An Interview With Professor Noel Sharkey, The Godfather of Robot Wars

If you are a true fan of Robot Wars, then you hold a special place in your heart for Professor Noel Sharkey. When it comes to the world’s premier robot sport, Professor Sharkey has seen it all. He has been head judge on every series of Robot Wars since it was first aired in 1998, and has presided over the arena of destruction like a white-bearded deity, handing down mechanical justice on criteria of damage, aggression, style and control. When two robots are left intact at the end of a battle, both scarred, dented and battered, it is Professor Sharkey and his fellow judges who ultimately decided which one triumphs, and which is cast down into The Pit of Oblivion forevermore.

With the new series of Robot Wars making its debut on Sunday evening, Professor Sharkey returned to our screens in his role as the programme’s arbiter in chief. He is the last man standing from the show’s turn-of-the-millennium heyday, but slipped seamlessly back into the judge’s chair, a perfect amalgamation of past and future in the form of an avuncular academic from the University of Sheffield. While Craig Charles, Philippa Forrester and Jayne Middlemiss have slipped by the wayside, Professor Noel Sharkey stands eternal.

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He is the true Godfather of Robot Wars, so we called him up for a chat about filming the new series, technological advances and, naturally, extreme violence amongst robots.

Hi Noel. With the new series of Robot Wars, how is the day-to-day experience of judging? Is it a difficult process, or easier than it used to be?

It’s extremely enjoyable first and foremost, but also very hard work. It can be quite stressful, because often the decisions are really, really hard. Sometimes you’re just sitting there, thinking: ‘Please don’t let this go to a decision! Please don’t let this go to a decision!’ But there are three of us judging, so the tough calls end up being a two-to-one vote. I think that happened about twice during the course of the new series, three times at the most. We vote independently and then share our decisions afterwards, and we tend to agree, generally.

I’ve done every series since Robot Wars’ inception, and it’s much more efficient now than it used to be. They’re very, very clever about the timings now. We used to have to sit around for five hours, for God’s sake, because we had to wait for each robot to be repaired. Now it’s much better and, rather than film one episode at a time, they do all the preliminaries, then the next round, and the round after that, and so on. That gives competitors a week to go home and make repairs, and means we don’t have those really long waits anymore.

That seems sensible. Obviously, people put a huge amount of their personal time into making the robots – does that put a lot of pressure on you, as judges? Does it force you to be as serious as possible, despite the show itself being fairly tongue-in-cheek?

It’s always been high-pressure, on every judging panel I’ve been involved with. It’s fun and games for everyone else, but the judges have to really ensure fairness. We all go out and have a laugh after the show, but when we’re judging we’re extremely serious. There’s pressure, not just because people have spent ages building these robots, but also because you have to make reference to all the rules of the competition, all the time. Obviously, if you’re kind to one team, you’re being unkind to someone else. It takes real concentration to be totally impartial, though we’ve all got backgrounds in robotics, so we all know how to concentrate well enough.

Even so, I lose sleep over some judgements. We really do take it seriously, and sometimes you’re left thinking: ‘Was that really the right decision? Did I really get that one right?’ Occasionally, like everyone else, we make mistakes. I know that, in the past, I’ve made mistakes and regretted them. At that point, there’s not a lot you can do.

It’s funny you say that, because I remember, watching Robot Wars as a kid, when they went to the judges there was a real aura of seriousness, and it was very much part of the theatrics of the show. Talking to you now, it sounds like that was aura was pretty genuine.

We’re not actors! We don’t go: ‘Oh, look, there’s the camera! Look serious!’ We feel the pressure, we really do. Sometimes the competitors complain but, generally speaking, all of them rely on us to be as serious as possible. If we weren’t, the show would lose credibility, and we wouldn’t get the same number of talented people coming along and taking part.

The show is very tight now, I have to say. In the past, though, I’ve had to go and tell off the people who control the house robots because they’ve gone a bit over the top. There’s much more constraint, now, and there’s a sense amongst the producers that we’ve really got to have fair play on the show, and get things right. The programme has always been good in that sense, mind, but there’s more thought given to that sort of thing now.

Sure. You mentioned briefly that competitors sometimes complain – are participants generally accepting of decisions? And are they generally good-natured in defeat?

Oh goodness, yes. We’ve had no complaints on this series whatsoever. I did 173 episodes before that, so there’s the odd complaint scattered about. There was one team – I can’t remember what they were called, but it was something like Fireweaver – who complained that we never, ever let them through to the next round. Still, that’s because they’d always been beaten (laughs). Sometimes it’s hard for people to see that they’ve been defeated, but generally competitors come up and thank us afterwards.

When people do occasionally complain, I’m usually the one dispatched to explain things, and it’s almost always fine. In the past, there have been times when people haven’t liked how the match has gone, and nor have I. Still, we can only enforce the rules we’ve got in front of us. Sometimes the rules are challenged, sometimes the rules have to evolve to meet new challenges, but I think we’ve got it right this time around. In fact, this series was the most comfortable I’ve felt in terms of judging.

Fair enough. Having had such a long break from the show, how does the technology of the new series shape up compared to the old-school series of Robot Wars? Is it a profound change, or has your academic work prepared you for the leap forward?

I work with fairly extraordinary autonomous robots and, naturally, the technology is not quite at that level. Nonetheless, the absolute power of the machines is quite extraordinary, and they’ve certainly evolved. When we began with the first series, I could sit with my feet dangling over the edge of the arena. Occasionally a shower of nuts and bolts would come at us, so we’d have to hide under the table. Now, though, the robots are so, so powerful. Everything’s bigger, everything’s faster, and the danger is that much more.

The thing is, we used to have to use big, heavy lead acid batteries. Now, they use lithium polymers, which deliver a lot more wattage and power than the old ones, and do so much quicker. The batteries are a lot lighter, and the robots are lighter accordingly, which gives them a lot more punch. Likewise, motor technology and basic mechanical technology has improved so much. Motors are massively more effective these days.

Now, if you remember Hypno-Disc –

(enthusiastically interrupting) Yeah, Hypno-Disc was my all-time favourite robot.

Yes, well, it was tremendous really. Still, it couldn’t move forward and power up at the same time, because the battery would just run out. Now, the robots can do that easily. I did a quick calculation, and the huge spinning bar on Carbide has more than ten times the energy output of Hypno-Disc. When that spinning bar hits something, it’s terribly destructive. It can send things flying through the air, so it’s incomparable, really.

On top of that, the robots themselves are ten kilos heavier than they used to be, and yet much faster. The engineers often use a material called Hardox, which is a really, really strong steel compound. The development of the motors has made the robots smaller, more efficient and that much more powerful. If teams use a motor the same size as one from the old series, it delivers so much more.

That sounds a bit terrifying.

Well, the robots have surprised me, to be honest. To begin with, everything looked pretty much the same as before. The studio is much bigger, the arena is much bigger and the house robots are much bigger, but the perspective tricks you. That’s why we only do heavyweight competitions now, as opposed to the smaller weights and melee battles we used to do before. The robots are just too big.

Talking to the people who control the house robots ahead of filming, I was looking at the new Shunt and saying how huge it looked. They said: ‘We’ve got the old Shunt over there, if you want to compare.’ I went over and looked at it (voice lowers menacingly) and it looked really tiny. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it. Shunt used to look like a big, strong robot to me, but not now, not anymore.

Professor Sharkey also used to be a judge on Techno Games, which was cool

I’ve heard there’s actual bulletproof glass now between the audience and the arena, because the robots are that lethal.

Yes, exactly. Take the robots with flippers, for example. Chaos 2, which was champion twice, had an impressive flipper, but the power they generate now is just ridiculous. There’s shrapnel flying about the place all the time.

That must be pretty impressive to watch in a live setting.

It is very impressive to watch. The other thing that’s improved the viewing experience a lot – and this isn’t to do with the robots themselves – is the media technology. There are little cameras all around the arena, and even the house robots have cameras attached to them. The shots are that much more up close and personal, it’s great.

It’s just like football, really. When you think about how much the filming of sport has changed over the last 10 years, it’s astounding. I think I’m now the only person on the set who has [previously] been involved with Robot Wars, because Jonathan Pearce does his commentary afterwards. It was quite odd to see all the changes to begin with, but people have been very quick to catch on.

Last question, then – does anything shock you anymore when it comes to robot violence, or have you seen it all?

Oh yes, things shock me. I’ve had a lot of surprises this series, and there have been moments when the three judges have been out of their seats. The action is incredible, and it’s so tense at times. The Pit of Oblivion is bigger, the fire pit is bigger, and the damage to the robots can be massive. I talk to the roboteers quite a lot after matches, and repairing the robots is an exhausting process these days. Likewise, the concentration it takes to control them during battles takes a serious toll.

Over the course of the series, you’ll see a lot of interesting robots. I’ve seen some quite surprising designs, and wondered: ‘How the hell is that going to work?’ There’s a lot more to look forward to basically.

Thanks for talking to us, Noel.