Watch as these soccer-playing robots kick butt

At Caltech, soccer is not only for the athletes. Robots have now taken over the field.

Students were challenged to design, build and operate soccer-playing robots to compete in the "Tridroid Cup" in March 2016. The game was for the school's 31st Annual Engineering Design Competition, held for mechanical engineering students in their senior year.

"They spend the better part of four years learning theory, but then for about six months, or two quarters, they get to build robots," said Mike Mello, lecturer in Mechanical and Civil Engineering.

Although the players were on wheels and the field was inside a basketball gym, the objective was the same: score goals. Some bots rolled the balls, while others tossed them. Some bots got stuck in obstacles and one even caught on fire.

While not everything went as planned, the true winner of the day was science!