The air in the main building is thick with tension. It roars. It crashes. It bangs. Metal strikes metal. Again and again. In a cube-shaped arena, “swords,” hammers, and rotating discs collide. These kinetic weapons belong to vicious little fighting machines. Their mission: to shatter, crush, and destroy the opponent. To win the championship trophy, the remote-controlled robots will do everything permitted by the rules.
All robots are designed and built by the teams themselves. The rules specify weight, materials, safety, and permitted weapon systems. They’re only allowed into the arena after passing a technical inspection.
Measuring Success: FightNight Instead of an Examination
The excitement among everyone involved is palpable, because the event is not only a playful challenge but also a public test of the young engineers’ skills: plastic shatters, a wheel flies through the air, and the announcer calls out every hit: “Oh no, Oakstan’s been hit,” Jule shouts into the mic. A murmur ripples through the crowd.
Around the 1.5-by-1.5-meter battle area, about 50 students, university staff, and even family members watch the action with bated breath. The camera crew and the two hosts dart back and forth between the teams and the spectators—from interviews with the teams and analyzing the last match with the judges to announcing the next opponents. Even those not on site can still share in the excitement. FightNight is streamed on Twitch and shown on a large screen in the hall. Up in the gallery above, the atmosphere is like a pit stop: In the blink of an eye, batteries are swapped out, screws are tightened, and damaged robots are fixed up and made ready for their next battle.
The spherical combat robot “Mona Lisa” lies open on the table. She was actually supposed to have entered the arena minutes ago. “Just a few more seconds—we’re having technical issues,” the team calls out to the two hosts as they continue Mona Lisa’s “emergency repair” to fix the damage she sustained in her last fight.
The other machines are called “Rumkugel,” “Bruce-E,” “Spareforce ONE.3,” “Eintracht Prügel,” and “Kabelsalat Kommando”—the names of the combat robots show that humor and creativity are also part of the design concept.
Nine teams are competing against each other at the fourth FightNight, including three from Vienna. For three minutes, they duel, shove, hammer, and saw—if both opponents can last that long. If neither is knocked out, the three-member jury—all student council members—decides on points which robot dominated the fight. Criteria such as aggressiveness, control, and damage inflicted on the opponent determine victory or defeat.
While the little fighting machines scrape, grind, and crash into each other, many children watch the action with wide eyes, right in the thick of it. One hand on the ice, the other on the plexiglass barrier of the arena. Behind the glass, screws and plastic parts fly through the battle zone when a robot breaks apart under its opponent’s blows.
During a break in the competition, a boy is even allowed to control one of the robots himself. When a plastic part breaks in the process, its builder reacts with complete composure. “I’ll just quickly print a replacement part,” says the student with a grin, making his way to the 3D printer.
Standing in the middle of the audience is the Gronemeier family from Detmold-Pivitsheide. Their two children, ages six and nine, are watching the battles with rapt attention. They don’t have time for an interview; they have to keep cheering—the next robots are already in the arena. Their favorite is called “Simsalabim.” It’s even cooler than the robot kits they play with at home, their mother says with a laugh. “We had a choice today: the outdoor pool or RoboRangeln. The kids really wanted to come here.”
The family first learned about the combat robots at the TH OWL open house. “Both of them find technology exciting, and we’re members of the MINT Club Lippe,” she explains. After summer break, the older son will start high school. His mother hopes that his enthusiasm for technology will continue to be nurtured there.
It’s easier to tinker together
It’s precisely for moments like these that Jonas Schweizer and the RoboRangeln team launched the project. The 25-year-old is one of the founding members of the student representatives from the Faculty of Production and Engineering at TH OWL and has been continuously developing RoboRangeln since 2023 together with a team of volunteers from various faculties. They were inspired by the “RoboFetz” project at TU Wien. The collaboration between the projects is also evident in the participation at FightNight, for which three teams traveled all the way from Vienna.
“For me, RoboRangeln is a labor of love. I love talking publicly about my work at the university. It’s so much fun to share my knowledge and keep developing the project. It’s great to see how far we’ve come since 2023,” he says.
The idea behind RoboRangeln didn’t come about by chance. Jonas Schweizer and his team were looking for a way to get more young people excited about engineering. Interest in pursuing a degree program in this field has been declining for years. That’s why RoboRangeln was meant to be more than just an entertaining competition from the very beginning.
Preparations begin weeks in advance in workshops, on laptops, and with 3D printers. Interested students meet for hands-on evenings in the SmartFactoryOWL workshops—in the FabLab and IA-Lab. In free crash courses, they learn about design, CAD, 3D printing, electronics, and programming—guided by experienced RoboRanglers.
Course materials, blueprints, and software are also available for free download on the project website. For those with little experience in electronics, the team has even developed its own electronics kit. It can be loaned or purchased and makes it easier to get started with robot building.
Students from the fields of Production and Engineering, Computer Science, Media and Culture, and Business have long been collaborating on the project. While some design and program robots, others handle organization, moderation, livestreaming, or public relations.
The success of this concept has also been recognized outside the university. In 2025, the Scientific Society for Production Engineering awarded RoboRangeln the NextGen Engineering Trophy as the best concept for young talent in Germany. The team invested the 5,000-euro prize money directly into the project’s further development. TH OWL also provides financial support for the project.
A Passion for Technology That Continues to Grow
The initiative to promote young talent is now set to take the next step. A particular priority for the team is to inspire more girls and young women to take an interest in technology. At this year’s Girls’ Day, eight participants already built their first robots. Currently, two women are part of the RoboRangeln teams—and Jonas Schweizer would love to see more join in the future. That’s why the team is simultaneously establishing contacts with schools in the region. The goal is to establish long-term partnerships in which students develop their own robots and then compete at FightNight. College students will serve as mentors to guide them through the process.
In addition, RoboRangeln is set to become even more deeply integrated into the university. Ideas for interdisciplinary teaching formats, student projects, and other ways to anchor the initiative within the degree program have long been emerging around the project.
In the long term, RoboRangeln is intended to be accessible far beyond the campus. Plans include building a mobile arena, which the team hopes to use to make stops at city festivals, STEM events, and schools in the future. Also on the agenda is the founding of an association, which will provide the project with a long-term outlook and create new opportunities for funding and collaborations.
Together with other universities, the team is working on a standardized set of rules for intercollegiate competitions. “This could eventually lead to a robot league with national and international competitions,” says Jonas Schweizer. “I’d like to see more people join the organizing team so we can carry out our plans for the future.”
Back in the arena, meanwhile, the competition continues into the final rounds. Between matches, Jonas Schweizer sweeps plastic shards and screws off the battle floor, tightens a loose screw, and closes the arena door again. Shortly afterward, sparks fly once more, spinning discs screech across the floor, and the audience cheers loudly.
“Oh shit!” someone shouts as a robot flies across the arena. It’s “Simsalabim”—broken down into its individual parts. It probably won’t be competing again today; the damage from the last fight is too severe.
Meanwhile, the bratwurst cart has arrived—by now, at the very latest, FightNight has taken on the atmosphere of a small summer festival.
In the end, the Viennese robot “Bruce-E” prevails in the final against “Spareforce ONE.3” and takes home the golden trophy. The fact that the victory goes to Austria also shows just how much RoboRangeln has expanded beyond TH OWL in the meantime. Collaboration with other universities has long been part of the concept.
For Jonas Schweizer and his team, however, something else matters most in the end: that children choose to spend a summer day at TH OWL, marvel at robots, and experience just how fascinating technology can be.
He smiles. “Feedback like that makes you realize: The late nights were worth it. When a child goes home and says, ‘I want to build a robot like that, too,’ then we’ve achieved our goal. That’s the best compliment.”
That’s exactly what RoboRangeln is all about.
For more information: www.roborangeln.de
