‘BattleBots’ competitor aims for heavy equipment market

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

August 10, 2026

SHEBOYGAN – In an industry where bigger is often seen as better, Ben Davidson said Grabot.Tech is looking to prove otherwise.

“I’m actually kind of trying to make a new market,” he said. “I’m trying to make a robot that [I] feel like we’ve overlooked, that we’ve skipped over.”

Working out of a garage on his and his wife’s five-acre hobby farm in Sheboygan County, Davidson said he started building robots roughly 15 years ago.

“Grabot is basically my hobby,” he said. “I’m a mechanical engineer, I’ve worked in industrial machine design, [and] I still do.”

One day, Davidson said a “mechanism with gearboxes” inspired him to approach his then-employer about building a robot from it.

“I showed it to my work, and they [said], ‘We don’t want to make a robot out of it, but good luck,’ and they basically signed a paper saying [they] don’t have intellectual rights [over my Grabot machines],” he said.

After several years of refining his initial concepts and ideas, Davidson said he applied for and participated in the well-known robotics competition, “BattleBots.”

“[Right] before 2020, [I] built the first version of Grabot and went to California,” he said.

Davidson said he drove his family across the country to compete in one of the first productions permitted to take place in Hollywood during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Joined by teammates Mike and Matt Stroy and his son, Judah, Davidson said Grabot advanced through three matches during the competition. 

“It was as fun an experience as I could imagine,” he said.

Davidson said the team is now looking ahead to October, when Grabot 2026 is expected to compete in a “BattleBots” live event in Las Vegas. 

“This Halloween, they’re going to have another side competition of [robots that are smaller], not the heavy hitters, but it’s called Creature Combat II,” he said. “[The bots are still] meant to hurt and wreck the other, but [they’re] more meant to walk around and articulate like a creature.”

Though “BattleBots” may be the best way he’s found to advertise his machines, Davidson said competing isn’t his only goal.

“[It’s] just the medium that exposes people to my robotics,” he said. “When I first got the release saying [the machines] were my intellectual property, I thought, ‘What can I do with this?’”

For him, Davidson said the answer extends well beyond the “BattleBots” arena. 

A ‘manufactured hobby’

Using himself as an example, Davidson said the Grabot 2026 design is intended to bridge the gap between heavy equipment – such as excavators and skid steers – and manual labor. 

“For me…, I live on a five‑acre hobby farm,” he said. “I feed [my] animals 50‑pound bags of grain [and with my robot, for example], I can just drive and pick up 50 pounds and drop it off over there. All I have to do is open the bag and pour it, so I’m kind of a potential user.”

But turning that practical solution into a business, Davidson said, presented a different challenge. 

Because he “doesn’t know how to make a market,” he said he chose to use “BattleBots’” existing platform to get Grabot’s name in front of potential customers.

“[I’m doing this] with intent to make money out of this,” he said.

However, as compared to other sectors of the tech industry, Davidson said building and reliably manufacturing consumer-facing robotics is much more difficult.

“I could make an app and roll out 10,000 [downloads] without having to put any money into it,” he said. “Once the hardware goes together, now you have a product. [But], up until that moment, you don’t have anything to sell, and then it takes all that same hardware to reproduce it.”

Fifteen years into his “manufactured hobby,” Davidson said “BattleBots” offers the fastest route to getting Grabot noticed. 

“I talked to my son who was six or eight at the time, asking, ‘Hey, you want to do ‘BattleBots?’’” he said. “I didn’t necessarily need to win anything – I just wanted [people] to see the mechanism and [what we] can do…, so I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the first run once people saw it.”

Admittedly, Davidson said Grabot 2020 “was not a competitive robot.”

“They have [robots] that are just monsters that kill you in one hit – that’s not what I’m making,” he said. “I’m making something to try to control a monster… It’s not the same game everyone else is playing, and it’s very hard to reach your target when you’re getting punched in the face by Mike Tyson.”

In all three of his 2020 “BattleBots” matches, Davidson said he was thrown, pushed and dragged “like a rag doll.”

However, he said the experience was well worth the beating – using it to improve on future designs.

“Before I knew it, it was over…, but the whole experience was fun,” he said. “It was just as positive an experience as I could have hoped.”

At his upcoming competition, Davidson said he’s slated to battle against the person who initially inspired his interest in robotics.

“Mark Setrakian is [the reason] why I ever thought ‘BattleBots’ was the coolest thing ever,” he said. “He came with Mechadon [roughly] 20 years ago…, but it was beautiful as art, [and] it was bigger than all the [other robots].”

Though he wasn’t aware of “BattleBots’” first Creature Combat event last year, Davidson said he’s excited to join the ranks the second time around.

“I’m so excited to go against my childhood hero,” he said.

More than just a battle bot

In preparation for his upcoming participation in “BattleBots,” Davidson said he went “back to the drawing board” to improve his design for the Creature Combat competition.

“At the time [of the first competition], I only lifted 50 pounds of weight with the arms because I didn’t want something inside to break,” he said. “I don’t know [if] I could have lifted a 250-pound robot with what I brought in 2020 – maybe I could have, but I got knocked out before I could try.”

Having changed employers since beginning his “BattleBots” journey, Davidson said his current employer, BW Papersystems, is supporting his 2026 run as a sponsor. 

“They knew I did ‘BattleBots,’ so I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to try another run, can I get sponsorship?’” he said. “My boss at the time… [agreed and gave me some] money to get started.”

Another sponsor of in-kind materials for Grabot’s 2026 run, Davidson said, is QuadLife – a Sheboygan-based business dedicated to “empowering individuals of all abilities by creating innovative, intuitive and assistive technologies,” per quad.life.

“A friend of mine owns [the] business,” he said. “He has a machine shop he lets me tool around in.”

Davidson said QuadLife’s involvement in Grabot’s production highlights another use case for his robots – giving independence to those with limited physical mobility.

However, after trying to help a friend of his with cerebral palsy take out the trash, Davidson said he realized one “can’t just put heavy machinery in people’s houses.”

“I made a robot…, tested it, it would pick up something, raise its body and put it in this larger container,” he said. “I gave it to him, and it [was] kind of a beast – I tried to slow it down, but he ended up knocking a hole in his wall, and didn’t want to use it anymore.”

Though Grabot’s website – grabot.tech – experienced an uptick in traffic following his first competition in 2020, Davidson said things didn’t shake out exactly as he had thought.

“I thought people were going to start throwing me money, and that’s not the way the world actually works,” he said.

Davidson said he’s more prepared ahead of his upcoming Las Vegas appearance.

“I’m trying to fundraise and work with the Sheboygan [Economic Development Corporation] to see if I can make two more next-gen machines,” he said. “I made this – it’s really strong, really powerful and I can break it on something because it’s strong enough to break itself. I’ve redesigned it, and I think I can make kind of the same machine for [roughly] $1,000 less and lift two times the weight.”

This time around, Davidson said he aims to have products for sale on his website by Creature Combat II’s show date.

“I’m going to try and have something for sale on my website…, because it’s not just a battle bot, it’s something that can pick up a workload, drive over there and drop it off,” he said. “[This is] why I got into it. I think there are benefits to it that I don’t see in other robotics right now.”

For more on Grabot.Tech, visit its aforementioned website.