ROBOTS will be battling it out at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

The show at RAF Fairford will host the first Guinness World Record attempts for robot sprinting and rope climbing.

Professor Noel Sharkey, from Sheffield University, who is an expert in robotic technology and artificial intelligence, will present the challenge on July 16-17.

He said: "I am really looking forward to seeing some of the old rivals compete again to settle their grudges."

Robots will compete against each other to set official sprint and speed climb records in both heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

A Guinness World Records' adjudicator will be on hand to validate each of the record attempts.

Prof Sharkey said: "Competitions like this are a great way to keep the young interested and enthusiastic about engineering.

"They also keep the public informed about the kind of ingenious back-street engineering that can be done with motivation, enthusiasm and a lot of recycled bits.

"With university recruitment in engineering and computer science falling year on year, we need to show how and why engineering can be as exciting as any other subject."