It sounds a bit like speaking up at a self-help group: "Hi, I'm Ben Hayton, I'm 25 years old, an electrical and software engineer and I'm obsessed by robots".

Mr Hayton is part of "Adelaide Robot Combat", a league his colleagues founded three years ago.

And he said it's a sport which takes both skill and energy.

Ben Hayton will showcase several of his robots at a coming Adelaide event. ( Supplied: Adelaide Robot Combat )

"A lot of the time when you're actually in the midst of a battle, adrenaline takes over," Mr Hayton said.

"You basically have to rely on instinct a lot, so it's really good get some dry practice in beforehand because, in the throes of battle, you don't want to be thinking 'Oh, I need to pull my stick left so I can turn left'. You just just want to do it.

"You just need to clear your mind a little bit and just aim at the other robot and keep going."

Robot combat is just as it sounds — enthusiasts build robots and then use them to smash each other up in a combat zone.

The battle zone is encased in plastic to shield participants and onlookers from any flying debris.

Like boxing, there are weight classes.

Robots can compete in a 150-gram "antweight" class or the 1.36-kilogram "beetleweight" class.

The sport is played throughout the world, with some competitions featuring 13 kilogram robots.

Sorry, this video has expired Battle robots go head-to-head ( Youtube: Adelaide Robot Combat )

"I love this idea of people getting out there, making things and then pitting themselves against each other as… sport," Mr Hayton said.

"But it's more of a mind thing, because it's your design versus somebody else's design.

"So you don't have to be physically fit — you're bashing heads more than bashing brawn, which is a really exciting thing."

A 'brutal' sport with no physical pain

Another of Adelaide Robot Combat's founders, Chris Bycroft, agreed it was somewhere between a hobby and a sport.

"There's nothing like the rush of driving these — your hands are shaking afterwards," he said.

Building a battle robot requires some intricate construction. ( Instagram: /_team_panic_/ )

Put simply, the robots smash into each other until one becomes incapacitated.

"It can be pretty brutal… pretty scary, but we've got the polycarb here to protect everyone," Mr Eddy said.

Adelaide Robot Combat draws interest from many people of many ages and backgrounds, including a tech-passionate doctor and a 13-year-old Adelaide student, Jayden Strudwick, who is not intimidated by any opponent.

"Once you enter the arena it doesn't matter about age, they'll treat you the same, it's really fun," he said.

The Year 8 student said battling it out once a month was way more fun than playing video games at home.

"Once you put your bot in the arena for the first time, [with] just the amount of energy you get through it, it's just completely different and it's a lot more things you can use in future careers," he explained.

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James Eddy, another of Adelaide Robot Combat's founders, said he specialised in defensive robots.

"I run wedge bots, so basically [with] no weapon and all my areas in defence," he said.

"So I tend to rush their weapons a fair bit and try and stop them from spinning up or activating their weapon."

Adelaide Robot Combat gets its chance for wider exposure at the Hybrid World Adelaide event at the Convention Centre from July 20-24.

Ben Hayton will show off his various robots, made from materials including a transformer mask and a toaster.

"We're going to have so many people around and lots of people watching," he said.

"I've entered six robots because I couldn't decide which ones I wanted people to see."