trying to talk out of somebody's mouth.

KLAXON

Cease.

Bucky toothless in the end.

Oh, they entertained us. Well done.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Come here.

-Well done.

I thought Bucky did well early on,

despite the Vulture weaponry coming down.

I don't think that's been as effective

as the team thought it might.

They haven't tested it before, we know that.

The Vulture's control not great there.

It can get across very tidily,

but preferably on all wheels, not just the one.

And, of course, that let Bucky chomp down on it.

Bucky unaware and tumbling, tumbling over

and out of the competition.

-That was unexpected.

-Yeah.

20 minutes ago, you were sitting over on that bench

hoping for the best, and now you're in the semifinals.

It's a miracle, honestly.

It's been just a massive challenge to get it all stripped

and working again.

And it did the thing, it won.

Right, off you go, into the semifinals. Good luck.

With Vulture through to the semifinals,

we must now say goodbye to Bucky.

This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Time for our first semifinal...

The school kids have done well.

I don't think they expected to get this far

and they've done really well to do it.

It's pretty amazing that we've managed to get this far

into the competition.

I've seen they've been working on it all day yesterday and,

to be honest, it looked like all they were doing

was making it look more shiny.

We just want to beat them.

Just, kind of, show the judges that we can do better than them.

Persevering is something which I think is a great skill

and you need to be able to do that to, you know, get through things.

Our machine is probably worth around about 2,000 to 5,000,

in that kind of zone,

and their robot's worth £25,000.

So...

-It's a big difference.

-..a wee difference, there.

Rapid, you're about to go in against Track-tion.

It's high-stakes for you.

If you win, you'll have beaten a load of 12 and 13-year-olds,

if you lose, you've lost to a load of 12 and 13-year-olds.

So it's kind of a no-win situation, really, isn't it?

What are you going to do?

I'm not sure. It's a shame, we wanted to fight someone else

-and get some more test data.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Why, will you not get test data from beating them?

-Well, we've fought them already.

-Oh, OK, fine.

-We're looking for more...

-Yes.

-..to see what happens.

They're quite hard to get hold of.

-They are they've got a big front end now as well.

-Yeah.

It is an expensive sport.

If you look at some of the other people that did well

in the competition and you work out what they spent as well,

you know, it's comparable.

Rapid really is a luxurious robot

with custom pneumatics running at a ridiculous 870psi.

Rapid's flippers have apparently only been running at 20%

in the last fights because of a leak.

Now, once fixed, Rapid can reportedly flip a van.

Josh Valman has overseen the build of Rapid

by team-mates Lettie and Andy,

young engineers who also run a research and development company

which have offices around the world. They are very good.

Josh not only wants to win the competition,

but he's also hoping to hire roboteers taking part

as engineers.

Track-tion is a school team

of 12 and 13-year-olds from Surrey.

It's the only tracked robot in the competition and those

tracks should give them plenty of pushing power in the arena.

Team captain Dan has hand-picked his team of four pupils

and Track-tion is determined to go further than

any of the previous school teams and beat the adults.

Roboteers, stand by.

Josh wants to encourage young engineers.

Here, he wants to destroy them.

I can't get over how leaky that is.

Straight in with the weapon, then, I guess. Or shall we...?

I think he's spotted... Is that a leakage?

Three, two, one...

..activate!

KLAXON

I think Rapid have noticed they have a leakage problem,

which means they'll need to get this over and done with!

-They have done!

-Oh, wow. Well done.

Josh, Andy and Lettie knew they had a problem.

They knew they had to go out and out for a quick victory.

Cease.

-Rapid is ruthless.

-That is mean!

-Sorry, guys.

-That's all right.

-Very mean!

The young aims and dreams crushed.

You rotters, Rapid.

I think it would be very hard to get anything shorter than that.

Yeah, OK. Well, there we go.

-Six, I think that might be a record.

-Yeah.

-It's got to be.

-It's certainly...

Eruption, I think, did 10 seconds last series.

We think this could be a record victory for Robot Wars.

Straight in, straight under

and straight out of the arena.

They will be back a little bit later on

in their fourth play-off that could get them into

the 10-Robot Rumble in the grand final.

We'll wait and see. Let's hope so.

They're learning.

Perhaps Josh could give them a job.

Go on, Josh, give them a job.

Josh, that's a message from Matilda,

"Give them a job!"

Not out of the competition yet.

If we win the next fight, I believe we're into the melee

and that could get us much further into the competition,

which is doable.

Well, we had a big leak.

When we turned the robot on, we realised there was a big leak.

So we had to get the robot in and fight and win

as quick as we could before the gas ran out.

So, now we're going to take the whole pneumatics system out.

It comes out as one unit.

Find out where the leak is, fix it, stick the unit back in

for the next fight.

Our next semifinal is between...

So, we've got Vulture next.

They've got nice flat top panels with the link block on there.

So hopefully we can aim at that.

Of course, winning the heat, that's the big thing.

Very worried about Terrorhurtz.

It's one of the things that we didn't actually design

Vulture to fight against.

So, Vulture are up against Terrorhurtz

and they're their heroes.

They watched them growing up, they're obsessed with John

and with that machine.

And now they're having to try and fend it off by creating

what they're calling a pillow. So, hopefully this pillow...

They're sacrificing armour

to allow themselves to build this pillow

that will hopefully stop the axe from getting through

to the motor. It sounds a little dodgy.

-Let's talk about the pillow.

-Right.

-It's anything we could get hold of...

-OK.

..in the last four or three minutes that will be brilliant.

-What is this?

-Velcro.

-Velcro! Oh, lads!

This is not great, is it, resorting to Velcro

to try and stop the axe of the century?

-Good luck!

-Thank you.

-Get back to building your pillow.

-Emma?

-I don't know about the pillow.

This is it, John, you're closer than you've ever been with Terrorhurtz

-to the final.

-Yeah, this is our big chance to get in the final.

-It's been a long time.

-So we've got to get it right.

-The pressure is on.

-It is!

-You're smiling. Are you nervous?

-Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good.

OK, let's go.

Terrorhurtz is an axe robot

with a tonne of force in every hit.

Its high-angled armoured steel front

is absolutely perfect for deflecting spinners

and the polycarbonate chassis is excellent at flexing

rather than breaking when it comes under attack.

Terrorhurtz is a masterclass in robot design.

Team captain John Reid, a freelance design engineer,

has competed around the world with his robots.

He's famous for his deadly axes. John loves the design process.

He says he's spent thousands of hours with team-mate Nick

designing the flaws out of Terrorhurtz to optimise the design,

but that design is 15 years old.

Has Terrorhurtz reached the end

of its life, I wonder?

Ambitious rookies Vulture have built

the series' first axe spinner.

It has an articulated spinning glass spinning at 6,000rpm

and heavy hardened steel front armour.

Adam does a lot of art and graphics.

He's designed album covers for local bands,

YouTube background designs

and he does a lot of work for other roboteers

to make sure their robot looks

aesthetically pleasing.

Having only built robots for two years,

this competition will be a baptism of fire, though, for the team.

Although we will see their confidence grow

as they get more experience

out in that arena.

Three, two, one...

..activate!

KLAXON

Terrorhurtz closing in for the kill.

Vulture's come a long way in this competition,

but they're up against their heroes, here.

They'd hate to be destroyed by them.

So, Vulture's tactics - run, run, run away

and fight to live another day.

And Terrorhurtz coming in with a stab.

Oh, dear, oh, dear!

Off goes the pillow -

the bits of white there.

Oh, dear, oh, dear!

No rest for the wicked.

-We've lost that.

-And again there.

Well, they've battled long in this heat

and they've done really well.

And they've grown, I think, in confidence.

A little bit nervy at the start

and they're clearly just trying to last the three minutes.

Oh, look at that, slice and dice!

-We've lost a wheel.

-Oh, have we?

That was a strategy in the past.

John hasn't really listened to Nick much.

Yeah, we're gone.

Come on, get us three. Here we go.

But they're more of a team for me, this time round, these two.

And they've got Vulture pinned, which means, of course,

Matilda can come in, give a little nudge.

CHEERING

There we go.

Now, in comes Terrorhurtz again on Vulture.

And haven't they done well, simply to stay out there, Vulture?

Adam driving, trying to get it away

from the mighty axe of Terrorhurtz.

That axe in this series is much more effective.

It's been used with more control than we've seen before,

more accuracy.

It's coming back.

There's Jarvis trying to use the arm of Vulture to come down.

That weapon hasn't been hugely effective for me,

even though they said they did take

a chunk out of Terrorhurtz early on.

It's not going to happen here now, I don't think.

Terrorhurtz waiting its moment to charge across the floor

at a maximum speed of 11mph.

Go for the bottom.

Try and use that momentum in the weight and power of the axe.

They're going to nudge the tyres...

The Dial Of Doom gives Fog Of War!

Used tactically again - confusing for them, confusing for me.

I haven't got a clue what's going on.

Where's Vulture out there?

Oh, too near Dead Metal, that's where.

Terrorhurtz were lying low to stay out of trouble.

They used the Fog Of War as cover to stay safe.

Fog Of War again!

Will the teams react differently this time?

Terrorhurtz were about to finish them off, I think,

will this impede their fight?

John's tactic to sit still...

And this time Vulture ends up in the Flame Pit after the Fog Of War.

And they're caught on the grid.

I don't think they're going to get away there.

Death Metal wants them in that area.

Terrorhurtz pushes them away into the corner.

KLAXON

Oh, look where it ends up!

Valiant, valiant Vulture.

A great battle, great battle.

-Yeah!

-Well done, guys.

-That was great fun! Good job, man.

-Cheers.

That's such a nasty axe!

Well, Terrorhurtz was the more aggressive and caused more damage,

had the greater control -

not that Vulture didn't have decent control

in steering away from trouble whenever Adam could do so.

They've come a long way from Newcastle

to fight against their heroes.

I think quietly they'll be proud of the job they've done.

All about pillow talk, meaningless mumble.

Vulture, slumber peacefully.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Guys, come in. Come in, come in.

Oh, I like an arena with a bit of debris.

And that is a solid piece of debris. Let's go over to Terrorhurtz.

Come here. Now, we're interviewing you here because

Terrorhurtz is here in all of its prime.

Your end position is slightly less dramatic.

Look, that's slightly tragic looking there,

-I think you'll agree.

-Our front is pretty sharp

so I think we might have just, sort of...

-..wedged ourselves.

-You're propped up sideways against a wall.

-Yeah.

We've wedged ourselves in there a bit.

You've just been stored in a corner.

You've held back on using that axe a fair bit, haven't you?

Things can always go wrong and as you saw

about two-thirds of the way through, we ran out of gas.

I think because we were stuck in them so long,

-pulling out for so long, we were just...

-Did you?!

-Yeah, out of gas.

-Now you know...

-We spent half the fight running away from you.

-And they had no weapon.

OK, fine, well, let's find out who won,

and the adjudication was unanimous.

Stop pointing because it gives away the answer.

LAUGHTER

The winner, surprise, surprise, was Terrorhurtz!

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Well done.

Terrorhurtz and Rapid will battle it

out for a place in the grand final.

This series, a wild card will join them in that final show.

For the first time ever, second and third placed teams from every

episode will face a ten-team, last robot standing mega battle.

Sabretooth, Apollo, Big Nipper and Eruption

have already secured their place.

But who will join them fighting to become the next Robot Wars champion?

We've got another battle coming up. It's against Vulture,

who are the kind fellows who lent us a wedge

for our last battle.

So, we think we have a reasonable chance against them

and if we win that, then we go through to the 10-way melee

which will be really cool.

I just noticed a moral dilemma that you have right now, OK?

Because you very kindly offered the front plate to Track-tion

so they could win some battles,

and they did, and they used it to spectacular effect.

You're now fighting Track-tion, the team of 12 and 13-year-olds,

are you going to take it back?

It's a bit of a difficult situation because we'll be risking damaging

a very important piece of armour that we will need

for that big melee.

And they'd have to actually remove... Take it off now and...

You know, there is an old saying that no good deed goes unpunished.

-Yeah.

-And you are currently living that.

I'd say we were reasonably confident.

Although, either way, they've helped us so much,

if they do win, I hope they get through to the finals.

With everything now resting on this one battle,

Vulture are hellbent on victory.

We've already taken back the wedge. It's under the table.

We're not taking any chances.

Not taking any chances!

But disaster strikes for Adam and his team.

Five minutes ago, everything just caved in.

If they have to forfeit their fight with Track-tion

they're out of the competition.

We've snapped the motor, so we're not going to make it.

Oh, this is always the worst of things.

This is the saddest moment in any Robot Wars. He's gone, he's dead.

-Vulture's dead.

-A dead bird.

Why dead, by the way? Why...?

A simple little thing -

we nipped a couple of wires and that was just it, couldn't reach it.

Oh, you'd have to completely rebuild the motor?

We'd have to completely take apart the motor

-and then put it back together again.

-Oh, that is... Wow.

-Have you enjoyed it?

-Oh, definitely. It's been awesome.

A simple little thing like that -

it's a small little wire that got nipped by our webbing frame.

It's been a fun ride and best of luck to the Track-tion team.

It was up to me to break the news to the Track-tion team.

-Hello there. I have some good news.

-OK.

I mean, bad news for Vulture.

They've had to forfeit, which means that you guys

-are straight through to the 10-way.

-Wow.

-So you can chill out for a bit. Happy?

-Yeah.

You were happier when you got flipped out by Rapid.

-Is this shock?

-Definitely happy about that.

-Good, glad to hear it!

So Track-tion are through to the 10-Robot Rumble.

Two robots have earned their place in tonight's final -

Rapid, the self-made millionaire with the best robot money can build.

Against Terrorhurtz, the grandaddy of Robot Wars with that deadly axe.

But only one can win.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Our final is a titanic battle between the old and new guard.

In one corner is Josh and Team Rapid.

This modern day entrepreneur has spared no expense

on his golden robot to secure victory.

Rapid's a new generation of robot.

It's quite a piece of kit.

They started by showing no mercy to the youngest team

in the competition...

Yes!

..before taking out the rest of their opponents in brutal fashion.

Josh wants to hire any worthy opponent who can beat his robot.

So has he found his match in tonight's final

against the grandmaster - John's Terrorhurtz?

John's been fighting here on Robot Wars since the beginning.

You're kind of the daddy,

le grande fromage of Robot Wars.

Years of battle-hardening experience have turned him

and his machine into one of the most feared in the world.

Terrorhurtz is renowned for knocking robots out.

We must have knocked out at least 50 robots with Terrorhurtz's axe.

They began tonight by taking out huge spinner Apex

and Vulture, before smashing their way through the semifinal.

-The winner, surprise, surprise, was Terrorhurtz!

-Well done.

We hit Vulture so hard, we got stuck on them.

Despite their years of experience, they've never won a Robot Wars

grand final, so could this be the end

of a 20-year journey for John and Terrorhurtz?

The old guard against the new tech upstart.

There can only be one winner.

Roboteers, stand by.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Three, two, one...

..activate!

KLAXON

Terrorhurtz with the axe,

Rapid with that hugely powerful flipper.

They do have that protection on top against the axe.

You can see that now.

Oh, that surprised me...

..John and Nick got caught on the floor flipper...

..with all their experience.

And Rapid senses they can come in for the kill here.

They're in underneath Terrorhurtz.

They're a big old hefty thing.

Clinging onto life in this heat final.

They need to get out there, though, from Dead Metal.

And they do so, Terrorhurtz.

The protective shield on top of Rapid was coming away.

Why isn't the axe being brought down by Terrorhurtz?

Have they run out of power?

So far Rapid has been a little bit squeaky, leaky, sneaky...

Oh!

..but slam Terrorhurtz into Dead Metal again.

-They're up and they're vulnerable!

-Oh!

And they were very nearly out.

Oh, caught there in a horrible position,

square on to that front flipper of Rapid

and it very nearly cost them this final.

Squared on to that front flipper of Rapid.

Oh, now comes the axe.

And they've been very wily here.

This is the best Terrorhurtz I think we've seen over the year.

Merely toyed with it. What a final this is!

One moment one's on top, then the other.

Now it's Terrorhurtz doing the chasing and the bumping...

We have arena dodgems, we have Rapid trying to get in another flip

-of Terrorhurtz.

-Yes, Andy, great hit. Come on.

This is brilliant stuff. This is what Robot Wars is all about.

This is about prestige,

this is about precision engineering,

this is about guts, this is about the glory

of a win in Robot Wars for John Reid.

Will it come? Will it come at long last?

They're on the attack now. They've pushed Rapid into the corner.

They've got them in their clutches.

But the house robot Dead Metal is out there pushing

and trying to chip away.

And Rapid's in underneath Terrorhurtz.

Is there enough power in the Rapid flipper, I wonder,

at this late stage in what has been a gripping heat final?

They tried to get the Dial Of Doom working there - they missed.

-Oh, out they go at last.

-Yes!

Brilliant final but Rapid ultimately toss Terrorhurtz out.

Wonderful stuff.

Rapid worthy winners.

Well, all that is left of Terrorhurtz's crumbled dreams.

Off the floor flipper with a smash and a bash.

The axe certainly created danger, from Terrorhurtz's point of view.

They got away with a near flip by Rapid.

You tried to get them out of the arena earlier on in the heat final.

A big bash against the arena side panels

but they push them towards the Floor Flipper.

That's good driving there by Andy.

But, ultimately, they engineered the victory.

Terrorhurtz out. They will be back in the 10-Robot Rumble

at the very start of the grand final.

Automatically in the grand final and worthy heat winners - Rapid.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

What an unbelievable battle! I mean, they loved it, we loved watching it.

Even though we weren't on the right end of the result,

do you still relish that, being involved in a battle like that?

It's nice getting some good hits on them. They're very well driven.

We just couldn't get round the side of them.

It's such a low front. We just really couldn't do very much.

I know, it's literally right on the edge, isn't it?

Every time they get underneath us and once they get underneath us,

our wheels come off the ground and we're pretty much useless then.

-Well, an end to a glorious run.

-Yeah.

I mean, untouched and beautifully fought the whole way through.

-Thank you.

-We loved it, we loved it.

Please put your foam fingers together for Terrorhurtz!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, well, well, Rapid.

That was a very powerful, very controlled performance

we had from you there. Was it deliberate?

Did you feel in control the whole way through?

Actually, we managed to get a reasonably powerful flip out of it.

But what you did and what some other people don't actually choose to do,

is you used this arena tactically.

You fed him to the flipper, you fed him to the flipper again,

you fed them to the house robots,

and you basically tried to manoeuvre him around.

-Again, a deliberate idea?

-Yeah, yeah, I think so.

-We were quite lucky to get under the house robots as well.

-Absolutely.

Well, it was quite impressive, actually, I have to say,

and you're into the grand final.

I mean, are you going to keep these tactics up?

We might blow ourselves up yet. We've still got to find out.

But that was a beautiful piece of controlled driving.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Rapid!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Yes, that was another cracking battle

and we're setting ourselves up for a hell of a grand final this year.

That's all from us for now, though. Goodnight.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Nuts 2.

We started out as young kids with a silly robot,

but Nuts is all grown up now and not so silly any more.

Look, it's battering it!

I genuinely think we could win Robot Wars.