0:00:20 > 0:00:24Today is the last round of this year's British Pedal Car Championship.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27It's about taking a car and racing it around the track
0:00:27 > 0:00:30as quickly as you can with only human power.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48It's theoretically non-contact but there are a few bumps and scrapes along the way.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52As the last race of the season, the championship is going to be decided
0:00:52 > 0:00:56today and there are a number of teams hoping to win that top spot.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00I think car five,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03the BAR car is probably going to win the championship today.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Today's favourite is probably number five.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07Favourite for the overall has to be number five.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26The main goals of this car was to firstly build in reliability
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and then really to make a car that was as fast as possible,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32as safe as possible
0:01:32 > 0:01:36but at the same time wore the driver out as little as possible.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40This weekend hopefully we're going to go out and win the race
0:01:40 > 0:01:42and that will actually see us win the championship.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07On the car, the driver puts his feet onto the pedals,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09turns the pedals with his legs
0:02:09 > 0:02:11which drives the chain.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18This turns the two axles...
0:02:22 > 0:02:26..which drive each of the wheels that are attached to the axles.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Where the axles turn, we have two holes,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34which we need to make these bolts on the wheels actually lock into
0:02:34 > 0:02:38so that when the axle moves, the wheel rotates as well.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40So just put the wheel on.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06Now if I turn the axle, you'll see the whole wheel will turn as well.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The front wheels move differently to the back wheels.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15On our car, the front axles are fixed
0:03:15 > 0:03:18and what happens is the wheel itself moves
0:03:18 > 0:03:20because it has bearings inside.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27So on the rear wheels, the wheels are actually attached to the axle.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29The axle and the wheel move together.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32On the front wheels, the axle is fixed.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35The wheels have bearings and the wheels are able to move separately.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49Come on, you two.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06We're about halfway through the race now, we're currently leading.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11There's still a long way to go so it's a little bit too early to say that it's in the bag.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Obviously if you're going fast, you also need to be able to stop quickly.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24On our brakes, when you pull the handle
0:04:24 > 0:04:28it actually pushes apart the two brake shoes.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Brake shoes have got a friction surface here
0:04:36 > 0:04:42which actually touches against the hub and slows the wheel down.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44You can see that, like this.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28The steering mechanism has got two rods that control the two wheels
0:05:28 > 0:05:31so that as you turn the central steering column,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35it turns both wheels at the same time so when you're going round a corner,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39both wheels face in the same direction.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45We've currently got eight minutes left.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57The race itself could well come down to a sprint finish on the last lap.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10The body is built from a combination
0:06:10 > 0:06:13of carbon fibre and fibreglass.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Carbon fibre is very good for the body work of a pedal car
0:06:16 > 0:06:20because it's very lightweight but very, very strong.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22It's designed to be very aerodynamic,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25to take the air above the driver and around the driver.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30It's better to have a nice streamlined, rounded shape
0:06:30 > 0:06:36at the front and at the tail, rather then a big flat nose at the front.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40That's why we bring the body over the front of the driver
0:06:40 > 0:06:43so their head isn't sticking out into the air flow.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57Two minutes!
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Well done, Martin.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21'I'm a really happy man, won the championship,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24'long time a-coming. Really happy.'
0:07:27 > 0:07:28THEY CHEER
0:07:28 > 0:07:33'The car's made a real difference, it's actually made the team'
0:07:33 > 0:07:36much stronger and it's been reliable, it's finished all the races.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38It's made a big difference to us.
0:07:44 > 0:07:51I wanted to create something really beautiful and mystical and magical
0:07:51 > 0:07:56to appear in the street as if by magic.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00We'd never taken on anything this big and this complicated.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03DRAGON ROARS
0:08:22 > 0:08:24The process of getting in the dragon,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28we have an order that it goes in, otherwise it just doesn't work.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55When you're designing and building something as large as this,
0:08:55 > 0:09:00it's really important to bear in mind the weight of it
0:09:00 > 0:09:06and the materials you use, just make them as light as possible.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18We've put a big counterweight at the back in the tail.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45So we have a very simple mechanism here
0:09:45 > 0:09:48that we've used to open and close the jaw,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53and it's using a normal, common-or-garden bicycle brake cable,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55you can see the cable there.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Winnie is just going to pull the cable now
0:10:01 > 0:10:05and you see the mouth is opening and closing.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09Just behind, I've put in a bit of bungee, a bit of bungee elastic
0:10:09 > 0:10:14and that's what pulls the mouth back into position.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18The brake cable pulls it open and the bungee snaps it shut.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49So these are our beautiful dragon's eyeballs.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53We make these work moving left and right and up and down
0:10:53 > 0:10:56by connecting them electronically
0:10:56 > 0:10:58to some little machines called servos.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02I'm turning this lever here, on the right,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and then that movement
0:11:05 > 0:11:08travels all the way up these wires and into this little box here.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34DRAGON ROARS
0:12:21 > 0:12:24We've learnt a lot from the previous Mars Rovers.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26We've seen what problems they've had -
0:12:26 > 0:12:29indeed one of them is stuck in sand at the moment.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34So we've tried to factor that into our design to make this the best Rover yet.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37The Mars yard is designed to be our primary test facility.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39The sands here are very carefully chosen such that we think
0:12:39 > 0:12:42they're quite representative of soils we'd find on Mars.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46The idea of this is that we do all our testing here
0:12:46 > 0:12:50so when the Rover gets to Mars, we know how it's going to behave and how to control it.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10So Bruno has lots of ways to move around Mars. He can follow curves
0:13:10 > 0:13:13much the same way that an Earthbound car would do.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25He can spin on the spot in what we call a point-turn move.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40But something that's unique to this particular mission
0:13:40 > 0:13:42is that we can wheel walk.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45We can walk on our wheels, much like an insect would,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49which is a more stable way of moving if we get into trouble.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06When I type in the command, I want Bruno to do from the laptop,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10that's sent over a wireless network, the same you'd find in your house
0:14:10 > 0:14:13actually, to the back of the rover, and that interprets it.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17The onboard computers interpret that command and give individual commands
0:14:17 > 0:14:20to all of the wheels to move in a certain way.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49My name is Claire Wilson.
0:15:49 > 0:15:55I was born fully sighted but, as a child, I had childhood eye cancer
0:15:55 > 0:15:58which meant that I could see very well until I was about seven,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02seven and a half and then I lost it very suddenly.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05The time is 1:02pm.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23When you're visually impaired, you can do almost anything
0:16:23 > 0:16:26that anybody can do but you just have to find
0:16:26 > 0:16:28different ways of doing some of the things.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35I'm able to do all sorts of everyday tasks that people do.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39I can cook and do my own cleaning and things like that.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46Probably one of the most difficult things in everyday life
0:16:46 > 0:16:49is actually identifying things.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48Baked beans.
0:17:59 > 0:18:00'Baked beans.'
0:18:19 > 0:18:21'Dog food.'
0:18:23 > 0:18:25'Tomatoes.'
0:18:29 > 0:18:31'Soya mince.'
0:18:34 > 0:18:36'Garlic puree.'
0:18:38 > 0:18:42In most cases, when something crops up as a problem,
0:18:42 > 0:18:46there is a solution to it, with a few creative minds involved.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52Is your dinner OK, Whitty?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50The way we started the construction today
0:19:50 > 0:19:54was by first setting out where the corner posts of the shed would be.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57It's very important that we get this first stage done
0:19:57 > 0:20:00as accurately as possible, so that in the later stages
0:20:00 > 0:20:03we can follow the design properly and everything fits
0:20:03 > 0:20:05where it's meant to.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07Filling.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26In some situations we want to join two pieces together,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30but where they join together is going to be quite weak so we do
0:20:30 > 0:20:34something called a splice connection, where we put the two pieces together
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and then we got an off-cut, an extra piece of wood
0:20:37 > 0:20:40that was lying around, maybe half a metre long,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44and we laid that across the joint where they join together
0:20:44 > 0:20:45and nail it in.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49If we put enough nails in and we separate them properly,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52then hopefully this middle section will be as strong
0:20:52 > 0:20:54as the rest of the beam.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59If we had, for instance, just one nail through a joint,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01the two pieces of wood could actually pivot
0:21:01 > 0:21:03with respect to each other, which we don't really want.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07So we want at least two nails, better to have three.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13Next, we constructed the side walls as panels
0:21:13 > 0:21:16and then these could be lifted up
0:21:16 > 0:21:20without actually having to dig foundations
0:21:20 > 0:21:21for all the other columns.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27The next stage is to add a little bit of
0:21:27 > 0:21:29what's called horizontal stability.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36This means if you had two posts like this and the wind blew across,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38they could just fall over,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43so we add what's called bracing, which goes diagonally across,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45so when we have a force pushing,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47the force goes down and through the bracing.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50So actually, we're doing what we call triangulation.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Instead of a square, we're making triangles,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57and a triangle is the stiffest and strongest shape that we can have.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12Next, we add rafters which are the sloping members on the roof.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Again, we put some bracing to add some more horizontal stability,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18make the roof nice and rigid.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30And that's the basic structure done.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Yay!
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Shelter is very important for people who have lost their house
0:22:54 > 0:23:00due to either natural catastrophes like floodings, earthquakes, tsunamis
0:23:00 > 0:23:03or it could be because of war and displacement.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Shelter is going to provide you the privacy for your family
0:23:07 > 0:23:09so you can stay together,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12but also it will give you a roof to protect you
0:23:12 > 0:23:17against the elements - the rain, the snow, the heat and so on.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24This is where we have on display different types of structure.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27There are three different types of shelter that we provide.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32The most basic one is made of rope, wooden poles and plastic sheeting.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Then we have the tent,
0:23:34 > 0:23:39and finally the semi-permanent structure made of wood, poles
0:23:39 > 0:23:43and other kind of materials that we can find locally.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46The material that we are using has to be able to answer
0:23:46 > 0:23:49to different types of climate from cold climate to very hot climate.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54The basic shelter that we can provide
0:23:54 > 0:23:58to a population, to a family is made of plastic sheeting...
0:23:59 > 0:24:01..rope
0:24:01 > 0:24:03and wooden poles.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07This is the basic frame of the shelter.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10So we have one and two wooden poles,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13four pegs, a rope.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17Those ropes to give the strength of the structure.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26Next stage will be to put the plastic sheeting on the frame.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Here we have now a basic emergency shelter
0:24:42 > 0:24:46where people can spend their first night protected from the rain.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Of course, this is very basic
0:24:48 > 0:24:52and we will need to upgrade it for longer use.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01The basic components of that tent are
0:25:01 > 0:25:0424 aluminium poles of the same length,
0:25:04 > 0:25:0712 connectors,
0:25:07 > 0:25:1015-20 iron pegs,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13some ropes.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Then the canvas,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26the shade nets to shade the tent from the sun.
0:25:28 > 0:25:34So we are now in the tent, this tent is made for medical activities.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Here is made for surgery and medical consultation.
0:25:38 > 0:25:44The basic framework of the tent, we have plastic carpet on the floor
0:25:44 > 0:25:47which is easy to clean and it's waterproof,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50so you don't get humidity coming from the ground.
0:25:51 > 0:25:57This tent is designed to be erected within half an hour.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59You arrive, half an hour after,
0:25:59 > 0:26:04you can already start performing your medical operation.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15The plastic in the whole tent is easily transported
0:26:15 > 0:26:18because we can fold it in a very nice way,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23so you reduce the volume and you can compact it into a simple bag.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27This whole tent can fit into four of those small bags.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Those four small bags can then go into a bigger bag
0:26:31 > 0:26:34that will contain the tent and all the options,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36meaning that we can easily airlift
0:26:36 > 0:26:39or transport those tents to any place in the world.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Semi-permanent is the transition
0:26:48 > 0:26:51between emergency shelter or tents
0:26:51 > 0:26:56and more permanent construction made of bricks, rocks or concrete.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16We use material that can be found locally.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19The advantage of the bamboo compared to the wood - in terms of structure,
0:27:19 > 0:27:24it has the same resistance, you can build huge things just with bamboo.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28It also has less impact on the environment if you chop down bamboos
0:27:28 > 0:27:33rather then wood, because it's a more sustainable agriculture, the bamboo.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38One of the key issues with the plastic sheeting is the way you
0:27:38 > 0:27:45fix it to a frame, because it will be fixed mainly with a nail,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48but if the nail is not attached to something firm
0:27:48 > 0:27:51on the plastic sheeting, with the wind and the time,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55the plastic sheeting will move and detach itself from the structure.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01Therefore with a very simple technique, we are going to fix firmly
0:28:01 > 0:28:05the nail to the plastic sheeting through, for instance,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08the re-use of a bottle cap like we have here.
0:28:12 > 0:28:17Here we've been using an old truck tyre to make hinges for a door,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19it's very low-tech and it works.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22We have to be adaptable and use
0:28:22 > 0:28:25all kinds of material that we can find locally around the world.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk