This week on the Gadget Show, Jason and Ortis are given the most brutal of challenges. Design and build a  gadget filled fighting robot to take on some of Europe’s toughest machines!

The Gadget Show gave Robo Challenge the task of producing the robot and organising the Robot Wars style event/supplying  the arena to compete in. With such a short deadline the crew were against the clock to complete this tough challenge.

Grant (robot man) lead the robot design and build. Using only the most hi-tech parts available the crew  designed and built ‘Satan’s Mutt’ often working until the early hours of morning to get the special project ready in time for the event.

Nick (ninja computer programmer) & John produced the software which made controlling the robot with a Wii remote and Wii fit board possible. There were many obstacles and problems which needed to be overcome and with the very short deadline it only added on the pressure. In the end Nick and John produce an excellent piece of software which allowed Jason & Ortis to view their telemetry and adjust the rates to improve the controllability.

James organised the event and Robo Challenge Arena build. The Gadget Show competition had to be filmed in an environment which not only looked great for TV but was most importantly safe. The Robo Challenge arena is the only arena in the UK which is fully enclosed in bullet proof polycarbonate. This made it the only arena where filming the Gadget Show episode would be possible.

The Robot Wars episode aired on March 15th 2010 on Channel Five.  You can watch the full action packed episode below.

The Episode was so popular that within minutes of the episode airing on Channel Five, the term ‘Robot Wars’ was trending on twitter.

Heres what some of you said: -

“gotta be one of the best eps ever!” - Jason Bradbury

“Big Congrats to the @Robochallenge crew. A huge success it seems. Done loads for getting robot combat back in the public eye. :-)” - Dave Lawrie

“What a fantastic challenge. Top marks to the @robochallenge guys. Check them out.” - The Gadget Show