RioBotz (PUC-Rio)

RioBotz is the university team of PUC-Rio in Rio de Janeiro, captained by Professor Marco Antonio Meggiolaro with Daniel Freitas as driver and members including Gabriel Barsi, Carlos Junior, Rodrigo Almeida, Rodrigo Nogueira and Marcos Angeli. Competing for more than 16 years, it is South America’s best-known presence in BattleBots.

Its drum spinner Minotaur was a finalist in 2018, ‘most destructive robot’ of the 2016 season and a semi-finalist in the 2026 BattleBots Pro League, with a 25-10 record. The team’s RoboGames titles of 2015 and 2016 were won with a different robot, Touro Maximus. For university robotics clubs RioBotz shows how an academic team can sustain itself in a professional league.