Alumnus Peter Garnache Continues to Crush Competition with Combat Robotics

Alumnus Peter Garnache was featured on the rookie Team Horizon that competed in the 2023 season of the “BattleBots” TV show. He has continued fighting robots in small weight classes and earned commendable placements in those competitions.
Peter Garnache was last seen bringing his robotics and engineering experience from the Rose-Hulman Robotics Team to the Discovery Channel’ “BattleBots” TV show. The 2020 mechanical engineering graduate was a significant contributor on the rookie Team Horizon that competed in the 2023 season of the “BattleBots” TV show. Since his “BattleBots” appearance, Garnache has continued fighting robots in small weight classes and earned commendable placements in those competitions.
In January 2024, Garnache fought at the National Havoc Robotics League (NHRL), the premiere combat robotics league in the United States. He made it to the final round with Repeater, the robot he co-operated with his friend, Ryan Lu. Repeater secured Garnache’s spot in the championship with a second place finish out of 96 competing robots. He returned to the NHRL in September with several robots, including his 3-pound robot Knuckle Sandwich, and won first place.
In October of last year, Garnache was invited to the International Robot Contest in Seoul, Korea with his 1-pound robot, Agitation. He was one of two U.S. competitors and earned a second-place finish.
In December, Garnache brought a few robots to the NHRL World Championships, an invite-only event with 26 competitors in the 3-pound class and 74 robots across all three weight classes. He won first place with Repeater and a third place with Knuckle Sandwich.
When he’s not designing and assembling robots (or competing with them), Garnache is working in his “dream job” as a senior mechanical engineer for Vex Robotics in Greenville, Texas. Vex is the largest provider of educational robotics and curriculum in the world. They also run the largest robotics competition in the world.
Garnache credits his experience at Rose-Hulman as a big part of his success in both combat robotics and his career paths. He became active in combat robotics as a member of Rose-Hulman’s Robotics Team. In the second year he was designing his first 3-pound combat robot and a year later was the team’s captain.
“The experience on the combat robotics team and the projects team netted me both jobs I’ve had after graduation,” said Garnache, who also earned a minor in robotics. “I showed up to interview with my robot and they asked me questions and I was able to show the mechanical system design through that.”
“In my time at Vex, I’ve developed a 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) robotic arm and the system that controls it,” said Garnache. “I took a class at Rose with Dr. Winck on PLC programming and controls, as well as his “robot dynamics and controls,” which helped me develop that product line.”
Garnache is also the owner and founder of Repeat Robotics, LLC, the industry leader in micro robotics components developed for combat robotics. He credits Rose’s ESCALATE program for the entrepreneurship skills that helped him start his own company.