Equinox, the high-performance lifestyle leader, put City workers through their world-record paces with the launch of ‘Bishopsgate Bolt’ – a cutting edge running track that pit participants against the world’s fastest runner in a virtual setting, right in the heart of the City.
Athlete, Thom Evans was the first person to take on the challenge, completing the Bishopsgate Bolt in 10.93 seconds, 1.35 seconds behind the current world record.
The 20-metre-long, two-lane track was designed to determine each participant’s 10 metre sprint time . The second lane featured LED chevrons that lit up to display the time it takes for the current fastest person on earth to run 10 metres.
City workers were invited to take to the track on Thursday 28th November at Bishops Square. Robo Challenge designed & created this unique sprint track along with State-of-the-art laser technology recording each participant’s 10-metre time. The bespoke software recorded every runners fastest time and compared them in a live league table to the fastest man on the planet.
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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!
London based PR agency Cheil wanted to impress Converse trainers with a truly innovative idea which was based on the iconic Chuck Converse shoes. The idea was to create the ‘Boris Bikes’ of Skateboards which are loaned to the user based on them wearing a specially adapted pair of Converse Chucks.
Cheil immediately got Robo Challenge involved to make this idea a reality. With just 1 week to create a solution our team produced this unique skateboard rack & modified a pair of Chucks with RFID tags. Users simply walk up to the skateboard rack, which identifies them wearing the Converse Chucks, and releases a skate board!
It was a great way to add an interesting innovation to the iconic footwear which earned the team a Bronze Chuck Trophy!
To launch the new Xbox One exclusive game ReCore, London based PR company Assembly Media wanted to bring the star of the game to life. Mack, a canine corebot, is usually running around saving the world however we wanted to catch up with him on his day off!
Cue Robo Challenge!
We were very excited to bring this unique character to life however it had to be right, he had to look like he jumped straight out of the game. Mack, like all canines, has complex joints to enable him to move. Naturally the game version of Mack isn’t concerned with gravity or how his legs would have to actually work so this would be the biggest challenge. Our team set about designing an internal skeleton which would house the 12 motors for his legs and all the electronics. Custom made gearboxes were required to ensure all the mechanical elements were concealed and yet strong enough to actuate the character and take his weight. Once the skeleton was complete it required over 1000 hours of 3d printing to create all the body work before every little detailed was hand airbrushed.
The results were incredible! Mack looked exactly as he did in the game which created some amazing content. He also met many of his fans at Game stores around the country kicking up a lot of media attention.
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.
Tesco wanted to bring a bit of theatre & fun to their home deliveries for the halloween season in 2016 so BBH London got in touch to create the most spooktacular delivery van ever!
Our team set about modifying an existing Tesco delivery van with all manner of spooky gadgets, gizmos, sound effects and a rusty paint scheme. We also added a huge drawbridge which opened up to reveal Tesco’s amazing halloween products while a false wall allowed Tesco staff to scare our unsuspecting families! There were confetti streamers, actors with head dropping rigs & dry ice which added to spooky drama.
The results were amazing with the online video reaching over 1.3 million views and attracting a host of media attention.
When London based PR company Havas Sports & Entertainment Cake wanted to launch Titanfall 2 with a bang they contacted Robo Challenge to help bring the game to life!
The aim was to recreate a training level from the shooter game then create a working airsoft gun that looks like it’s popped straight out of the game. With this in mind we immediately started working with EA to redevelop the ‘Carbine’ weapon ready for super high detail 3D printing. Once the 200 hours of 3d printing was complete we set about adding the internal structure & airsoft mechanism before fine detail airbrushing was completed.
The results were spectacular. Celebrities were invited to a special Titanfall 2 day where they were trained up with the Carbine gun and dropped straight into the game. The Carbine gun was a fully working model which looked exactly like its digital counter part. It now sits pride of place in EA’s offices.
“We had a happy team and an extremely happy client as you saw. Very impressed with the final model, it looked great! ” Liam Thompson, HSE Cake
The exciting XBOX One exclusive game, Sunset Overdrive, is an action packed zombie cartoon shooter with all sorts of crazy opponents, weapons and gameplay. What better way can you launch such a game with media attention than to create some of the guns from this awesome game. Not only create them, but make them fully functional working cartoon weapons. Our team was set the task to bring these whacky creations to life ready to create some unique content with youtube gaming celebrities. Working from screen grabs off the pre released game our team set about creating 2 of the coolest Sunset Overdrive guns. Our 3D printers were running around the clock to make the parts while our engineering team had a great time testing the prototypes.
Working with the Robo Challenge team was an absolute pleasure. They delivered to brief and within an incredibly tight timeframe. Their eagerness to go above and beyond was greatly appreciated and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them as a partner.- James Bruce, Associate Director, Edelman.
Technology – 3D cad design & rendering, 3D printing, CNC machining, Arduino, airbrushing, wood work, pneumatics, motors & electronic systems.
Outcomes – The 3 unique videos created with the gaming stars earned over 1,400,000 views on YouTube alone. The guns were also seen on display by over 100,000 people at the Gadget Show Live.
Samsung unveiled the world’s first 4g enabled camera, the Galaxy NX. A camera that allows you to share quality images instantly via 4g. Samsung’s challenge was getting photographers to believe this was possible.
Step in Robo Challenge. Our team designed & created a robot as unique as the camera itself, the NX Rover. Inspired by the Mars rover and the products design & functionality, the NX Rover was fully controllable online allowing people to accurately manoeuvre the camera, take photos and share them instantly via 4g. The NX Rover was sent on a remarkable journey exploring the planet and visiting amazing events. Thousands of pictures were taken and shared with over a million people. The Rover gained some serious attention from the media and was shortlisted for the Innovation award at Cannes as well as winning multiple industry awards.
Robo Challenge made this look so simple. Their attention to detail was amazing, always there to help us with any issue or silly question we had, always there to make sure everything runs and operates smoothly. The result was amazing and thanks to that we won a lot of different types or prizes many of which were awarded for the Innovation category.
All we can say is that working with Robo Challenge was a real pleasure. They are always our go-to team when it comes to building something that needs to “wow”
– Alex Budin, Technology Expert, Cheil UK.
Technology – 3D cad design & rendering, 3D printing, CNC machining, custom software, airbrushing, remote control and electronic systems.
Outcomes – 11000 pictures were taken and shared with 1.62million people worldwide. The NX Rover was shortlisted for Cannes Lions Innovation and was awarded bronze in the Kinsale Sharks Digital category, silver in the Interactive category of the Campaign Big Awards and the Wood Pencil in Direct Response at the D&AD Awards.
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.
