When we think of robots the usual assumption is that it’s a tiny thing, possibly humanoid and programed to do something useful that can help it’s human owners. We do not think of 4,500 kg beasts that are hydraulically operated and can be controlled by a human to fight battles with another similar monster.

MegaBots is a start up company based in California which is trying to make this an actual event in the Olympics. Okay, so that may be a far away vision as of now, but MegaBots has managed to convince enough people that having a global robot fighting league would be a really good idea.

A rival company in Japan called Suidobashi Heavy Industries is already signed up for a battle against the MegaBots’ representative with it’s own Kutaras robot. The first battle between these two huge machines is likely to show just how popular robot battling can become as an international spectator sport.

Don’t worry, it’s not a fight to the death. In fact the huge robots actually have a cabin built inside them where a human being sits. The human can guide it to grapple with the other robot or simply shoot huge paintballs weighing 1.5kg at it. Now that’s a science project I can totally get behind.