A team of north-east engineers will battle with an army of dangerous robots when a cult TV series returns this week.
Gary Cairns and Sarah Dennis, from Mintlaw, and teammate Jamie McHarg, from Aberdeen, make up PP3D Robotics who are participating in the re-launched Robot Wars competition.
The show features 40 “combat robots”, built by teams of amateur competitors, who wield a variety of weapons including circular saws and hydraulic-power flippers and battle one another in a knock-out tournament.
The winner of the first five episodes – which will air on Sunday evenings, beginning this weekend – will subsequently face off in a grand finale.
Last night, PP3D Robotic’s Gary Cairns said: “Jamie and I are engineers – he’s a gas maintenance engineer and I run a 3D printing firm – and Sarah works on our smallholding.
“I actually won the final series of the original Robot Wars, on Channel 5 back in 2003. That was with Typhoon 2.”
Mr Cairns added that the programme was cancelled due to “internal politics”, but that he and other robot enthusiasts continued the competition “off camera” at arenas across the country.
He explained: “PP3D was built over two months – the chassis houses a 31kg spinning disk which spins at 1,800rpm.
“The calibre of robots is far above anything that’s been seen on TV before.”
The new series of Robot Wars – which launches on Sunday night – was filmed in Glasgow earlier this year and is presented by comedian Dara Ó Briain.
PP3D Robotics competed in the fourth qualifying round which is due to be aired on August 14.