You've probably seen the TV show 'BattleBots'. If you haven't, check it out. It's full-size battlebots competing with each other.
Over a few blog posts, I'm going to cover how you can get a robot battle going in your area. This is absolutely fantastic for anyone with engineering, design, and gaming skills. If you are interested in setting something up for others to compete, you'll need some marketing, business, and design skills. This is definitely something that could be featured at a cyberpunk or futurist space (nightclub, expo, derelict warehouse, etc).
SPARC (Standardized Procedures for the Advancement of Robot Combat)
According to SPARC, there are 13 different weight classes for battling robots.
Weight Classes:
0.33lb / 150g - Fairyweight
1lb / 454g - Antweight
2.2lb / 1kg - Kilobot
3lb / 1.36kg - Beetleweight
6lb / 2.72kg - Mantisweight
12lb / 5.44kg - Hobbyweight
15lb / 6.8kg - Bantamweight
30lb / 13.61kg - Featherweight
60lb / 27.22kg - Lightweight
120lb / 54.43kg - Middleweight
220lb / 99.79kg - Heavyweight
242.5lb / 110kg - Robot Wars Heavyweight
250lb / 113.4kg - BattleBots Heavyweight
SPARC offers a few different guides on arena construction, judging rules, tournament procedures, robot construction basics, and even has a robot combat wiki - loaded with additional information. You may also want to check out: Robot Combat Events and the Robot Combat League.
Online Robot Shopping Resources
Setting Up An Arena
If you are interested in setting up an arena, you will be the determining factor for the robotic sizes allowed. Now, if you have an arena that can handle up to featherweight robots (30lbs), then you can also handle robots up to that weightclass - which gives people more options. Keep in mind that the higher the weightclass, the more expensive it is to build the robots and it might effect insurance costs. See SPARC for arena building.
Robot Builders
If you are interested in building a robot, look for a local venue with a combat robot arena so you know what type of weightclass to aim for. You'll need skills such as: CAD, 3D printing (especially if very lightweight), engineering, design, and gaming skills (hand-eye coordination for drivers). See SPARC for details on weightclasses and robot building. It's perfectly acceptable to start with combat robot kits. Once you get the hang on competing, you'll start to have ideas on how to improve the robot you're working with, and you can alter it as needed (without going over the weight limit).
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