This is the field of battle, about the size of a ping pong table.
And this is the International Botball Tournament.

65 teams from Hawaii, the mainland and yes, Poland are practicing now for the competition later this week.

Their robots, or bots, must be programmed to do certain tasks within 90 seconds.

Kasi Onaga is keeping meticulous notes for the Waipahu Intermediate team and says, "Our team just went back to our table and we're going to fix the program and make evaluations." Matthews - "What's wrong with the program right now?" Onaga - "Well, it's missing some of the crops and we just need to make some minor tweaks and everything."

Adult advisors must remain outside the practice area.

Waipahu Intermediate Advisor Brian Okumura says, "A lot of stuff was all done by the kids. We had to just step back and watch and give advice when they need it, push when they need it, back off when they need it. But they're doing real well."

This is the largest Botball Tournament ever. And it's about more than just robots.

"Primarily these robots are tools to try to encourage kids to study math, science, engineering. And certainly it provides other life skill opportunities, learning teamwork, problem solving, so it's not only about robots, it's much more than that," said NASA Educator Art Kimura.

Teamwork can be a tough thing, sometimes. But Jordan Johnson and his friend Damen of Wahiawa are both learning.

"Well, I forgot the umbrellas and that can't be a good thing," said Johnson.

The robot designs are as different as the kids.

"It's interesting because every team gets the same kit to work with but there are no two robots alike. So the strategies are different and the construction designs are very different," said Kimura.

Practice continues, and yes, Jordan found some umbrellas.

Finals start this Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon.

The competition is free and open to the public.