{"id":18601,"date":"2018-03-22T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601"},"modified":"2018-03-22T06:56:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T05:56:21","slug":"why-the-cancellation-of-robot-wars-matters-bringbackrobotwars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601","title":{"rendered":"Why the cancellation of Robot Wars matters #BringBackRobotWars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

(right to left) Myself, Tim Richardson, Claire Pollard and Tim Freeburn at Robot Wars in Glasgow<\/p><\/div>\n

Last Friday, Robot Wars<\/a> producers\u00a0Mentorn Media tweeted<\/a>\u00a0that the BBC had declined to commission further series of the popular robot fighting series. Fans of the series immediately took to social media, especially Twitter, under the hashtag #BringBackRobotWars<\/a>\u00a0in the hope that they could find another channel to take it on. I am one of those fans<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I joined the British public in watching Robot Wars during the second series, back in 1998 or 1999. It was enthralling, it was exciting, it was brutal and it captured the part of me which had always been interested in mechanical and electrical engineering. I am the son of a precision engineering toolmaker, and I guess some of that had to rub off eventually, even if I decided not to follow my dad into the family business. Craig Charles brought his trademarked energy to the programme and seemed to be as ‘into it’ as the competitors. The teams were from a wide variety of backgrounds and their creations, which included the famous Razer, Firestorm, Behemoth, Tornado and, my personal favourite, Typhoon exhibited great engineering technique and innovation. When it was cancelled in 2004, the fans felt the loss and, when it was revived in 2014 with new hosts\u00a0Dara \u00d3 Briain<\/a>\u00a0and Angela Scanlon<\/a>, we were equally relieved and overjoyed to see the series return.<\/p>\n

The thing about Robot Wars is this<\/strong>: although the ratings were never at the same level as the lofty heights of Eastenders, or even something more comparable like Blue Planet (and its sequel), it nevertheless appealed to a certain portion of the UK population that wanted to see something a) entertaining and b) inspiring. There’s nothing quite like it on television, frankly. It is\/was unique to UK audiences: a series that focused as much on inspiring the next generation of engineers<\/strong> as it did on entertaining the masses.<\/p>\n

So how does this relate to the Raspberry Pi? Well, simply, without Robot Wars, it is very unlikely that there would be a Pi Wars<\/a><\/strong>, which is now the number one Raspberry Pi robot competition in the world (I know, right!) Back in 2013, when Tim Richardson<\/a> joined me in organising Cambridge Raspberry Jam<\/a>, we were looking for something new to bring to the community. Tim’s question about whether I’d seen Robot Wars, and my answer that I’d been watching it almost from the beginning, and his subsequent suggestion that we should try something like that, but with Raspberry Pis, was directly inspired by the series<\/strong>. (You can read a bit more about the origins of Pi Wars here<\/a>). Although non-destructive (yes, yes, despite the name…), Pi Wars seeks to do exactly the same thing as Robot Wars: a) be entertaining and b) be inspiring. As I recently discussed with some of my Pi community friends: Pi Wars, just like Robot Wars, gives people\u00a0a reason for doing<\/em><\/strong>. There’s a lot to be said for a competition date deadline to focus your mind and even more to be said for designing courses that challenge both the engineering\/electronics skill of the competitors as well as their programming skills.<\/p>\n

That brings us back round to Robot Wars. Many of the teams in the recent three series were inspired by the robots that previous teams had built. Although I can’t find the quotes right now, several have gone onto Twitter to explain that Robot Wars was one of the main, sometimes the primary, reason that they got into engineering and making<\/strong>. Now, I’m not saying that Robot Wars is solely responsible for a huge resurgence in our manufacturing industry or engineering base, but it has certainly helped!<\/p>\n

There’s nothing like Robot Wars on television – although Scrapheap Challenge<\/a>, also cancelled, came close – for providing that spark for young people to get involved with engineering. There’s very little on television, in fact, that focuses on STEM subjects<\/a><\/strong>, an area that we desperately need to grow and that our society, and economy, is going to increasingly rely upon.<\/p>\n

The BBC have, in my opinion, made a huge mistake<\/strong> by cancelling the series, but it’s not too late for them to change their minds or for another channel to pick it up. The arena is still waiting in Glasgow, but it won’t be available forever. It’s vital that fans of the series get behind the campaign and,\u00a0not to put too fine a point on it: #BringBackRobotWars<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

For another perspective on this topic, take a look at Robot Wars Judge Dr Lucy Rogers’ editorial piece over at DesignSpark<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, Robot Wars producers\u00a0Mentorn Media tweeted\u00a0that the BBC had declined to commission further series of the popular robot fighting series. Fans of the series immediately took to social media, especially Twitter, under the hashtag #BringBackRobotWars\u00a0in the hope that they…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,45],"tags":[683,374,682,681,217,680],"class_list":["post-18601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-robotics","tag-angela-scanlon","tag-bbc","tag-dara-obriain","tag-mentorn-media","tag-pi-wars","tag-robot-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy the cancellation of Robot Wars matters #BringBackRobotWars - Raspberry Pi Pod<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the cancellation of Robot Wars matters #BringBackRobotWars - Raspberry Pi Pod\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last Friday, Robot Wars producers\u00a0Mentorn Media tweeted\u00a0that the BBC had declined to commission further series of the popular robot fighting series. Fans of the series immediately took to social media, especially Twitter, under the hashtag #BringBackRobotWars\u00a0in the hope that they…Read more →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Raspberry Pi Pod\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/recantha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T09:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-Team-at-Robot-Wars.jpg?fit=1225%2C698&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"698\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Horne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@recantha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@recantha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Horne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Horne\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c27c4ef2ee1c18b130f1fcd5dcdbb263\"},\"headline\":\"Why the cancellation of Robot Wars matters #BringBackRobotWars\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-22T09:00:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\"},\"wordCount\":792,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-Team-at-Robot-Wars.jpg?fit=1225%2C698&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"angela scanlon\",\"bbc\",\"dara obriain\",\"mentorn media\",\"pi wars\",\"robot wars\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\",\"Robotics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18601\",\"name\":\"Why the cancellation of Robot Wars matters #BringBackRobotWars - 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There are two application forms: The main competition - for those who want to attempt the challenges. Show and Tell -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Competitions"","block_context":{"text":"Competitions","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Logo-v2-RGB-sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Logo-v2-RGB-sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Logo-v2-RGB-sm.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Logo-v2-RGB-sm.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16918,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=16918","url_meta":{"origin":18601,"position":1},"title":"Pi Wars 2018 – register your interest and compete in the international Raspberry Pi-based robotics competition","author":"Michael Horne","date":"19 June 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The organisers of Pi Wars (that'll be me and Geeky Tim!) have just announced the possibility of a 2018 competition! Currently, we're trying to gauge interest and find out how many teams are likely to enter. Rules will be similar to last year\u00a0(especially in terms of permitted robot size) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Competitions"","block_context":{"text":"Competitions","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Logo-v2-RGB-800.jpg?fit=800%2C295&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Logo-v2-RGB-800.jpg?fit=800%2C295&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Logo-v2-RGB-800.jpg?fit=800%2C295&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Logo-v2-RGB-800.jpg?fit=800%2C295&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18996,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18996","url_meta":{"origin":18601,"position":2},"title":"Pi Wars 2019 – Challenges announced, applications open, full speed ahead","author":"Michael Horne","date":"2 July 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Tim and I are delighted to announce that details of the challenges set for Pi Wars 2019 are now available on the Pi Wars website. I've also included links to the individual challenges below. We were delighted to be able to announce this at the Raspberry Fields festival in Cambridge\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Competitions"","block_context":{"text":"Competitions","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/apollo.jpg?fit=1200%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/apollo.jpg?fit=1200%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/apollo.jpg?fit=1200%2C605&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/apollo.jpg?fit=1200%2C605&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/apollo.jpg?fit=1200%2C605&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12902,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12902","url_meta":{"origin":18601,"position":3},"title":"Ipswich Makerspace open-sources their Raspberry Pi robot from Pi Wars","author":"Michael Horne","date":"10 July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith Ellis and the guys over at Ipswich Makerspace\u00a0did brilliantly well with their robot, TractorBot, at last year Pi Wars. They won Best Robot under \u00a375 and placed very respectably in most of the challenges. (You can see the full results here). They have decided to open-source their designs and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Competitions"","block_context":{"text":"Competitions","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ipswichmakerspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/TractorBot.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ipswichmakerspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/TractorBot.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ipswichmakerspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/TractorBot.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ipswichmakerspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/TractorBot.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18934,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18934","url_meta":{"origin":18601,"position":4},"title":"Raspberry Pi and Amazon Alexa come together in this lovely Star Wars Story robot head build","author":"Michael Horne","date":"13 June 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who don't follow cinema avidly, I should first of all say: There's a new Star Wars movie out. This one's called 'Solo' and is about the early day of everyone's favourite smuggler Han Solo. By all accounts (though I haven't seen it for myself), it's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3D printing"","block_context":{"text":"3D printing","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/l3-37.jpg?fit=700%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/l3-37.jpg?fit=700%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/l3-37.jpg?fit=700%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/l3-37.jpg?fit=700%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12957,"url":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12957","url_meta":{"origin":18601,"position":5},"title":"Pi Wars publishes a guide to getting started with Raspberry Pi robotics","author":"Michael Horne","date":"14 July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just finished updating a page on the Pi Wars website that should provide enough information for anyone to get started with Raspberry Pi robotics (and maybe even enter the competition!) It includes a list of things you need to build a robot, recommendations of kits to buy, a list\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Competitions"","block_context":{"text":"Competitions","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pi2golite.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18601"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18607,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601\/revisions\/18607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}