Refbot

"To keep the house robots in line"

- Craig Charles introduces Refbot in Series 4

Refbot was a non-attacking House Robot introduced to Robot Wars as the robotic referee of the show in Series 4. He was built to resemble a human being wearing a white-striped shirt and equipped with a headset microphone. In past series, the house robots would sometimes unstick stranded competitors, or otherwise intervene, which contradicted their antagonistic characterisation. To avoid confusing the audience, Refbot was introduced to handle fair play and rule enforcement. In addition to this role, Refbot took over Shove's job of "cleaning up" after the fights; sweeping broken robot debris from the arena, and pushing immobilised robots to where they could be collected by their often distraught owners.

At one stage of Robot Wars, it is possible that Refbot was driven by Mike Franklin of Team 101

In March 2016, the BBC confirmed that Refbot alongside Cassius Chrome, Growler, Mr Psycho and Sgt Bash will not return for the 2016 series.

Attributes
While not made for combat, Refbot came equipped with a multitude of gadgets:
 * A pair of bulldozing shunts in the front and back were made for separating robots that became locked together.
 * An electronic countdown board was mounted on Refbot's chest to count out the defeated robots. This was introduced in Extreme 1, and for Series 5 it was slowed down.
 * A fire extinguisher on the right arm to put out fires.
 * A pincer grip on the left arm to help robots when jammed (Series 4 only).
 * Three lights in the shape of the Robot Wars logo; one red, one yellow and one green. This replaced the pincer on his left arm at the start of Robot Wars Extreme. The green light would show at the start and end of every battle. In addition, if another House Robot "misbehaved" (i.e., attacking a competitor when it wasn't supposed to) Refbot would give the offender a yellow card, and if it persisted, a red card, which forced the house robot to stay in its CPZ for the remainder of the match. The red card was also shown once a competitor robot had been counted out and if a contestant acted too over-aggressively against the house robots.

Appearances in Merchandise

 * Refbot/Pullback
 * Refbot/Minibot
 * Refbot/Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox)

Trivia


"What's happened to the count? Refbot! What've you gone, Euro? I dunno. 28, 29, 10? He's gone daft!"
 * Because of his vital role, Refbot was the only House Robot to feature in every battle since his début.
 * It is a little-known fact that there were in fact two Refbots built. This was because of the need for Refbot to be present in every battle. This was revealed by producer Steve Carsey to the audience during a recording for the Seventh Wars. Also, if you look closely during battles, a small number 1 or 2 can be seen on the back of Refbot.
 * Axe Awe pitted Refbot having defeated Granny's Revenge in Series 5.
 * In the first heat of the Sixth Wars, Refbot accidentally backed into the pit during the match between Tetanus 2 and Raging Reality, and would not have been able to count out the losing competitor robot if they had been immobilised.
 * In the following heat, Firestorm 4 flipped Refbot onto his left side.
 * In the one of the Series 7 All-Stars opening melees, Refbot accidentally reversed into the pit. However, he had landed right-side-up, so he was able to come back to life after the pit was temporarily raised.
 * Refbot reversed Gladiator into the pit and joined Team BlazerBotics' robot and all of the other competitors in it during a featherweight heat in Extreme 2.
 * In the Heat P second round battle between Ripper and Daisy-Cutter in Series 7, Ripper flipped Refbot onto his back with the help of Shunt.
 * In the New Blood Championship Heat A battle between Mute and Mr Nasty, Sergeant Bash started to attack Refbot with his flamethrower. This battle ensued for over a minute, before Refbot extinguished Sergeant Bash's flamethrower with his extinguisher.
 * Occasionally, Refbot's counter would play-up and glitch. Sometimes, the lights on the first number wouldn't work, so the count would end with 0 rather than a 10. When Ripper was immobilised in the heat final of Series 7, Heat P, Refbot counted 21 through 29, then 10. In the final match of the Third World Championship, Supernova was immobilized for the alloted time, but Refbot's counter wasn't working.  This caused confusion about the result and how to proceed with the match.

- Jonathan Pearce on the Series 7 counter glitch