THEY stalk the battle arena with a menacing glare. The combatants, with names like Sir Killalot, Matilda, Sergeant Bash, Dead Metal and Shunt, eye their evil-looking metallic opponents, eagerly waiting for their next kill.

Their inventors have spent months of endless dedication and fine-tuning, manifesting creations capable of toppling even the mightiest of metal warriors.

But within five short, sharp minutes of pulsating action, one inventor's metallic offspring - Indefatigable - proves less so and is left mangled and crumpled in a heap on the battle arena floor.

His opponent, however, has survived this mechanical Darwinian survival of the fittest. Standing tall and proud, and with a capacity crowd stamping its feet and roaring its approval, The Mole, armed with spiky teeth and a circular saw, marches into the next round of the qualifying competition for the BBC hit series Robot Wars.

All this week, chunks of metal like Indefatigable and The Mole, with all manner of destructive weapons and equally disturbing names, have been roaming the asphalt floors of the Park Street studios battling to earn the right to compete in the popular BBC TV programme.

But for today the prize is more immediate and life-threatening for the robots and their creators, who seem to revel in the dual pastimes of building things and then seeing them smashed to smithereens.

And the objective of this metallic mayhem? To score a knockout by immobilizing the enemy. Contestants can do this by flipping, throwing, lifting or smashing their enemies to bits.

Quite simply it's kill or be killed.

Next up in the battle cage - which consists of nine-foot-high walls of bullet-proof glass, dangerous pits and flame throwers - are Spike the Impaler and Hard Cheese.

A deep, booming voice rumbles over the Tannoy: 'Ten seconds to activation. . .5, 4, 3, 2, 1...'

A deafening siren roars out and huge flames shoot out from the sides of the battle cage, signalling the start of this latest episode of remote-control carnage.

Immediately, the Star Wars-esque creations speed out of their respective corners and Spike the Impaler uses his mechanical claw to inflict damage on his robotic rival.

But Hard Cheese, which looks more like a dustpan and brush than a fearsome killing machine, strikes back, and forces the intimidating Impaler onto the side grills and into the path of a deadly flame thrower. Spike is toast.

The crowd roars and, in unison, scream at the top of their voices: 'Pit, Pit, Pit, Pit' The Master of Mayhem Andy Collins, who is dressed like something out of sci-fi cult flick The Matrix, gives the crowd what they want and orders the seemingly bottomless pits to be opened.

Wreathed in flames, Spike the Impaler continues to take a battering and if this was a boxing match it would surely have been stopped by now. But Hard Cheese refuses to show mercy and scoops up his opponent - lying toppled and defeated on the floor - and drops him into the pit and into Robot Wars obscurity.

The audience, many of whom are probably old enough to know better, rise to their feet screaming: 'Hard Cheese, Hard Cheese, Hard Cheese.'

Afterwards, Spike's owner, who has probably come direct to the studios from the nearest army surplus shop, mourns his defeat, saying: 'I just don't know what happened. With our mechanical claw, wheelchair motors and axe, we thought we had made an invincible fighting machine. But we'll be back next year.'

Trying to get into the head of a Robot Wars fanatic is like trying to tie-up your shoelaces while wearing boxing gloves, but as one 11-year-old gleefully tells me, 'It's all about destruction and carnage.

'You won't get much better live action than this - just look at the spikes and saw on that machine! I love the smash-ups and the way one robot always gets messed-up,' he purrs.

Hmmm. Give me a quiet book any day.

The action continues unabated in between the live bouts as the fearsome house robots take centre stage and prowl the badlands of the battle arena demonstrating their awesome fighting ability.

Crowd favourite Matilda, who looks more like a friendly hedgehog than a lethal fighting machine, quickly shows her combative capability by slicing in half an unsuspecting log with her protruding saw; robotic bad boy Shunt - 105kg-worth of mischievous metal - uses his lifting mechanism to pick-up idle pieces of debris and hurl them into the violence-drenched air; while Refbot, the latest house robot, gracefully glides around the cage to the Match of the Day theme tune.

The salivating crowd lap it up and more violence in the name of science quickly follows with the final bout of today's qualifying rounds as Excalibur II takes on Ming.

Both machines circle each other tentatively before Ming uses his hydraulic crusher to wreak havoc on Excalibur II's aluminium armour, before slamming him into the metal sides straight into the path of a lethal flame thrower.

The one-sided affair continues as Ming proves less than merciless and uses his side blades to deliver a devastating blow to Excalibur II's rear chassis.

Once again the pits are lowered and Ming finally puts his battle-weary opponent out of his misery, while Shunt - the Grim Reaper of the Robot Wars world - clears up the wreckage and carts Excalibur II off to the scrap heap.

The crowd, who have just completed the Mexican Wave for the umpteenth time, wave goodbye to Excalibur II and leave the studios satisfied with their daily dose of robotic rapacity.

But as the army of fans heads for home, the wreckage of crumpled machines and broken dreams haunts the studios. What started off looking like a ghastly scene out of Terminator II - a tragic vision of the future where man-made robots have control of the world - now bears closer resemblance to the local scrapheap.

At least the crowd enjoyed it though.

Fans can still buy tickets for Robot Mayhem at Park Street Studios, which ends on Thursday, by calling the hotline on 0115 912 9000 or by visiting the Robot Wars website

Tickets allow admission to one competition session and all-day access to the exhibition and cybercaf area. Sessions run daily between 10am and 12.30pm, 1pm and 3.30pm, and 4pm and 6.30pm.