Being an inventor it is probably not surprising that building the ultimate fighting machine to dominate the world of robot wars is one of my ambitions. The picture above shows me working on an early version of DuddBot. Here are some statistics:

Weight: 200 Kg - I lied in the heats to get over the 100 Kg weight limit, but when it fell through the arena floor under its own weight they threw me out.
Armour: 15mm Medium Density Fibre Board (MDF).
Power: 4 x AA (6v) in main robot, 1 x PP3 (9v) in remote controller.
Weapons: Front scoop capable of lifting 2.2 Kgs (one bag sugar), pincer arm with gripping action can tear the wings off flies.
Special: Self Righting Mechanism - if the robot is turned over Mrs.Dudd rollerskates out on to the arena and picks it up. Since people are banned from the arena during battles, for safety reasons, I had to provide Mrs.Dudd with a tin-foil suit and pair of Volvo car aerials to fool the judges.

Entering was a useful experience, although I still have the bruises from being thrown out, and Mrs Dudd has developed a fetish for aluminium underwear. But now I can make improvements to DuddBot and enter again:

• The top-hat design, although very trendy, was a might unstable, and Mrs.Dudd spent more time in the Arena than many of the robots did. The doctors say that she will recover from the flame pit injuries, but the mental scars will be with her for life.
• The motor was a tad underpowered, and although the robot could reach 2Mph on the flat, it was always stopped by the slightest bump in the floor. The chap who lives next door owns a Lada and never locks it in the hope that someone will steal it - I think the wiper motor might be a good engine to replace the dual Scalextric units. Power will need to be boosted to cope with the larger motor, so I think a couple of additional AA's will be needed.
• I had underestimated the necessity for steering in the arena, so the next version of DuddBot will have some.
• The power of the weapons was not as good as initial field trials on a loaf of bread had shown. The inclusion of a small nuclear reactor, partical accelerator and an industrial laser might be the solution.