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"This is the fastest in the field, at 15 miles an hour. It looks like a lurid bottle top! Its circular saw, Sinclair C5 motorised angle grinder and 8 inch long steel-pointed tip will hardly caress. Two 24 Volt C5 motors also power the drive."
Jonathan Pearce introduces Tender Caress

Tender Caress was a robot that entered Series 2 of Robot Wars. It managed to scrape through the Gauntlet stage as Angel of Death got stuck in the ramrig. However it was easily pushed off the Sumo ring in the Trial stage.

Design[]

"Basically she is a circular robot with double weapons on the front - a set of metal cutting saws and discs and a on the back a ramp with a large spike to puncture them with. She is very sturdy and will be able to 'sidewind' when she is fully operational"
— Phil Thomas on the Tender Caress website[1]
TenderCaressEntersArena

Tender Caress from the front, during its introduction

Tender Caress was a cylindrical shaped robot, armed with an 8' steel pointed tip for ramming on the front, and two saws on the back; a Sinclair C5 powered angle grinder and titanium saw which could spin at 1000rpm. The robot was powered by two 12 volt motors and two 12 volt batteries, both of which were also from a Sinclair C5, which gave a high top speed of 15mph. The robot had the unusual ability to "sidewind", as the motors could rotate, allowing the wheels to turn 360 degrees, but the robot had trouble driving in a straight line.

"We've got custom electronics driving speed controllers, and it's differential control. Unfortunately, when you press the stick forwards, the robot could either swing left or swing right, but we've no idea at the moment, so we just don't know which it's gonna go, it's uncontrollable basically!"
— Andrew Berridge in Robot Wars Revealed

The armour was aluminium, and the top armour was shock-mounted with a stainless steel mesh to reduce the shock of impact from another robot getting through to the electronics. The frame was made from tubular steel, and the robot took 8 weeks to build[2]. To protect against fire in the arena, the team coated their electronics and protective plates in aluminium foil.

Etymology[]

In its design stage, Tender Caress was known was Whoabert, the name being taken from a work colleague's website[3].

The Team[]

TenderCaressTeam

The team before the Gauntlet

TenderCaressTeamR2

The team after the Sumo Trial

Tender Caress was entered by a team of work colleagues at Philips Research Laboratories[4] in Redhill, Surrey. The team captain was Phil Thomas, who designed the robot. He founded the team in May 1998 by sending an email to the laboratories to find colleagues interested in entering[5]. The robot was driven by Rik Allen, and the other two team members that appeared on the televised show were Duncan McPherson and Andrew Berridge. Duncan McPherson built the cardboard prototypes for the robot, and Andrew Berridge helped with the construction and was responsible for the robot's gearing system.

Despite the limit of three team members, Tender Caress appeared with four team members in their only appearance, although only three were present in the control booth in each round.

There were other work colleagues who helped build the robot; Theo Markettos, who did the robot's electronics, Ben Hodson, who did the robot's radio frequency control, Dave Atkinson, Graham Baker, Keith Reynold and Jason Hillsdon, the latter four all worked in the companies engineering department, and helped the team's cardboard prototype designs into metal[6]. Although these members did not appear on television with the team, the engineering department's work was acknowledged by the team on Robot Wars Revealed, with Jason and Graham being named.

Qualification[]

"After not hearing anything about our interest in applying for the competition, we suddenly received the fan club information but no application form. So I decided that I had had enough of waiting and sent off an email kindly inquiring why they had not sent the application form. Okay so I actually said can someone pull their finger out and sort their end out because I was sick of waiting. Strangely enough I got a phonecall from the associate producer half an hour later and she sent all the information out to us straight away. However this meant we know had two and a half months less than everyone else to build and design a robot."
— The Tender Caress website on applying for Robot Wars[7]
Tender being painted

Tender Caress at the rehearsals

Due to a delay in receiving the application form, the Tender Caress team started building in the first week of June[8]. Tender Caress appeared at the Series 2 rehearsals unfinished and unpainted due to being built in a short time[9]. Despite this, it was a sturdy build and the robot was successful in qualifying.

Robot History[]

Series 2[]

Andrew Berridge: "This here is Jason embodied! This is the hammer he used when he was an apprentice, so that's Jason, and we're gonna use it to hit the robot when it doesn't work!"
Rik Allen: "Which is most of the time!"
Andrew Berridge: "No it's not, it's gonna work all the time!"
— The team show the hammer they borrowed from team member Jason Hillsdon, in an interview only shown in Robot Wars Revealed[10]

Tender Caress appeared in Heat L of Series 2, where it was third to run the Gauntlet.

"This has got great speed, and can take on the Sentinel, I think, and Dead Metal."
— Jonathan Pearce as Tender Caress starts the Gauntlet
Tendercaressgauntlet

Tender Caress in the Gauntlet

In the Gauntlet, Tender Caress had steering difficulties, as it drove into the fence as it tried to get out of the starting zone, getting the spike caught in it. It turned back, and drove forwards, but as it turned right to take the right-hand route, it drove into the fence again. It reversed, then cautiously drove into the right route. However, as it drove into the ramrig, Sergeant Bash blocked the exit, and Tender Caress drove into the side of the ramrig. Sergeant Bash fired his flamethrower at Tender Caress, and Dead Metal came around the top of the ramrig, leaving Tender Caress trapped. Tender Caress turned, but drove into the other side of the ram rig, driving into one of the saws.

"I think they've made a major error of judgement coming this way! They're wedged in against the angle grinders, Dead Metal's come across this side now. They're not going to get away!"
— Jonathan Pearce as Tender Caress is trapped in the ramrig

Tender Caress turned away from the saws, but drove into the other side of the ramrig again. Dead Metal closed in, grabbing hold of Tender Caress, pushing it against the saws, and bringing his saw down on the top of Tender Caress. Tender Caress struggled against Dead Metal, but Dead Metal held on. He eventually let go, dragging his saw along the top, leaving a large scratch carved in the top.

"I don't think the House Robots have caused too much damage, but it's not going to get away. That's a bad run! Got stuck in there against the ramrig, I thought this really well!"
— Jonathan Pearce as Tender Caress' run ends

In the last 2 seconds, Tender Caress drove at the end of the ramrig, but Sergeant Bash blocked its escape.

Philippa Forrester: "You had a pretty hard time there, didn't you?"
Andrew Berridge: "Yeah, we did, we did! Indestructible, but incontrollable! [sic] You should have seen the spikes out there, when the angle grinders came across, we totally bent their spikes, so that's pretty cool! And they haven't really bent our robot much, you know, just the odd angle grinder there, and on the top, but no real damage to the robot. It's shame we can't go straight!"
— Post-Gauntlet interview

Tender Caress had managed just 5.0m, which left it last on the leaderboard, until Angel of Death's run of 2.9m.

TenderCaressJuggling

The Tender Caress team entertain the other teams by juggling

Tender Caress was through to The Trial stage, which in this Heat was Sumo. Before the Trial, the team relaxed by juggling, whilst Rik Allen sat on the robot.

Philippa Forrester: "Anything to ease the stress and strain that is life on Robot Wars! Do you not think you should be doing a bit of tinkering, is there nothing for you to fix on you robot?"
Rik Allen: "I should probably get some padding on this to make it more comfortable, but that's about it."
— Pre-Trial interview
Tender Caress Sumo

Tender Caress on the edge of the Sumo ring, just before being pushed off

Tender Caress drove forwards a little, and Dead Metal charged at it with his arms closed, ramming Tender Caress to the side of the podium, with one wheel hanging over the edge, leaving it stuck. Dead Metal reversed for another charge, and rammed Tender Caress off the Sumo ring.

"Overconfidence can be a load of "ball-derdash", couldn't it, really? Especially with Dead Metal in that sort of form- Oh, you're out!"
— Jonathan Pearce's entire commentary as Tender Caress is dumped out of the sumo ring

Tender Caress had only lasted 6.03 seconds, which the other four competitors easily beat.

Philippa Forrester: "Wait, wait, wait, wait, you're not getting away with it that easily! That was absolutely rubbish!"
Rik Allen: "Can't we just slink away into a corner somewhere?"
Philippa Forrester: "No!"
Phil Thomas: "We wanna go home!"
— Post-Trial interview as the team return to the pits, only shown in Robot Wars Revealed[11]

As a result, Tender Caress was eliminated.

"Disappointed, on the way home. Very disappointed, but such is life. Six seconds in the ring is not a lot of time, is it?"
— Andrew Berridge to Philippa Forrester after Tender Caress' elimination is confirmed

Results[]

TENDER CARESS - RESULTS
Series 2
The Second Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Trial
Heat L, Gauntlet 5.0m (5th) Qualified
Heat L, Trial (Sumo) 6.03 Seconds (5th) Eliminated

Series Record[]

Caressteam

Tender Caress with its team

Series Tender Caress Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Heat, Trial
The Third Wars Did not enter
The Fourth Wars Did not enter
The Fifth Wars Did not enter
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Tender Caress is one of twenty robots never to fight in robot combat, having only ever been in the Gauntlet or Trial.
  • Tender Caress was the last robot to lose in the Trial in the Heats.
  • In Episode 12 of Robot Wars Revealed, which covered Heat L of Series 2, clips from the team's video diary were shown, showing the construction and testing of Tender Caress.
  • The engineering department of Philips Research Laboratories had a stuffed toy parrot mascot during the construction of Tender Caress. Although this mascot was not brought to the filming, it was photographed with Tender Caress during construction and seen on the team's website[12].

References[]

External Links[]

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