The Antweight Wiki will be offline for maintenance tomorrow (15th August) afternoon/evening. It will be completely unavailable while the work takes place, but should be back online fairly quickly.

This site shouldn't be affected and will remain online.

Maintenance should now be complete.

Repeats of Robot Wars Extreme (Series 1) will start to air on the TV channel Dave from Monday 2nd of August 2010. Starting at 9am, the episodes will be repeated at 2pm and 6pm (and an hour later respectively on Dave Ja Vu).

From the Dave website: "Home-made robots slogging it out in an arena - the aim, to destroy the opposition and land the ultimate accolade, to be the winner of Robot Wars. Let the mayhem begin!".

More information on the show and when it is scheduled to air on Dave can be found on Dave's website.

Tune in Monday 2nd of August, 9am/2pm/6pm to catch the first episode!

While human footballers will be taking part in the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa this June, teams of autonomous robots will be competing in Singapore to lift the trophy in the robotic equivalent, RoboCup.

Running since 1997, RoboCup allows people to build fully autonomous (they operate without any human intervention) teams of robotic football players. The tournament aims to educate and promote research into Artificial Intelligence in a fun way.

RoboCup 2010 will be held at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, 9th - 25th June, 2010. You can find more information on RoboCup 2010 at Robocup2010.org and more information on RoboCup in general at RoboCup.org.

Over 500 robots from 17 countries have been competing in California, for this years RoboGames. The event, billed as the "Robot Olympics" is one of the largest live events in the world and features many different types of robot, that compete in various competitions such as combat, football, hockey and sumo. Each event awards medals to the best performing robots in that category.

RoboGames in held every year in America and has gained popularity amongst audiences and roboteers for not only including combat robots, but also ones designed for other purposes. The variety and number of robots on display at the event has attracted news coverage from all over the world.

Below is a video from Wired.com showing highlights from this years games, and an overview of what makes a winning robot. You can see all of the action and find out more about RoboGames events on the official RoboGames website.

Video courtesy of Wired.com.

This is part two of our top ten round up of what we think are the greatest upsets ever in Robot Wars. Part one was posted earlier in the week, so if you missed it you can catch up by clicking the link below:

» Robot Wars: Top 10 Greatest Upsets Part 1

5. Cassius vs Panic Attack (Series 2)

Cassius was by far the favourite to win Robot Wars Series 2, it was built by the same team who reached the Series 1 grand final with Recyclopse and was the first UK robot to successfully self-right in battle using its flipper arm. The Panic Attack team considered themselves very lucky to have reached the grand final in the first place, after having to run a second playoff gauntlet round in the semi-final to narrowly beat Mace. Nobody thought that the simple box design of Panic Attack could beat the far more effectively armed Cassius.

Once the battle started both robots showed good speed around the arena with Panic Attack even driving straight up Cassius' front ramp. Had Cassius used the flipper at that point, the battle could have been over very quickly. Panic Attack knew that their best chance was to push their opponent down the pit or into the House Robots, and were quick to take advantage when Cassius found itself positioned between them and the pit. They managed to catch Cassius off guard and push it straight down the pit before it had a chance to escape.

4. Chaos 2 vs Bigger Brother (Series 5)

Chaos 2 was the defending champion, having won both Robot Wars Series 3 and 4. Bigger Brother, while reaching the semi-finals in Series 3, went out in round 2 of its heat in Series 4. By this stage many people considered Chaos 2 to be almost unbeatable, although it had a very difficult battle with Wild Thing in the first round of the semi-finals before meeting Bigger Brother.

The battle started with a surprise as Bigger Brother flipped over Chaos 2, which then struggled to self-right and expended a significant amount of the CO2 gas used to power its flipper. Chaos 2 then retaliated, flipping Bigger Brother repeatedly against the pit release button. Shortly afterwards Chaos 2 momentarily stopped over the flame pit, allowing Bigger Brother to flip them over. Chaos 2 did not have enough CO2 left to self-right, and Bigger Brother kept the robot pinned down while Refbot counted them out. This was Chaos 2's first ever loss in the main UK championship.

3. Hypno-Disc vs Pussycat (Series 4)

This appeared to be an easy draw for Hypno-Disc in the first round of the Robot Wars Series 4 grand final, as Pussycat had relatively thin armour and highly exposed wheels. Hypno-Disc had a relatively easy route to the grand final, and after coming second in Series 3 many people predicted it would go all the way in Series 4. If it had beaten Pussycat, the Series 4 grand final would of been a rematch of the Series 3 final against Chaos 2.

As soon as the battle started, Hypno-Disc turned to the side to give it time to spin up the disc before attacking Pussycat. This tactic had worked well against earlier opponents, however this time it allowed Pussycat to drive straight across the arena and hit one of Hypno-Disc's rear wheel guard arches with its blade. The metal bent downwards onto the wheel itself, preventing it from turning and immobilising Hypno-Disc on one side. Pussycat pushed their opponent into the nearby CPZ where House Robot Shunt brought its axe down right into the disc of Hypno-Disc, stopping it instantly. Sir Killalot picked Hypno-Disc up and dropped it into the pit.

2. Razer vs Pussycat (Series 4)

Before meeting Hypno-Disc in the grand final, Pussycat had already caused a major upset in its heat final against the World Champion Razer. While Razer had suffered from mechanical breakdowns in both Series 2 and 3, they had won the First World Championship and looked on good form to do well in Robot Wars Series 4. With Pussycat's weak armour and exposed wheels, the Razer team were confident their three tonne hydraulic crusher could do serious damage to their opponent.

The battle started with Razer attempting to get a grip on Pussycat with its claw, but the unique design of Pussycat made it very difficult to get hold of. Pussycats blade then made contact with Razer and while it didn't appear any damage was sustained, it became apparent that Razer was stuck in forward drive and was not responding to its radio controls. After further examination it turned out that Pussycat's blade had caused the radio control switch inside Razer to fall apart, leaving the team with no control over their machine.

The Razer team were unhappy with the amount of damage Pussycat inflicted after Razer was immobilised, leading to a grudge match in Robot Wars Extreme. The video below includes both fights, the Series 4 one followed by the grudge match.

1. Hypno-Disc vs Bigger Brother (Series 5)

Despite having beaten top seed Chaos 2 on route, Bigger Brother were up against it when they met Hypno-Disc in the first round of the grand final. Bigger Brother knew they had to keep their back panel facing the weapon of their opponent as it was the strongest part of their armour, and had the best chance of withstanding the powerful and hugely destructive spinning disc.

The fight began well for Bigger Brother, as they successfully rammed Hypno-Disc with the stronger rear armour and even attempted to flip their opponent over. Hypno-Disc responded by attacking the sides of Bigger Brother, puncturing huge holes into it and eventually ripping the flipper from its hinges. Bigger Brother was still mobile however and managed to release the pit just as Hypno-Disc was in the ideal place to be pushed into it. For a few moments Hypno-Disc was left teetering on the edge of the pit before Bigger Brother pushed them down to reach the final.

With that, we conclude our round up of the ten greatest Robot Wars upsets of all time! Stay tuned for more in the near future, but in the mean time why not take a look at our section dedicated to Robot Wars?

There were many great upsets on Robot Wars, as the unpredictable nature of the competition meant that it was never easy to predict the outcome of a battle. Viewers were reminded of this time and time again throughout the shows history, as many fights didn't go the way the majority of the audience was expecting them to. This is our top ten list of what we think were the greatest upsets ever. Videos have been included where possible so you can judge for yourself!

This is part one counting down battles ten to six, for places five down to one, continue reading part two by clicking the link below:

» Robot Wars: Top 10 Greatest Upsets Part 2

10. Mace vs Chaos (Series 2)

Chaos was the predecessor to the highly successful twice UK Champion Chaos 2. The team had previous experience in Robot Wars, reaching the grand final of the first series with Robot The Bruce and were anticipated to have similar success with the more advanced Chaos. They reached the heat final without too many difficulties, where they met the similar looking Mace. Unlike Chaos, it was Mace's first competition however the two robots appeared to be evenly matched at the start of the fight. Chaos attempted to flip Mace without success, before being pushed into the House Robot Matilda and being flipped.

Chaos was technically capable of self-righting, unfortunately however the team had forgotten to attach some small pieces of plastic to the back of the robot before the fight. When Chaos fired its flipper it ended up resting on its back with the flipper pointing upwards. Mace attacked the motionless Chaos with its rear mounted flail, and the House Robots moved in. Chaos did get back onto its wheels by the time cease was called, but it had already been immobile for too long and was eliminated from the competition having not even reached the semi-finals.

9. Hypno-Disc vs Nasty Warrior (Extreme 1)

In Robot Wars Extreme Series 1, the highly successful top seed Hypno-Disc fought the newcomer Nasty Warrior, in a UK vs Germany special. Hypno-Disc seemed assured of an easy victory, as the German machine was not very well armoured and did not possess any particularly potent weaponry. As predicted Hypno-Disc began very strongly, spinning its flywheel up to speed and causing significant damage to Nasty Warrior from the very start of the battle.

After a while it appeared that Hypno-Disc was losing power, something which had happened in several of its battles in Extreme 1 due to a wiring fault that remained undetected until the start of the Fifth Wars later that year. Eventually, the disc stopped spinning and the machine came to a complete halt. Refbot counted Hypno-Disc out, leaving the very damaged Nasty Warrior as the victor.

8. Tornado vs Diotoir (Series 5)

Tornado won the Best Newcomer award in Series 4, and had a very impressive run during Robot Wars Extreme Series 1, defeating then reigning champion Chaos 2 twice and winning and retaining two Challenge Belts. The Diotoir team did have experience on their side however, as they had competed in every single series of Robot Wars up to that point. With a couple of exceptions, they had never really had any great success and never took the competition too seriously. As a result, they won the Sportsmanship award several times, but were not expected to beat the more powerful and successful Tornado.

From the start Diotoir were under pressure, Tornado having a reputation for being very persistent in combat and not letting their opponents get away from them for long. To everybody's great surprise however Diotoir managed to keep going, even attacking and managing to push Tornado on a number of occasions. The strain of a prolonged fight eventually began to tell on Tornado, and one of their drive chains broke allowing Diotoir to open the pit and push them in.

7. Cassius 2 vs Pussycat (Series 3)

Both the Cassius 2 and Pussycat teams were very experienced, having competed in the previous two series of Robot Wars. Both were former grand finalists, the Pussycat team reached the Series 1 final with Bodyhammer and finished second overall, while the original Cassius came second overall in Series 2. Going into the fight Cassius 2 appeared the favourite, after its success in the Second Wars and the fact that while many people liked Pussycat's unusual design, they didn't believe it had the capability to win a difficult fight.

Indeed, Cassius 2 started very strongly by pushing Pussycat all around the arena before knocking it onto its side. Pussycat's unique design allowed to self-right very quickly and as Cassius 2 lined up to knock it down the pit, Pussycat moved out of the way causing Cassius to drive straight past and into the pit itself. Cassius 2 did have a rear pneumatic spike designed to push the robot back out of the pit, but as the robot went in sideways the spike was ineffective, and Pussycat won the fight.

Unfortunately I can't embed the video but it is available to watch on Youtube (approx 7 mins in).

6. Bigger Brother vs Iron Awe 2.1 (Series 7)

Despite the very powerful axe and flipper Iron Awe had never had much success in previous series, going out in the early rounds in Series 4, 5 and 6. It looked like it would again be defeated in round two when it met the popular and successful Bigger Brother, who had reached the grand final of Series 5 and the later round of the Series 6 semi-finals. Bigger Brother was more maneuverable, better driven and seemed to make better use of its flipper weaponry than Iron Awe was ever able to.

Once again the favourite to win, Bigger Brother, started well by throwing Iron Awe up into the air repeatedly with its flipper. Iron Awe was slow to recover and it seemed only a matter of time before Bigger Brother would claim victory. However the House Robot Shunt momentarily prevented Bigger Brother from moving freely when it strayed too near the CPZ and Iron Awe was able to take full advantage, getting its powerful flipper right underneath their opponent and throwing Bigger Brother over the arena side wall.

RoboChallenge have posted a writeup of yesterday's episode of The Gadget Show, in which presenters Jason Bradbury and Ortis Deley were tasked with building the ultimate fighting robot. The Gadget Show robot faced three of the best Featherweights in the country, and although it suffered multiple technical problems throughout the show they emerged victorious in the end, winning two out three fights.

The official writeup can be found on the RoboChallenge website, and you can also see the whole episode on the Gadget Show website.

The Robot Wars episode was warmly received, and within minutes of it airing on Five, the term "Robot Wars" became one of the most popular topics on Twitter! Hopefully the publicity will renew interest in Robot Wars and robot combat.

RoboChallenge will be appearing with some well known Featherweight robots on the Gadget Show this Monday (15th March). Two Gadget Show presenters are challenged to build the toughest robot possible to take on the RoboChallenge robots in a Robot Wars style contest.

Be sure to watch Channel Five, at 8:00pm Monday 15th March 2010 to catch all the action!

A preview of the show is available below:

There have been various small changes and additions to the website since it launched. Many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors have been corrected! From now on, we are hoping to update the website approximately twice a month. This will hopefully avoid the past situations where the site has been updated with new stuff multiple times in a single week and then had nothing added for several months.

In the first of these updates, new pages have been added to the Bobblebot section in Our Robots. This includes the original build diary, which we kept when we built Bobblebot back in 2004, as well the original concept ideas for the robot. More updates are planned here in the future, including a complete technical rundown of all the components used in Bobblebot. The Robot Wars and Antweights section have also seen general updates, but there are plans to expand the information available in those areas in the very near future.

Well, it's taken over two years but the new website is finally here! It was a little later than planned due to unforeseen server problems, but all the main areas of the site should be now be online and working. This is the first of two phases in the re-launch. Currently, all the content is near identical to previous versions of the site. Phase 2 will result in most of the pages being rewritten and updated to reflect the many changes that occurred in the roboteering world since they were first written. This process will take place over the next few weeks, so expect pages to change quite a bit in that period! To find out more about the changes, and the ones that have already been made, read on...

What's Changed So Far?

Quite a lot! The biggest difference is the new look the website has been given. The new site takes inspiration from the earlier versions of Bobblebot.co.uk, which featured much darker designs than more recent iterations. Items such as the search box and menus have been made clearer, and the home page has been given an overhaul that makes it less cluttered and easier to understand.

The search box has also been changed to hopefully encourage greater numbers of people to use it. Once you have started typing a few characters a drop down box appears instantly showing you pages relevant to your search. You can click on a page itself to go straight to that content, or click the section that page appears in if you wish to see all the information we have on the subject.

There have been various enhancements right across the site, menus now show your current page, hopefully reducing confusion and consistent "breadcrumb" navigation now appears on all pages of the site. Overall navigation has hopefully been made clearer and easier to use, as well as splitting up content into related categories and being better able to cope with the future growth of the site.

How do I report a problem with the site?

The chances of you running across minor (hopefully not major!) problems when using the site are probably going to be quite high - for a while at least. While a large amount of testing has taken place, things may not work quite right as we adjust the site over the next few weeks. Problems will be fixed as soon as possible, however we may not be aware that a particular problem exists unless you tell us!

To report a problem you've found, please email us at bobblebot[AT]dsl.pipex.com. Thank you!

Future Plans

Over the next few weeks and months, several upgrades are planned to the site. Currently, no set schedule is in place so these could appear tomorrow or not appear for months! For now the main priority is to make sure the site is working properly, then move on to re-writing the content so everything is up to date. Neither of these should be very large tasks, with both hopefully being completed by around Easter time.

In the mean time we hope you enjoy using the new site, stay tunes for more updates soon!