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Ballarat could soon have its own league of battle robots if a young team from Ballarat Hackerspace gets their big combat ideas off the ground. They have been building robots and tinkering with technology for years but are keen to inject some competition in to their cyber-world. Inspired by the successful Battle Bots televised robot fighting league from the US, Alex, 14, has made the first move toward creating the Ballarat Area Robotics League and set up a website, Facebook page, Twitter handle and survey to bring interested robot builders together. "We've got about 10 people behind it who want help start it, and about another 10 who don't really want to be involved in starting it are keen to come along and take part," he said. For the uninitiated, robot wars involve a person or team designing and building a small, radio controlled robot armed with weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy an opponent robot. The two robots clash inside a fighting arena which itself can be armed with various destructive tools that the robot's operators can force their opponent on to. WATCH THE LATEST BATTLE BOTS SERIES PREVIEW BELOW "The Ballarat league will be like Battle Bots but on a much smaller scale," Alex said. "I've been building robots and websites for a couple of years now, and when I saw Battle Bots on television straight away I was interested in watching robots destroy each other ... so I've been thinking about trying to start a league for a couple of years now." The robots can be as small as fairyweight, weighing under 150g, and as big as 13.6kg with similar sized robots taking each other on. There are two categories - non destructive and destructive - with the goal of the non-destructive competition to push the other robot out of a certain area. "I enjoy building robots but there's only so many robots you can build for the sake of building robots before you start looking for something else to do with them," he said. "I haven't built a battle bot yet, but I've been building robots that push each other out of the ring instead of destroying each other." Weapons on the actual Battle Bots crafts include flame throwers, hydraulic hammers, spinning saw blades, axes, flipping mechanisms and more. Alex and fellow robot enthusiasts have been meeting at Ballarat Hackerspace who are supporting them in their quest for a combat robot league. "Ballarat Hackerspace been quite helpful and there's a few people there want to help start it. Hackerspace is all volunteer run so I go there about once a month for a couple of hours and while there I get help with projects I need help with, and in turn help other people with their projects," he said. "Everyone going to Hackerspace has a different skill set, so I tend to go there when I need help with something." YOU MIGHT LIKE: Cyber security experts CT4 moving to Federation University's Ballarat Tech Park Alex is also on the lookout for a venue within about 20 minutes of central Ballarat, ideally a hall or gym where the group's portable arena can be erected. "It has to be held in an arena because they can destroy each other. It's usually about a square metre of thick timber on the base, with clear plastic walls and a roof so if things go flying off the robots then people don't get hurt." Anyone interested in being part of the Ballarat Area Robotics League can visit the Facebook page or website to fill in a survey. Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.

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