What did I knowabout Sir Kill a lot? Er, not a lot
University professor headhunted for revival of cult programme blames studying across the globe - and working with NASA on Mars missions - for being in the dark over battle bots
I’ve always been a robot fanatic. I do it as work but it’s also my hobby SETHU VIJAYAKUMAR
BEFORE he was headhunted by the BBC, Sethu Vijayakumar must have been the only robotics professor in the UK who had never heard of Robot Wars.
His excuse? He was too busy studying in his home country, India, then Tokyo and LA, to be watching old TV shows on his laptop.
Sethu said: “Robot Wars is not that big in India, Japan or the US. We had corresponding nerdy robot things but I had not watched even a single edition before this year.”
When the long-awaited new series kicked off on Sunday night, Sethu was revealed as a new member of the judging panel.
He joins presenters Dara O’Briain and Angela Scanlon – and four seriously sexed up house robots – in a 21st century version of Robot Wars.
Sethu’s full title is associate professor at Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics. His CV is nine pages long.
Usually when he is on telly, it’s talking about his groundbreaking work on prosthetics arms and hands, or about his collaborations with NASA on unmanned trips to Mars.
Yet when he was approached to join team Robot Wars, he was as giddy as a teenage boy.
He said: “I’ve always been a complete robot fanatic. I do this as part of my work but it’s also my hobby and leisure. I’m having my dream job.”
Sethu will joins the show’s veteran judge Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University and Lucy Rogers, author of It’s Only Rocket Science.
Their job is to assess the 40 amateur fighting machines and give their creators feedback after each round.
Sethu brought the intellectual vigour he applies to interviewing a prospective Phd student to this task.
He said: “I asked the producers a lot of probably very annoying questions.”
The judges’ job is to mark each robot damage, aggression and control.
Sethu said: “In some cases, the battle is pretty obvious, especially in the early rounds. If your robot gets destroyed it’s pretty straightforward.
“When robots last the stipulated three minutes, we have to make an informed decision about what is the level of aggression, level of damage, level of control displayed. I am personally interested in the technology underlying the control systems, the collaboration between man and machine. “Both sides have to work. You need to have a really good driver as well as a competent machinery and a working interface. So we really looked at that element.” The rebooted show, which is filmed in Glasgow, is a wonderful televisual spectacle. It has the drama of a Masterchef or Bake Off, but with crashing metal mayhem instead of pies. Sethu says filming was “a blast”. He added: “I hope the smells (burning rubber and solder) and sounds (blades ripping off at 9000rpm) transfer to the TV. “My favourite house robot, Dead Metal, has a porcupine-like look. It has a massive spinning wheel and when it makes contact and does damage there are literally sparks flying. “We were very glad to have bulletproof glass between us and the action.” Although Sethu is exposed to Nasa-grade technology on a daily basis, the DIY brigade managed to throw up some surprises. He was impressed by a robot with a flipper that used all its power to pull itself up and was brought back down with elastic bands. Sethu said: “It was ingenious in the way they had thought out of the box.” A team that communicated with their robot while it was fighting also caught his eye.
He said: “They were monitoring the state of the machine – the power, the temperature on board, the battery left – and getting real-time information back to their controllers. They could change their strategy. If the motors were really warm, or the battery dying, they could go back to a more passive mode compared to a more aggressive mode.”
His experiences on the show have underlined that it’s all about the interface between man and machine.
Sethu said: “As someone working on autonomous systems, I was expecting more automatic technology, such as avoiding obstacles with on-board electronics.
“Surprisingly, the more successful robots had very skilled drivers collaborating with their machines. The dextrous skills of some of the amazingly young drivers combined with the power, precision and reliability of robotic hardware.
“We call it shared autonomy – marrying the best of the robot or machine technology with the best of the human ability. We are very good at making contextual decisions. We can judge the environment much more easily than machines can.”
Viewers who loved the show in the 90s will be astounded by how far technology has moved on. Lighter materials mean it’s possible to pack more destructive power into a smaller bot.
This has meant that the teams can be more imaginative.
Sethu said: “In the first episode there was various weaponry from a big bulldozer to spinning wheels and, axes. There was even a clusterbot – one big robot with two smaller ones helping out. As long as it’s within the weight range, the only restriction is that there is only one driver.
“There were so many interesting concepts and a mix and match of different weaponry.”
Advances in cameras mean that viewers can get both a bird’s and a robot’s-eye view of the action.
Sethu said: “In previous series’, they had to film outside the arena because of health and safety. Now there are cameras on the robots as well as multiple cameras zooming inside the arena, getting up close and personal with battles. You’ve got a ringside view.”
The expert, who works hard to make science accessible and to promote STEM subjects to young women, hopes that Robot Wars will fire up a new generation.
He said: “After cellphones and social networks, the next big thing in our lives will be robotics in various forms. It’s important that we create a young generation who grow up with that background. Inevitably, in five or 10 years we’ll have skill shortages of people who are equipped to work this machinery and technology. Having this programme is invaluable to pique the interest of young folks.”
But everyone can enjoy Robot Wars, which is a nerd-rich cross between Formula 1 racing and Strictly Come Dancing.
Sethu said: “There’s an element of game theory, an element of competitiveness. It’s a skill thing. It’s David against Goliath, there are underdogs and drama. It’s so much more than bish bash bosh. ● Robot Wars, BBC2, Sunday at 8pm