Eruption

Eruption won the final series of UK Robot Wars (Series 10, December 2017) with a judges’ decision over the spinner Carbide, the same opponent that had beaten it in the Series 9 final earlier in 2017. The wedge-shaped, rear-hinged full-pressure flipper was designed and driven by 19-year-old Durham student Michael Oates and built by his father Adrian.

Its flipper can throw opponents out of the arena, which in Robot Wars means an instant win. Drive is electric on two wheels with radio control. Weight, dimensions and speed are not given in verified sources; the fan-wiki figures (109.25 kg, 40 × 80 × 80 cm, 12.6 mph) come from a blocked page and were not adopted. The revival’s weight class corresponds to 110 kg.

Since the show ended in 2018 the robot has not competed; status retired. A single unit exists, and no free photograph is available because the Robot Wars category on Wikimedia Commons holds no image of Eruption. The Irish press described the 2017 win as a fairy-tale ending for the father-and-son project.

Among the robots of the revival, Eruption and Apollo show that pneumatic flippers could still beat spinners at the top level.