I am trying to begin a robotics team at my small school. I am a novice/beginner. with robots. We want to enter a competition in 2021 that will include and autonomous battling robot as well as maze work. I feel I will need 2 different robots for this. For the fighting would the “viper” be a good beginning battling bot?
Hello @mdjyazoo and welcome to the RobotShop forum,
I am trying to begin a robotics team at my small school
That sounds amazing! 
autonomous battling robot as well as maze work. I feel I will need 2 different robots for this
It depends, you could use the same robot for both tasks because as you mention the first should be autonomous then it will need sensors (opponent/distance) which are usually used for maze-solving robots as well. However, I assume you say that it would be better to have two different robots because you want the maze-solving robot to be faster, perhaps smaller and the battle robot more robust, right?
Either way, you can find different options in the following sections of the store:
For the fighting would the “viper” be a good beginning battling bot?
The viper is an excellent kit, however, you would need to make some modifications to make it autonomous. There are two options available one that includes a transmitter and receiver and one that doesn’t. Again, as you mentioned that it needs to be autonomous, you won’t need the transmitter and receiver so you can get the less expensive kit and add a microcontroller or single-board computer (the brain of the robot) and some sensors (this guide can help you choose them and I also recommend checking the complete series).
Also, note that some of the kits available in the store don’t include the electronics (motor controller, microcontroller, etc) but there are others that include everything, for example:
I hope this info can help you!
Let us know if you need more help 
Hello friend, I hope it is not late. But I would suggest you to start with “mini sumo robots” for few reasons:
- Budget friendly, easy to upgrade motors or replace parts if needed.
- Easy to program. Good for starting coding, sure you can develop with lots of different strategies.
- It has a big competition base that you can compete or find good ideas worldwide.
https://www.robotshop.com/en/jsumo-m1-arduino-mini-sumo-robot-kit-unassembled.html This M1 mini sumo robot model is coming unassembled and easy to assemble as we write here:
https://blog.jsumo.com/how-to-assemble-m1-mini-sumo-robot/
Have a nice day 
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