Robo Challenge

"We are a creative company that brings ideas to life for our clients ambitious PR campaigns and exciting TV shows. For the last decade our teams unique expertise have helped pull in some serious global media attention while achieving amazing results for our clients."

- Robo Challenge website

Robo Challenge are a Birmingham-based consultancy company, offering advice to other companies on robotics project, and building robots for company projects, including televised appearances. Owned by brothers James and Grant Cooper, Robo Challenge are directly linked to the reboot of Robot Wars.

Robot Wars
Robo Challenge were heavily involved with both the pre-production and operation of each rebooted series of Robot Wars. Prior to Series 8 being filmed, it was the responsibility of Robo Challenge to design the tournament's format, set the build rules, and the health and safety rules. Changes made to the Robot Wars ruleset decided by Robo Challenge include the increase from 100kg to 110kg.

During this time, Robo Challenge built all four House Robots used in the reboot, and were responsible for their repairs and maintenance throughout filming. Three different members of Robo Challenge decided upon their favourite House Robot and took on that project for themselves, resulting in the creation of Shunt, Matilda, and Dead Metal. The collective group then built Sir Killalot. The new Robot Wars Arena was also designed by Robo Challenge, including the idea of restricted trenches for throwing robots out of the arena, based upon the group's knowledge of robotic combat.

In preparation for Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars, Robo Challenge were also commissioned to build eight heavyweight robots using similar components in each, and these robots would then be presented to viewers as the creations of the celebrities involved with the show. For this purpose, Robo Challenge built Arena Cleaner, Dee, Interstellar: MML, Jar, Kadeena Machina, Robo Savage, Soldier Ant, and The Cat, and entrusted their repairs to the eight selected mentors.

James Cooper took on a presenting role for How to Build a Robot, a five-part series released on Facebook, where Cooper would explain the safety precautions relevant to each weapon type in short videos. James Cooper also personally appeared in an episode of Series 9, discussing health and safety while the arena floor was being repaired.

The official Haynes manual Robot Wars: Build Your Own Robot was also written by the Cooper brothers, offering their advice on how to build a 'challenger', and contains all information relevant to the creation of a functioning combat robot. The limited edition release of the book, sold through the Robo Challenge website, is signed by the Cooper brothers, and contains extra blueprints.

Outside Robot Wars
Robo Challenge are known for hosting the UK Featherweight Championships each year, at the Insomnia convention. Robo Challenge designed the combat arena, and oversee the tournament process.

As individual roboteers, Grant Cooper is listed as the primary builder of Beta, and competed with it alongside John Reid in ABC's second season of BattleBots, where they reached the top eight of the competition by defeating Lucky, Overhaul and Nightmare before falling to the eventual champion Tombstone. In the same season, James Cooper joined Team Carbide to compete with Cobalt, defeating Overhaul before losing to the eventual runner-up Bombshell.

Team Robo Challenge are confirmed to be competing in Chinese robotics TV show King of Bots.

RoboChallenge have also built two featherweights directly replicating heavyweight designs made by Team Razer, Venom (a miniature Razer), and Predator (a miniature Warhead).

Grant and James Cooper made a one-off appearance on Inside the Bot, robotics podcast hosted by Will Sedgwick and Gabriel Stroud. They used the show to publicly reveal the changes to the rules they had implemented into Series 10 of Robot Wars, and state the types of design they would like to see from competitors, including 'Complete Control-style control bots' and pneumatic spikes, directly referencing Point Blank.

Robo Challenge have created robots for various television programmes, including The Gadget Show, Dick & Dom's Absolute Genius, Reverse Engineers, and Blue Peter. Their consultancy and engineering skills were also required for sales promotions connected to video games, including Skylanders Superchargers, Titanfall 2 and ReCore.