A FAMILY of East Lancashire robot fanatics are set to go to battle on the popular television programme Robot Wars.

Graeme Dawson, 39, will be captaining a team of featuring his brother Mark Lumb, 38, and father Glyn Dawson, 62, as they enter the arena with their robot 'Big Nipper'.

The team competed on Robot Wars in the programmes original run, in series five and seven, and are experienced on the UK live touring robot circuit but were thrilled to get the opportunity to compete again.

Graeme, from Barrowford, said: "It's absolutely brilliant to be involved with it's so exciting. It's educational as well, it's a great thing to take part in."

"I was a lifelong fan of Robot Wars and its been incredible to be involved with everything.

"Almost 14 years ago I got involved, being back it's a chance to relive it all again, I love it."

Graeme is an engineer and tool maker at Padiham R & A Components and has even spent time at the companies facilities to work on the robot.

He and his brother Mark, who lives in Lytham, were inspired to make a robot after watching the programme at a young age and their father, Glyn, challenged them to make a competitor.

The robot originally took them two years to build, but has since had massive amounts of development work to reach its current state.

The team have remained active in robot battles over the years and have twice won the UK championship on the touring circuit in 2007 and 2012, and they have competed all over the world including in Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

The group were delighted to receive an invitation to return on the latest series of the programme, but had just four weeks to prepare for competition.

Graeme said: "We'll give it a good go, we've put a lot of work in over the years and the robot has changed a lot.

"It's hobby but we've had some great experiences because of it."

Their creation, Big Nipper weights 110kg, reaches speeds of 20mph and is equipped with a crusher, gripper, lifter and spinner as weapons.

The team believe the robots biggest weakness makes both its back and sides vulnerable to flipper robots but they also note it is so powerful that the team are afraid to practice with it at home.

Robot Wars is on BBC Two this Sunday at 8pm, and Big Nipper will be shown on the August 7 edition.