It's called a BattleBot, but it looks like a shiny chunk of floor tile come to life. It zips in circles, flips a trash bin and spreads the litter over the concrete floor.

Walt Gasper, 16, of Ruffsdale, holds the robot's radio controls. He speaks for his seven teammates at Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center when he talks about the appeal of the new BattleBotsIQ robot-building curriculum and contest.

"I like messing with stuff, working with my hands," he said. "Most of my family's the same way. Dad's a mechanic, and my pap and uncles always have something in pieces out in the garage. Building a robot's something I've wanted to try, and I couldn't afford to if I had to do it on my own."

BattleBots started as a cable-TV show which pitted homemade robots against one another in a gladiator-style, one-on-one, single-elimination competition. Show creators noticed how young people embraced the show; they then created a teaching curriculum based on teacher training and interschool robot competitions. The education-based entertainment was rechristened BattleBotsIQ: The Smart Sport, and introduced to schools five years ago.

The program premiered this year in Western Pennsylvania, and the lineup for a competition Saturday at Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield includes teams from Westmoreland County's Eastern, Central, Forbes Road and Northern Career and Technology Centers; Lenape Area Vocational Technical School from Alle-Kiski Valley and Butler County Area Vocational Technical School.

Central Westmoreland has two eight-person teams in the BBIQ program, youngsters whose good grades, technical skills and application essays won them spots on the two teams.

Bruce Hotchkiss, marketing and grants manager at the Westmoreland/Fayette Workforce Investment Board, said his agency sponsored the robot battle because it gives youngsters a notion of what manufacturing is all about: Enterprising people creating superior products within exacting parameters.

"They're working as teams. [The schools] don't have a robotics specialty program, so the kids are drawn from different disciplines, working together. They have to keep [the robot's] weight down below 15 pounds, which is a real challenge, considering all the gear that has to go into these things."

Walt Gasper's group includes kids from three school districts who specialize in computer-aided drafting, welding, electronics and machine tooling. One's a girl. Working together, carrying the prototype from shop to shop, scavenging parts and retooling parts that won't work, and keeping it as simple as possible, it's all a part of daily life in the real world of manufacturing.

"Doing this is a reality check," said Andrew Orischak, 16, of Hunker. "This is what really happens." Their silver robot's sole weapon is a pneumatic flipping arm, engineered to slip beneath a competitor's 'bot and snap it onto its back. The other Central team is arming its with a piercing ramrod, welding instructor Brandon Butela said.

Once all the bugs are worked out, the robots and their handlers will travel to Westmoreland Mall for the daylong face-off in a 10-foot plexiglas arena.

Winners will get plaques and honors and maybe a community college scholarship; schools that field winning robots get to keep a traveling trophy for a year.

By next year, the southwestern Pennsylvania BattleBotsIQ organizers hope to see several more schools with 'bots in the ring. The winner could represent the region at the national competition in Florida.

For now, though, the playing field is pretty even, Walt said. "We're all doing this for the first time. Nobody's really got the advantage of experience over us. It's equal opportunity destruction."

The BattleBots IQ tournament practice rounds start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the mall with "rumbles" scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is free.