Episode 2 Robot Wars

Welcome to Robot Wars, UK versus the Rest Of The World.

International robot fighting teams, here to battle the best of British.

Angry house robots, deadly hazards and a bulletproof arena.

Let battle commence.

Tonight, the UK's best roboteers...

..take on teams from the Rest Of The World.

They'll fight it out in our brand-new tag team battles.

Fighting in pairs,

one robot must stay out of the action whilst the other battles.

Each fight earning their side valuable points.

The team that gets the most points winning the competition.

THEY CHEER Two sides from across the globe...

..all here to prove they have what it takes to be world-class.

Here to fly the UK flag and captain the team,

it's current UK champion, Michael Oates and Eruption.

You've got to lead a team in the sport which is very much

a lone wolf type of, "We work alone..."

Yeah, normally we work by ourselves

and we've got four robots working together now...

-Yes!

-..which is cool.

-Well, you look scary but you also look pretty.

-Give it up for Team UK!

-THEY CHEER

On his team, there's a machine for every occasion.

Our team has got so many strong points in it.

We've got a double UK champion,

a really destructive drum spinner,

a robot that's going to bludgeon everyone to death with its axe,

and a flipper that's going to launch everyone

into the stratosphere.

Graeme Dawson.

Big Nipper brings to the UK team

an indestructible robot that can take on any other machine.

Our tactic's to beat the other machine and smash 'em.

Tim Rackley.

We bring a big, bold robot with a team filled with oomph

and passion on the team, so we really want to give a good show

and just go absolutely crazy.

Jason Marston.

In my opinion, the UK robots are the best in the world.

They're the best in the world because of the just raw power

and good old British engineering.

That's Team UK.

Time to meet Team Rest Of The World.

The Rest Of The World team spans three continents,

a global spread of cutting-edge weapons and tactics.

Front man for the Rest Of The World team

is a Silicon Valley millionaire, Michael "Fuzzy" Mauldin.

-Fuzzy!

-That's me!

From a cattle ranch in Texas to a warehouse in Glasgow,

heading up our Rest Of The World team.

Proud to do it. I've got a bunch of really good team-mates here

and we're ready to show Team Britain that we can build robots too.

So what's the plan?

-It's a secret but I'll tell you.

-OK, go for it.

OK, I'm fortunate to be driving

probably the baddest spinner in the event. It's fierce.

-You're bad, in the good way.

-We're bad, we are a bad team!

Right, well good luck!

Please give it up for Fuzzy and his bad Rest Of The World team!

CHEERING

Good luck! Good luck.

As team captain for Team Rest Of The World,

I want to make sure that we bring a variety of weapons to this fight.

So that no matter which kind of opponent we're facing,

we have its Kryptonite sitting there in the corner, waiting to go.

From the Netherlands, Jeroen van Lieverloo.

No, he hasn't swapped sides,

it's an homage to legendary house robot Sergeant Bash.

Sergeant Bash was equipped with a 360-degree flame-thrower

and toasted competitor robots

who were foolish enough to cross his path.

For Jeroen, the Netherlands' number one superfan,

it was time to bring him out of retirement.

Well, we miss Sergeant Bash, really.

And it deserves to be in the arena. And this is our tribute to it.

From Russia, Alan Gubiev.

It is an honour to represent Russia

and, in fact, we are the first Russian team

which has taken part in Robot Wars, which is quite amazing for us.

From Canada, John Frizell.

I used to work for Greenpeace, so as an active environmentalist,

I tried to bring those principles to the building of the robot.

So it's built mostly out of recycled material and a bit of scrap as well.

Terror Turtle is bringing something special

to the Rest Of The World team.

It's the best-looking robot in the bunch.

Here's how the competition works.

We start with the tag-team battles.

Two robots per side, but only one can fight at a time,

tagging their team-mate in when required.

Then the head-to-heads,

before the two captains face off in our final.

Remember, each victory earns their side precious points,

with the highest-scoring team winning the competition.

The teams make their way to the arena for the first battle.

Representing the UK are the current Robot Wars champion,

Michael Oates, with Eruption...

..and the vicious jaws of Big Nipper.

We're taking on people from all around the world...

..and we're going to prove why the UK is best.

If we can get hold of one of them, we'll bring them back to you...

-And then we can double-team them?

-Yeah.

Get them in CPZ. Yeah, that'll be fun.

They're up against a Rest of the World tag-team.

In these tag-team battles, tactics are key.

Robot combat is a game of rock, paper, scissors,

and on the team we have five robots,

so we have a broad range of weaponry available.

So if one weapon isn't working against our opponent,

we can tag out and bring in a different weapon.

-What do we do if the other guy cheats?

-OK, look, it's very simple.

I want you to fight fair and honourably,

but do what you have to do to win.

The teams are ready, so let's hand over to Jonathan Pierce.

Thanks, Dara and Angela.

The rules for these tag-team battles is simple.

Each team has two robots in the arena.

One robot fights until they're immobilised

or are tagged in by a team-mate in the corner patrol zone

where they'll be waiting.

Teams can tag as many times as they like,

but only one active robot from each team can fight at any one time.

These tag-team rounds are three minutes

and if there's no clear winner, then our judges will adjudicate

based on control, damage and aggression.

And those judges are Professor Sethu Vijayakumar,

Dr Lucy Rogers and head judge Professor Noel Sharkey.

For our international teams, this arena is definitely not a holiday.

There's the pit, the fire, the flipper, the spikes,

the fog of war, and the house robots are all in attendance

to make things as unpleasant as possible.

It's time for both these teams to put their international money

where their international mouths are because it's battle time!

In the arena for this first tag-team,

the global ambassador for pain and unpleasantness.

It's Dead Metal.

Roboteers, stand by.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Three...two...one...

..activate!

KLAXON SOUNDS

Not the quickest, Eruption.

Relatively inexperienced.

And immediately getting caught there by the first flip by Eruption.

If he gets near that lower part of the arena wall it could go out,

but it's flipped Eruption

and, momentarily, Eruption couldn't self-right.

They have done now. Oh, got caught by the floor flipper!

There's the inexperience of Weber.

Might need to get in there and tag-team with THE BASH,

the ode to the old house robot, Sergeant Bash.

I don't think our house robots have taken very kindly to that,

by the way.

Still out there fighting at the moment, Eruption.

However, there's the tag. So out comes the new BASH.

Not a patch on Sergeant Bash. No, it is not!

I don't think they're mobilised at all. I think they're stunned.

Big Nipper's been tagged and is out there now as well.

Certainly THE BASH is imperilled.

Meanwhile, Big Nipper edges BASH into the house robot

and down comes the horrible, slicing steel of Dead Metal.

Big Nipper almost helping Weber out there of a dangerous situation.

Slams it against the arena wall.

Now, the expansive waste of energy there by Weber,

trying to get the flipper into use.

There's a bit of THE BASH littering the arena floor

and Eruption comes back in.

The dial of doom has released the house robot.

There goes the top bit of THE BASH.

I don't call it a weapon.

Now, Weber is in real trouble here.

In amongst the house... Oh, what's happening?

Eruption is trying to help Weber out of the claws of Dead Metal.

Well, that is gentlemanly conduct for you.

We don't want gentlemanliness, if there's such a word, in that arena.

We want brutality!

Oh, it's all hands on deck now.

And that's what we're getting now

because the two UK robots are out there together.

And there goes the big flip on Weber.

But they're both out there now, the two UK robots. What's going on?

They're now taking on the house robots.

A bit of showboating going on here.

They've done the business.

Oh, wow!

Well, I think this is showboating.

I don't think this is necessary.

It's good fun to watch but, I tell you what,

the judges might have a word about this, you know.

This is not in the rules.

They're having some fun out there.

They want a piece of Dead Metal.

House robots never forget

and he's got a piece of Big Nipper there himself.

UK, clear winners.

Oh, that fire!

Will there be recriminations for the end of the fight, I wonder?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I mean, I don't know who won that one.

Yeah, difficult to call, really.

That was very good. Well done.

Good early attack by Eruption, in underneath Weber.

Bit of inexperience showing there.

On to the floor flipper

and each time they come down they can sustain damage,

rocking and rolling a little bit there.

Then a big flip...by Eruption.

Smash for THE BASH.

Bit of a replica.

And the house robots didn't like it.

That's better from Big Nipper,

making sure that Weber couldn't get back into punitive action.

All about the UK machines for me here. They were too strong.

Classy, as ever, from Eruption.

Good driving by Michael Oates.

Great flip there on Weber.

Very nearly in Siberia. Bounced back down.

But back into the fire of the arena.

You are a changed man.

You were getting bored of a battle,

so you decided to take on the house robots just to keep things lively?

-Yeah.

-Why not?

-Exactly.

Your confidence is at an all-time high.

It also looked like you were possibly helping him

when he was in the jaws of Dead Metal.

Was that intentional?

Yeah, why not? They've come all the way over here to fight.

-Give them a good chance.

-OK.

-That sounds like it's a sympathy fight?

-No.

-No?

We want to win but, at the same time,

we want it to be a good, entertaining fight.

Hello, Rest Of The World Team. How are you?

-Let me stand in here between you.

-Nice to see you.

-Good to be here.

-Can I ask one question?

-Yeah.

-What was BASH supposed to do?

-Something.

-This thing just came off. It just fell off.

-They broke it.

But is there a weapon on the front of this?

-It turns and there's a claw.

-There's a claw?

-Yeah, and spikes.

-OK.

-Hidden spikes.

-They're very well hidden.

-Yes.

However, the mantle was picked up by our Russian friends here.

-A good fight.

-Thank you.

-Yeah, very, very good.

I like the brutal, pared-down nature of your robot.

-A couple of clashes as well with Eruption?

-Yeah, with Eruption.

-It was a nice moment when the house robot caught us.

-Yeah, absolutely.

It was fun.

Listen, this needs to be more active in some way, right?

-We'll do so.

-Good. Release the spikes, that's all I'm saying.

This one, just keep being brutal, all right?

Good luck. Get ready. You've got more fights, Rest Of The World.

-Thank you.

-Good stuff.

That victory gives Team UK first blood and the full three points.

It's time for the next tag-team battle

and a chance for the Rest of the World

to get some points on the board.

For Team UK, we have Concussion with Thor

against a Rest Of The World Team starring Terror Turtle

and team captain Fuzzy with his robot, Cathadh,

who are here to take down a Robot Wars champion.

As a driver, Michael is tenacious and deadly and persistent.

In fact, he holds the record for the number of opponents

thrown out of the arena, so clearly he's a force to be reckoned with.

He can put the robot where he wants it to.

If you flip the robot over,

he can put it right back on its feet immediately

and you never get a chance to take a break when he's driving Eruption.

But we intend to put him on his butt.

OK, Team Rest Of The World, we're cleaning up.

We're the second tag team.

-John, I want you to go in first with Terror Turtle.

-OK.

We're going to tag about every 30 to 40 seconds.

I want to make sure everybody drives two times,

and the most important thing is play fair

-but do what you have to do to win. Are you ready?

-Yep.

OK, everybody, hands in here!

Team Rest Of The World, yes!

-So we've got this big, nasty American spinner?

-Yeah.

-We're going to take that out, yeah?

-Yeah.

You've got that horrible entanglement thing

-that's going to wrap round his bar.

-Yeah.

-You're going to smash him with your drum?

-Yeah.

-Cool.

-Terror Turtle, take that on. Put your axe through it.

-That's easy.

We can deal with that.

We've just got to go after the American spinner, take that out,

annihilate it.

-Team UK.

-Yeah!

In the arena for this second international tag-team battle...

..Shunt, or as the French call him, "Le Garcon de la Robotique Pushing."

Roboteers, stand by.

So it's the UK against machines from Canada and the USA here.

Go, Rest Of The World! Hey!

Three...two...one...

..activate!

Can the Rest Of The World hit back?

First out is Terror Turtle against Concussion.

I'm out of it. I'm dead.

I think Terror Turtle's gone.

It has, which means that Cathadh is now into the arena

and it also means that Thor has been tagged and comes in as well.

Jason, one of the most experienced...

Oh, Concussion came out!

Hey!

Now that's playing a little bit dirty.

I'm sorry, that is illegal. That's illegal.

Excuse me, get back in your box.

Concussion's not allowed to be out there.

Go on, back into the CPZ now.

That was a big naughty.

-I'm dead.

-No, no, no, you can push. Come on.

Oh, my God, you're dead?

You can't push!

Oh!

What the hell?

Cathadh, the weaponry is bent, the spinning blade.

Well, I don't think Concussion there played by the rules at all.

We hit it so hard.

Well, well, well, this is controversial.

That's when Terror Turtle went over.

It was a good attack by Concussion.

That's the end of Terror Turtle.

Once they were over, they couldn't self-right

and Thor came out, hammering into Cathadh.

The weapon still spinning. Bit buckled.

Thor came down again with a mighty axe,

but this was the moment here that was unseemly.

Bit of a naughty attack there by Concussion.

And the Rest Of The World

will be spitting nuts, bolts and feathers about this.

ANGELA: The battle over and the Rest Of The World

are upset with some foul play in the arena.

Do we have a genuine objection here?

-Is there controversy?

-Seriously, yes, I was double teamed.

In a tag-team match, you are not allowed to have two opponents

-attack at the same time.

-We're still inexperienced.

-Inexperienced?

You can charging in with your big drum spinning.

-Admittedly, your belt was off at that point.

-But I was still driving.

-You were still driving, I'll give you that.

-AND I was not upside down.

-No, you were not.

-When he flipped me, that disabled me.

So one guy took out my weapon, one guy took out my drive,

but I think I have a legitimate complaint.

I think you may have a legitimate complaint.

Certainly, I think I speak for my co-host, who is livid...

I think we have a shot of her looking livid.

I was absolutely raging.

I'm with you on this.

Here he is. Here he is.

We're trying to organise a sport here.

We can't just go willy-nilly launching in

-with our drum-spinners whenever the mood strikes us, right?

-No.

Are you willing to hand over the points

-because of this disgraceful behaviour?

-Disgraceful.

Yeah, I think let's even up the score.

-Let's go into the head-to-head with a clean slate.

-Fabulous.

-Good man.

Very, very good. Calmer heads prevailed.

And now the decision has been made by the powers-that-be, ie me,

that you deserve those points

cos they were robbed from you, it's actually quite an even battle

-and this is a robot they're scared of.

-And rightly so.

I did a little bit of damage.

I wish I'd gotten a chance to hit Concussion,

but I won't get that chance this year.

Captain Fuzzy made his fortune creating the search engine Lycos

but rather than spending it on a luxury yacht, he spent it on this.

On my mark, three, two, one...fight!

Robot Club and Grill.

-Bulletproof glass around the edges?

-Bulletproof glass around the edges

and on two sides there were the paying customers,

sitting there eating their burgers, watching fights.

One side was the bleachers and then the back side was for the pits.

And it was heaven on earth.

It was really wonderful because all of my friends came to me

to fight their robots, and we had a fine restaurant.

You could tell the waitress what you wanted

and they'd go bring your food directly to the table.

-You never had to leave your robot.

-That's wonderful.

It was, but we only had it for a year.

-It was a really, really good idea in my heart.

-Right.

-It wasn't such a great idea in my pocket.

-OK.

How often did you do the fights? How often were they held?

-We had six events. We held it every six weeks.

-Right.

-And those nights were packed?

-Absolutely. We had hundreds.

We had people from all over, from Mexico, from Canada.

They all came to Pittsburgh to fight their robots.

It was a glorious time, but in the end,

I couldn't justify shelling out good money after bad, as they say.

For the five-and-a-half weeks when there were no robots fighting...

That's the problem.

See, if I'd have gone to any advisor they'd have said I shouldn't do it.

This is a restaurant which will only be full once every six weeks?

-That's right.

-We'll have a theme that isn't catered to in any way

and 24-feet-by-24-feet of the floor space is taken up

-with a robot fighting arena that you can't put tables on to?

-Precisely.

Do you know what? I don't think you have to be a business genius to go,

-"This is a crazy idea."

-The good thing was that, because we did that,

when we closed we gave away two... We had three arenas.

We gave away the two largest. I kept the smallest one for my shop.

Those arenas went on to spawn other events

in other states of the United States, including one in California

where I go regularly now to fight.

So, it was good for the sport. I did my part. It's like a relay race.

I carried my baton for a little bit and passed it on to the next guy,

and we helped keep robot fighting alive in the United States.

With the scores tied after the tag-team battles,

we're now on to the head-to-heads.

Each head-to-head will see a Team UK robot

challenged by a member of the Rest Of The World Team.

Our first head-to-head is UK's Thor

against Team BASH from the Netherlands,

who are in a spot of bother.

Rumour has it that THE BASH has been bashed to bits. Is it dead?

-Dead. Everything's broken.

-Really? What happened?

I'm not sure. I was counting on Dead Metal to protect me.

-Oh, yeah, no, not a good idea.

-He attacked me.

So much damage.

It's beyond repair.

We brought a backup. Remember this?

It looks familiar. There's nails.

-Is it Tough As Nails?

-It's Tough As Nails.

Oh, it's bigger, is it?

It feels bigger.

-Yeah, it's a little bit bigger.

-OK.

So Tough As Nails is back?

We've seen Tough As Nails before, of course.

Tough As Nails.

Tonight, we'll be fighting Thor.

Well, Thor and I, we go way back.

A few series ago, I was in a team called Tough As Nails.

We had a crusher robot. In a group battle, Thor took us out.

Is this the end for the team that has come a long way

to be here from the Netherlands?

They looks forlorn.

They've competed all over Europe in amateur robot competitions.

They're about to go double Dutch.

Yes, the second team in the pitch.

Over and out!

We want revenge for that.

-You seem very calm. Calm?

-We are now.

Yeah, you are now that you've subbed in... Ow!

It's very large. OK, good luck.

Good luck. Good luck.

This last-minute change from the Netherlands

has turned an international friendly into a global grudge match.

-Jason, so you're against Tough As Nails?

-Yeah.

You've gone up against them before.

Yeah, we knocked them out in Series One.

-They remember that.

-Yeah.

-They're a little bit delicate about that.

-They are. They want revenge, yes.

-They're angry.

-Yeah.

-It's going to be a tough fight.

-Do you reckon?

-Yeah, it will be.

You've done it before. You know their weaknesses.

Yeah, I think I can do it, but Thor's a little tired at the minute.

It's been a long old time for him, hasn't it?

-OK, right. But you reckon you can do it?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

-OK, do you think the UK can win this?

-Easy.

-Easy, easy! Right, go on, get in there.

-Cheers. See you later.

This Norse god now boasts five interchangeable hammers

and can swing twice as fast as previously.

Known for running rings around its opponents,

the machine is still one of the fastest robots in the competition

and can even pull a two-tonne van with its powerful drive system.

The builder from Northampton is once again

the lone wolf of the competition.

Thor has been a part of Jason's life for 13 years now.

He even considers it a part of him.

Aww!

Tough As Nails from the Netherlands is a pneumatic crusher bot

with 200 kilos of crush.

It has enough drive power to pull a forklift truck

and is made of hardened steel.

Jeroen from the Netherlands is a motorway security engineer

and full-time Robot Wars superfan.

He's entered events in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK

and when he's not building robots,

he likes to give tutorials about how to build them online.

Team Rest Of The World really needs to pull out a win here

so, come on, let's go.

-Yes!

-Go!

Get out. Let's go.

Jason has prior experience with eliminating this team

from the competition, knocking out their robot, Tough As Nails,

in Series One. Tougher than fingernails maybe,

but no match for Thor's mighty hammer.

In the arena for this international head-to-head...

..it's Matilda.

And how he got that titanium axe through customs, I'll never know.

It's Shunt.

Roboteers, stand by.

There's the UK team captain, Michael,

and a smiling Jason behind him.

A little bit of a surprise up his sleeve here, Jason, he tells me.

Three...two...one...

..activate!

KLAXON SOUNDS

There he is, on to the flame pit, and there's the surprise -

a wraparound of Diotoir fur.

That's amazing.

He now has a flaming axe as his weaponry.

Tough As Nails, an improvement on BASH,

will try and pinch Thor.

Thor using the two-wheel drive to get underneath Tough As Nails.

Ooh, Tough As Nails reversing on to the dial.

We have fog of war.

Can confuse.

Can allow a team to run away, find a good position in the gloom.

Tough As Nails did that.

They need to avoid Thor going in underneath,

otherwise that will negate the pinching weapon.

Good control here by Jason. One-man army.

He knows that Thor is...

..nearing the end of its life as a competitive robot.

He needs to make improvements for the UK Championships.

Dodging away, and in underneath Tough As Nails.

Tell you what, this is a willing battle by the Dutch team.

They're coming out here all guns blazing

and having a real go at Thor.

Little bit close to Shunt in the CPZ.

Steered away, beyond the floor spikes.

Haven't seen them yet come into play in this international heat.

Good hit by the Thor hammer.

But Tough As Nails still doing a good job, releases the dial.

Out comes a house robot. It's Shunt.

Down comes the weaponry of Shunt.

Thor in trouble.

Jason needs to self-right - has he got enough CO2 left?

Yes, he has. Speeds away.

Again, Tough As Nails, that frontal assault.

Bit limited in design and technology.

Can Thor get him over that low part of the arena wall?

That's what he wants to do.

They get away to the CPZ.

A bit of a side-on shunt from Thor.

Doing well to last in there. This is a good fight.

May well go the distance.

Can Thor land a knockout blow?

Will Shunt come into play?

Tough As Nails steering away.

Good work here by the Tough As Nails team from the Netherlands.

Doing a good job for their country and their team.

Riding piggyback. Up on...

Thought they had a chance there actually to buckle Thor's weaponry.

They just couldn't get the grippers together,

the crushing weapon, in time, to bend that axe weapon out of shape.

Miss by Thor with the weaponry there.

Jeroen van der Loo looking on, the Tough As Nails captain.

Ooh, I thought they were immobilised. They're not.

Dance away. Good one, this, isn't it?

May not be "wham, bam, thank you, ma'am,"

smash and crash, but Tough As Nails living up to the name.

They are tough as nails.

-ISETHU:

-It is tough as nails.

-It really is just tough as nails.

It's tougher than nails, actually, isn't it?

Nails would be broken by now.

Crash, but they cannot get through

that high-strength, hardened steel armament.

KLAXON It goes to the judges.

-CHEERING

-Well done.

Good luck with that thing.

Even Matilda pirouetting there with glee. She appreciated that fight.

Lovely touch, the flaming fur of Diotoir.

A bit of fun.

A bit of axing and slicing and dicing.

Yes, they got a blow in on Tough As Nails.

Several times, they had Thor in that position

and they couldn't crush Jason's axe.

Now comes the axe of Shunt as Tough As Nails got in there.

The judges will be marking all this, of course.

Thor the aggressor.

Tough As Nails, good control.

Big smash-down there, on the top of Thor, from Shunt.

Ooh, this could be closer than we thought.

Has Tough As Nails done enough to get a famous victory?

Let's see.

APPLAUSE

Let's have a look at this.

It took a couple of thumps there, Thor.

-But you never really got the full hug on him, did you?

-No, no.

His new design, we couldn't get really hold of him.

Only from the back, but he wouldn't let us.

No, because at the front you kept mounting up him.

You really needed to... And he's too fast.

-He's too fast, yeah.

-He's too fast. It's a fearsome-looking thing.

But deeply ineffective in certain situations.

-Yeah.

-Like this fight!

-But, still, scary-looking.

-Yeah.

So there's bonus points for that, I hope.

There was no definite winner.

So it had to go to an adjudication.

The two points and the victory...

..go to Thor and Team UK!

CHEERING

My commiserations. It was a good fight and you fought well.

Michael, congratulations.

That brings you to 5 points to 3. Happy with how it's going?

Yeah. Jason smashed that one.

That was brilliant. We've just got to keep on going like that.

And, hopefully, a Team UK victory.

OK, fine. Listen, let's get out of here and get another fight in.

Give them a round of applause, ladies and gentlemen!

CHEERING

With two points to Thor, Team UK are on five.

Rest Of The World on three.

With a total of eight points still up for grabs,

the challengers can steal a victory.

The next head-to-head sees the UK's Big Nipper

against the Rest Of The World's Terror Turtle.

The Big Nipper team are just superb engineers and mechanics.

They're toolmakers.

They have access to a lot of good equipment

and, more importantly, they have the skills to use it

and the imagination to use it in ways that others haven't thought of.

It's an honour to fight them, really.

COMMENTATOR: Terror Turtle is a recycled robot

with parts of old car axles

used on its super-scary nine-kilo spinning disc.

It can also run with a cluster bot called The Hatchling,

which is used to immobilise opponents

while the terrifying reptile robot gets its disc up to speed.

Team captain John Frizell

was the international director of Greenpeace.

Hailing from Canada, he enjoys acting, singing

and making robots including a remote trick-or-treat robot.

Strange man.

-So, John, is Terror Turtle ready?

-He is ready to go.

OK, I want you to take a bite out of the Big Nipper.

We really need a win, Team Rest Of The World.

-Come on!

-All right.

-Let's go. Let's go.

Big Nipper is a titanium-armoured gripperbot.

It also has an interchangeable 20-kilo spinning disc weapon.

It has the toughest armour in the competition,

which can deflect attacks from robots like Aftershock and Carbide.

Team captain Graeme isn't worried

about his head-to-head with Terror Turtle -

he's planning to remove its recycled fibreglass shell

with their titanium crushing jaws.

-So you guys have got Terror Turtle next.

-Yeah.

Should be fairly OK, I would have thought.

I don't know, it's got a nasty spinner on the front of it.

No, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. Open those jaws up,

drive in, crush it.

-You can lift it up, take it to the house robots.

-Yeah.

-Tear it apart. Yeah?

-Yeah. Will do.

-See you in a bit.

-See you later.

Terror Turtle challenging Big Nipper.

Two very different robots -

the cutting-edge titanium armour of Big Nipper

up against the recycled and reclaimed Terror Turtle.

In the arena for this fight,

the only time he gets out of the country is to visit The Hague.

It's Sir Killalot.

She'll flip you so far you'll need a visa to get back in.

It's Matilda.

It's battle time.

Roboteers, stand by.

Three...two...one....

..activate.

John Frizell of Terror Turtle says his best chance

is to feed Big Nipper to a house robot.

Left a bit.

Is he dragging Big Nipper, there, towards Matilda?

Not that much!

Or is Big Nipper shoving...

Oh, goodness me!

Oh, look! Big Nipper is on fire!

No!

Terror Turtle's been done to pieces, to be honest,

but what's happening to Big Nipper?

I think the four packs of lithium polymer batteries could be on fire!

Flames, spouting great gouts of flames, there.

John Frizell said his best chance was to feed Big Nipper

to a house robot, and that's what's happened!

Big Nipper on fire and that gets a little bit of a flip from Matilda.

Terror Turtle's on its side.

That's amazing - we weren't expecting that.

Although John will try and self-right,

I don't think we're going to see much movement from Terror Turtle

unless Matilda helps out.

But how much damage has been sustained by Big Nipper?

Smoke, fire.

Something's been caught on fire in the machinery of Big Nipper.

John gets a helping hand from Matilda to self-right.

I think Terror Turtle are done.

THEY CHUCKLE

You can see the front blade

underneath Terror Turtle's mouth, there.

The spinning bar. Rotating...

I think they're gone.

It's going to be a victory for the UK, but at what cost Big Nipper?

At what cost?

-At least it put itself out.

-No idea what happened there.

The weapon was still running.

That was...

Hmm.

..interesting!

I was thinking that when Big Nipper caught fire,

that it would stop working.

At that point, if Terror Turtle had moved a bit...

-Mm-hm.

-That's right, yes.

-..that would have won it.

But they didn't move it a quarter of an inch. It was dead. Dead.

That's twice it's died on us.

-Terror Turtle?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

First attack from Big Nipper really did it.

Good balance.

Wedging in the weaponry, the prongs there underneath,

crusher, grabber weapon... But took a hit from Matilda's flywheel

and that's where the trouble started.

Set alight on that left-hand wheel area.

Terror Turtle was over and done with by now.

What damage has that caused to Big Nipper?

They've won the fight, three points for the UK.

That's, presumably, not how you saw that ending?

That was quite a close one. No, we weren't...hoping for a fire.

-I bet you weren't.

-No, that's not generally the plan.

-How are you feeling about it all, Fuzzy?

-Well, I had high hopes.

As soon as I saw that Nipper was on fire,

-I was feeling great for the Turtle.

-"We're in."

And I'm like, "Just keep moving, keep moving. Come on! Keep moving!"

And then... And it wasn't to be.

I mean, no... You know, hey, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

-Yep.

-These things take a lot of damage

and it starts to show after a while.

Yeah, it does. It does.

The UK team are on 8.

Rest Of The World on 3.

It is still possible, but the pressure is starting to mount now.

Because of the extra points,

I'm sure it all comes down to the captains' battle.

Michael smiles, he looks innocent.

But he's absolutely ruthless.

I'm expecting to have to really battle...

-Yeah.

-..to win it, to pull it out.

I think you will. Well, look, I hope neither of you go up in flames.

-That's going to be a plus, right?

-That would be nice.

-OK, good luck.

So Team UK are in the lead with 8 points.

Rest Of The World are on 3.

But can they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

This has been Terror Turtle's final fight.

The kind of robot he's fighting with now

are much more powerful and much tougher.

This is the kind of thing that happens

with a modern machine hitting your arm.

So, Terror Turtle...

..have a good retirement.

As we say bye-bye to one generation of robots,

Dara welcomed in the new age of wearable robots with George Sethu.

Sethu, I've spoken to you before about your work in humanoid robots.

But you also work with wearable technology.

That's correct.

So these days, the new kinds of robots coming into the market,

which are things that you wear.

So they're used for various things like exoskeletons

for helping the aged and infirm.

They can also be used as prosthetics for people who have lost a limb,

either upper limb or lower limb.

And, funnily enough, you can also use exoskeletons for healthy people.

For example, if you wanted to walk up a slope

and you wanted a little bit of assistance,

or you wanted to become superhuman and lift heavier weights...

OK, so you have me here within this exoskeleton.

And my image in the head is the film Aliens, by the way.

-For this.

-Yep, yep, yep.

-Right.

How...? Am I controlling it? Is its intelligence controlling it?

So, effectively, it's a symbiosis between the human and the machine.

So you use human bio-signals to drive the actual device.

So I would send a signal to my brain,

"I want to walk up these steps."

-But the robot has to know itself how to do steps?

-Exactly.

So it has to become more intelligent

by learning from data, from experience.

And it has to be connected to the other devices

to be able to figure out what is the next best thing to do.

So it has to really use the experience to improve its behaviour.

So essentially, it's a Wi-Fi linked set of legs

-that you're planning to give me here?

-That's correct.

It's great to have devices which are connected

because it improves its abilities to do things better.

At the same time, it opens the dangers of being hacked into.

So, for example,

I could use a cellphone with a Bluetooth connection

to hack into a prosthetic device

and control something that you're wearing.

Probably make you sign a million-dollar cheque, for example.

This was Aliens and now it's Wallis and Gromit, all right?

LAUGHTER

How do I protect myself against this?

So I think the technology is exactly the same.

Whether you're you using an internet,

whether you're using a mobile phone,

whether you're using driverless cars,

you will need exactly the same security technologies underlying it

to make sure that you don't get a ransomware attack

like you've seen recently.

Lovely stuff. Very, very good.

Next, from Russia with love is Team Weber,

as they go head-to-head with the UK's Concussion.

Although his Russian comrades have only been building robots

for two years, he has a wealth of experience from his job,

which is truly out of this world.

As for my day job, I work in the space industry.

I am the launch project manager,

and my daily job is to help launch satellites in space.

-So where in Russia are you from?

-From Moscow, all of us.

Moscow, OK. So you're used to...

-Yeah.

-..minuses.

-Yeah.

-Like, what's the...? I've never been.

Like, -23 in winter.

"Like, -23"?

-OK, so this is like balmy paradise?

-Yes.

-OK. And so would this robot work in those conditions?

-Yes.

Cos a lot of our flippers have problems...

-They have problems with a freezing valve.

-Yes.

-We know.

And we specially designed our valve and pushing cylinder

so that we can survive minus temperatures.

In fact, we have tested it in -25 outside.

-Right!

-With a full tank, no problems at all.

-It likes the cold.

-Yeah.

-OK...

-Because it's Russian!

Cos it's Russian, it likes the cold!

Is the robot community big in Moscow?

It is only starting to grow

-because we have only two years of experience.

-OK.

But thanks to Robot Wars

and all the teams from UK which came to games in Russia,

we've had a huge experience

and, actually, we are here only because of you guys.

Because you showed me, you showed us, actually,

how to prepare and build a proper robot.

UK has a huge experience in Robot Wars,

like for 20 years or even more.

And we as well understand that to be able to compete with UK robots,

we have to move fast and develop fast.

So that's why we're doing that.

It's kind of a challenge for us.

-Good luck.

-Thanks.

-What would...?

-How do you say "good luck" in...Russian?

-Udachi.

-Udachi. Udachi.

-Thank you.

-Udachi.

-Spasibo.

-Udachi.

COMMENTATOR: Team captain Alan from the Weber team

works for the Russian Space Agency.

His job is to organise rocket launches

from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

So if you want something shot into space, like your boss,

Alan is the man to talk to.

Weber is a pneumatic flipper especially designed

to work in the -25 Celsius of the Moscow winter.

Brr, that's cold!

The team have only been building robots for two years,

and they're already Russian champions.

OK.

Team Weber.

The Rest Of The World team is behind, 8-3.

We need both of the next fights in order to pull this through.

So it's your turn and I want you to take the enemy apart.

-Udachi!

-We will do it!

-Right, yes!

-THEY CHEER

Concussion is a drum spinner with over 7,000 rpm of bite.

This uppercutting robot uses its drum to flip and rip opponents.

Concussion's weak against flippers

because when it's inverted, its weapon is ineffective.

If flipped, the driver, Carl, has got to try and spin the drum

to flip the robot back onto its wheels.

That'll be a neat trick.

If they don't get flipped out of the arena in the process!

CHEERING

In the arena for this international head-to-head...

..the continental breakfast of Dead Metal,

and the full English and brown sauce -

it's Sir Killalot!

Roboteers, stand by.

CHEERING

Three, two, one...

..activate!

Both of these teams work in the aerospace industry.

Which one will splash down with ignominy and infamy today?

The Concussion boys

have been larging it a bit,

they're very confident.

And they have Weber overturned -

good self-righting.

Yay! They got out of there.

Well done. The Russian team,

they need to win this

and within time, as well.

Can't allow it to get even to the judges

if the Rest Of The World is to stand a chance of winning.

Oh, Dead Metal doesn't want to do that!

Concussion taking some punishment

there from Dead Metal in the CPZ.

Weber lines up another attack,

then veers... not off-track, actually,

I thought they had. But, no, clever driving.

Dial of Doom goes left-hand side.

That allows a house robot to go rogue and here's Dead Metal.

Comes out and, ironically,

catches Weber - oof!

And the Russians in a sandwich there of house robots -

you really don't want to be there.

Stay out of there.

And the house robots taking it out

on Weber on the flame pit,

and in some distress - they've lost a wheel.

Oh, he's lost a wheel.

They can only spin now,

idly, really. Can't go far.

Concussion sense a victory is here.

Big team, the Concussion team.

They say the Robot Wars experience has given them

a real purpose in life, which is great to hear.

All about improving engineering standards

and also giving us some thrills and spills

and some splinters and some sparkles

and some...

Wonderful moments in the arena -

of sheer brutality!

KLAXON

And Weber spins, but I don't think they spin to win.

Lovely pirouette to finish.

Concussion were on top, though.

And Weber,

from the Russian Space Agency, hardly in orbit.

Arena, we have a problem. Splashdown.

Killalot, don't you dare!

Only two years' experience, both these teams.

"You can go and afterwards," says Killalot. Go on!

-Wahey!

-Was that you?!

DARA LAUGHS

Smiles all round. Good to see at the end. Win for the UK.

When Dead Metal went straight down

on the spinner, I thought,

"What's going to happen there?"

With Concussion, yeah.

Side on, Concussion seizing the weak point there of Weber's armament.

I suppose wheels always a weak point -

indeed, the exposed pneumatic wheels of Concussion

could have been targeted.

That was a bump and a bounce there.

This is a real problematic moment for Weber -

that's where the tyre went.

They were squeezed by the house robots.

From then on, really, they couldn't get around the arena.

Concussion could time the attacks well, and they did.

ANGELA: A quick look at the scoreboard

confirms the Rest Of The World team has lost on points.

But can they still salvage some pride?

For Michael and Fuzzy, national pride is at stake.

Can American muscle stage a shock victory

by taking out the best of British?

Well, Fuzzy - this has set you rather a challenge

for this last fight, hasn't it?

Apparently, I have to win my fight twice.

Yes, you do. It's 11-3, unfortunately.

-I shall do my best.

-You do that.

Can you win it so much, time stops, goes backwards,

-and then you win it again?

-I'll tell you what.

What we can do, I can win the fight

and then you can ask the audience if I deserve double credit.

-I could do that.

-You won't, but you could!

I already gave you three points earlier on, I can't keep doing that.

-Well, all I can do is my best.

-Yes, you can. Absolutely.

And I want you to do it with pride, though.

-I'm very happy with our team, it's a great team.

-It's a great team.

And I think we're better than this. But, you know...

-Hey, these things happen in sport, right?

-Yes, indeed.

Are you ready to go on this one?

-Yeah.

-Are you going for the wipe-out?

-Yes. Course we are.

There's literally nothing I can do other than...

Let's enjoy this, all right? Let's go out there

and just enjoy this last international battle, OK?

-Good luck, sir.

-And you.

-Oh, my God. Too civilised!

You're Fuzzy robots in wars! This is too civilised!

It's time for tonight's headline battle, captain against captain.

All the way from Texas, USA, comes the mighty Cathadh.

Fuzzy has brought his decades of robot-fighting experience

to the competition.

Well, this is coming down to Britain versus the Rest Of The World

and the British dominant robot is the flipper.

And in America, at least,

the dominant robot is usually the spinner.

So this is going to come down to a spinner/flipper battle

and I hope to smack the heck out of my opponent.

Unfairly brutalised in the tag-team battle...

..and given a bruising in the head-to-heads...

..it's now up to Fuzzy and his American muscle machine

to scrape a final victory.

I built a powerful spinner and I expect to give him a good smacking.

The giant spinner of Fuzzy's Cathadh

is against the UK number one, Michael, and Eruption.

I think we've proved now that we have got the best flipper in the UK.

And we're going to show why the UK is the best in the world.

Newly-crowned champion Michael Oakes has led the UK on a global rampage.

We are Robot Wars champions.

We're going to come here, we're going to do it again,

we're going to go all-out and we're going to destroy our opposition.

Although the UK HAS incurred some casualties.

Now it's up to Michael to use the experience and tactics

he gained becoming champion to show the UK are truly world-class.

Roboteers, stand by.

Three, two, one...

..activate!

They've come 4,624 miles to be here...

Not spinning.

Oh, dear, this is going to...

..Michael and Debbie and Cathadh.

And they're up against the UK champions,

the Texas cattle ranch owners -

# Rollin', rollin', rollin'

# Get them doggies rollin', rawhide! #

Yes, I will never sing again for you.

They need to get that weaponry working, Cathadh here.

Man who once owned a bar called the Lazy Toad Robot Pub and Grill,

he's such a Robot Wars fan.

They need to get that weaponry working.

They're drawing Eruption across the arena floor.

Press on the Dial of Doom - that leads the house robots to come in.

It's Shunt out there.

Cathadh backs away.

In comes Eruption with a full slap - that doesn't work.

This is a durable Cathadh machine we're seeing here.

Chased around by Shunt, is Eruption.

Got out of trouble there, Michael,

got himself into a dangerous zone.

Still the bar spinner isn't working for Cathadh,

So they just draw away, trying to get some precious moments here.

As Eruption comes in, trying to get to the side there and get a flip.

Oh, got a flip,

but it didn't...create too much damage,

a glancing blow only and look at that,

Shunt's weaponry buckled by Eruption.

What a strong machine Eruption is.

The weaponry ripped right off!

Never seen that before!

Now the bar spinner's working for Cathadh.

I'm sure it was working moments ago.

In comes Eruption.

They're trying to keep their weaponry in reserve

to have a go at Eruption.

Eruption comes in with a flip, self-rights.

We expect that from Michael - what a driver he is.

Big flip, very near the low wall.

-Oh, nearly.

-Come on!

That could have sent Cathadh out of the arena completely.

Need to stay away from there, they need to get away from there!

And they just got away.

And they're hanging on in there, Cathadh, at the moment.

Big toss - goodness me!

The spinner's now working!

The one I thought was bad is still working.

Back in the game!

How ironic. The attack from Eruption freed the spinner fully

and it did get some damage in on Eruption.

Well, it worked for while.

Another toss in the air from Eruption on Cathadh.

Showed good driving skills, Michael.

Which allows Eruption, of course,

to get another blast of the flipper in.

And Cathadh in trouble.

And Eruption goes to finish them off.

There's not a lot left in Cathadh - the wheel has gone.

The wheel has gone, which means they can't move.

Eruption senses victory here...

I have no claw.

They're not going to be able to move on one wheel.

They know they've won it.

Very convincing performance

by Eruption and from Team UK.

Pit, pit, pit, pit, pit, pit...

-pit! Yeah!

-CHEERING

Great battling by Cathadh, but it wasn't enough.

Victory for the UK team captain.

Victory for the UK.

The USA beaten.

-Sorry.

-That's all right.

-Was hoping to give you a better fight.

Shunt's weaponry broken

by the Flipper of Eruption.

And then Eruption in underneath Cathadh -

that was very much the tale of the tape, really.

Cathadh needed to get the weaponry moving,

needed to get that big bar spinner into full effect.

It was only when Eruption flipped it up into the air

that released some sort of gizmo in the machine

that the weaponry did come into operation.

Eruption on top throughout,

very good victory for the UK.

Very good heat for the UK, dominant throughout.

See the buckling effect on Eruption there -

it was rocking for a little while

and the flipper took some punishment -

something came off, there, look.

A big ring comes off onto the arena floor,

and then out comes the chain,

the drive chain of the spinner, so that's the end.

There goes the tyre.

From then on, they simply couldn't get around the arena.

They became a toy for Eruption

and the UK champion.

One of the most impressive robots

in the world right now.

Ah, well done!

Now, you started out side-on,

which is not something we normally see -

was that a tactical manoeuvre?

It would have been, had my motor worked.

When you start this, the weapon force goes this way,

so it turns the robot 90 degrees to the right.

So if the weapon had worked,

I would have wound up pointing right at him with my weapon on.

-Ready to go.

-But it took more damage

in the previous fight than I knew and...

And the weapon didn't fire at all? For a while.

It didn't fire for two minutes and at one point...

There's a dead spot somewhere in the motor

-and when you get it off the dead spot, it spins up.

-OK.

So I hit the wall or he hit me, I don't know, and it started spinning.

I got in a few hits, but then it got back on that dead spot

-and it stopped working.

-Wrangling cattle versus wrangling this team -

how has it been for you?

Um... Oh, this has been a great team

and I haven't needed to use any breeders' cubes at all to get them

-to go where they needed to go!

-Brilliant! Well,

we have loved having you here.

Please make some noise for the Rest Of The World team!

Michael, I have these conversations with you semi-regularly

in which I present you with a trophy -

this was a fight that... Well, to be honest, he lay low for two minutes

and then suddenly awoke, but you were in control for most of this.

Yeah, I was thinking he might be playing dead at the start,

so I had to wait until the entanglement fell off

and then spin it up, so that's why was a little bit cautious with

-the flipper.

-How has your team been throughout this competition?

They've been amazing. They all won, so I can't ask much more, really.

Very, very good.

Well, listen - you win the trophy by some distance - could you

please give a huge round of applause to tonight's winners, Team UK!

Well done! We hope you've enjoyed the show.

From all of us here, good night!

Well done! Well done.