ActionScript 3.0 :: Controlling Multiple Children Created In For Loop?

So I'm working on a Flash version of the old "Robots!" game. In case you're not familiar: the game lays out a number of robots on a grid (number varies by level), and drops the player in the middle. As the player moves around the grid, the robots all move towards the player one grid space per player move. The object is to destroy all the robots by making them run into each other (or the rubble left from previous collisions) without letting a robot run into you.

Anyway, my robot hordes are being created on the stage through a "for" loop, and each icon is a child of variable "evilBot" which references a library item with the class name "enemy."

ActionScript Code:
function placeBots():void{
for (var c = 0; c < numBots; c++){
evilBot = new enemy;

[Code]....

I've run a trace on "evilBot.name" and verified that the children are being given instance names of "evilBot0, evilBot1 ..." and so on. But no matter what I try, I can't issue instructions (regarding movement, orientation, etc) to individual children.

Using a for loop and "this["evilBot" + x]" returns a "term is undefined" error.

If I store the instance names in an array (named "botName") and use "evilBot.name[botName[x]]", I get the error "Property evilBot0 not found on String and there is no default value."