Power Tool Drag Racing 2011 UK Championships

Silverline's Annual Power Tool Drag Racing Championship will be held at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, on 25th September 2011. Organised with our team at Robo Challenge the extreme sport of power tool drag racing involves engineering power tools into drag racing mean machines!

Stretch Mini Moto: Team Robo Challenge Entry 2009

If this catches your imagination, why not enter the competition? There's a total prize fund of £3,000 up for grabs, plus lots of chances to win top prizes. Featuring ride-on and non ride-on classes, the rules for power tool drag racing are pretty simple: take a hand held power tool, turn it into something resembling a drag racer, and set it off down a 75-foot long track. If you are really up to the challenge, why not enter the ride-on class. Some competitors start with the frame of an existing vehicle such as a go kart, while others start from scratch. Commonly used tools include petrol chainsaws and leaf blowers!

After achieving 4th place in 2009, and 3rd in 2010, Channel 5's Gadget Show are rumoured to return to the event, this time with their eye on the first prize! Last year the Gadget Show teamed up with Robo Challenge to create an awesome chainsaw powered dragster!

This totally out of this world event is one not to be missed! Not only does it make for a truly awesome day out, but the engineering that goes into the drag racers provides hours of pre race day fun too! What's more, 2010 British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato and team mate Alex MacDowall will take a break from driving the Silverline Chevrolet Cruze to make a public appearance at the 2011 event!

With timing down to a tenth of a second between standings last year, we have no doubt all of the competitors will be at the top of their game. DIY has never been so much fun!!

If you would like to take part you can sign up here.

Robo Challenge concept "HeliGolf" has now gone viral!

Remember when Team Robo Challenge helped Suzi Perry win the golf challenge a few months ago on The Gadget Show? Well, since our "Heligolf" creation aired the concept has gone from strength to strength! "Suzi Perry's Heligolf" was developed into a online game that was so popular it crashed the Gadget Show website and today the game has been released on Facebook!

Fancy a go? You can play it by searching for "Heli-Golf" on facebook.

We wish it every success :)

Gadget Show Live 2011: Robo Challenge

Since our last post Team Robo Challenge have been busy preparing for one of our biggest and most exciting events of the year! April 12th - 16th saw Robo Challenge exhibit at The Gadget Show Live 2011, NEC, Birmingham. This year we had a fully interactive feature stand alongside our good friends at the Gadget Show signing area!

Our aim was to inspire, excite and motivate visitors with a display of all our high profile engineering projects for both North One TV & the BBC. We were also promoting our unique Educational Workshops for Schools and Team Building Corporate Events. Since the exhibition closed, we have been delighted with the response we have had and have featured in many high profile blogs and reviews!

Over the week we had a really exciting programme of events lined up that certainly drew the crowds!

This included the Finals of the UK Fighting Robots 2011 UK Championships and live demonstrations of some of the most destructive Fighting Robots in the UK!

As well as, the exclusive launch of the new Robo Challenge Mini Bots (soon to be available to buy online at www.robochallenge.co.uk) which were also a popular feature on the stand!

Great supporter of Team Robo Challenge and Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury stopped by to look around the stand and demonstrate his "Kung-Fu Jase" skills on the Kung Fu Robot we built for him!

Also on display were other Robo Challenge engineered TV build's such as Pollyanna's Chainsaw Power Tool Dragster, The Boat that Guy built projects, The Gadget Show fighting robot Satan's Mutt, our Paintball Robots, Heligolf project and Ortis' EDF Jet Powered Bike! 

If you visited, we hope you enjoyed our stand as much as we did! Roll on next year!

Robo Challenge BBC Projects: The Boat that Guy Built

The BBC have recently launched a new programme on BBC1 which features motorcycle racer and mechanic Guy Martin as he attempts to renovate a neglected narrowboat using british inventions from the industrial revolution.

Robo Challenge were delighted to be on board with the show and were commissioned to research and build original british working inventions which would then be used or replicated in the TV show. In last weeks episode Guy had to build the worlds first instant water heater. The engineers at Robo Challenge were given an old sketch from the archives and just 3 days to produce a working water heater replica. 

Robo Challenge re-make original British inventions for popular BBC1 show

The instant water heater is made of 3 main components. Underneath the main compartment is a gas burn which is switched on for only 5-10 seconds before use. The main compartment is a long slender tube which is full of elongated springs which get heated by the gas burner. Above the main tube is a bowl with many small holes where the water is poured into the top. This allows the water to trickle down the springs, gradually heating up before it pours out of the spout at the bottom. Once the water is poured in the top bowl it takes approximately 5 seconds for the water to reach the bottom piping hot!

You can watch the episode online here. Make sure you watch The Boat that Guy Built on BBC 1 every Wednesday at 7:30pm for more bespoke engineering from Robo Challenge Ltd.

For more information about this project and Robo Challenge Ltd please contact us via info@robochallenge.co.uk. You can also find us on Facebook and on Twitter (@robochallenge) 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Robo Challenge at Newcastle Maker Faire 2011

Maker Faire returns to the UK bigger and better than ever before with an eclectic mix of cool robots, garden-shed inventions, knitted wonders, the occasional fireball and oodles of opportunities to make your own creations.

Robo Challenge will once again feature at this years event which takes place on March 12th & 13th. The Robo Challenge zone will feature a mini arena with controllable robots to play with using the Wii remote and Wii balance board. We will also show a selection of Robo Challenge’s favourite creations that have been featured on the Gadget Show in recent years such as the Kung Fu robot.

Play with classic synthesizers, see live 3D printing, learn to solder, play musical tesla coils, become a guerrilla knitter, turn a beer can into a pinhole camera, use a Wii balance board to control a robot, make your own stop-motion movie and much more...

This special event takes place simultaneously at Centre for Life and Discovery Museum, Newcastle, with one access all areas ticket available. This ticket enables you to see all of Maker Faire plus Life’s planetarium, motion simulator ride and brand-new under 7’s gallery.

See you there!

For more information check out the Newcastle Science Festival website.

Robo Challenge host UK Championships at the Gadget Show Live!

Robo Challenge are proud to be hosting the 2011 UK Championships as one of the main features at this years Gadget Show Live at the LG Arena! Over 100,000 tickets have been sold for the biggest home tech event in the UK which starts April the 12th and finishes on the 17th.

The Robo Challenge Ltd Arena

The Robo Challenge area is one of the largest stands at the event and will be displaying lots of cool engineering projects that have been built for The Gadget Show TV series. Check out our kung fu robot, the chainsaw powered dragster and a wii mote control robot plus lots more. Robo Challenge will also be launching our new mini bots at the show. The 400g robots are great fun and can be test battled on our stand at the Gadget Show Live. Throughout each day Robo Challenge will be putting on some spectacular demonstrations inside our bulletproof arena. From TV destroying to computer chucking our live robot testing sessions are an incredible sight to see. Between each show we will be letting the audience have a go! Up to 4 people at a time can take control of the Robo Challenge bots as they go head to head in the arena in an adrenaline fuelled experience.

Find out more and sign up for the championships here.

Jason Bradbury signing posters on the Robo Challenge stand at TGSL 2010

Keep an eye on our website news pages for Robo Challenge/TGSL 2011 competitions coming up. See you there!

Focus On: Educational Workshops

Today the Robo Challenge team are running a hands on educational workshop at a secondary school in Wigan. Over the next two days 800 pupils will take part in the building and driving of the Robo Challenge "Robo Kits" whilst learning about electrics, material properties and other mechanical engineering concepts tailored to be relevant to core curriculum learning objectives.

If you would like to see Robo Challenge Ltd at your school, youth group, college, university or education centre please not hesitate to get in touch. Our new systems and teaching methods are now more effective and better value for money than ever!

Alternatively, if you are interested in purchasing a "Robo Kit" for an educational project - or even just for a bit of fun - you can contact james@robochallenge.co.uk for prices and specifications.