Brief History of Robot Olympics

Techno Games (2000–2003) was BBC Television's Olympic Games for robots. It was a spin-off from the hugely successful Robot Wars. The TV series was shown on BBC2 every weekday for a fortnight from the third Monday in March just after Science Week. The series of ten programmes was broadcast on the ten weekdays over two weeks (The first series consisted of five programmes broadcast over five consecutive weekdays). Schools, colleges, individuals and technology clubs competed to break world records, win medals and the grand series prize. For most events lifelike movement was required, so, for example, in the swimming event propellers were banned in favour of legs, paddles, flippers and fins. When the TV show was cancelled a number of enthusiasts kept the competition going under the banner UK Robotic Games.