The USC Advanced Robotic Combat Design Team revealed its latest battle bot Tuesday. “Nemesis,” a 250-lb. robot, is the first in the world to be fully piloted by artificial intelligence. The robot’s capabilities will soon be put to the test at the BattleBots arena.
David Le is the founder and chief engineer for ARC. Le, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, said they are fulfilling their childhood dream with Nemesis.
“I remember when I was in fifth grade, I watched my first BattleBots video on YouTube,” Le said. “I was hooked from there. I just knew that when I am an adult, I want to do that.”
Le began building robots in high school. At USC, they founded the team, intending to place the school’s resources and brightest minds toward building a robot that could compete on the show.
“I’m going to make as many friends as I can,” Le said. “I’m going to put my friends through three years of hell so we can build this robot, and I’m going to see myself on BattleBots one day.”
“BattleBots” first aired on television in 2000, and the newest season will premiere on YouTube in June before being broadcast internationally, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Le said being qualified to compete in the tournament is an exclusive opportunity.
“There are only 50 or 60 robots in the world that are qualified to compete in that league, and we’re currently the only university team that’s competing,” Le said. “So we’re very proud.”
USC ARC has performed in previous competitions at the National Havoc Robot League. The team placed within the top five competitors in both regional and national competitions. But ARC’s work has become bigger than serving Le’s BattleBots ambitions; the team is doing groundbreaking research in the area of robotic artificial intelligence.
“We’re training AI to drive a killing robot. We’re pushing the boundary on what can be done with robotics,” Le said. “We’re building this robot to destroy other robots, but we’ve also had to solve a lot of other engineering problems that are beyond us.”
Le said combat robots are usually operated remotely, so a large part of winning the game is having an experienced driver. Le said the ARC team determined an AI system would drive more efficiently than a student driver, but the team understands the necessary precautions.
“I’m completely aware that having a computer control a death robot with no way of stopping it is a terrible idea,” Le said.
He noted that the team prioritizes safety by overriding the system and controlling the robot to prevent any foreseeable danger. Le also said they do not foresee the robot being used for dangerous purposes outside of competitions, but that it can help develop AI driving skills.
“You’re not going to see this technology uploaded to defense drones anytime soon. We don’t want to develop that kind of technology,” Le said. “But in terms of robotic locomotion, we’re making significant breakthroughs because our robot has to learn how to drive.”
Le said the technology also allows Nemesis to learn how to respond and adapt if it breaks.
“That can be applied to other robots, not just battle bots, to make them more robust in really challenging environments, and to make them more reliable and safer in the long run,” Le said.
Nemesis has three neural nets, which serve as artificial brains controlling its motion. Two of them are for seeing its opponent and determining its location in the arena, and the third is for driving toward and attacking the opponent.
Maddoc Shannon, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, is the president of ARC. Shannon said Nemesis’ main weapon is a blade made out of AR 500 steel that spins at 250 miles an hour. Called a hammer saw, the device is meant to hit the opponent’s weak spot on top, and then to remove their electronics.
Shannon said the team has been working on Nemesis for the past year and received funding from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Viterbi Aerospace Mechanical Engineering Department, as well as funding from outside donors. Shannon said the budget for Nemesis was $40,000 to $50,000.
“We have an incredibly powerful machine,” Shannon said. “Whether or not we can get it to be reliable is another question that we’ll have to see once we fight more, but at least, with the hardware that we have, it is going to be very competitive.”
If a team in the competition loses its first fight, they have 20 minutes to repair it before a rematch takes place. If their robot loses two fights, the team is eliminated from the competition.
“We may get beat up, and we may come out of it thinking, ‘Okay, we wasted this whole year,’” Le said. “I know we’re gonna put it back together, and we’re gonna go back in that arena, and eventually we’re gonna win, and it’s gonna be the best time of our lives.”