REK – Robot Kombat: Humanoid Robot Fights
REK – Robot Kombat
Client: REK
Events: REK0 (San Francisco), REK America (USA tour), REK1 (San Francisco)
Apps: REK Fighter, REK Spectator, REK Training (coming soon)
In a sentence
REK is full-contact humanoid robot fighting, piloted by real people in VR. It’s combat sports energy, but with robot bodies, so anyone can compete against anyone, regardless of size, age, gender or physical ability. Human skill and strategy still matter.
We're supporting REK on the software and systems side, helping turn experimental robotics into a reliable live experience: VR piloting, mixed reality interfaces, AI-augmented spectator cams, end-to-end latency reduction, and event-ready tooling.
Pilot in VR, robot in the ring. This is the core REK setup – real people, embodied ringside, controlling humanoids in full-contact combat.
What is REK?
REK fighters wear VR headsets and control humanoid robots in inclusive, full-contact combat. Imagine boxing or UFC, but the fighters are robots, embodied by people ring-side. Making Real Steel real!
REK0 was an early live milestone in San Francisco that proved the format with two robots and a crowd.
REK1 is the next step: a flagship tournament-scale show designed to elevate production value, broaden audience reach, and grow the pilot pipeline.
REK1
REK1 is the world’s greatest humanoid robot fighting tournament, being held the night before the Big Game at the historic Kezar Pavilion, San Francisco. Anyone who buys a ticket can apply to be a REK Pilot and have a chance at becoming a fighter in REK1.
The brief and the challenge
Building an entertaining robot-fighting experience is not just about making a humanoid move. It is about making a whole system feel immediate, legible, and safe enough to run in front of a live audience.
- Make piloting intuitive under pressure, using VR and mixed reality UI
- Reduce end-to-end latency so actions feel responsive and predictable
- Keep sessions stable and repeatable for live shows (setup, calibration, monitoring)
- Prioritise safety, especially with larger humanoids and high-energy movements
- Support rapid iteration between touring demos and event milestones (REK0 → REK1)
Our role
We have supported REK as an engineering partner from day one, working remotely from the UK while the robots operated in the US. The focus has been bridging real-time / game-engine approaches with live production reliability and robotics constraints, including networking, UX, telemetry, and tool-building.
Hardware iteration and show-prep: robots, rigs, and the practical realities of building something that can run reliably in front of a crowd.
Building the robotic "reflex arc"
In biology, a reflex arc is the fastest neural pathway – stimulus to response with minimal delay. That's exactly what we've worked on for REK: the tightest possible loop between pilot intent and robot action.
What we did
Across R&D and live events, the work has centred on tightening that loop – making the pilot experience readable and responsive, while keeping the overall system robust for show conditions.
- VR piloting and mixed reality app – for triggering, managing, and monitoring actions
- Latency reduction – optimisation across the pipeline to tighten response time from pilot intent to robot motion
- Hybrid control approach – combining pilot intent with pre-trained motion policies for balance and punch quality
- Event tooling – setup, calibration workflows, and operational support for live shows
- Safety-first iteration – guardrails, process, and lessons learned from early experiments
From experiments to REK0
Early work explored a range of teleoperation techniques and prototypes, quickly surfacing the real constraints: safety, balance, reliability, and the importance of a readable “motion language” for an audience.
REK0 was a key proof point: two robots, live crowd, VR pilots, and an entertaining audience experience. It also created a clear improvement list for the next milestone.
What’s next: REK1
REK1 scales the format into a tournament event, with a bigger crowd experience and a wider funnel for new pilots. The focus is higher production value, improved responsiveness, and continued iteration on safety and repeatability. You can buy tickets now for this event on February 7th 2026.
REK1 – coming soon... Kezar Pavilion, San Francisco.
Talk: BEYOND Conference
Watch the talk above, or open it on YouTube.
Watch: REK0 (full event recording)
Full recording of REK0.
Want to jump straight in? Open at beginning of event on YouTube.
VR180 on Apple Vision Pro
REK0 is also available to watch in VR180 on Apple Vision Pro via Vantage VR. Watching in immersive video makes the crowd scale and ring depth come across far better than a flat stream – you'll feel like you were there - and you can clearly see the VR pilots controlling the robots.
