Robot Wars: Series 10

Series 10 of Robot Wars is an upcoming series, filmed at the Glasgow arena in May 2017, and will feature only heavyweight robots. It began airing on 22nd October 2017 on BBC Two, with a run of eight episodes.

History
The tenth series of Robot Wars was publicly revealed on March 6th 2017, the day after Heat 1 of Series 9 first aired. Applications for competing heavyweights opened on this day, initially with a deadline of 20th April 2017. This deadline was brought forwards to 20th March 2017, and then pushed back again to 27th March following a series of rule changes.

The series was originally planned to include a Featherweight Championship, but on 21st March 2017, this was postponed due to time constraints, with the intention of filming a featherweight contest after the main series had concluded filming.

The RAF revealed over Twitter that Robot Wars intends to air a "Services Special" in late 2017-early 2018, although it is unconfirmed if this is linked to Series 10.

On 12th April, tickets were made available for audience members. The filming took place across six days, suggesting another six-part series. This also confirmed the return of Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon.

On 6th June, online retailer Amazon opened pre-orders for the book Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot as well as T-shirts, and stated in the product description that Series 10 would air in October 2017 to coincide with the book's release on October 2nd. This airing window was further suggested by Dara Ó Briain in an article by The Guardian.

On 18th September, a tweet from Dara Ó Briain suggested that the series would air on October 22nd, although this date had yet to be confirmed by the BBC at the time. On October 1st, the UK Robot Wars Facebook page released a trailer for Series 10 featuring Carbide; originally, the post also confirmed 22nd October as the air date for the new series. However, the Facebook post was later revised to remove this information.

On 5th October, the BBC officially confirmed the air date for the first episode as 22nd October; as with the last two series, Series 10 is being broadcast on BBC Two. The same article also confirmed that Jonathan Pearce would continue his role as commentator for the new series, with Dead Metal, Matilda, Shunt and Sir Killalot returning as House Robots.

A second Series 10 trailer was released by the UK Robot Wars Facebook page on the evening of 8th October, featuring footage from the upcoming series and various application videos. The video description for the trailer also confirmed that the series would air in an 8pm timeslot, as with Series 8.

On October 12th, the BBC's homepage for Robot Wars was updated, including a new 39-second trailer. Another trailer, featuring footage of the House Robots destroying household appliances, was uploaded by the BBC's YouTube channel on October 13th.

On October 18th, the BBC confirmed that Sethu Vijayakumar, Noel Sharkey and Lucy Rogers would reprise their roles as Judges, which they all previously held in Series 8-9.

Two days before the first episode was due to air, the Robot Wars website updated on October 20th, officially revealing the 30 competing robots.

Format
The format for Series 10 was officially revealed by Robot Wars: The Official Handbook, and each qualifying heat contains five rounds. The total number of competing robots is 30, a reduction from the previous series' 40.


 * Round 1: Group Battles - Two three-way battles are held in each heat, with only one outright winner, which will be decided by the Judges if necessary. The winner qualifies directly to Round 3, while the losers enter Round 2.
 * Round 2: Robot Redemption Knockouts - The losers of the Group Battles face each other in head-to-head battles, and only the winner will remain in the competition. It is determined which robot will fight which through their performance in the Group Battle, as whichever robot finished second in one Group Battle will face the robot which placed third in the other Group Battle of the heat.
 * Round 3: Semi-Finals - Head-to-head battles between one winner of a Group Battle, and one winner of a Redemption Knockout. The winner qualifies for Round 5 (Heat Final), and the loser qualifies for Round 4 (3rd Place Playoff).
 * Round 4: 3rd Place Playoff - A head-to-head battle between the two robots which lost in Round 3. The winner claims third place within the heat, and qualifies for the Ten Robot Rumble.
 * Round 5: Heat Final - The Heat Final between the two winners from Round 3. The winner of the Heat Final becomes the heat winner, and directly progresses to the Grand Final; the loser is automatically placed into the Ten Robot Rumble alongside the third-place finisher.

The Grand Final begins with the Ten Robot Rumble, a Group Battle between every second- and third-place finisher from the heats. This battle has no time limit; the last robot standing is declared the winner, and progresses to the Grand Final alongside the five heat winners. The Grand Final follows the same format as the heats, although the 3rd Place Playoff is omitted.

Rule Changes
In response to the dominance of spinners, entanglement devices were legalised, as long as the robot's weapon was specifically built to tackle spinning weaponry - it could not consist of low-tech devices such as a fishing net, cables or mesh. Legal entanglement devices cannot exceed 1m in length, nor can it attach the opponent to the competing robot.

The new walkerbot weight limit was increased to 145kg, to encourage the creation of more robots of this ilk, while the equivalent weight limit for heavyweight shufflebots was also increased slightly to 125kg.

The standard weight limit for the proposed featherweight category was increased to 13.6kg - 1.6kg more than the previous limit. Shuffling featherweights could weigh 15.1kg, an increase from the standard 13.6kg limit, while walking featherweights could weigh 17.6kg.

Additional clauses were added for safety reasons, in that LED lights must be disabled upon the removal of the safety link, and that locking bars for flippers and spinners need to be possible to insert while the robot is in any position. The regulations for pneumatic weapons were also changed. The main isolation valve must now be attached to the bottle, and be easily accessible while the robot is inverted. Dump valves must be accessible by hand, and be located in one single location.

The producers of the show have stated that they would like to see robots apply with little-used weapons such as crushers and pneumatic spikes, or 'control-bots' in the vein of BattleBots competitor Complete Control.

Heat 1
Robots Competing: Apocalypse, Apollo, Behemoth, Donald Thump, Sabretooth, The Swarm

Round 1
 * Behemoth vs Donald Thump vs Sabretooth: Behemoth won
 * Apocalypse vs Apollo vs The Swarm: Apollo won

Redemption Round
 * Apocalypse vs Sabretooth: Sabretooth won
 * Donald Thump vs The Swarm: The Swarm won

Semi-Finals
 * Apollo vs Sabretooth: Apollo won
 * Behemoth vs The Swarm: Behemoth won

3rd Place Playoff
 * Sabretooth vs The Swarm: Sabretooth won

Heat Final
 * Apollo vs Behemoth: Behemoth won

Heat 2
Robots Competing: Aftershock, Big Nipper, Carbide, Crackers 'n' Smash, Eruption, Gabriel 2

Round 1
 * Big Nipper vs Carbide vs Gabriel 2: Carbide won
 * Aftershock vs Crackers 'n' Smash vs Eruption: Eruption won

Redemption Round
 * Aftershock vs Gabriel 2: Aftershock won
 * Big Nipper vs Crackers 'n' Smash: Big Nipper won

Semi-Finals
 * Aftershock vs Carbide: Carbide won
 * Big Nipper vs Eruption: Eruption won

3rd Place Playoff
 * Aftershock vs Big Nipper: Big Nipper won

Heat Final
 * Carbide vs Eruption: Carbide won

Heat 3
Robots Competing: Apex, Bucky the Robot, Rapid, Terrorhurtz, Track-tion, Vulture

Round 1
 * Bucky the Robot vs Rapid vs Track-tion: Rapid won
 * Apex vs Terrorhurtz vs Vulture: Terrorhurtz won

Redemption Round
 * Apex vs Track-tion: Track-tion won
 * Bucky the Robot vs Vulture: Vulture won

Semi-Finals
 * Rapid vs Track-tion: Rapid won
 * Terrorhurtz vs Vulture: Terrorhurtz won

3rd Place Playoff
 * Track-tion vs Vulture: Vulture Withdrew

Heat Final
 * Rapid vs Terrorhurtz: Rapid won

Heat 4
Robots Competing: Androne 4000, Concussion, Iron-Awe 6, Nuts 2, Tauron, The Kegs

Heat 5
Robots Competing: Coyote, Expulsion, Hobgoblin, Magnetar, Push to Exit, Thor

10 Robot Rumble
Robots Competing: Apollo, Big Nipper, Eruption, Sabretooth

Grand Final
Robots Competing: Behemoth, Carbide

Trivia

 * With Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon retaining their roles yet again, Series 10 marked the first time in the show's run that the main presenting duo has remained the same for three consecutive series (not including each series of Robot Wars Extreme).
 * The series features the smallest amount of competing robots of any UK championship.
 * The series also features the fewest newcomers to any UK championship, with only six teams making their debut. Three other newcomers qualified for the series, but all withdrew.