Humanoid robot fighting glossary: what pilot, avatar, teleoperation, hybrid control, score zone and L100 mean

Humanoid robot fighting borrows words from boxing, video games and robotics, and leagues do not always use them the same way. This glossary defines the terms that recur on this site, each as the league concerned describes it, as of 8 November 2026. Where a league has not defined a term, the entry says so.

PEOPLE AND CONTROL

Pilot. The human who controls a fighting robot. In ARC, according to its Gameplay page, the pilot's name is the one on the card and pilot and robot enter "as one competitor". Shadow Combat League also uses the word, and splits its pilots into ICON, GLADIATOR and NETRUNNER categories.

Avatar. ARC's word for the robot a pilot drives. ARC's site says the pilot "wills" and the avatar "executes", and describes a match as "a contest between partnerships" rather than between robots.

Motion capture. A rig that records the pilot's body so the robot copies it. Shadow Combat League says its robots are driven in real time by pilots wearing motion capture. ARC describes a VR rig or full-body motion capture.

Teleoperation, or remote control. A human controlling a robot from a distance. It covers motion capture, VR headsets and game controllers. Shadow Combat League's own site uses the keyword "tele-operated robots". The San Francisco Standard reports that REK's robots are operated remotely by people, not autonomously.

Hybrid control. The arrangement most often described for URKL, EngineAI's league: an operator issues commands and the robot carries them out physically. Other Chinese reports use stronger wording about the robot's own decisions, and EngineAI has not published a definition that settles it. Roboxing treats the control mode of URKL as disputed.

Autonomous. A robot choosing and executing actions without a human deciding each one. ARC's FAQ draws the line precisely: balance, locomotion and low-level motor execution run autonomously, but "every decision and every action in a match" comes from the pilot, and nothing is scripted. In ARC's usage, then, partly autonomous hardware is not an autonomous fighter. CMG2026, the CCTV competition, lists full-size autonomous combat as its stated finale but has published no date.

MACHINES AND SOFTWARE

Unitree G1. A Unitree Robotics humanoid, used by Ultimate Bots on league-assigned machines, and by ARC in a lightweight bout in Singapore.

EngineAI T800. EngineAI's full-size humanoid. URKL fights are all on it, and ARC's Singapore heavyweight bout used one.

REK Sim. REK's game for PC, Meta Quest and, in beta, iPhone and iPad. It is a simulator, not remote control of a real robot. REK's Steam announcement of 30 October for the REK 2.1 Playoffs is headed "Win and Pilot a real robot".

L100 and H100. The names REK's simulator now uses for its two robots. REK's version 0.0.119 notes of 29 August say they are "formerly known as Unitree G1 and EngineAI T-800". The notes concern the game; they do not say REK has renamed physical robots, and they do not say what the names stand for.

SCORING AND RULES

Strike. A landed hit. In Ultimate Bots' rule book, one point goes each round to the team that lands more strikes; a tie scores nothing.

Score zone. A UFB mechanic: each team can score one point independently by reaching a zone that activates 45 seconds into a round, so both, one or neither team can bank it.

Knockout (KO). In UFB's rule book, worth two points and it ends that round at once, but the match continues. ARC scores differently: its rounds end when a robot's health reaches zero, or immediately if the robot falls.

Hit zones and health. ARC's term. Sensors in the robot armour register valid hits on the head, worth double damage, and the chest and abdomen, worth standard damage, and each competitor has an on-screen health total.

Flags. UFB captains carry three flags. The lime green bonus flag, usable once per game by each team, doubles a match's points for both teams; the black flag calls a rival captain into a corner-to-corner duel between scheduled matches.

Weight class. ARC defines three: under 1.2 metres and 40 kilograms, 1.2 to 1.5 metres and 40 to 60 kilograms, and above 1.5 metres and 60 kilograms. REK's simulator now organises Free Play rooms by weight class, starting with heavyweights.

Round. The unit of a bout. Length differs by league: ARC rounds last 150 seconds, in a best-of-three match.

EVENTS AND FORMATS

Fight night. One live event with a card of bouts. Examples: ARC Night Singapore on 7 October 2026, and SCL's New Dawn in Kuala Lumpur on 3 October.

Season. A league's run of events. Ultimate Bots lists a Season 2 of four permanent teams that opens at TwitchCon San Diego, which UFB's schedule gives as 13 to 15 November 2026.

Playoffs. REK's REK 2.1 playoffs are played in the simulator: the top six players on each of two weekly leaderboards advance, twelve in all.

Showcase. The word used for an exhibition rather than a league night, for example RFC's Singapore showcase of 9 October and the pre-fight robot showcase Unitree titled for UFC.

WHY THE WORDS MATTER

A result means something different depending on who is in control and how it is scored, which is why this site records the control mode and rule set for each league instead of treating all of it as one sport. Terms that look identical can differ: a knockout in UFB scores two points and the match goes on, while in ARC a robot at zero health ends the round. When a league defines a term, this glossary will follow its wording.

SOURCES

ARC (arcleague.com home page and FAQ, read 8 November 2026); REK announcements on Steam, app 4600200; Ultimate Bots rule book (ultimatebots.com/rule-book, read 26 October 2026); ARC Gameplay page; Shadow Combat League; San Francisco Standard. Details of each are in the Roboxing articles on who is driving the robots, how UFB scores a match, how ARC works and which leagues are autonomous.