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Nissan has been sponsoring the Champions League for a number of years now so to promote their connection of smart cars and grassroots football PitchR was created!
PitchR is capable of autonomously drawing football pitches anywhere in the world! The fully custom built rover uses its on board GPS to precisely paint a football pitch of any configuration. While the aircraft grade machined aluminium chassis and motors enabled PitchR to step over the lines it had painted.
Our friends at Unit9 commissioned us to design and develop the physical rover while they developed the intelligent software. Fitting such a complex and intricate drive system into the sleek chassis required creating an innovative new drive platform. Entirely machined from billet aircraft grade aluminium, each wheel & leg was independently controllable to enable PitchR to step over painted lines, adjust its weight balance and turn on the spot making PitchR an incredibly versatile robot. Once we had developed the chassis we had to install a dual paint system and the clever electronics to control the robot. Finally the bodywork was entirely 3D printed and finished to the high Nissan concept car standard.
The results were incredible. In just 3 months of design, development and testing PitchR was painting football pitches. This is just the beginning of the Nissan Football Lab and we are excited to see where PitchR goes next!
We are really excited to have been the authors for the brand new Robot Wars – Build Your Own Robot book published by Haynes. To celebrate, we are releasing an exclusive limited edition print of the blueprints for the Challenger robot featured in the Robot Wars book. The blueprints will be printed on archival paper using traditional printing methods. Each print, measuring 75cm x 56cm, will be signed by the authors James & Grant Cooper and will come with a signed copy of the Robot Wars book.
Robo Challenge were commissioned to write the official Robot Wars book as we are the builders of the infamous house robots & the robotics team behind the new era of the show. This Manual will provide a unique behind-the-scenes look at the show – the arena, and both house and competitors’ robots, and will provide step-by-step extensively illustrated instructions for building three project robots, from a simple ‘self-navigating’ robot, to a fully controllable Robot Wars challenger. Essential reading for all Robot Wars fans.
These Challenger blueprints along with a signed copy of the book is £75 + £10 delivery. The prints will be dispatched as soon as they are printed and released at the end of October.
2017 saw the World Ski Championships hosted in St Moritz, Switzerland. With such a high profile event on the horizon, telecoms giant Swisscom wanted to reach out to fans and get their messages of support across to the athletes. What better way to do it than huge snow drawings!
London based production company Unit9 were assigned the challenge and needed a partner to help bring this ambitious idea to life. We worked with the team to help develop 3 GPS controlled self driving snow blowers and modified them to make the perfect drawings. These 3 rovers were then sent on a 15km mission to write inspirational messages to the atheltes on a huge 1.5km long snow canvass.
The results were incredible. The drawings could be seen by helicopter and on the slopes where the 2017 World Championships were taking place. The online content reached 1.5 million views and gained some incredible media attention.
To inspire people at home to get involved in Sport Relief, Blue Peter presenter Lindsay Russell became the Wave Runner. In a feat never attempted before, Lindsay set about preparing to cross the Irish Sea in nothing more than an inflatable zorb ball.
Being such an ambitious project Blue Peter needed a crack team of experts who could not only design and create a custom zorb ball but could develop something unique to cope with the rigours of crossing an ocean. Robo Challenge were immediately brought in to consult on the project to ensure the unique challenge could be successfully completed safely. We developed a special rig which was tested with the RNLI to ensure the ball couldn’t roll over or sink in heavy seas.
The results were amazing. Despite weather conditions not being suitable Lindsay managed an incredible 30km before the wind took her too far off course. It was an amazing achievement which inspired Blue Peter views to get involved in Sport Relief and we were very proud to have helped Lindsay make the challenge possible.
Reverse Engineers is an amazing show on Channel 4 which sees Rachel Riley, joined by Alex Brooker & Jamie Laing, design and create some incredible future tech using innovative green energy.
To make the show possible Lemonade Money TV contacted Robo Challenge to talk through this ambitious new show and develop ideas that might just work. We were then tasked with modifying existing green technologies such as Bio Beans & Pavgen’s energy producing tiles to develop some innovative new products for the show which might just take off in todays world. Behold the Kinetic Staircase, the Bio Beans furniture & Coffee paint!
This was such a fun project to work on which required lots of creative thinking, problem solving and most importantly, big tech builds!
Skylanders Superchargers is the latest game in the iconic Skylanders series which sees out of this world vehicles race on imaginary circuits. One of the great features in the game is Supercharging your vehicle by adding modifications for more speed & power!
The Moment & AKQA, creative PR companies from London, thought what better way to launch this exciting new game than to supercharge an actual vehicle, Skylanders style! It was an amazing idea but somehow it needed bringing to life. Robo Challenge was promptly tasked with getting a standard sleigh, towed by a donkey, and revamping it into a supercharged, super awesome, super speedy sleigh to take on Chaos, the villain from the game. The results were amazing! A huge flame throwing Molten Booster exhaust was added along with the Ink Jets & a Rift Engine straight out of the game.
2016 saw the return of the iconic robot battling show ‘Robot Wars‘ on BBC 2. Presented by Dara O’Brain & Angela Scanlon, this exhilarating show sees amateur builders create their own fighting robots at home. Each team brings their creation to the bullet proof Robot Wars Arena in an all out contest to be crowned Robot Wars Champions.
With such groundbreaking advances in technology and specialist know-how required to make the show possible, Mentorn TV needed a partner to help make this reboot a reality. We jumped at the opportunity to help bring back the show which was a huge inspiration to our team. Our headline project though was to design and create the iconic House Robots. These included Sir Killalot, Matilda, Shunt & Dead Metal which were all created in house at Robo Challenge. All hugely upgraded, modernised and more brutal than ever, these giant guardians of the arena are ready to take on any competitors that stray into their zones! Robo Challenge also provided key consultancy services to help design the new arena, develop how the format works and create new rules & safety regulations for teams appearing on the show. Our experienced team also ran the technical side of the event during filming to ensure the battles ran smoothly and to the highest safety standards.
We were delighted to be part of such an iconic show which returned to BBC 2 for three series and 4 special episodes. A show that enlivens, inspires, teaches and entertains.
Midlands based toy inventor/distributor Wow Stuff! wanted to raise the international profile of their exciting new toy, the Attacknid. A six legged remote control combat spider toy. With competitors marketing budgets being so high Wow Stuff needed a different solution that would grab people’s attention, something that would give their marketing campaign the wow factor! The idea was to create an army of 5ft tall fully working Attacknids which would be sent all over the world to gain media attention at unique events. All Wow Stuff needed was a team that could bring the idea to life! We were immediately brought in to consult our client on how to make such an ambitious PR stunt a reality. The wide range of expertise at Robo Challenge enabled us to design the 85kg mechanical spiders and run simulations to ensure this unique proposal was achievable within our clients budget & tight timescales. Our team then set to work to produce the 5ft tall combat creatures in house before being shipped to the UK, Europe, UAE & USA.
With any business you always get the weird and wonderful projects that you don’t quite know how to complete. We wanted to build 5ft versions of our 1ft toys and found Robo Challenge who were the perfect people to use. They can create anything, from anything! In their workshop full of machines and rapid prototypers, they’re skilled and driven to create any project from PR stunts to launch events. Always working around the clock to meet deadlines, Robo Challenge cannot just build masterpieces but create custom programs or applications too. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for your next ‘crazy’ project.- Chris Hood, Wow Stuff.
Technology – 3D CAD design, simulation & rendering, sculpting, model making and fibreglass composites, mechanical engineering, arduino, custom software, airbrushing, remote control, motors and electronic systems.
Outcomes – The Giant Attacknids featured on a number of high profile TV shows including BBC’s Absolute Genius, channel FIVEs The Gadget Show and Channel 4’s Gadget Man with an approximate audience of 3 million viewers. The Attacknids also featured in Wow Stuff’s own online videos and KFC’s 2013 Christmas TV Ad which gained almost 1 million views from youtube alone.
FIVE’s hit TV show, The Gadget Show, has been the benchmark technology program for over 10 years. Each week the team behind the show showcase and review the latest gadgets & technology available to consumers. One exciting element of the show has been challenging the presenters to break world records and invent gadgets of the future. With a new episode each week, keeping the show creative & new is a huge challenge. This is where our expertise has really supported the show. Since 2007 Robo Challenge has worked closely with the Gadget Show as consultants to help develop new & innovative ideas, H&S requirements and project feasibility studies. To this day we have designed & produced over 60 amazing and individual projects for the show. We have created all manner of gadgets and technology from a web controlled lifelike robot & steampunk style coffee machine to a chainsaw powered dragster and a personal fitness drone! The list of incredible gadgets goes on..
I genuinely think that our Robot Wars episode was one of the best projects we have worked on at the Gadget Show. This was mainly down to the professionalism and ‘never say no’ attitude of the Robo Challenge team. When presented with problems, they just kept on going until they were solved, without fuss and always being on hand to answer any questions we had.
Grant, James and Nick took a hugely ambitious project and carried it out with enthusiasm and hard work, achieving fantastic results which were above and beyond what we expected when we started out. Plus, we even won the challenge! Without doubt, I’ll be giving them first option to help me out on future builds for the show.
– Tom Norton, North One TV
Technology – 3D cad design & rendering, 3D printing, CNC machining, custom software, airbrushing, remote control and electronic systems, model making, web control, arduino, jet engines, composites, drones.
Outcomes – The Gadget Show sees a consistent viewer audience of approximately 1 million viewers per week. Our projects have not only been a great source of creative entertainment but have helped explain to the audience how gadgets & technology work. These special projects have earned the team 2 Guinness World Records and are seen by tens of thousand of people each year at The Gadget Show Live.
SO Television recently had an idea to create an innovative new TV show based on the latest exciting technology, Drones. The biggest issue was they needed an experienced team to work out how to create this new show and make sure it was feasible. With our unparalleled experience in creating and operating stunt model helicopters & drones we were brought on board as consultants to help develop the exciting new idea right from the first concept. Our team also created the futuristic ‘Hero Drone’, developed the health & safety documents for operating & maintaining the drones, and our experienced stunt pilots ensured SOTV were able to capture the best footage when it came to creating a pilot for the BBC.
Robo Challenge are just amazing to work with – Steve Plum, BBC.
Technology – Consultancy, 3D cad design & rendering, 3D printing, drones, custom software, airbrushing, remote control and electronic systems, aerial stunt piloting.
Outcomes – An incredible, first of its kind, 1 hour pilot was created to show the BBC what was possible when it comes to creating a drone based TV show. This was the first real test of a drones based show with a great format and incredible stunts. The high tech house drone shoot used all genuine footage which really pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved.
