Inside ĢĒŠÄTV Fighting Robots
Wednesday 25 March 2026
20,000 RPM and counting: Inside ĢĒŠÄTV Fighting Robots
On 28 February, a robot built by a team of eight ĢĒŠÄTV Engineering students entered the Bristol Bot Buildersā (BBB) Beetle Brawl 2026 for a thrilling contest of speed, strategy and steel.
Fifteen university teams and 40 amateur teams from across the UK and beyond brought their robots, each weighing 1.5kg or less, to the arena. The competition was a sell-out success, with around 300 spectators turning up to watch the miniature robots go head-to-head.
ĢĒŠÄTV Fighting Robots is one of the Student ProjectsLink opens in a new window supported by ĢĒŠÄTV Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of ĢĒŠÄTV. In their final year, School of Engineering students choose a group project, and ĢĒŠÄTV Fighting Robots has quickly become one of the most popular options.
The team and their robot performed well at the competition and reached the semi-finals of the inter-university league.
Behind the spinning metal and sparks lies months of design calculations, manufacturing decisions and problem solving.
āItās the project everyone applies for:ā says Seb Feakes, Mechanical Team Lead. āWe grew up watching . It brings up so many engineering problems that we now get to solve for real.ā
The project forms a significant part of the studentsā degree. Alongside building the robot, the team must submit a 40-page technical report, detailing their design process, analysis and testing.
āOur course is very theoretical,ā explains team member, Lucy Clay. āThis project lets us put everything into practice. Degree apprentices get that applied experience as part of their pathway, so this helps put us on the same level.ā
The robotās weapon is a rotating drum spinning at 20,000 RPM, with a steel tip travelling at speeds of up to 230mph. Designing something so small, yet so powerful, requires careful material selection, stress calculations and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to optimise strength without exceeding the weight limit.
āThatās where it gets interesting:ā says Seb. āYouāre deciding between titanium bolts and steel bolts to save weight. Titanium is much lighter, but itās far more expensive. Sponsorship can make the difference between a winning and losing robot.ā
The team currently receives sponsorship in the form of materials through . If they can secure more sponsorship, they would like to open the project to students from any department who can get involved with the project as an extra-curricular activity.
Beyond the 1.5kg competition robot, the team also designs a larger version as part of the academic project. While this robot isnāt manufactured, students complete the full design and code the AI systems behind it. This year, the team hopes to integrate a time-of-flight sensor and camera system, enabling the robot to detect opponents and autonomously move forward and activate its spinner. That kind of multi-disciplinary work is valuable as students start thinking about their careers.
This is only the fourth year the project has run, and the second year ĢĒŠÄTV has entered a competing robot. The collaborative culture is evident, with team members becoming friends and bringing a new synergy to their workshop sessions.
The team is also looking outward. Recently, members volunteered as judges at the regional VEX Robotics competition at King Henry VIII School in Coventry.
āIt was amazing to see what the kids came up with:ā says Lucy. āTheyāre given a challenge ā like designing a robot to place objects on shelves ā and the variety of solutions is incredible.ā
The teamās Head of Electrical once competed in VEX and progressed to international finals in the US. Now, heās helping design a combat robot at ĢĒŠÄTV: a full-circle moment that highlights the impact of early STEM engagement.
For Lucy, who hopes to work in design for companies like Disney or Universal creating rollercoasters, the project is about building applied experience alongside theory. For Seb, who aims to work in automotive engineering, itās about hands-on manufacturing and systems integration.
For both, itās about something bigger: teamwork, delegation, communication and learning to work across disciplines.
Itās exactly this thinking that has led WMG to create and launch a new BEng Robotics Engineering with Artificial Intelligence degree, which welcomes its first cohort of students in September 2026. This new degree is designed to combine hands on experience with rigorous theoretical learning and rapidly build up studentsā confidence and capability to simulate, prototype and test the types of robotic and automated systems that are increasingly utilised in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, to logistics, healthcare, and agriculture.
Find out more about the new BEng Robotics Engineering - WMG - University of ĢĒŠÄTVLink opens in a new window