Robot rumble

TENSION is building today in the lead up to the biggest night in the roboteering calendar.

Tomorrow night Ipswich's very own Team Storm will be competing for the title of world champions in the climax of TV's Robot Wars.

Ed Hoppitt of Martlesham, Meral Kocak of Ipswich and Tim Bence of Bredfield, decided to enter the competition after being fans of the show for years and now find themselves facing the biggest fight of their lives.

Their robot Storm II will be taking on mean machines from across the globe in a series of group fights and one-on-one battles.

Team captain Ed Hoppitt said: "We only entered this for a bit of fun and now, less than a year down the line we're in the world championships. It's all been a bit mind-blowing really!"

The team, who have been sponsored by the Evening Star since the beginning of their career, have had to overcome numerous obstacles to get to where they are today.

Mr Hoppitt said: "When we did Robot Wars Extreme, Storm II was a 'rambot' - simply a very tough chassis with a powerful drive system. It won its fights by causing internal damage to its opponents.

"But at the start of Series seven, Robot Wars changed the rules to outlaw robots without 'active' weapons - meaning we had to find a way to put a weapon on the robot.

"With a machine like Storm II this was a huge problem. Storm II is a tiny machine, and everything only just fits in. To find the space in the machine to fit a weapon was not easy."

To ensure the robot kept within the weight limit every single component had to be analysed in order to find ways of reducing the weight without reducing the strength.

Mr Hoppitt said: "Storm II is designed to be an out and out bully. It carries up to 0.5" Grade Five Titanium armour - it doesn't mess about, and its not something you'd want to meet on a dark night!"

To find out how Storm II fares against the world's best robots tune in to Channel 5 tomorrow at 1.45pm.