Episode 4 Robot Wars

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 on Robot Wars...

..the bigger they are,

the harder they get smashed to pieces across the arena.

But it was the hi-tech Rapid that made it through.

Now, six more teams will take to the arena

to fight for a place in the grand final.

Time to meet the first teams.

From Lewes...

Team captain John is a man of strong moral fibre.

Once the director of Greenpeace,

he now recycles beer kegs into robots.

I worked for Greenpeace from 1976 through to a couple of years ago.

I've been at sea, chasing a Russian whaling fleet,

masterminded expeditions to the Antarctic.

Like robot wars, but different.

It's the peace bit, I wonder about this.

Well, if everybody worked out their wars by fighting robots,

we'd have a hell of a lot less people killed

and certainly no animals,

and definitely no whales or seals are harmed

-in the fighting of robots.

-I'll give you that.

We use very little blubber and ambergris

in the creation of our robots. Do the kegs work?

I don't think, Mr Director, the kegs work any more

-because they've been cut in half.

-Actually, they do.

-They do?

We want to win but we also want to have a good time

and we want people watching to have a good time.

The Kegs will be up against...

From Turvey...

Our next team in this group battle is captained by Tom,

who has a bit of a dream job.

Playing video games is not just a hobby for you, is it?

No, it's not at all. I'm actually a video games tester.

I mean, I can see little boys' eyes light up. Do you get paid for that?

-I do, I know.

-Does that mean that you'll be good under pressure?

-A lot of people panic on the controls.

-I hope so.

As a games tester, I feel that playing games

and holding controllers can often translate

to controlling a robot because it's the same hand-eye coordination.

It's instinctive, right?

The final team in this group battle are...

From Bungay...

All rise to the grandaddy of Robot Wars.

Team captain, Gilbert Grimm, is one of the godfathers of Robot Wars.

But his passion is less about history and all about the family.

Well, here's a bit of history - a bit of Robot Wars history anyway.

-Gilbert Grimm, how you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

Gilbert, you have been involved for some time, haven't you?

-17 years now.

-OK.

-My son got me into the Robot Wars.

-Hello, sir, how you? This is your son...?

-Robert.

-Robert Grimm, yes.

And there's another generation of Grimms as well, right?

Little William has just joined us. Eight months old.

Eight months old, very, very good.

The memories I have with my father are quite sketchy

and we didn't actually spend that much time together

and I wanted that to be different for me and my son

and, hopefully, going on to the grandson as well.

The three teams head out for group battle one.

There can only be one winner in each group battle

and their prize is to skip around and go straight to the semifinals.

The group battle losers in this series don't go home.

They'll have the chance to stay in the competition,

fighting for survival in the Robot Redemption rounds.

So, it's over to Jonathan Pearce.

Thanks, Dara and Angela.

Now, there's just time for me to run through the rules for you.

Battles are three minutes

and can be won by competitors flipping their opponents

out of the arena, pushing them down the pit or rendering them immobile

by smashing them into tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny pieces.

Our judges are on hand if there's no clear winner.

They are Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, Dr Lucy Rogers

and head judge,

the great Professor Noel Sharkey.

They'll be marking on the control, damage

and aggression of our competitors.

In the arena, robots must compete with the fire, the spikes, the pit,

the flipper, as well as house robots going rogue and the Fog Of War.

Nowhere is safe.

-I can't see.

-I can't see.

The house robot is in the arena's Corner Patrol Zone

and is the inventor of the asbo -

Sir Killalot.

Roboteers, stand by.

The competitors are ready.

Their robotic creations are in the direct line of fire.

It's battle time.

-Good luck, guys.

-Yeah, good luck.

Three,

two,

one,

-activate.

-Gilbert and Robert and Iron-Awe want to show

the new flippers on the block really how to do it,

as they attack Tauron there.

In comes The Kegs,

with a 2.5mm curved stainless steel from an old beer keg.

What's that? Oh, entanglement device has gone.

No flipping from Iron-Awe. Why not?

For a peace-lover like John Frizell in The Kegs team,

it's not a peace-loving looking machine, is it?

Into the CPZ goes Iron-Awe, too close to Killalot.

Good drive there by Iron-Awe now, side on with Tauron. Why no flip?

That was an opportunity to get a flip in.

Tauron, how is he driving?

ANGELA SCREAMS

Big hit to The Kegs.

Weaponless, is it dead?

Kegs gets the Dial Of Doom.

It needs a house robot to go rogue

and Sir Killalot came out and nearly caught Kegs.

Big bash from Tauron on the side of Iron-Awe.

It's not working.

There's some percent of the controls of The Kegs still in there.

Are they just...? Oh, wow!

Big hit to The Kegs.

Look at the power in Tauron's weapon.

Tossing Kegs through the air.

Can it survive? I don't think it can.

-Going up again.

-Now it's between

the experienced Gilbert, Robert, Iron-Awe,

and the relative newcomer Tom. But Iron-Awe still not flipping.

Yeah, there's nothing left in The Kegs.

HE LAUGHS

-Killalot pushed Kegs onto the Dial Of Doom.

-Put him in the pit!

Which means the Pit Of Doom can go down.

Tauron, can he drive away from that pit?

Iron-Awe 6 not moving freely at the moment.

-What are you pushing me around for?

-This could well go to the judges.

It's all gone slow-mo, but you're watching it in real time.

Come on, get some urgency out there! This isn't a waltz!

This should be a draining, killing arena.

Go on, Iron-Awe, into the side of Tauron.

Tauron dodges away a little bit slowly.

It can get up to 12mph. That's better!

-I can't even push it.

-Are you stuck?

With a big front spinning bar, running up to 3,600 rpm.

They're together. Out comes Killalot. Who stopped first?

Well, Iron-Awe 6 is still going.

-Terrifying.

-Are you still mobile, Rob? Can we stop?

Yeah, Tauron...

And they pressed "immobilisation".

-Tauron was out first.

-Just.

And the other one moved at least a metre and a half, so...

KLAXON

-It'll go to the judges.

-Cease!

-Got a clue there.

The trouble is, they let you rebuild your weapon

and ours doesn't work.

While the judges ponder on control, damage and aggression,

before they make their decision, let's have a look.

John, Greenpeace expert, loves to save his animals and his fish.

He wasn't in the right place at the right time.

He had soul but I'm afraid it wasn't a whale of a time for him.

But I like the weapon of Tauron, I really do.

With the blade whirring, another smash.

It runs at 3,100 rpm.

It can cause real damage.

And there you see the weaponry of The Kegs

simply just discarded across the arena floor.

The judges will have to decide this battle winner,

who will go automatically through to the semifinals.

The loser will face the Redemption Battle to stay in.

APPLAUSE

Well done!

They're happy with the amount of destruction and, I mean,

this blade, I mean, this weighs a tonne.

There's a second one over there. They flew up against the wall.

ANGELA SCREAMS

It was messy and fabulous.

Now, I'd better get to work.

We've got another battle to do.

An arena full of destruction, but only one team can go through.

As Tauron were judged to have stopped moving before Iron-Awe 6,

the victory was given to Gilbert Grimm.

It was a good fight. Hello, sir, congratulations on your win.

-Thank you very much.

-It could have been even better

if you'd flipped him at that last point there.

The main problem is the flipper didn't work at all,

so we were fighting without a main weapon.

-And you couldn't even shove him into the pit.

-No, not at that stage.

There was so much debris on the floor.

-They chopped up all of our entanglement weapons.

-Sorry.

Yeah, they really have.

You really did scatter a lot of rubbish all over our arena.

It was a great fight, guys. Congratulations.

You jump forward into the semifinal.

-You now have a quarterfinal to fight.

-OK.

But I don't think you should be scared.

You're doing well.

A loss after such a strong performance.

Unsurprisingly, Tom from Tauron isn't happy with the result.

I thought, at the end of that fight,

we'd both gone down at the same time,

so I thought it would go to a judges' decision,

but I didn't realise. So, I actually deliberately stopped moving

cos I thought that was it, it's game over.

But Iron-Awe moved a bit and we didn't.

We were perfectly fine. I drove away at the end, didn't I?

That was it.

GILBERT LAUGHS

Well, when you've done it for as many years as we have,

you just take everything in your stride.

So, Iron-Awe go through to the semifinals.

The two losing teams must fight again

to try and stay in the competition.

So, who will join Iron-Awe in the semis?

Time to meet the teams from our second group battle.

From Poole...

Tim from Dorset is the captain of Concussion,

a team he rules with an iron fist.

As the team captain, I've got to keep everybody in line

and make sure they know what they're doing, at the right time.

The robot game is a battle of wits, as well as intellect and ingenuity.

When we want something, I get it sorted.

Are you a control freak?

Not completely, but we all like things just the way they are.

-You are all very silent in response to that.

-That's the way I like them.

A touch of that?

A little bit, but you really have to be to get it the way you want it.

In the pits, I take charge.

They'll be up against...

From Marlow...

Most businesses go camping or paintballing

as a bonding exercise.

Colleagues David and Mark are engineers

who build car lifting equipment and they also built a robot.

Sometimes a day out with the company just goes hideously overboard,

like this, for example.

-Hello, David, how you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

This started as sort of a team bonding exercise

-in your company, didn't it?

-It did.

Where's the rest of the company? Are they coming along to cheer you on?

-They're still in work.

-Are you not seeing what they've done here?

You're possibly less popular in the office than...

You could well be right there, yeah, you could very well be right.

The minute you left, they're popping champagne corks

and, "Yay, we got rid of them!"

The final team in this group battle is...

From Crewkerne...

They say the apple never falls far from the tree

but, despite his farming background,

team captain Rory is an electronics genius,

who built oddball spinner Nuts 2.

A family of farmers. Cider, you make?

-Cider.

-That's quite a nice business to be in now.

-Yeah, Somerset cider farmer.

-Yeah.

Rory's brilliant future isn't in scrumpy.

It's in those advanced pieces of electronics engineering

he creates from his dad's farm shed.

My father's a cider farmer in Somerset. I've stolen his hat.

This is the advantage of all the agricultural tooling

and big workshops and working on the farm machinery.

My dad's supportive of it but he'd quite like me to find

a real job and move out at some point.

So, the furry vests, the hats, are they all a kind of decoy?

Well, I wouldn't say it's a serious theme,

but it's got some serious engineering behind it.

Come on, you're a professional roboteer!

And we've brought something new to the table.

It's called a melty brain.

It's a complicated bit of electronics which allows us

to dive and spin at the same time.

It means I can spin off the floor and chase down upon opponents

while spinning, so it means we're pretty dangerous all the time.

-So you're not static.

-Yeah.

-Is Nuts 2 going to be a CV

for your future career in roboteering?

I would hope so, if it works as expected.

It's got some serious engineering in there.

Give it up, please, for Rory and Nuts 2.

The teams head to the arena for our second group battle.

The house robot in the Corner Patrol Zone for this fight -

what happens when you cross a toaster

with the Creature from the Black Lagoon?

It's Dead Metal.

Roboteers, stand by.

This fight has Nuts, Concussion and the strongest crusher

in the competition, in the form of Androne 4000.

There's a very real possibility

of some squeezed nuts here or concussion.

Three, two, one,

-activate.

-Concussion on the left. Tim very confident beforehand.

But immediately Androne 4000 comes out, its first ever fight.

First time they've ever built a robot.

The flail is up to speed and whirring.

Oh, Concussion got the attack.

I think that's damaged one of the tyres, one of the wheels.

Concussion has! It's got up to speed now.

With that flail working, that can cause damage.

Always been a great fun machine. Never won a battle though.

Little nudge from Androne 4000 on Concussion,

which looks a good machine.

So, too, does Androne 4000, with that crushing cylinder arm.

Oh, and a little cluster bot went flying through the air there.

They're important. They'll wedge in underneath.

They'll keep a machine like Concussion still,

while others can come in and do the damage.

Look at them buzzing around there.

And look at Androne, the crushing ability,

down on the armament, there, of Concussion.

Get him! Go, go, go!

But, at the moment, the armament is OK,

as Nuts 2 moves gingerly across the arena floor.

And Androne 4000, Concussion, as they have been so far,

locked together very closely.

Exposed tyre there.

What's happened to Androne 4000?

What's happened here now?

We're dead.

What on earth's happened? Something's gone wrong.

The Concussion drum is still working, the 26-kilo drum.

But they're locked in a kiss of death. And out comes Dead Metal.

Well, well, well! Both of them look so sharp.

Nuts 2 spinning gloriously. What a fun machine it is.

Look at it battering it!

Go on, Rory. Go in again.

With the melty brain technology, it can spin and move at the same time.

Very clever, very entertaining. Never won a fight.

It's going to win a fight now!

-KLAXON

-We're going down to cease.

-Cease!

-And Android 4000 and Concussion will have to face

the Redemption Battle and that's two through.

Who'd have thought that?

Yeah, good luck getting our link.

An unsung role played in this battle - little cluster bots,

going in as wedges to try and stop Androne 4000.

There's the big flail of Nuts 2.

It's a big old machine anyway, at 97 kilos.

Rory Mangles at the control.

Concussion, were they greatly improved?

The wheels too exposed for me.

When they got locked together, they couldn't separate,

and from that position there,

I'm afraid it was a kiss of death, an embrace of doom.

Did that go to three minutes or did it do an immobilisation count?

There seems to be confusion in the control room

but the judges ruled that Androne 4000

and Concussion's lack of separation counts as immobilisation.

So, it's my job to reveal the result to Rory and team Nuts.

I've been waiting three seasons now to tell you this.

Nuts are the winners!

THEY CHEER

-Nuts wins a fight!

-And it worked, it actually genuinely worked.

-And slowly...

-Yeah, it was a little bit slower than we hoped.

We've got a new bit of firmware to upgrade it so, hopefully,

-the next fight, we can get it a bit faster.

-Lovely.

-Is this the start of something huge, lads?

-We shall see.

-Excellent.

-Well, you're straight through to the semifinal.

-Yes!

-And the others have to pick up the pieces.

-Excellent.

And here come the losing teams,

with Androne's crusher still embedded in the body of Concussion.

It's a case of gently extracting your pincer from Concussion.

Yeah, yeah.

Both teams now face the challenge of fighting an extra battle

to stay in the competition and Tim's not happy.

It didn't quite do what we wanted it to really.

We got a hit to the wheel pretty early on from Nuts.

Robot Wars has come to me at a time where I'm 24 and in engineering

and I'm not sure of where I want to go, but it's given me a core focus.

And even though I want to take on the world,

it gives me somewhere to start.

I'm pretty forceful when there's something I want.

There was a metal supplier that messed us about

and I drove down there and sat in the warehouse until he finished

the work that I needed him to do, so we could get it on time.

Took a fair old chunk out, so I've had to file it down, hammer it,

you know, get the rage of that fight out on it with the hammer.

When we want something, I get it sorted.

All good.

So, winners Nuts 2 join Iron-Awe 6 in the semifinals.

For our losing teams, it's time for the Robot Redemption battles,

a chance to get back into the competition.

First up, it's the peace-loving John and The Kegs

against Tim, the enforcer from Concussion.

It's a stressful time for Tim and Concussion, as they are still making

crucial repairs, following their last battle.

It had a good shakedown, that's what it was.

It wasn't an annihilation, it was a good shakedown.

Got to keep a level head when it's panic stations to repair.

The key thing is not to get too stressed

and just trust that we fixed it, it's going to work.

John and The Kegs, as you can imagine,

are taking a more holistic approach.

Welded a bit on the end.

Oh, excellent, excellent!

That is our new ramp on its way.

Our team is fairly organic.

We'll simply pitch in together and do whatever is necessary.

My team consists of not one, but two jewellers -

Jonathan Swan and his former apprentice, Jme Anderson.

Jonathan and Jme are both very mechanically adept,

as you might expect for jewellers.

So, we'll have one spinner and one wedge.

It's great. It's stuff that was going to go to the tip

and, ultimately, after enough fights, it WILL wind up in the tip.

It's just had another lease on life in the meantime.

Their major defenders, Concussion.

The ramp will go right between their front forks.

-The only downside is it's dependent on accurate driving.

-OK.

-Touch wood.

The teams make their way into battle.

Remember, the winner goes forward to the semifinals,

whilst the loser goes home.

APPLAUSE

We're all looking forward to this.

In the Corner Patrol Zone, for the battle,

the knight of the dark Robot Wars realm, Sir Killalot,

and the original matriarch of mayhem, Matilda.

Three, two,

one, activate.

Lots of scary talk in the pits. Who's scared of who?

Whoa!

Concussion there a lot more powerful than in the original group battle.

Look at that!

That's me dead.

Oh, and again! The barrel flipped.

-Steady, lads, steady!

-I think that's got it.

Sorry.

Where they come from in Lewes,

they roll flaming barrels down the streets on Bonfire Night.

Well, they're rolling towards oblivion here.

This is mightily impressive from Concussion.

Wow! We were waiting for that.

Tim was determined to show the potential of his robot.

-KLAXON

-He and his team have done just that.

-Cease!

-Concussion back to form.

34 seconds. Well done. That is a beast!

Sorry, sorry we had it working for you.

Watch out for Concussion.

-The house robots are relentless.

-They are, actually.

-They're more savage this year.

-They are savage.

-Loving them for it.

Well, you wouldn't have believed it

if you'd seen Concussion in that first battle in this heat.

What an improvement! It literally separated The Kegs.

It destroyed them, it divided them.

Roll out the barrel, roll out of the competition.

HE LAUGHS

How are they going to repair that?

Don't bother, because you're out of the competition!

Start again next time around.

You look content.

We're feeling a lot better than earlier, that's for sure.

-You're back to form, it seems.

-Yeah.

-That was beautiful to watch.

-Thank you, thank you.

-Less so for Kegs.

Well, we loved fighting them and, in fact, they gave us a splinter.

Oh, boo-hoo! Have you seen THEM?

Whilst an excited Concussion plan for their next fight,

sadly, it's time, gentlemen, please, for John and The Kegs,

who must now leave the competition.

Wow, you know.

That's, in many ways, the least damaged part of this robot.

Get that on there, get that on there.

That doesn't looked that damaged.

It isn't, because why bother damaging it?

It didn't even have a weapon on the front.

-I think you've proved that you can build a robot out of anything.

-Yes.

Yeah. Not the most powerful or effective in the competition,

-but, still, you should be very proud of that.

-Yeah, I am.

Ones that work every time, they don't necessarily win every time.

-No.

-Or at all, so far. But they work.

Listen, go and find an actual keg.

-Yes!

-I think you've earnt it at this stage.

Time for our second Redemption Battle

between Tom from team Tauron and Androne 4000.

Still reeling from the bitter taste of defeat in their group battle,

Tom's confident they have the upper hand over Androne 4000,

with the power to get back into the competition.

We've brought an absolute monster with us.

It's far more heavily armoured, it's got a much bigger weapon.

It's designed to win, quite frankly.

It's going to destroy everybody we come across.

To win Robot Wars, it would be unreal. It would be.

As for the robot built on the team bonding exercise,

David and Mark are throwing

everything they have into this fight.

It is a bit of a do or die attitude.

We figured we could either wait for the other robot to destroy us,

if they come out with a big nasty spinner,

or we can take a chance and try to destroy them first.

Only one of these teams can go through to the semifinals.

APPLAUSE

And dashing those hopes against the arena walls are the house robots.

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

and the creme de la creme of carnage, Sir Killalot.

Three, two,

one, activate.

Tauron's top armour is made of plastic.

Androne 4000 can slice through that

like a knife through butter.

Will it happen? They've made repairs to Androne 4000, we know that.

Into Sir Killalot, a good shove there,

to push onto Sir Killalot's weaponry.

Dead Metal waiting.

And they come again. Really good driving there

from Androne 4000 to push Tauron into the Corner Patrol Zone,

now slamming it against the arena side wall.

-Come on, let's go, guys.

-Now we're up to speed. Let's have it!

This is good work here by Dave Cullen,

the chief captain of Androne 4000.

-Oh!

-Oh!

Tauron, the family team, the father and son team.

Androne, a newcomer,

but Jme's showing great skill as a first-time driver.

Now, this is the second time in this heat

that Androne 4000's pincer, the crusher,

has got to grips with an opponent.

-There.

-That's it. Guys, don't do that. Argh!

Tom from Tauron looking aggressive

but taking, here, the brunt of punishment from Dead Metal.

Little bit of slicing. Oh, but has that freed them?

Yes, it has!

It has, it freed them away there from Androne 4000.

Down goes the Dial Of Doom, down goes the pit.

Go on, then! Yeah, there we go!

CROWD CHANT: In the pit!

They're trying to get that heavy and destructive spinning bar

whirring up to full speed,

as they move away in an intriguing contest. It is very even.

Oh, that's smoke out of you guys.

Locked again, they try and crush the armament of Tauron.

"In the pit", by the merciless in the stands.

I'm not too sure if one wheel on Androne 4000 is working.

-Ooh...

-Stuck, I think.

-And again.

Tauron are on top for me, with Tom Brewster at the controls.

They're in real peril here

and they started this Redemption Battle so strongly.

Oh!

A big slam. A full body slam there.

Tauron's weaponry is the more potent.

The front prong on Androne 4000 is buckled, that's for sure.

Push him into the house robot.

Androne 4000, don't fall for that.

And they don't get caught in the clutches of Dead Metal.

Six, five... This is going to go to the judges, isn't it?

Over goes the floor flipper.

-KLAXON

-That was a good old battle.

-Cease!

-Good fight, guys.

-I almost think I've done something wrong.

-Well done.

-I think we lost the weapon at the end there.

You did lose the weapon.

Who would you give that to?

I mean, I think I would probably give it to Androne.

-Yeah, so would I.

-Felt like there was more control.

The judges will have to decide on control, damage and aggression.

Very even there.

Tauron's weaponry not up to full speed in the opening exchanges.

They had the grip on Tauron but drove onto the spikes.

And that's where the first damage was sustained for Androne.

Is that where the robot became less manoeuvrable, with that damage?

Some of the hardened steel armament came off.

You see a little bit of venting out of the back of Tauron.

A little bit of a rock and roll session for both robots.

APPLAUSE

-Did you like it?

-Yeah, it was a good solid three minutes, that.

-It was good.

-No shame in that fight.

-No shame at all.

-Right, it was the judges' decision, as you probably figured.

-Right.

-Do you want to know who won?

-Sure.

-Do you want to know who won?

-CROWD CHEER

Yes, they do. Well, it was a unanimous decision

in favour of Androne.

-Whoa.

-CHEERING

So, that means that we're saying goodbye to Tim, Tom and Tauron.

-That's all right.

-We're sad to see you go,

but it's been great to watch you and your dad here together.

-We've had good fun.

-You have? Oh, no, don't get upset!

-I'm fine, I'm all right.

-You'll come back, won't you?

-Of course we will.

We'll be back with another improved Tauron, I'm sure.

Good, we can't wait to see you.

Please make some noise for Tim, Tom and Tauron,

and our semifinalist, Androne.

APPLAUSE

So, Androne 4000 and Concussion survive the robot Redemption Battles

to join group battle winners Iron-Awe 6

and Nuts 2 in the semifinals.

The first semifinal is between Gilbert Grimm's Iron-Awe 6

and Tim's Concussion.

They've been doing it for 16 years,

so their experience is immeasurable. But, I mean,

they panicked with Tauron. He was really good.

Hopefully, we can keep the pressure on them with our bot

and pull off a win. We're going to go in and do our best.

You can have a set plan, how things want to go.

You can lay it all out but I can guarantee

that's not how it's going to go, so you have to be ready to improvise.

Yeah, Concussion may be the new boys,

and they've got a lot of new technology in their robot

but we're the old-school.

But Gilbert will need to get that flipper flipping

if he wants to make it to tonight's final.

Is this weapon ready to go? Cos it wasn't in the last bout.

We hope so. Every test, it worked perfectly.

-You think you can do it this time?

-Oh, yeah.

There's a lot riding on this outcome for family man Gilbert.

The grandson's name is William

and we're hoping he's going to be another team roboteer.

Even at eight months old,

he's very interesting in getting hold of the controller,

maybe to chew the aerial, but still getting hold of the controller.

So, he seems keen.

And, together, I think we make a pretty good team.

This father and son from the Grimm family have had

a fairy-tale relationship with robot fighting.

Not only do they lay claim to the original wedge flipper,

they've also been happily working as team-mates

for over 16 years, of course.

Team captain, semi-retired engineer Gilbert,

has another string to his bow. He's also a local archery champion.

Bull's-eye!

Iron-Awe going into battle

with two kilos of liquid CO2 onboard

for plenty of arena shaking flips.

They're taking advantage

of the new entanglement rule as well this series.

They come with both entanglement chains

and compressed gas entanglement cannons,

which might be the only weapon we see working,

if they're still unable to flip.

And they're fighting Concussion.

Concussion, proud of their precision machine spinning drum.

It's 1.5 kilos heavier than last time.

The team are worried, though, about their exposed tyres,

which we've seen have already been damaged in battle.

Concussion's armour, a mixture

of hardened steel, titanium

and polycarbonate.

Team captain Tim thinks

his bold, boisterous and friendly demeanour makes him

an efficient team captain

and notes that he enjoys the stress of working on Concussion.

Tim, we're out to stress you!

The house robots, drive-me-mad Dead Metal and Shunt.

APPLAUSE

-Drivers are in, weapons in.

-Where are we going to hit it?

-There's stuff everywhere.

-Back corners or front edge.

Ah, interesting.

The Concussion boys trying to work out how to avoid

the entanglement devices of Iron-Awe.

-I think Iron-Awe is going to win this one.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

How many predictions has Dara got right so far? We'll wait and see.

Three, two,

one, activate.

Iron-Awe 6 from the left, big full-body slam

straightaway on Concussion.

Is the flipper working? Avoiding Shunt, but only just.

Concussion, here, emerging as one of the strongest we've seen

in this series of Robot Wars.

Just stay in the middle. He's over. His weapon's dead.

Over go Iron-Awe 6.

Gilbert and Robert Grimm's fairy tale about to end in a nightmare.

I think they are dead.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

That'll be damaging.

Dead Metal thinks they've had it. The judges think they've had it.

KLAXON

Did he just go in for a little nick at the end?

Iron-Awe 6 will go through to the third-fourth play-off

but Concussion were the semifinal victors here.

Guys, if we're honest,

your experience was the most intimidating thing there.

-We were really worried.

-Genuinely.

And, to be honest, Iron-Awe 6 didn't know what had hit them

right from the start.

Look at the power of the lethal drum. Up goes Iron-Awe 6.

That is flipping fantastic! We know Iron-Awe has no working weapon.

Does this spell disaster for Gilbert Grimm?

Is the Grimm fairy tale over?

APPLAUSE

-Well, it's not beginner's luck, we know that now.

-Yeah.

-Well done!

-It's performing, that's for sure.

-It is surely performing.

-Through to the second of your heat finals.

-Yeah, crazy.

It's working properly!

We're just downloading the fight video as well,

so we've got live footage of in the arena.

Hopefully, that will look pretty good.

THEY LAUGH

The flipperless Iron-Awe 6 are beaten,

but will battle again for third place and a shot at the wild card.

After a shaky start and their robot Redemption Battle,

Concussion are now our first team to make it through

to tonight's final.

Joining them will be the winner of our next semifinal

between Rory's flail-spinning Nuts 2

and the steel-piercing Androne 4000.

For Androne 4000, those battles have taken their toll

and their crushing claw is a severely damaged.

Everything is a little bit crooked and a different shape now.

That used to be straight.

To repair, they'll need to call on help from their fellow roboteers...

..and me.

-OK, are you under pressure timewise?

-Very much.

Well, you've got, basically, everyone in the warehouse

helping you out so, if you can't manage to get it in the arena,

you, frankly, shouldn't be here.

-Come on!

-It's very tight. This is a lot harder than it looks.

Sorry, my head is close to your bum.

I'll move mine out your way.

Come on, Angela, put you're back into it.

OK, there's got to be a better way. I'm going to pull.

CHEERING

One more. Yay!

-I need to lie down. OK, good luck.

-Thank you.

There's a lot of pressure for Androne 4000

to get ready for this semifinal in time.

Meanwhile, robotics engineer Alex and chartered engineer Chris

of Nuts 2 are busy plotting Androne's demise.

We have the mini bots and we know from our first melee

they can get under Androne really well

-and just stop it dead in its tracks.

-So, that's the...

Our job is to keep Androne immobile, while Nuts gets up to speed.

The ethos behind Nuts is it's still a fun robot

but we've got way more technology behind the main robot

and the mini bots and a lot of what we're trying now

has never been done before in Robot Wars.

If we win here, it puts us through to the heat final,

which is kind of scary because, you know, it is Nuts

and Nuts isn't supposed to be a good robot.

We're just, you know, hoping for a bit of good luck.

Time's running out for opponent Androne 4000.

Hi, guys, just a quick check. How are you getting on?

-Um, how many minutes?

-Six minutes.

-Six and a half.

-Six minutes.

-Six and a half.

Three and a bit. Looks like we made it.

So, we're off to fight there again, see if we can smash some stuff.

Androne 4000's primary weapon

is a hydraulic cylinder arm

that can open to match the size of an opponent

and come down with a crushing force

of about eight tonnes.

Androne 4000 began as a team-building exercise

at David and Mark's mechanical engineering company firm.

Their boss has jokingly allowed the pair to work on the robot,

on the condition they either win Robot Wars or they're fired,

and they've created what they believe is the most powerful crusher

to ever to appear on Robot Wars, with eight tonnes of pressure.

Now, that means that it'll either destroy its opponent

or it'll destroy itself. David, a huge fan of heavy metal.

He plays electric guitar and he's recently taken up jujitsu.

Nuts 2 are having an amazing competition so far.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think

this lumbering daddy-longlegs of a robot

would make it this far in this competition.

Nuts can now spin at hundreds of revolutions per minute

and their attack is the equivalent of being hit

with a sledgehammer four times a second.

Don't underestimate the power of the little Nuts mini bots either,

driven by Alex and Chris Shakespeare,

whose primary mission is to hassle and harass their opponents.

Team captain Rory is a recent graduate

from the University of Reading, where he studied cybernetics,

and he's built his own computers completely from scratch.

Often thought of as the joke team of Robot Wars,

yeah, who's laughing now?

-I'm not!

-HE LAUGHS

In the arena, for this battle,

it's Robot Wars' very own Scoop Doggy Dogg, Shunt,

and Dead Metal.

I've no idea how this is going to go.

-Oh, I think this is Nuts.

-Really?

Yeah, they've got a lot of focus

-and, also, even

-I

-was down lending a hand with Androne.

-Really?

-That's not a great omen.

Nuts 2 upgraded their melty brain technology

to make them quicker across the arena floor.

They'll use the little cluster bots, we know that,

to try and immobilise and still Androne 4000's guard.

Oh, it hasn't worked.

And they got straight to Nuts 2, pushed him there to Dead Metal.

And getting away. Good drive there from Androne 4000.

What's happened though? Are they venting?

They're venting their hydraulic fluid, Androne 4000.

The flail of Nuts 2 has pierced the hydraulics

of Androne 4000. They won't be able to self-right.

-I think they're effectively out.

-Press the button.

The man who looks like Chris Martin, the pop star...

It's Coldplay for you from now on, my son.

I've never seen arterial spray from a robot before.

-KLAXON

-It was the piercing...

-Cease!

-..of the hydraulics that means "Cease" is called.

-Nuts 2, the winner.

-That was good, excellent.

They simply couldn't move without the hydraulics.

Once that hydraulic fluid was gone, so were they.

That was incredible!

Well, it looked so good, Androne 4000, at the start.

But they got the flail up to full speed.

You can see, there, the hydraulic fluid spurting out,

from the flailing attack of Nuts 2.

That's what caused the damage.

Androne 4000's own attack took it into dangerous territory.

It, therefore, couldn't move fully after that.

Hydraulic fluid all over the arena floor.

Androne 4000, out it comes.

The jet of hydraulic fluid. Look at that.

Who's going to repair that? Me, I suppose.

I'll have to be out there with a mop.

It's gone everywhere, that fluid!

We've sent people home in bin bags in the past

but we've rarely sent them home with a mop and bucket.

-It looked good but it made a bit of a mess.

-It made a heck of a mess.

Well done, Nuts. The wins keep coming.

Yeah, it wasn't quite how I was expecting to win it,

but it was good to win it either way.

-Quite exciting fighting on an oil slick.

-Yes!

Nuts is very difficult to drive as it is but, with oily wheels,

it becomes very undrivable and very drifty.

But it's actually becoming quite a threatening machine.

Yeah, you can still be silly and crazy and kill things.

-What a wonderful motto that is to take away...

-Yeah, you know.

..from Sunday evening entertainment.

-"Silly and crazy but kill things."

-Yeah.

It's touching.

Oh, it's so greasy. Oh, God.

-So, you're in the final.

-Ooh.

-This is going to be a fun one.

So, Concussion will meet Rory and team Nuts in tonight's final,

the winner securing their place

in the grand final.

Whilst they prepare, Iron-Awe 6 and Androne must fight for third place

and, with it, the chance to win the series wild card.

This series, second and third placed teams from each heat

will take to the arena for a 10 Robot Rumble.

No time limit, no rules.

It's last robot standing.

The winner of the 10 Robot Rumble will join the five heat winners

in the grand final.

The first six teams into the 10 Robot Rumble are

Apollo,

Sabretooth...

..Eruption...

..Big Nipper...

..Terrorhurtz

and Track-tion.

But who will join them?

Poor Iron-Awe. They returned here as the daddy of flippers.

Without them, you wouldn't have had Apollo or Eruption or Rapid.

But they can't get their flipper to work

and they've also come back here

because there is a third generation of Iron-Awe robot makers -

little baby William, only eight months old.

And they can't get their machine to work. Will it work this time, lads?

-Will it flip?

-Maybe.

-We hope so.

-Maybe!

That's the best we can do for a little eight-month-old baby.

Who says we don't tug at the heartstrings on Robot Wars?

Come on, Iron-Awe!

But it's a level playing field,

as Androne 4000 also have some serious technical problems.

It's lodged through one of the housings

and it should be on the other side anyway.

It's literally cut it straight off, look.

So, we'll have to get another one.

The loser here goes home,

but the winner gets that ticket to the 10 Robot Rumble.

Three, two,

one, activate.

Iron-Awe really have a point to prove here.

Grandaddy of the flippers, but it hasn't worked so far.

Both weapons and the flipper

and the big beat don't seem to be really working.

Get him from the back if you can.

Get him from the back, get him from the back.

The experienced Gilbert and Robert at the controls of Iron-Awe 6.

What will be the legacy for the grandson?

A place in the first ten-way mega battle? Only if they win this one.

Dodging away, both of them. They know what's at stake.

Androne has had repairs.

Good control though. Aggressive driving from the first timers.

But without the weapon, this is a battle of attrition really.

It'll come down to experience of control across the arena floor.

Ooh, stay away from Matilda.

I know many a machine and a man that has got into her clutches.

Dreadful things happen.

Iron-Awe 6 and Androne 4000 together.

Iron-Awe 6... Ah, good line up there.

Came in on the side of Androne 4000.

Can you see that little bit of extra ground clearance

on the side of Androne 4000?

They nudge the Dial Of Doom.

-Pit, pit!

-Pit, pit.

Somebody into the pit, somebody into the pit. Go on.

It's very, very close.

There's Killalot waiting.

Iron-Awe 6 trying to feed Androne 4000 to the house robot.

But David and Mark and the Androne team having none of it.

Oh, brilliant, now just stay on him.

-The crowd...

-That's interesting.

Meanwhile, the competitors are frozen in their focus

to get through to the big melee,

the historic... Whoa!

Iron-Awe 6, a bit of a bucking and a broncoing machine out there.

Away from Matilda's tail.

Oh, they're trying to get the weapon down.

Oh, and Matilda does get a whack in on Iron-Awe 6.

Driving away again, Iron-Awe 6. Androne 4000 look perplexed.

Where is he, where is he? We need to get in, we need to do some damage.

Not this dancing around the arena.

Oh, and very nearly had a knockout blow from Matilda.

Iron-Awe 6 got too close in there, young Robert.

You should know better than that. Now they go head-to-head.

No real damage can be exacted from that sort of frontal approach.

Gilbert with the hands on there, on the controls.

Down go Androne 4000!

That's it, well done. Cheers, mate. Good on you.

Only three seconds left as well.

It's all over. What a brave, brave battle they put up.

-KLAXON

-Cease!

Really good first attempt by them, but it ends in defeat.

If its flipper worked, it would have been a pretty awesome machine.

Battle of attrition. Iron-Awe 6, in underneath, couldn't flip.

And Androne 4000 had a problem with the hydraulic arm,

as they went into the CPZ and got a whack from Matilda's flywheel.

Iron-Awe 6 knew what they were doing. They were on top.

Androne 4000 took too much damage in the previous battle.

Edged onto the pit and over she goes.

Well, you got through by the skin of your teeth.

Three seconds left on the clock and you got them in the pit.

Yeah, well, there was no problem getting them in the pit.

As the inventor of the flipper,

we are hoping that we'll eventually get to see it flip.

-Please.

-We hope so, yeah, we hope so.

-Well, we hope so.

Go, do something about it, yeah.

So, Iron-Awe have a lifeline.

They're through to the 10 Robot Rumble in the grand final.

But this is the main event -

tonight's final between Concussion and Nuts 2.

Both teams are working feverishly in the pits to ensure their machines

are in the best condition possible to challenge the Robot Wars title.

You don't want those big hefty flails coming in

and we just want to get in on them.

So we've got some very sacrificial bits of polycarb,

just to take that first hit.

They're not going to stay on there but it might do something.

It's the final.

Can Concussion, who went from fans to finalists last series,

be about to etch their name in the book of legends?

Standing in their way is Nuts 2, but a win here,

and these jokers could finally be taken seriously.

APPLAUSE

Concussion is a drum spinner but it's going to tear people to bits.

We've got a much harder drum.

It spins faster, accelerates faster.

It's all focused on keeping that weapon at people

and just taking them apart bit by bit.

Despite Tim's confidence,

the team had a difficult start to their competition,

after being on the sharp end of Androne 4000's piercing claw.

Get the rage of that fight out on it with a hammer.

The robot game is a battle of wits, as well as intellect

and ingenuity, so you have to be ready to improvise.

But they came back stronger than ever

and Concussion took no prisoners in the next two battles.

We're extremely proud of our robot.

We feel it's a real step up, a real evolution.

As long as our drum keeps spinning, we're going to be winning.

I genuinely think we could win Robot Wars.

But their fellow finalists, Nuts 2, are no pushovers.

Rory, the son of a Somerset cider farmer,

has created one of the most unique robots we've ever seen.

Nuts runs entirely on all my home electronics.

But it's really, you know...

All our skills have been put into making this thing work.

With a bit of luck on their side,

Rory and his team spun their way through their group battle.

The full force of their chaotic flail-spinner

delivered a decisive blow to Androne in the semifinal.

Nuts started out as a silly robot

but now it's really grown up and it's not so silly any more.

Hard to fight against, the element of surprise

is one of their strengths, sometimes surprising even them.

This fight, there's everything to play for.

Either they do the conventional thing of tearing us apart

or we do the unconventional thing of somehow getting a knockout.

So, will Rory's electronic wizardry

or Tim's brute force reign supreme? Time to find out.

Roboteers, stand by.

Oh, this means so much to both teams.

Concussion not leaving anything to chance.

They've even put on extra armour they're calling "Nuts guards".

Two, one,

activate.

Concussion, with the cricket batsman's equivalent of a box,

a Nuts guard.

Using it to effect to dodge the flail.

Couldn't dodge the floor flipper,

has dodged the flail a little bit.

In come the angry little cluster bots.

Over goes Concussion.

Look out for the Nuts cluster bots.

The plan with the cluster bots is not to wreak damage

but to get in underneath opponents and hold them back

while the great flails of Nuts get up to speed.

And I'm not too sure here

whether or not the Nut guards are impeding it actually.

Oh, look at the power there.

Taking out his own team-mates there.

What is wrong? Concussion is totally stuck.

Concussion can usually drive both ways up,

but those Nut buster guards are stopping them moving.

Oh, wow!

Is he going to turn it over? Go on, turn it over.

The Nut buster's getting in the way.

Spinning manically.

And their own improvements have led to their downfall.

Oh, goodness me!

Shunt coming in with an absolute slam with the axe.

And look at that, just waiting.

Come on, Shunt. Flip us.

There you are, look. You can see the guard buckled

and it means that wheel can't turn freely,

so they can spin around and around and around

but, boys, Concussion team, you ain't going nowhere.

Nuts 2 headed for victory.

Oh, one of the guards has gone. It was one of his guards.

In comes a little cluster bot.

And again, one blow onto the wheel.

Oh, this is grisly for Concussion.

Nuts 2 trying to get the flail up to full speed.

Concussion maybe trying to hide behind the floor spikes.

A little cluster bot trying to get a wedge in there.

You can see the problem. That wheel is absolutely wedged tight.

I think that'll do.

No, here we go.

This is for show now.

They're showboating out there, Nuts 2,

with the spin to win.

Just stop moving. You keep moving.

They're immobile.

-KLAXON

-Concussion beat.

-Cease!

-Nuts 2, worthy heat winners.

-Well done, lads.

-Nicely done. You gave us one hell of a run there.

-Just couldn't get you, just couldn't get you.

-Oh, yeah.

Well done, well done. Hey, melty brain.

A figure of fun no longer, Nuts 2.

And they were on the attack there, Concussion.

But here is where the trouble started. That flip.

And from that moment, they can't move as well as they would want to.

Big, big hit from Shunt.

And Concussion, it was just a question here

of trying to stay out of trouble.

They've stayed around the floor spikes,

I think, hoping that the spikes would turn them back over again,

but it hasn't happened.

They've never got back into the battle.

Another ding-dong final.

But Concussion were the ones who were knocked out.

And were you knocked out as much by the arena

and the house robots, as you were by Nuts?

Yeah, I mean, we took some major damage from Shunt.

The weapon stopped the second he hit us.

He literally exploded the guns out.

And there were two good flips, one of which you spent

most the time trying to flip yourselves back over again.

Yeah, we nearly did it but, yeah, unfortunately,

I think the things we put to stop Nuts on there

-may have been why we couldn't do it.

-This is the cruel irony,

cos you put Nuts guards on here

-and that meant you couldn't drive it upside down.

-Yeah, we did try.

And now you move onto a melee with ten robots in the room.

Yeah, and we already know there's a couple of big names in there,

so we're going to see what we can do.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Concussion.

APPLAUSE

Well, Nuts, the joke robot -

the supposed joke robot - and you have the last laugh.

Yeah undefeated in the grand final now, with almost no damage.

I'm not quite sure what's happening or why or how,

but I'm not going to complain.

It looked a little haphazard.

Was that the melty brain? Was that what sealed it?

Yeah, the melty brain was doing its bit, a great job there.

Got up to full speed and we could slowly turn into them

with the flails going at full speed, so it's working really, really well.

Well, I'm not sure you know how you did it, but we're glad you did it.

-Yeah.

-Well done. Please make some noise for Nuts!

APPLAUSE

Yeah, that's Nuts.

It wouldn't win any beauty contests among our robots

but it's the one that's in the grand final.

That's all from us, however, for now. Good night.

-APPLAUSE

-Well done.

Next time on Robot Wars...

Thor.

I am the lone wolf.

Magnetar.

I've been called a boy genius and I really don't like that at all.

Oh!

Expulsion.

We came back this year to prove that last time was just a practice

and we can now come and beat them.

Wow!