It is a competition at which the teams, that are usually connected to a university, bring their robots and put them to fight against other teams in three minutes rounds. The winner is the team that manages to cause the most damages in the oponent's robot. Besides, if a robot stops for more than 10 seconds it is automatically eliminated. The events in Brazil are held by RoboCore.

The competitions aim is to confront robotics applied technology, such as: autonomous controls, mechanical and electrical products and new materials. Based on the data collected after years of competition it is possible to determine whether the project was successful by evaluating the behavior of its subsystems and damages that were inflicted.

A precise destructive effects analysis, as well as the limit situations, cannot be predicted by computer analysis due to the high number of non-linearities found in the process as a whole. That makes real tests the only way to exactly predict the robots' destructive effects and while testing we are able to refine projects' and materials' techniques and methodologies.

During the competition the teams are judged by how much damage their robots inflicted in the opponent's and this indicates the knowledge level of the team as well as the best project. So, the winner is the team that best dominates projects techniques, its execution and the risks their robot is exposed to.

In Brazil the competition was first issued by UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) on October 3rd 2001 and was covered by various kinds of media, among them: SBT, Rede Globo, Rede Record, Rede Bandeirantes. The magazines TPM, Mecatrônica Fácil, Jornal Folha de São Paulo and the internet website www.uol.com.br.

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If you got all excited about the idea of building your own combat robot and are willing to learn more about the subject, you might be interested in reading the tutorial written by the RioBotz team.

It is a 367 pages PDF file completely free that contains technical explanations, charts, examples and everything else you need to know in order to build your own quality combat robot.

Download the file here.

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Our headquarters is located in the Department for Mechatronics Engineering and Mechanical Systems. Founded in 1893 the Escola Politécnica (POLI) is responsible for maintaining the department and is a worldwide reference in what concerns engineering teaching and researching. Currently holding 17 different courses POLI follows the Universidade de São Paulo's policy that an university should focus equally in three areas: Education, Research and Extension.

The focus of Extension is about putting into practice all the knowledge that the students acquire in their academic life. Various projects are developed, from social help to technological competitions, where we stand.

The team started in 2001 and has been increasing the work methodology and projects ever since. In order to become more and more competitive we constantly invest in top-notch construction techniques and tools, such as CAE and CAD, and management and projecting technologies as well as developing our own electronic systems.

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We have our own space, located in the Mechanical Engineering building, to develop our robots.

The place got this nickname – The Cage – because of the wire fence that surrounds the area that was designed to us. Our sponsor's banners and advertisements are all over the Cage, inside and out.

We have some tools that are located in the Cage, such as drilling machines, sanding machine amongst others.

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