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"Might not be the fastest and deadliest, but certainly full of surprises!"
Jonathan Pearce

Leighbot was a robot entered by Leigh City Technical College in Series 1 of Robot Wars. It managed to reach the Arena stage of its heat before losing to Mortis.

Design[]

"Runs off two 24 volt motors, and weighs in at 69 kilos. Leighbot travels at a maximum speed of 3 miles per hour, fashioned from bulletproof stainless steel."
— Jonathan Pearce describes Leighbot
LeighbotSide2

Side view of Leighbot with no top armour

Leighbot was an unusually-shaped robot whose long angled box design resembled a coffin, or what Jonathan Pearce described as a 'woodlouse'. The robot had two weapons; an extending front lance and a rear angle grinder as its weapons. The front lance could extend up to 159cm and had interchangeable attachments, including a knife, a drill, a steel chopper and a scythe. For its Gauntlet run, a fan was attached to the end of Leighbot's lance, which it used to clear smoke as it negotiated the course and helped improve the team's vision.

Jonathan Pearce claimed Leighbot was armoured in stainless steel, but the team's website lists Duraluminium as the robot's armour. The robot was powered by two 24volt batteries driving 24v wheelchair motors, but had a slow top speed of 3mph as a result[1]. This, along with a lack of self-righting mechanism, contributed towards its defeat in its only battle.

"The designs were converted into Lego models to see if the ideas would work. The final design was decided after seeing Internet pictures of winning designs from the USA and an amalgamation of several design features put forward by the students."
— The Leighbot on designing Leighbot[2]

The Team[]

"Students and staff at The Leigh City Technology College became involved when information was announced in January 1997 that a show was to be produced in UK and teams were invited to build a Robot for a series of competitions to be screened on BBC2 television in February 1998. The Leigh Roboteers Club is run by Mrs Hobbs and Mr Schofield every Wednesday after school."
— The Leighbot website on the team[3]
Leighbotlogo

Leighbot logo

LeighbotTeam

The team with Leighbot

Leighbot was entered into Robot Wars by Leigh City Technical College in Dartford, hence the robot's name. The team consisted of both students and teachers, and was a rare instance of a team in the original run of Robot Wars featuring four televised team members, as the three-person limit was only imposed from Series 2 onwards.

Amongst the team were the captain and navigator Robin Williams, chief designer and engineer Tony Schofield, Chris Malyon, who operated the weapons, and team co-ordinator Eileen Hobbs. Other people involved in the robots construction were David Williams, a marine engineer[4] who acted as the team's technical Advisor and chief controller engineer, and various members of the college's Technology department.

Not seen on television, Sam Parry, Christopher Riddle and Steven Monk are also listed as team member's on the team's website[5].

Qualification[]

Leighbot attended the Series 1 auditions with fellow Series 1 robots four weeks before filming.

Leighbot also later attended the Series 2 auditions alongside Leighviathan, although it would ultimately not be selected to compete, and thus failed to qualify for the series.[6] Whilst there is no reason stated, it was assumedly linked to the rule banning more than one entrant in a team at any time.

Robot History[]

Series 1[]

Leighbot competed in Heat B of the First Wars, and started its campaign by running the Gauntlet.

Leighbot fan

Leighbot clears the smoke with its fan attachment

Leighbot charged into the Gauntlet, where it easily got off the turntable and headed straight for the middle route. It was then blocked by Sergeant Bash who jammed the see-saw, but Leighbot managed to make it over, then after dodging the Sergeant headed for the next ramp, where it used a fan attached to the end of its lance to blow the smoke out of the way so that the team could see where Leighbot was going. Leighbot was then clattered by the spiked swinging ball and made it to the end zone in the second fastest time.

"More flame and smoke...what's that though? That's a fan! And smoke does not get in your eyes! Magnificent stuff!"
— Jonathan Pearce
Leighbot british bulldog

Leighbot in British Bulldog being rammed by Shunt

Leighbot qualified for the Trial, which was a game of British Bulldog. In the Trial, Leighbot started slowly, and was nudged into Dead Metal by Scrapper. Then, Shunt came in to block, but eventually Leighbot managed to get free and go across the finishing line in third place.

"And the Woodlouse is through!"
— Jonathan Pearce, after Leighbot sluggishly completed the Trial.

For the Arena Semi-final, it was drawn against Mortis, whom the team had hoped not to face immediately.

Philippa Forrester: "Who do you most fear?"
Robin Williams: "Mortis, from the university."
Philippa Forrester: "Mortis from Cambridge University, who actually are right next to you. I've got a big of bad news for you guys... you're up against Mortis!"
Robin Williams: "Great!"
Philippa Forrester: "What do you think's gonna happen?"
Robin Williams: "We'll get creamed"
— Full version of the pre-battle interview, included in Robot Wars: The First Great War[[[7]|[src]]]
Leighbot vs mortis

Leighbot rams into Mortis

Mortis leighbot

Mortis bludgeons Leighbot

The fight did not go well for Leighbot as the lance weapon was useless against Mortis' tough armour, at worst scratching it briefly. Mortis used its speed and agility to get around Leighbot and bring its tantō axe into play, which rapidly pierced holes in Leighbot's armour and crumpled the lance.

"Leighbot, pepper pot! You could pour pepper out of that Leighbot machine now! Look at the holes!"
— Jonathan Pearce as Mortis axes Leighbot
Leighbot vs mortis vs matilda

Leighbot pushes Mortis into Matilda's CPZ

Mortis topples leigbot

Mortis topples Leighbot

Even though Mortis did briefly drive onto the arena spikes, Mortis then finished the battered Leighbot by using its wedge to get underneath Leighbot and turn around, before reversing and pushing the sideways-facing Leighbot backwards, causing the coffin-shaped robot to roll over, landing upside-down on a grille.

Results[]

LEIGHBOT - RESULTS
Series 1
The First Wars - UK Championship
Heat Semi-Final
Heat B, Gauntlet Completed (2nd) Qualified
Heat B, Trial (British Bulldog) Completed (3rd) Qualified
Heat B, Semi-Final vs. Mortis Lost

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 0
  • Losses: 1

NOTE: Leighbot's successful Gauntlet and Trial runs are not included

Series Record[]

Series Leighbot Series Record
The First Wars Heat, Arena Semi-Final
The Second Wars Entered with Leighviathan
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[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

A while after its appearance on Robot Wars, much of Leighbot was recycled to be made into an Arduino segway.

Trivia[]

  • A.J. Engineering donated wheelchair motors, wheels, tyres and controllers for Leighbot, and K.T. Motors donated batteries.
    • Rob Woodcock of Control Dynamic of Kidderminster provided the team with technical information for the robot's control systems[8].
  • Leighbot is one of only two robots in history to add a specific feature to neutralise smoke in the arena.
  • Leighbot's battle with Mortis was the origin of the there-after often-used term "pepper-pot".
  • Leigh City Technical College was one of only four teams in the UK series to feature more than three televised team members prior to Series 8; Leighbot, Scrapper and T.R.A.C.I.E. were seemingly permitted to by Series 1's rules, while Team Berserk was allowed extra space for a translator.
  • In a deleted scene, only included in Robot Wars: The First Great War, after revealing to the Leighbot team that they were drawn against Mortis, Philippa Forrester took the team over to talk to the Mortis team, who were too busy getting Mortis repaired to talk to them[9].
"Obviously a huge reaction there from the Mortis team, who don't seem to be worried in the slightest bit about their adversaries!"
— Philippa Forrester
  • Like its successor, Leighviathan, Leighbot participated in Heat B of the main competition in its only appearance, and lost at the Arena Semi-Final stage.
  • Both Leighbot and its successor Leighviathan lost to a robot whose name began with M, reached the second round of the Semi-Finals and was entered by a team that contested four Main Series.
  • Leighbot was used during the testing of the team's second robot, Leighviathan. The team raced the two machines together, and a clip of this from the team's video diary was included in Episode 2 of Robot Wars Revealed, which covered Heat B of Series 2.

References[]

External Links[]

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