Robot Wars

by Phil Thomas 8th July 1998

So I decided that I had had enough of waiting and sent off an email kindly inquiring why they had not sent the application form. Okay so I actually said can someone pull their finger out and sort their end out because I was sick of waiting. Strangely enough I got a phonecall from the associate producer half an hour later and she sent all the information out to us straight away. However this meant we know had two and a half months less than everyone else to build and design a robot.

The team now comprises of myself, Rik Allen, Theo Markettos Duncan Mcpherson, Andrew Berridge and Ben Hodson. Substantial help has been given by engineering. In particular, Dave Atkinson, Graham Baker, Keith Reynolds and Jason Hillsdon. Okay well lets be honest, we come up with the cardboard models and they make the metal versions.

The team name is "Lets make things flatter" and the Robot's name has been changed from Whoabert to "Tender Caress". Basically she is a circular robot with double weapons on the front - a set of metal cutting saws and discs and a on the back a ramp with a large spike to puncture them with. She is very sturdy and will be able to 'sidewind' when she is fully operational. There are a few pictures below of the work in progress but unfortunatley the only record of the cardboard models is on a video tape we are keeping of whats happening.

Here Graham is trying to puzzle out exactly what we meant him to do with the cardboard models we made, although he might also be laughing at our pathetic attempts at engineering.
The top of the robot which Keith is welding for us. The top frame is made up of inch and a half tube. Very chunky.
The parrot stands guard over the robot in its current state. By the time PRL update is put out, all the motors should be mounted and the weapon in place. The wheels (and gears done by Dave and Jason) should be working and it might be trundling around the carpark. The only drawback is that we hoped to test the robot on Leo Polls kit car donor but he has removed it from PRL :(

Over the weekend just past we should have sorted out the RF control and the speed controllers etc. The next step will be to weigh it and then calculate how much body armour we can have and what thickness it can be. Selection is on the 18th July and 75 out of 300 entries will be chosen. We aim to be one of those selected and then totally annihilate the opposition by fair means or foul. Which I hasten to add does not mean we would cheat, just that we might accidently drop large heavy brass weights into the other robots inner workings when no one is looking.