Sneaking past security might be an issue, but if you can blag it onto the guest list then this robotic battle exercise organised by the MOD in Wiltshire could be just the thing. They’re taking over an army base in Copehill Down, and are all set to get it buzzing with Robot action.

The base was built to teach the army how to fight in built-up areas, and this August sees the Grand Challenge take place, it’s an exercise in robotics, designed to boost military battlefield technology.

All the competing robots must locate and identify snipers, armed vehicles, armed foot soldiers and improvised explosive devices that will be lurking around the site, with teams judged on speed and accuracy.

Those scoring highly could win a lucrative contract with the MoD, keen to see the best inventions used in combat.

“There’s no cash prize,” a source tells us, “It’s very British. We’re told we have to do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

Norman Gregory, business manager at Silicon Valley Systems is leading the Silicon Valley Group team, which has been working with Bruton School for Girls. The team is combining unmanned ground and air vehicles and using thermal imaging and audio streams to find the enemy.

The sixth formers the team is working with “have had some really wonderful, and perhaps wacky, ideas,” Gregory says.

If the St Trinians girls had this arsenal at their disposal, who knows how much bigger that big screen flop might have been.

More info here