Gator battle bots recovering after successful skirmishes in Connecticut

Nursing battles wounds and awaiting repairs, Steggy and Termigator the battle bots are back in Gainesville after a smashing December showing at the National Havoc Robot League World Championships. 

The University of Florida’s Gator Robotics team competed in the championship in Norwalk, Connecticut on Dec. 6. About 80 college and non-academic teams competed in three weight classes — 3, 12 and 30 pounds — with up to 30 qualifying bots in each division as determined by performance in regular-season competitions.  

A lean, green 12-pound machine equipped with blades and a steel cylinder with teeth called a drum, Steggy pounded its way into the semi-finals, eventually succumbing to Slam Plan the bot from Team HUGE. Slam Plan, incidentally, lost in the finals to Pramheda. 

Steggy is driven by Gator Robotics Vice President John Flaacke, a first-year master’s student who, according to the play-by-play broadcast announcer, is known as “Boy Wonder.” 

With gnarly teeth and a few surprises in its weighty drum, the 30-pound Termigator made it to the Top 16, where it was bested by Colossal Avian (who then lost to Chonkiv the bot in the quarterfinals).  

“Our drums are made out of S7 steel, which has a higher hardness than most weapons people use, so we do more damage to them than they do to us,” said Brooks Silber, Gator Robotics member and first-year master’s student with the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE). 

Battling Their Way to Future Careers

Battle bots are remote-controlled combat robots designed to fight each other. The key is design and weaponry, which can include anything from circular saws to spikes to fire to sheer brute force. Battle bots became popular around 2000 when Comedy Central aired “BattleBots,” featuring real competitions. The shows are now on the Discovery Channel.  

Members and graduates contend the battle bot competitions and prep provide essential tools for successful engineers. 

“It is no understatement to say it completely changed the course of my career,” said Adam Smith, a 2025 mechanical engineering graduate now working at Northrop Grumman. “I started as a computer science major, but quickly realized that the process of designing, building and competing with a robot was more gratifying for me." 

UF students have been competing in NHRL competitions since 2020. They know the drill well and, upon entering each battle, often do the Gator Chomp before placing the bots in the enclosed arena box for battle. December’s competition was no different. 

“We set the robots in the arena, we remove the safety locks, we power them on, they close the doors, we go to our corners and then it's three, two, one fight,” Silber said. 

Once locked into the arena, the bots smash into each other, flipping and spinning and ramming and launching each other into walls as sparks and parts fly off wounded bots. 

There are three ways to win, Silber said. One, a bot damages its opponent so bad it cannot move. Two, a team surrenders and taps out to prevent further damage to their bot. 

“They can say they've had enough,” Silber said. “And then the third is the fight can just go three minutes. Nobody taps out, nobody gets knocked out and a judge has to decide from a scorecard based off of aggression, damage and control.” 

Real-world Experience

Part of MAE, the 25-member Gator Robotics team specializes in designing and making combat robots for competitions. Members gain real-world experience in CAD design, simulation, mechanical engineering, machining and electrical work. The team builds the bots in a warehouse in the MAE Student Design Center in southwest Gainesville. 

Gator Robotics President Nieed Guillaume credits the team’s success to all team members, noting the battle-bot program provides students “vital engineering experience while representing the University of Florida against top competitors and other universities like MIT and Georgia Tech.” 

Former member and mechanical engineering graduate Jack Sopotnick agrees.  

“I would say my time with Gator Robotics was the key contributor to both the technical skills and the soft skills that I use every day," said Sopotnick, now a robotics engineer for Lockheed Martin’s Manufacturing Technology team. 

The competitions taught him to effectively troubleshoot on a tight deadline. At work, he determines the root cause of problems and implements rapid improvements for successful robot operations.  

“I’ve already had plenty of practice with that from fixing and improving half-broken battle bots on competition day,” Sopotnick added. “I wouldn’t be 10% of the person or engineer that I am today.”