Robot Wars is a 1990s phenomenon in which amateurs compete in a tournament-style contest to see whose remote-controlled robot is the best at fighting. The first contests were held in the San Francisco area, and were inspired by the artwork of San Francisco artist Mark Pauline and his Survival Research Labratories.
Robot Wars has since become a successful British television series, which has attracted a large cult following. The TV series is less anarchic than the American version and has well-defined rules, classes and a tournament structure. In turn the series was remade in the US for television. Reruns are shown on PBS and TechTV in America. Versions of the show have been shown in many different countries, including Sweden, Italy and Ireland. In some countries that prefer not to use the English commentary, the show is dubbed, in others commentary is provided by native-speaking commentators who attend the recordings in the UK.
There have been at least six series so far, each hosted by Craig Charles (Red Dwarf), though the first series was co-hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. Philippa Forrester has also co-hosted except for one series.
The competition which forms most of the televised part of Robot Wars is the heavyweight class, with a maximum all-up weight of 100kg (this was increased from 80kg after the first three series). The rules allow electric or liquid-fuel power (though in the latter case fuel carried is strictly limited to five minutes running time), and permits any weapons that remain attached to the main vehicle (i.e. projectiles, flame throwers, and water cannons are banned). The "robots" are in fact not true robots since they are not autonomous but remotely controlled by their operating teams.
There are a variety of games played, though the main knockout arena game is the most popular. Other games have included obstacle courses, robot football, and tug of war. In some games, including the main arena game, there are additional "house robots" who patrol certain areas of the arena. If a robot enters those zones, the house robots are permitted to join in and add to the general chaos. There are other hazards in the arena - for example a pit can be opened into which a robot may fall and become trapped (in later series, the pit can be opened by any robot activating a switch on the arena wall). There is also a powerful flipper which can fling a robot across the arena, retracting spikes, flame torches and cutting wheels built into the arena sidewalls. The house robots are not bound by the same rules as the competitors, and are generally much larger and heavier, as well as being professionally built. In general the winner is the last robot still functioning. In the event of a tie or disputed outcome, there is a panel of adjudicators who judge based on "style, control, damage, and aggression".
In the first series, and to a lesser extent the second series, competitors' robots were very diverse, with all sorts of untried designs being put forward. After a while competitors designs tended to converge to a few established successful designs. In later series, it was often the same teams and robots that ended up reaching the final stages of the contest. Successful design types include:
- Wedges with flippers - can get under an opponent and flip them over.
- Invertible flat boxes - are immune to being flipped by wedges. Weaponry varies; often a cutting disk is used.
- Jaws - can enclose a competitor and crush/pierce it. This requires enormous force but there have been some very successful attempts.
- Stored energy weapons - heavy flywheels have proved very successful in causing damage
The champions of UK Robot Wars have been: Series 1 - RoadBlock Series 2 - Panic Attack Series 3 - Chaos 2 Series 4 - Chaos 2 Series 5 - Razer Series 6 - Tornado
See also: Battlebots, Techno Games
