Creation and destruction are two sides of the coin of existence. And creating something that is intended to destroy can be called an exercise in philosophy. But it was not exactly philosophy but victory that was on the minds of six students of Univetsity Institute of Engineering and Technology when they built their powerful robot. The machine went on to win the Robot Wars competition organized by  IIT Bombay.

'We wanted this since a long time. All engineering students in India look forward to this every year. They have people coming and participating in this competition from all over. So it was great to have actually won something this prestigious,' said Yajur DS Brar, a member of the team.

The winners of the contest are decided according to design and fabrication and finally through combat, in which two or more robots try to destroy or immobilize each other. The team called 'PU Junkies' prepared for almost three to four months to be part of the competition.

'We got the guidelines from IIT Bombay five months before the competition. We had to design, fabricate and model the robot all by ourselves. It was a lot of fun,' said Ravinder Singh, who headed the team and was also the controller of the robot.

The team has been making robots for past three years. They are also the first ones to win this competition from Chandigarh. But it wasn't just wining the competition that was hard for them.

'Our train to Mumbai got cancelled on the day we were supposed to go and we really didn't know how we would reach our destination on time. We decided to hire a cab and take a train from Delhi. We got to Mumbai a day late and had to compete with other teams, which had come late, on the last day. It didn't give us any time to repair our robot, something that the other teams could do. We were almost sure we wouldn't win,' said another member, Sukhdeep Singh.

But one of the problems the team face proved to be a blessing in disguise.

'When we were in Chandigarh, we had to compete with other teams to qualify for the Bombay round. We had spent nearly two months in making this robot and it was damaged and we had very few funds and little time left, so we couldn't have built a new one. But through the matches we learned whet was needed to improve the machine,'' said Sukhdeep.

The demolition robot, christened 'Blade', moves on four wheels and has cutters as weapons. The team members said they were able to damage the wheels of other robots and that helped them win.

'We had to design a robot, which would make other robot immobile. This is what Robot Wars is all about,' said another member, Nitesh Parmar.

Six rounds of that and the team won. This is not the only Robot Wars competition, which PU Junkies triumphed at. Last year, they had won the competition at IIT Kanpur also.

The top prize was Rs 27,500. However, to get that, the team had to spend Rs 1,40,000.

'We invested our own money and we don't mind doing so as this is something we love,' said Nitesh.

They are also planning participating in the BITS Pilani Robot Wars competition in Goa in Feburary and intend to starting making their next robot soon.

'We like taking part in such competitions and Goa is our next target. For that, we will be building a robot which is less than 7kg in weight as compared to Blade, which is nearly 42kg,' said Singh.