The smallest robot Freeburn shows me is the YetiBorg – about the size of a roller skate, with thick, fat wheels – which can be programmed to race following visual cues from the track in front of it and no input from a human, other than to write the code that it runs off. “All you need to get started is a monitor, keyboard and mouse – which almost everyone has lying around somewhere.” “Raspberry Pis are fantastic because they offer you all the capabilities of a computer in something really small and light,” says Freeburn.

This allows them to be fully programmable, autonomous, cheap and small. The robots made here are all powered by Raspberry Pis – single-board computers, the latest of which is smaller than a credit card. In the arena they might be mortal enemies, but here they work together.

With limited time, fellow competitors offer advice and assistance. Now, most robots in the competition are modular in some way, allowing changes of weapon or armour more suited to their next foe. They work quickly and efficiently to repair damage and customise their bots in preparation for facing their next opponent. In between fights, competitors might only have a few minutes to patch up their robots. So I headed to the giant warehouse on the outskirts of Glasgow where the new series was being filmed. When the opportunity to see the new robots in action came along, I wanted to see how much has changed and whether it has become any easier for a young inventor to build their robot. In the time the programme has been off-air, advances in robotics have propelled the field forward. Now I’m standing by inventors tinkering away at their workbenches, as the battle-hungry bots return to UK television for the first time in over a decade. But it soon became apparent that getting hold of the hardware required was going to be a challenge anything more ambitious than slightly modifying a Scalextric car was out of reach without expert guidance. As an eight-year-old, I had fastidiously researched what was required to build my own from truck windscreen wiper motors, lawnmower parts and heavy-duty battery packs. Walking around the pits behind the Robot Wars arena, I’m realising an ambition held since childhood.

Walking war robot tips