The Nakibots team are off to the World championships again in April.

When it comes to robot wars the chinese are the team to beat.

For the third year in a row the Nakibots, a taranaki-based VEX IQ robotics team from New Plymouth, will represent New Zealand at the world champs in April, having won the national title earlier this month.

While a team from Puerto Rico scooped the top prize at last year's world championships, Nakibots team member Conor Eager,12, believed the Chinese were the ones to beat.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF The robots are available in kit form and can be upgraded.

"They just come up with some really amazing designs and strategies and they're always hard to beat," he said.

READ MORE:

* Taranaki robotics team to represent New Zealand for the second year in a row

* Taranaki robot builders off to the US for competition

* Robot battle win to take Manawatū kids to United States

The Nakibots will be heading to Kentucky, USA, in April to compete and while Eager was worried about a few of the teams he thought his group could definitely match it with them.

During competition teams design and build a robot to compete in a series of challenges, which involve moving coloured plastic rings around a field to score points.

"We'll do well I think, we finished 10th last year but there's still a lot of work to do," Eager said.

"We've had some real success at other competitions, but it's going to be a lot harder this year."

The robots are mostly custom-built by the students and any adult help is kept to a minimum, he said.

"They [parents] can only be mentors and helpers.

"I like building it myself and the sense of satisfaction you get from it all working. The physics of robots are really interesting."

The starter kits for the robots cost around $400 and add on parts are also available to upgrade them

"You can get better motors, sensors and a whole heap of other parts to make them better," Eager said.

Nakibots member Bailey McKay said while going to the world champs was mainly about competing against people from all over the world he also enjoyed the social aspect as well.

"[Like] meeting other creative people and learning other languages."