Episode 6 Robot Wars

Fighting robots represent probably one of the biggest challenges

in engineering because there is no perfect design.

40 robot fighting teams are about to take on one of the most

intense engineering challenges in the world...

The advice I'd give to roboteers entering the arena is don't panic

and try not to die.

..to design, build and battle heavyweight fighting robots

to compete for the ultimate prize.

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

new and veteran teams of robot engineers must push their

reinforced war machines to the limits.

Their robots are harder, faster, stronger,

designed for one thing - total destruction in pursuit of victory.

Welcome to the final of Robot Wars.

Over the past six weeks this huge warehouse has housed 40 teams,

each of them pushing the very limits of design and technology

to create the perfect fighting machine.

So it all comes down to this - only one team can be crowned

the new Robot Wars Champion, so buckle up for the grand final.

We began with 40 fighting robots.

Flippers, spinners, axes and even crabs, foxes and jellyfish.

Fight after brutal fight they took to the arena in pursuit of glory.

Only the toughest teams survived to reach tonight's grand final.

We now have five heat winners who will be joined tonight by

a wild card chosen by the judges.

The robots will fight it out in two group battles,

with the four winning teams going into a mini league.

They'll face each other once before the two teams with the most points

battle it out to take home that Robot Wars trophy.

Our judges have chosen the wild card based on aggression,

damage and control.

Thor, Pulsar, Cherub, Sabretooth and Apollo,

you are all runners-up,

but one team has been chosen by the judges to rejoin as our wild card.

The robot rejoining the competition and now in our grand final...

..it's Apollo!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Well done.

-Here we go again.

-Are we able to go again?

-Well, yeah.

I mean, we might look like a paper robot at the moment because

there's been a lot of welding and it could just explode again.

Can you make it two in a row?

-Yes, we can.

-"Yes, we can." OK, give it up for our finalists -

Apollo!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So our first group battle is between...

Aftershock were born from last series' Shockwave.

They were unbeaten in their heat

due to their hugely destructive vertical spinner.

-The improvements have certainly paid off.

-It seemed to work.

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

-Yeah.

Despite being a brand-new machine,

it's already become the robot to beat.

The ultimate dream is to become the Robot Wars Champion,

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

This father and son team have racked up more air miles than

Richard Branson as they sent robot after robot flying out of the arena.

We're so happy with how it's gone so far. It's going exactly to plan.

Underestimate Michael's experience and skill as a driver at your peril.

Winning Robot Wars - there's nothing that can quite compare to that.

The reigning champions Apollo felt like marked men from the start.

Despite brilliant driving,

they crashed back down to Earth in their heats.

Come on! Leave us alone! Stop it!

That's nasty, that, isn't it?

Will the wild card be the break they need to keep the title?

We've got the advantage, we know how to win Robot Wars,

and this year we're going to make it two times Robot Wars Champions.

The time for talk is over.

Teams must now prove in these final ruthless group battles

that they're worthy of becoming the Robot Wars Champion.

It's over to Jonathan.

Thanks, Dara and Angela.

Here we go then for the final.

Rules of engagement are simple.

Robots must try to immobilise their opponent.

This can be done by flipping them out of the arena,

by pushing them down the pit or by inflicting critical damage.

Battle's are fought over three minutes.

If there's no clear winner at the end of that time,

the decision is made by our judges -

Professor Noel Sharkey, Dr Lucy Rogers

and Professor Sethu Vijayakumar -

who will be marking on control, damage and aggression.

And in this grand final the competitors won't just be

avoiding the arena hazards, they'll also have to avoid a death dance

with one of the House Robots.

House Robots are limited to their corner patrol zones

unless released by a competitor pressing the arena button.

The button can either release the pit or release a House Robot

to inflict damage anywhere across the arena.

Dare you unleash the rogue House Robots?

The teams are entering the arena.

From Warrington - Eruption.

Father and son Adrian and Michael Oates have modified their

powerful flipping robot.

Eruption can flip with over a ton of force and now

has 10mm-thick armoured sides for deflecting spinners.

From Reading - Aftershock.

Last year this father and son team from the Thomas family made it

to the grand final with their pusher bot Shockwave.

Aftershock has a 23 kilo spinner spinning at 3,500rpm.

They also have a separate 13.5 kilo bar

especially designed to take on Carbide.

From North Wales - Apollo.

Apollo has a new 1,000psi full pressure system.

Their 100mm bore ram helps them to produce five tons of flip.

Apollo might be big, but it's also quick with a top speed of 12mph.

In the corner patrol zone, the king of carnage - Sir Killalot.

Roboteers, standby.

HE SHOUTS

All of them optimistic, including the champions.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Apollo moving away, trying to stay out of trouble.

Aftershock's has left itself open there for an attack,

-and Apollo flips it!

-Yes! Yes!

No wonder they're celebrating - that was a big hit on Aftershock,

but they seem to be OK.

And now they're ganging up on Apollo.

Oh, there's a problem there with the floor plate!

That's not fair. I'm stuck on the arena.

They need to stop this.

KLAXON

Cease.

The arena is damaged.

That's the attack on Aftershock. Sparks flew.

There's the damage to the floor plate.

Apollo get themselves wedged and then took a hit from Aftershock.

You can see why it had to stop -

they couldn't move freely across the arena floor.

So the battle has to stop while a repair takes place.

The sheer power of Aftershock's vertical spinner

has pulled up the flooring.

It's a nervous wait for the teams as the arena floor is repaired.

The floors are 6mm thick, solid steel,

with wood underneath to keep it really solid.

And this year the robots have taken a huge step up in power.

We've not had this kind of damage on the floor before.

You couldn't do that with sledgehammers if you were

hitting it all day long, so there's some serious power there.

Teams agree that the match will restart from the opening positions

without recharging weapons or batteries.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Battle is resumed.

Damage has been sustained.

Awesome power unleashed again.

You really wouldn't want to be the arena floor.

That's a massive slam there as they came together,

and I think Apollo have been knocked out with that.

The champs here are facing elimination in

the first major shock

of the grand final.

Ooh!

Aftershock and Eruption through.

KLAXON

Cease.

-You didn't half hit them.

-Eh?

-You didn't half hit them.

-Oh, yeah.

Absolute smash.

Apollo a heavy machine, lifted like a feather.

Aftershock will be a team to beat here.

Ooh!

That's the moment they knew they were done.

Clever driving from Eruption to stay out of trouble.

Now, you see, that's what you're supposed to do.

You're supposed to attack the robot rather than attack the arena.

And there was an element of ganging up on poor Apollo here.

You kind of marking him into the corner

so you could deliver the death blow.

How very dare you!

I'm just saying.

You're happy with how that went, I presume.

Yeah, that was a big, old hit the second time.

We didn't even see where it flew off to.

We just say the impact, and they didn't come back.

Yeah, they didn't come back from that one.

No. You were in attendance there.

Yeah.

Relatively little to do.

At what point were you supposed to join in?

Mainly it's about surviving, really.

And we thought they were quite keen to go for each other,

-and we let them do it.

-It's clever, it's canny,

you know you've got bigger fights ahead of you.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Apollo I'm not sure has bigger fights.

Good luck in the final, lads.

That robot - will we see it again, I wonder?

Not in that exact formation. It will get changed.

The spinners that are coming in are absolutely incredible,

so we need to make sure we can take those impacts.

Ladies and gentlemen, a final goodbye to Apollo.

-Give them a round of applause.

-Thank you, guys. Thank you.

And going through, going through to a series of what will be,

I suspect, a brutal series of head-to-heads,

let's give a huge round of applause to Aftershock and Eruption.

Apollo's departure means that we'll now have a new champion.

For Marc and Dave it's the end of an emotional journey.

You all right, Marc? Do you want a hug?

There's something about this robot that doesn't give up and I think

us giving up on it might be a bit of a hardship as well.

Yeah. She'll be back.

As one chapter ends, a new one begins.

The fatal blow was struck by Aftershock.

Wow! Wow!

It's turned out to be a bit of a beast, yeah.

We knew it had the potential, but it's really, you know,

quite beyond our normal skills.

We built it in the back of the shed.

We're thrilled, absolutely thrilled to have got this far.

Can't believe it.

-ANGELA:

-Fellow finalists Eruption,

all too aware of the danger posed by Shockwave's spinner,

happily, or some might say tactically,

took a back-seat in that fight.

I think the group match we were terrified for.

The group battles are just brutal.

We went in there with just a tactic of survival,

and it worked out for us.

But they didn't come away completely unscathed.

The flipper's a little bit twisted because of that hit,

we've got to straighten it out a little bit,

but mostly I think we're OK.

It's time for our second group battle with...

Built by a team of engineers,

many teams fear even saying Carbide's name out loud

for fear of meeting this green-eyed spinner in the arena.

People want to see stuff getting smashed - that's why we're here.

Second place last series, and with Apollo gone, who can stop them now?

Carbide has a reputation for being the meanest machine around,

and we want to keep that reputation.

-ANGELA:

-Ironside 3 fight with their brains

as much as their huge bar spinner.

Never one to rush into a battle if it can be avoided,

but happy to deliver the killer blow when required.

You must be happy with how that went?

-Very happy.

-Yeah.

-Ecstatic.

-Impressive.

-Not bad.

For Ironside 3, often the best form of offence is defence.

You can come at us almost at any angle and we're going to hit you,

and at the minute we're not scared of anybody.

These newbies went from fans to finalists and have proved

worthy of their place, defeating the mighty Thor in their heat.

CHEERING

No matter the reputation of their opponent,

this orange beast shows no fear.

The feeling of winning Robot Wars would be almost second to none.

-ANGELA:

-Time now to put the hard work and dreams of these final

three teams to the sword.

Only two go through to the head-to-heads.

Will two of these gang up again to knock out one poor victim?

From the Midlands - Carbide.

In many people's lives, Carbide is king of the spinners.

Carbide's 25 kilo blade might not be the biggest in the competition,

but it's definitely the most powerful.

20hp and 2,300rpm makes for a potent combination.

From Nottingham - Ironside 3.

This compact octagonal spinner has an 18 kilo bar

with a top speed of 1,500rpm.

Their self-righter crucial because the robot can't drive upside-down.

In their heat, Ironside's weapon drive belt continually caused

the team problems.

From Wool - Concussion.

Concussion has a 6,000rpm spinner,

made from a single piece of high-carbon steel.

This team of engineers went from being in the audience last series

to being competitors in this one.

They've done fantastically to get this far.

He's an axe to the max, it's the titanium tipped axe of Shunt.

Roboteers, standby.

One of these competitor's journey will end here.

Who will it be?

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Off we go.

Carbide immediately aiming at Concussion.

And I can hear the death hum already of Carbide's rotor up to speed.

Go on, hit him, Adam, hit him. Hit him, hit him.

Concussion in trouble here.

And the other teams are moving in for the kill.

Oh!

And the Concussion boys know they're in trouble.

Oh, Carbide! Goodness me.

More pushing power, more venom in the blade.

And look at the two of them now.

Oh! Eyeball to eyeball.

CROWD CHANT: Fight! Fight! Fight!

They don't need to fight because

Concussion are knocked out.

-Sorry, lads.

-Loved it. Awesome.

Well, the Robot Wars fans have been living the dream. It's gone now.

A nightmare right from the start,

they knew they were going to sustain punishment.

Oh! So did Ironside 3.

I think that's knocked their self-righter out, you know.

They came back to bash Concussion into submission.

That was the end of little Concussion

and the two big spinners survive to hit again.

The dream ends here.

We went past the dream ages ago.

OK. That's the spirit. Did they gang up on you?

We did feel pinned a little, but that's the aim of the whole game,

isn't it? You've got to give a good show.

We've loved your enthusiasm,

and I really hope we'll see you again soon.

-Please, give it up for Concussion.

-Thank you.

Carbide, textbook for you?

Yeah, it went really well.

What I can remember, being that quick but, yeah...

Bits are flying everywhere, so it's pretty fun.

Ironside, I felt like you guys just hung back and said,

"We'll just sit this out."

We got involved a little bit.

-A little bit.

-Enough.

What did you do? Cos I can't remember.

We gave a few tickles out.

A little tickle. Right. Well, listen, big congratulations.

-Ironside 3 and Carbide.

-Thank you.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

It's the end of the road for Concussion.

Wow! Look at that!

That's not too bad.

You've got to go out with a bang.

-Yeah, a bit of paint, it will be fine.

-Polish it.

-ANGELA:

-Ironside 3 return to the pits

delighted to be in the final four.

But they too felt the hard steel of Carbide's weapon,

taking out their all-important self-righter.

Yeah, we're not convinced the self-righter's going to work.

Not now.

It's a nightmare for the team, all to aware that this same issue

cost them their shot at the last series.

The cause of everyone else's pain, Carbide,

have a quick peek under the bonnet.

Electronically everything still looks solid.

The gearbox feels smooth on the drive.

Chain tension is still good, no issues.

-Looks good from here.

-Charge it up, go again.

Have we scratched their paint, do you know?

Now we have our final four robots.

Time for the one-on-one head-to-heads.

Teams score three points for a win,

two for a judges' decision

and zero for a loss. First up...

Both teams are desperate to get some points on the leaderboard.

That is a massively damaging robot, and we're worried -

it could do a lot of damage to us.

The only help we've got is Carbide has taken out their self-righter,

so if - and it's still a big if,

because it's a brilliant robot and it could just take us out...

If we manage to get it upside-down we should be OK.

That's going to be the tactic.

And as contradictory as it sounds, we don't want to cause much damage

to Ironside because we're also quite scared about Aftershock and Carbide.

So if we can keep them spinning

they've then got to go in with the other two.

If they can be spinning and deliver a big hit to them,

that could help us out.

So you've got to be really tactical at this stage and consider

what your best chances are to take out all your opponents,

even in the fights that you're not in.

-ANGELA:

-It's time to take care of business.

The canny flipper faces off against the huge spinner

with a damaged self-righter.

On the team, we have myself, Adam. I'm a production engineer.

Trevor's the same - he's also a production engineer.

Louise works in a school

and Patricia is a cook.

Ironside 3 is one of the strongest robots in the competition.

It's small and compact so it can have thicker armour

and take bigger hits.

The key feature of Ironside 3 is its bar.

It's hugely powerful,

it spins at 1,500rpm and has a net weight of 18 kilos.

The bar is mounted above the machine, not inside it,

like Carbide.

This means our bar is bigger, it can be heavier and can hit harder,

so we can dish out some real damage.

Winning Robot Wars would be a great recognition of how hard we've

worked and how much design and time we've put into our machine.

The ultimate dream for Ironside 3 is that we win Robot Wars

and then come back and defend it.

Ready to wreck Ironside 3's dreams of victory is Eruption.

On our team is me, Michael,

and my dad Adrian.

I'm an engineering student at university

and my dad works for a research laboratory.

Eruption is designed around the weapon.

It's all about the flipper.

Eruption's got a custom control circuit in it,

which means we can vary the amount of gas we put into each flip,

so we can conserve gas when we need to,

but also put a huge amount of gas into one particular flip

and a get a massive flip on our opponents

to throw them out the arena.

I was inspired to build robots purely down to Robot Wars.

I watched the TV show when I was two, three years old,

and I've been fascinated ever since.

If everything goes right for us on the day, this could be a champion.

In the CPZ,

the nicest 350kg robotic triceratops I know -

Matilda.

And Shunt.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Eruption against Ironside 3. Can Ironside 3

stay right side up long enough to do damage to

the mighty Eruption?

Oh! Mighty flip from Eruption.

We've seen that throughout this series of Robot Wars.

And Ironside 3 now tactically running away...

..and into that corner area where Eruption flips it against

the side wall, and Ironside 3 can't self-right!

He's over.

We're dead. We're dead.

Game over.

Brilliant from Eruption.

Sensational stuff.

They got their tactics absolutely bang on.

Ironside 3's earlier damage has cost them so dearly.

Into flip, up it went, bounced.

That was OK.

Still right side up.

But here over and, I'm afraid, out.

Eruption executed their secret plan to perfection.

We knew if we went upside-down we were toast.

We didn't expect to get a lot of damage,

we just expected to be upside-down.

I think they're going to have a bit more damage to fix than we have.

Ironside's an awesome machine and even though we got the win

it has hurt a lot. We knew it didn't have a self-righter,

so when he went up the arm we had to take a chance and flip him.

And I think what's happened is as the flipper has gone up

and thrown him into the air, the spinner has caught the

side of the flipper and completely bent it over out of shape.

Eruption may be battered, but they're three points better off.

Our next head-to-head is...

This fight promises to be an apocalyptic collision

between two heavy hitters.

This next fight I think is the one everyone wanted to see.

It's big horizontal spinner versus big vertical spinner, and I

think between us we've dished out some of the biggest hits this year.

This will be the first time Aftershock face Carbide,

and they're tailoring their attack.

With our disc, there is always a point sticking out

which Carbide, or any horizontal, could hit.

The bar gives us the option of having the bar hidden by

bulk heads at certain stages during the rotation, so it means we

could potentially miss their bar and come up underneath it,

so we can hit them before they hit us.

Our only real option is quite well defended -

just go weapon to weapon.

Hopefully we'll come out on top.

It's going to be a big bang either way.

One massive hit from either of us and who knows what can happen.

It's kill or be killed, really.

We're going to do everything we can to knock them out.

Hold on to your hats. The two most powerful spinners in

the history of Robot Wars are about to enter the arena.

Me and Sam are both qualified engineers working for

the nation's biggest companies.

Carbide is the combination of both of our efforts.

In the final of the last series we were against Apollo, who won.

The weapon packed up,

and if it had kept turning then we might have had a better chance.

So we went back to the drawing board with the motor that powers

the weapon and we decided we need to make our own.

The new one is absolutely micron precision,

completely to our own design.

A few teams got a bit of an easy ride last year

when our bar stopped working.

Hopefully that's not going to happen again.

Hoping to smash rather than be smashed, it's Aftershock.

I'm Will Thomas,

I'm the team captain and the driver of Aftershock.

My dad, Ian Thomas,

is our main engineer responsible for building the robot.

Aftershock is a massive spinning disc

on a really tough armoured chassis.

Aftershock's greatest strength is the huge amount of kinetic energy

it stores in its weapon.

Using that it can create unparalleled forces in

the Robot Wars arena.

Last time Carbide knocked us out of the competition,

causing loads of damage to Shockwave.

This time Aftershock is ready for them.

The ultimate aim for Aftershock is to become the Robot Wars Champion.

That's what we've built for,

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

Love it. Aftershock against Carbide.

When these two spinners meet head-on,

always going to be one almighty bang.

Three, two, one.

Activate!

Aftershock has the faster spinner.

Carbide the heavier spinner. Oh!

This could be one of the great Robot Wars battles.

But what has happened here to Aftershock straightaway?

The impact of the first blow

has shattered Aftershock's dreams.

Panelling coming flying off!

Electronics exposed!

-But listen to Carbide's death hum.

-LOUD HUM

No, no, no, no!

And again. Go on.

It's a death rattle for Aftershock.

Oh, get away from that CPZ, Carbide.

Shunt was waiting in...

Goodness me!

It's nearly gone through the arena wall!

KLAXON

Cease.

-Look at that, Dad, look.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have never seen that before.

The damage caused by Carbide here, sensational.

Off came the side armour.

That's the side panel off.

Look, look, look, it's there through the wall.

Carbide waited its moment.

It had its prey at its mercy.

And it destroyed Aftershock's dream there.

OK, that is a first. We've never seen that before.

I mean, we couldn't have placed that better.

This glass, by the way, is one layer of polycarbonate,

that's bulletproof glass, and it just went through.

The arena itself is four times as thick.

So we still feel that the audience and ourselves were safe enough,

but if you're sitting over there,

if you're the audience members over there...

-They are freaked out.

-..there's a kind of "Ha-ha..."

Nervous laugh.

They're waving and going, "Thank God there's a second layer."

Draw an imaginary dotted line through that point,

-just that guy over there.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-Can I just say thank you for your branding on this?

That's been quite dramatic.

The fact that we get to see your name...

-That's...

-I think we should leave it there.

We need to weld it back on now.

Oh, yeah!

I hope we can get it back.

No, honestly, that was awesome. That's incredible.

Absolutely incredible.

-ANGELA:

-A sad and sorry looking Aftershock heads back to the pits.

So they've taken a lump out of the bar,

but that's not going to really affect us too much.

We've then of course lost the side panel -

that's the one that was embedded in the side of the arena.

In the process of that hit we've got a bend on the corner of

the frame which has jammed this side of the drive.

Given a bit of time we should be back in the arena.

It's going to be a big job now, but...

-See what's blown - that's the key.

-Yeah.

As long as nothing electrical has gone too badly wrong

we'll be back in the arena and hopefully willing to dish out

a bit of damage in return.

How far we go now all depends on what works when we power it up.

You've got to admire their "never say die" attitude,

but with only two hours repair time, could this be the end of Aftershock?

After our round one, the table looks like this.

Carbide and Eruption are both on the full three points

while Ironside 3 and Aftershock have yet to score.

Next up, it's a top of the table clash...

Eruption have had time to repair their warped flipper.

Meanwhile, Carbide have scoped out the opposition

and noticed a potential weakness.

So we've noticed on Eruption the side armour is attached directly to

their wheels and their bearings and shafts, so if we give them

a good hit there it should immobilise their drive train.

If we can do that we'll come out on top.

An outright win here will earn either team

a place in the grand final.

Carbide against Eruption.

Can they end Carbide's trail of carnage?

Three, two, one.

Activate.

We know what Carbide are going to do. Go for those side panels.

But we know how dangerous that flipper of Eruption can be.

And the power of the Carbide spinning blade sends

both robots rocking across the arena floor.

And again, this is a terrific battle here.

Oh, this is a good battle!

Steam being vented out of Eruption.

I think that's immobilised.

Oh, but look at the sparks there.

I think their weapon control has died.

No flips, no hope. Going, going, gone.

KLAXON

Oh, legend.

Good work, there. That is intense.

They've got the smile of Cheshire cats with the cream.

Oh, well.

Started so well for Eruption there.

They came together, big crunch.

Carbide bouncing.

Now you see the CO2 venting, so we know that power is draining

from Eruption despite the self-righting there.

They had too much to do, metal came flying off.

That was the first battle that you lost in the entire competition.

-Yeah.

-You were fearful of Carbide.

-Oh, yeah.

Everyone is fearful of Carbide,

but the first ten seconds or so went to plan.

We hit them with the front of the robot strong.

They did ricochet off the impact,

but something must have come loose

and it stopped driving. And from then on...

Do you think there will be much repairs to be done?

-Yeah.

-Slightly silent internal weeping. OK.

-Carbide.

-Hello.

-You're through to the grand final.

Thank you. Brilliant.

-You promised me some cheer and some excitement, at least.

-Whoo!

I mean, I thought for a second there was a slight wobble.

It was the first time I've ever seen you kind of...

We went flying. We spun around six times.

We do have a lot of respect for that machine.

You've won every fight so far.

Not one of your fights has lasted over a minute.

That's pretty cool.

OK. Please, give it up for Carbide,

into the grand final, and, of course, Eruption.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Eruption has been ripped to shreds.

8mm hardened steel.

And Carbide's cut straight through it.

I didn't think that was possible.

There should be a panel there.

That piece was there, that's the front of it.

Bent that piece and bent the rest of

the whole panel underneath the robot.

Well, it's pretty bad but, you know, that's what Robot Wars is about.

You take damage and you've got to repair it,

move forward and try and get back in the arena.

In our next head-to-head...

If Ironside 3 don't pick up some points in this fight

their campaign will be over.

But Aftershock are in the middle of the biggest rebuild of

the series and time is against them.

We've got less than 45 minutes now to get back into the arena,

so it's going to be tight.

At the very least we can get it driving.

If we're quick enough we should be able to get the weapon in as well.

It's all or nothing for Ironside 3.

We'll get this tension up like a bow string.

Get her up to full chat and play a bit of Russian roulette, I suppose.

Aftershock race to repair their robot.

They've completed the welding to the chassis,

but need to cool down the metal as quickly as possible.

It's too hot to touch and they still need to refit

every single component.

So we've got new braces on the front,

we've got a new side panel that's been made.

And just a load of work has been done to get it back in.

With tempers fraying it's not just the chassis that needs to cool down.

-No, it went...

-No, leave it!

It's not aligning, William.

-It's catching on that.

-No, it's not.

-It's not!

-I'm looking at it now! Look!

It's not catching there!

-Shall I do that side?

-Yeah.

OK, guys, you've got 25 minutes till your next fight.

-OK.

-Yeah.

Are you going to be ready?

We'll see. Can't say much more at the moment.

If they don't make it in time,

Ian and Will must forfeit their place in the competition.

-Quick!

-Tape. It's over there. You've got it.

This once feared fighting robot reduced to having its

polycarbonate armour taped on.

We're done! We're done. We're done.

They've done it.

They've rebuilt their machine and can now take their place in

the arena alongside Ironside 3.

In the corner patrol zone, the king of carnage - Sir Killalot.

And here's the scoop, it's Shunt.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Aftershock have gone into the arena with sticky back plastic tape.

Are you sure? But they're after Ironside 3 here.

And they look as if they're up to full power.

What a marvellous job they've done. A miraculous job.

Oh! Big hit there on Ironside 3.

And again.

Oh, they were lucky in bouncing down the right side up.

Aftershock's hit the arena wall.

Aftershock control problems here it would seem.

-You out of control?

-No.

Well, he doesn't think they are out of control, young Will.

And he comes back on the attack again.

Hits the spinning bar of Ironside 3, the 18 kilo bar,

running at 1,500rpm. Good battle, this.

Go, go, go, go! Go on!

For who will the dream end here?

Ironside 3 pushes Aftershock onto the floor pins.

Up come the spikes.

Aftershock upended. Aftershock can't recover.

No, no, no.

You're going to be gloomy and doomy tonight.

That's all right, Will, well done.

Cease.

To lose like that.

Three points for Ironside 3.

Oh, look at the shattering power of Ironside 3's blade.

Ripped off the sticky back plastic.

They were OK bouncing down.

Aftershock absolutely in pieces.

HE LAUGHS

Ah, I dream of things like this.

That was great. That was a really good fight.

And it wasn't how I expected it to end, but...

-The arena had its revenge.

-It did. It did.

And elegantly didn't go in for the final blow, or were you

afraid that you'd tip them back over and it would start again?

Well, no, cos now we need them to do us a favour

-and have a good go at Eruption.

-That's it.

If you beat Eruption you could have three teams on three points

in which case it will go to an adjudication.

So it's all to play for. No points for you, I'm afraid.

But three points for Ironside 3.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

A solitary arena spike unravels all of Aftershock's hard work

in the pits.

But for Ironside 3, it was the precious three points.

Aftershock is a brute of a machine and, yes, they only just got it in

in time, but I still have to be able to get around them

-and hit them.

-And it spun up nicely.

And it spun up, so, you know, they did have an active weapon,

and if we charged them they quite easily could have beat us.

Gaffer tape armour isn't ideal,

but we did exactly what we needed to do which was make one big impact,

run away and then pick him off if we could,

so it's exactly what we needed, really.

It's another massive repair job against the clock,

but they haven't given up hope.

So the main damage is to our weapon motors,

so we had the great big shower of sparks as that let go.

We then got a bit of chassis damage,

but it's nowhere near as bad as it was in the last fight.

We're going to see what we can do to the motor and what will be, will be.

We're not dead and buried yet.

After a second round of head-to-head battles

the leaderboard looks like this.

Carbide have six points and are through to tonight's grand final.

Eruption and Ironside 3 are both on three points.

And Aftershock is looking forlorn at the bottom on no points.

Next up, it's...

Chain...

Chain tension looks all right.

With their place in the final confirmed,

Sam and Dave are keen not to take any unnecessary damage.

Watching their fights, they're quite slow to spin up.

If we can get in there before they're up to speed,

damage the bar or the chassis or something around there,

I think that will be all that we need.

There is more reach on Ironside's bar here - a chance then for them

to get the first hit in on Carbide and cause some damage.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Carbide's death hum already whirring.

They get the first blow in on Ironside 3.

That could have been crucial.

But Ironside getting away across the arena floor quite quickly.

A good battle developing.

Off the floor flipper.

Survived that.

Coming in for another slice on Carbide's armament,

which is so, so strong.

One little scratch so far.

Big bash. Ironside 3 worn down into submission.

The weaponry has stopped.

Carbide...

Oh!

Ironside 3, get out of there, get out of there!

Scuttle out of there as quick as you can!

Just avoiding the axe from the House Robot.

Carbide so menacing, so mean.

Sparks fly, but no damage for Carbide.

Four, three, two, one.

KLAXON

Cease.

Ironside 3 counted out.

Something doesn't look too good.

Are they OK?

They're just testing here their manoeuvrability.

Did they sustain damage?

Well, not really there.

Ironside 3 another story though.

But 5mm of hardened steel armament turned into papier-mache.

Oh! Awesome.

But has Carbide sustained real damage there?

Oh, it's taken a hit!

That fight was pretty intense.

It would be interesting to get back and see what's gone wrong.

We've had a bit of a clocking on the front.

We were super lucky there cos it was literally millimetres from

hitting our chain.

The seemingly invincible Carbide has taken its first potentially

game-ending damage.

With the final in sight, this was exactly the scenario they feared.

Yeah, so it caused us a lot of issues last time,

but we made this motor.

We did have a couple of motor cut-outs

towards the end of that match. I don't know what that was.

We don't want that in the final.

Just want to check all the connections are good.

It's spinning nice and freely.

To go out now for something silly would be stupid, really,

wouldn't it?

So we're just going to check absolutely everything.

Make sure it's running perfect.

With one head-to-head remaining it's still all to play for.

Team Carbide are on the maximum nine points and have secured their

place in the grand final.

But all three competitors could earn the right to join them.

If Aftershock score three points against Eruption in the last

head-to-head it will be a three-way tie and our judges will

decide who progresses to the grand final alongside Carbide.

So it's time for...

Both teams have suffered at the merciless hands of Carbide.

However, the winner of this fight could take not only revenge,

but also the Robot Wars title.

I'm here with Eruption and they have a slight tactical advantage

in this battle, don't you?

Yeah, we've worked out the points and because we beat Ironside

in our head-to-head, if we win or just take it to

a judge's decision, we should get through to the final.

-You could literally just do laps.

-We could do.

I think they would probably catch us at some point though.

Three minutes is a long time in that arena.

-Listen, the best of luck with this.

-Thanks.

I know what your tactic is going to be cos I've seen you do this

all series. You're just going to go for this, aren't you?

Yeah, of course we are.

Ladies and gentlemen - I'm looking forward to this - Eruption!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

What would it mean to you boys to win?

I think that after all the work and effort putting it back together,

it would be awesome to win. All or nothing this time round.

-Right.

-We're going to go in.

We're going to hit them as hard as we can, and if it's good enough

to get us through to fight Carbide then we'll go for it again.

-Yeah.

-Cos if you win this you know it goes to

-a three-way tie and then obviously that's a judges decision.

-Yeah.

If we do make it through we'll give it everything we've got.

OK, brilliant. Give it up, please, for Aftershock.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

For the first time tonight, with a top speed of 13mph, it's Dead Metal.

And Matilda.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Aftershock have done brilliantly to get this far

and get that robot competitive again.

But they can be flipped.

House Robots go rogue!

But we've got a problem here.

I think there the blade caused damage to the floor

as they came down.

They killed the floor again.

-Oh, Will.

-Down here.

Ah.

Yes, I think it was the spinning blade there

that ripped the arena floor.

As they come in here on the arena button.

That activated the House Robots to go rogue.

That's where the damage was sustained.

You can see the sparks coming off the arena floor.

Aftershock and Eruption have said they're happy to carry on

even though there is still damage to the arena floor.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

They had to wait, they had to be patient.

They couldn't touch their robots. In they come again.

Aftershock trying to churn down on that flipper

and bend it out of shape.

Eruption pirouetting. Aftershock coming in...

and dancing balletically there with Dead Metal.

Ill advised.

"Yes, come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."

Well, you are, but get out now!

And you, Eruption, backing away sensibly there.

Aftershock coming in, but riding high on the flipper of Eruption.

Five times Eruption have flipped machines out of the arena.

They take a bash there!

This is a terrific contest.

Oh, flip throw!

And then Aftershock's power blade hurled it even further

across the arena floor.

Back up, Will, reverse.

They need to reverse and come in for another attack.

Over goes Aftershock. Can they self-right from there?

Ooh! Grimacing.

Groaning.

And giggling.

Well, we love that approach.

She loves the carnage of the arena floor, and don't we all.

And the carnage being created here for Eruption.

Two great competitors and still slugging it out

this late on in the series. Magnificent.

Eruption still with the power of the flipper to turn Aftershock over.

ALARM

Aftershock still with the power of the vertical spinner

to cause major trouble for Eruption.

What's happened to Aftershock here?

I don't think they can move. I think they're out.

OK. Cut back and we cut our losses.

Eruption here could be cruel or kind.

-They're kind.

-Cease.

Eruption through to the final against Carbide,

and that will be a ferocious final.

Good fight. Good fight.

At least that was an entertaining one.

Yeah, it was good. Well done, mate.

Aftershock's huge power of the spinner.

Really gruesome battle this.

Would have graced the final itself.

Magnificent.

Do you know what? I'm saying this now.

I'm saying this now. I think that was the best fight of the series.

Congratulations to both of you.

That was fantastic. Am I right in saying that?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

How great was that? That was just fantastic.

Properly duking it out, both of you.

Both trying to land killer blows.

Fantastic. Even though you kept smashing up the arena.

Stop breaking our room.

-Sorry.

-Just pockmarked it everywhere.

I think Dead Metal took the worst of it as well.

Really? Great.

We've got to repair that before we can send anyone out for a final.

You also presumably have repairs to do.

-Yeah.

-But your plan was never really just to survive, was it?

Well, no, we wanted to try and get them out the arena,

but they delivered some really nasty hits on us.

No points for you.

But you've been fantastic the entire way through.

And Aftershock has been a revelation and it's been absolutely fantastic.

I think he's here to stay for a while Aftershock.

OK, cool, I look forward to seeing him again.

You get all three points, which means going into the final

deservedly are Eruption, ladies and gentlemen.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Aftershock's incredible journey ends here.

-If you've got to go out, go out swinging.

-Yeah.

We loved it.

Swinging?

-Well, go out spinning.

-Spinning.

And Ironside 3 also put up a fantastic fight.

We fought as long as we could.

And obviously it wasn't long enough.

Yeah, we've done all right, we've done all right.

But Eruption now have the chance to fulfil a lifelong dream.

It's unbelievable, really.

I mean, ever since I was two years old,

and we used to sit down and watch Robot Wars together.

I think it's fair to say since then it's consumed our entire life.

Yeah.

For the past 12 years. So, for me anyway, I can't talk for Dad,

but I imagine it's the same thing.

For me, it's my dream come true to get this far on Robot Wars.

You come here and all these benches were full of roboteers

and people without benches,

not only roboteers here,

and now there's not many left.

We're in the last two now.

And it doesn't seem believable, really, does it?

The final scoreboard looks like this.

Carbide on nine points.

Eruption on six.

Ironside 3 on three points.

And Aftershock on zero.

Here we are then - the grand final.

Brutal spinner Carbide,

who has destroyed everything in its path so far,

versus the brilliantly driven flipper Eruption.

Carbide is the runaway favourite,

but they lost to a flipper in the final last series.

Are we about to see the biggest upset in Robot Wars history?

These two robots have paved a stratospheric path

through the competition.

In Eruption's group battle they showed their tactical brilliance.

-You were in attendance there.

-Yeah.

You had relatively little to do.

Mainly it's about surviving, really.

They weren't so battle shy in the head-to-heads.

Fight after fight Michael has proven once again that to win

it takes more than brute strength.

It's going to hurt. There's no way of getting around it.

It's going to hurt and we're going to take damage,

but our flipper is still capable of wining Robot Wars.

Carbide's ruthless efficiency established it as the robot to fear.

It knocked out Concussion with one hit.

Charge it up. Go again.

They've yet to lose a fight,

but last year they lost in the grand final

after damaging their motor.

Will lightning strike twice when it matters most?

You don't want that in the finals.

To go out now for something silly would be stupid, really,

wouldn't it?

We've been here before. We came a little bit short last year.

If we can do it this year it will be absolutely brilliant.

We're going to give it our best shot and dish out some damage, hopefully.

It's time for the grand final.

Roboteers, standby.

This is it. Again, it's come down to spinner against flipper.

Both of these teams have fought an exemplary campaign.

If anyone has a chance of taming the beast of Carbide

I think it's Eruption.

-Good luck, mate.

-Good luck, man.

Three, two, one.

Activate.

Will Carbide's weaponry survive this year's final?

That will be key.

Eruption need to be position themselves to get a flip in.

Carbide very, very quick.

Eruption, don't forget, can lift 1,000 kilos into the air.

Carbide's death hum. Listen.

-LOUD HUM

-Can you hear it?

Eruption trying to flip.

The flipper has sustained damage straightaway!

But certainly they can still move, Eruption,

which is good to see.

It's been a brilliant grand final so far.

Carbide spinning away.

The red hot favourite.

They slam in on Eruption. On the side panels

The angle of the armament very important,

but at the moment it's Carbide.

What a comeback by Eruption there!

They can't take this too easily, Carbide.

If they get lackadaisical, Eruption will flip them.

They manoeuvre themselves again.

They look to come in on the attack.

See the sparks? That's what Carbide can do.

Eruption with the flipper!

But look at the damage to the flipper now!

Has that weaponry packed in?

Carbide senses they can come in.

Eruption trying to flip.

Show everyone they're OK. I don't think they are.

Oh! Everything's coming off Eruption now.

Absolutely everything.

Oh, what a battle it was.

But Carbide worthy winners.

Carbide champions.

-Carbide the strongest of the strong.

-CHEERING

Brilliant stuff.

Cease.

Worthy winners.

Well done, mate.

-We've done it.

-We've done it, man.

Eruption so brave.

Oh, they don't deserve this.

Go on, Carbide. Knock out Killalot.

Oh, Shunt's coming in.

Oh, and remember, Carbide, you may be champions now,

but the house always wins with the House Robots.

You need to get out of there.

HE LAUGHS

I thought you lost the weapon.

Brilliant early on. Look at that.

Prepared to give as much as they took, Eruption.

But throughout the competition Carbide have been at another level

and it shows you how improved these new robots have become.

What damage. What a battle.

And what a great series it's been.

Well done to both of you. That was a fantastic final.

It was a great fight.

And I'll say it was a much better fight than I think

even you were expecting.

Yeah, well, we limped Eruption into the final.

It fought four big spinners in a row now, back-to-back,

and we were expecting about ten seconds and something to go wrong,

but we kept on going and we lasted almost two minutes

with Carbide, which was pretty good, really.

It's longer than anyone's lasted next to Carbide.

All sorts of damage has been done.

Well, that happens when you fight Carbide.

It does, doesn't it?

In that time you also did the thing that nobody else did -

you managed to flip Carbide at one stage.

Yeah, you get the flipper next to it and you can feel like you've

got to do something, so you just press fire and you keep on trying.

Congratulations to you.

It has been a superb performance the entire way through

this year's Robot Wars.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Eruption.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Carbide, what is there to say?

An unstoppable force throughout this whole competition.

Yeah, it's working pretty well now.

It is working pretty well.

I mean, it just seems to be faultless, really.

No, no. In that fight they were a tough nut to crack.

It kept cutting out and cutting out. And we get close to them and

I go to charge and then it would stop about a foot away from them.

I mean, after the last series final, being done by Apollo,

a flipper, you must have been a little...

-Yeah.

-..nervous that history may repeat itself.

-Yeah.

It was great to get the revenge on Apollo earlier on, definitely.

Obviously this is an awesome machine as well. To win is amazing.

Well, you know what? It was wonderful watching you. Relentless.

Relentless robot and gracious and always smiling.

And now excited, because you promised!

Please make some noise for our Robot Wars Champions - Carbide.

There you go, Carbide. Congratulations. Fully deserve it.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So congratulations on a faultless performance from Carbide

the entire way through the competition.

From all of us here at Robot Wars, goodnight.

Well done!