Six other teachers as well as engineers from the community help students build a robot each spring, which they enter in competitions with other schools.

WHITEHOUSE: Our Top Stories

The main goal of this research was to understand how insect flight works, rather than to build a useful robot.

BBC: Robotic insect: World's smallest flying robot takes off

In order to earn the Badge, a Scout has to design, build, and program a robot to perform a certain task.

FORBES: Boy Scouts Now Offer Merit Badge in Robotics

Last month DARPA, the U.S. Defense Department's research agency, invited proposals from robotics experts to build a "chemical robot" made from soft, flexible materials and capable of squeezing through gaps smaller than its regular dimensions.

CNN: Robotics discovers its soft side

"I don't want to build a 'Terminator' robot, " he says.

FORBES: Dinosaur Robots For Sale

Pan's group looked for novel mechanisms and materials to build a true water-striding robot.

ENGADGET: Chinese microbot walks on water, skims the surface of insect-inspired design

Students learn management and communication skills as they work on teams to design, build, program, and test a robot.

FORBES: South African Students Build Robots And Compete In Lego Program

Of course, this all looks and sounds really scary, but if a 1000 robot-obsessed Japanese scientists haven't been able to build any normal-looking androids this big that don't fall over and don't require a gigantic power backpack of batteries, it's tough to believe that three crafty Bulgarians will do it.

ENGADGET: Prepare to be terminated: The Kibertron