About us
Anteater Combat Engineering (ACE) is an undergraduate combat robotics team, dedicated to designing and competing in competitive robotics from 1lb to 30lb weight classes. Comprised of passionate students from various engineering disciplines, ACE aims to push the boundaries of robotic engineering through hands-on experience, teamwork, and participation in competitions.
Creativity.
Your design is your ambition. ACE pushes the boundaries in innovative engineering for all of our robots. Your limit is your imagination in the arena.
Competition.
Competition drives us to excel. With every match, we present our best inside the arena. Our determination in matches is an opportunity to prove ourselves and push to be the best.
Community.
We are a team, a community of combat robotics enthusiasts helping each other to succeed and overcome any challenge. We create an environment where teamwork is our main cause for our collective success.
Our Journey
2017-2022
ACE is the direct successor of the original ideals and project of the first robotics club at UC Irvine, ZOTBotics. ACE today has transformed from the original ideas of ZOTBotics' Robot Rumbles to continue the ideas of robotics for creativity, competition, and community.
2017
Our journey begins here! ZOTBotics, the original combat robotics club was founded in 2017 with the idea of creating miniature sumo robotics, later developing into the Robot Rumble competitions at UCI! Members part of ZOTBotics Robot Rumble would develop miniature combat robots to fight against each other to the death! Several competitions were held within the ZOTBotics member base from 2017-2020.
2020
With COVID-19, ZOTBotics transitioned to an online setting, focusing more on online projects. Robot Rumble projects were canceled, and would take until 2022 for ZOTBotics to continue back into combat robotics.
2022-2023
2022
With working with the founders of ZOTBotics, the ZOTBotics' Network was established creating 4 new clubs all under the name of ZOTBotics, with ACE as the spearheading club for robotics within ZOTBotics. ACE set itself to focus mainly on combat robotics within ZOTBotics, following the traditions from the original UCI Robot Rumble competitions. Our development was small, but we were encouraged to set strong foundations for a combat robotics presence at UCI.
2023-2024
In 2023, we have set our foundation as a combat robotics team and made many achievements during these last years!
1st Battalion
By the school year's end, ACE had finished up to 11 combat robots! With our robots, we attended several competitions outside UCI for the first time! The 1st Battalion was a major success, finally showcasing our hard work throughout the year.
ACE@UCI Antweight Assault
In March 2024, we held our first competition at UCI with our own arena and own robots! With up to 10 robots competing we finally showcased all of our robots in the arena. With many unique and diverse robots, our members could finally present all their hard work.
Join Us!
Interested in joining? Check out the Recruitment page to learn more on how to become more involved! We accept anyone, no matter the major or experience!