A robot from Chatham made out of disused shopping trolleys, an axe and an old wheelchair motors is competing on Robot Wars tonight.

Trolley Rage 2 was made by technicians and mechanical engineering student Gareth Anstee at the University of Greenwich’s campus in Chatham Maritime.

It is the first time the university has entered a robot into the TV series, which is in its ninth season.

Prof Simeon Keates, deputy vice-chancellor for engineering, said: “We set ourselves an ambitious challenge for the TV programme. We wanted to develop a new version of our Robot Wars Live Show 2016 competitor, Trolley Rage. We also wanted to demonstrate how simple, cheap and sustainable it can be to build a robot.

“We concentrated on using as many recycled components as possible. Trolley Rage 2 was certainly the cheapest robot taking part in the show which is what we wanted to demonstrate.

“Everything, except the battery and speed control unit, was made out of old disused materials that would otherwise have been sent off for recycling – shopping trolleys donated from local supermarkets, metal box section, a carpenter’s hand axe and a couple of old wheelchair motors.

Taking part in the television show, and having the chance to put Trolley Rage 2 through its paces in the famous Glasgow arena, was fun and exciting.”

Robot Wars is on BBC Two at 7pm.