Ricky Willems had been building robots since he was in kindergarten, mainly for pure enjoyment. But once he stumbled upon combat robotics several years ago, Willems saw an opportunity to bring his talents to a bigger stage.
“As soon as I realized it wasn’t just things I was going to build out of spare parts in my grandparents’ shed, I thought, ‘Something’s going to happen one day,’” Willems said.
Willems came up with the idea to form a group dedicated to building a combat robot two years ago while working at Stanley Black & Decker in Towson.
He built a few small robots himself before teaming up with coworker Brice Farrell, who previously made an appearance on robot-fighting TV series “BattleBots.”
Farrell also fell in love with combat robotics at an early age. His first experience building a robot sparked a motivation to learn more, despite a first attempt that was less…
