Brentwood School reaches Ten Robot Rumble

The school's robot may have been expelled from the Robot Wars bulletproof arena, but the team did enough to secure a place in the Ten Robot Rumble

Posted by Julian Owen | December 01, 2017 | Events

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• #brentwood-school
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• #thomas-walland
• #bbc

Brentwood School's new and improved robot, EXPULSION, finished third in its episode, and so qualified to compete in the 10-way challenge in a bid to claim a wild card in the forthcoming BBC Robot Wars final (Sunday 3rd December).

Mr Thomas Walland, STEM Coordinator at Brentwood School, said: “The experience of watching Robot Wars on television and actually participating in it is, of course, very different. It’s not until you participate that you realise what goes on behind the scenes. It’s like going into another world, with the lights, cameras, smoke machines, and noise but, while impressed by all the glamour, our students weren’t distracted from the important job in hand – making their robot the best it could be. This, in itself, was a very useful skill which they’ll carry with them into the workplace.

“We hope that our roboteers’ experience will further inspire students around the world to get into robotics – especially girls.”

The School’s young roboteers, Team Captain Georgina Henwood, Rebecca Ashford, Juliette Skilling and Harry Millsom, will face the menacing house robots, deadly arena hazards and nine other robots in a prelude to the illustrious grand finale.

Expulsion

Sunday’s episode will open with the biggest battle in Robot Wars history, as the second and third-place robots from the heats (including EXPULSION) battle it out in a ten-way, no time limit, last-robot-standing fight to the death to determine the sixth robot in the final.

For the Ten Robot Rumble, viewers will see the Brentwood team attempt a new tactic. Rebecca explained: “We camouflaged our robot to make it difficult for our opponents. Tune in to see what happens.”

Mr Walland added: “As well as gaining valuable technical skills, the experience has helped our students to gain valuable confidence - they’ve learned that they are always going to fail at some point and that by failing they are learning and can come back stronger each time.

“Taking part in these competitions also requires the students to problem solve, think strategically and creatively, to be able to outwit their opponents, all of whom are trying to sabotage their attempts. Students have to put themselves in the other team’s shoes and pre-empt their actions – it’s like high-speed chess on wheels!”