Zany Ian Watts and his family are so obsessed with robots they have been around the world to compete in mechanical wars.

Now Mr Watts's hobby has become his job, as Ian has landed a job with the BBC as their expert in all things robotic.

On Friday, the Watts family team, armed with their robot Bigger Brother, will be competing in the semi-finals of the cult BBC2 show Robot Wars.

Competing on the British version has never been enough for Ian so he has taken his powerhouse machines to the United States to try his luck there.

So far, Ian, son Joe, nine, daughters Ellie, seven, and Megan, five, and wife Cath, 30, have successfully travelled to San Fransisco three times, Las Vegas and Holland to take on the world's best fighting machines.

Wherever they go, they are scooping up trophies. BBC TV bosses saw Ian so many times on-screen, they decided to employ him as their mechanical genius.

His official title is roboteering resident - he advises schools and colleges on how to build robots. He has already created a life-like robot baby for the BBC hospital drama Holby City.

Before that, Ian concentrated full-time on making models.

Ian, 42, of Madehurst Close, Brighton, said: "This is the best job in the world. I gave up my job as a broadcast engineer a year ago so that I could concentrate on Robot Wars.

"We have now been on three series of Robot Wars, twice with Big Brother, our original robot, and reached the semi-final twice. This year we're in it with Bigger Brother and he is our best robot yet.

"It's made out of steel, bullet-proof plastic and titanium, which is used for war planes. This is no ordinary robot.

"We entered the Royal Rumble in San Fransisco last November and won it with our robot Little Sister. We competed in Battlebots challenge, series two, in Las Vegas, where we beat the best US fighting machines, which is meant to be the best in the world.

"It's been great fun travelling round the world with the robots - it's part of our life now."

Ian is not only a dab hand at robots but he is also lecturing at Brighton University in product design and mechanical engineering.