Competitions are fun ways for kids and adults alike to learn and make friends very quickly. Robotics competitions aren’t different. Robot competitions bring together people in different age groups – researchers, students, and enthusiasts working in unique and perhaps more challenging areas in robotics, opening up rare and tremendous opportunities to meet and learn from each other.
These competitions often allow for a direct comparison of different approaches to solving a task, as the participating teams have to operate their robots outside their labs in a different environment at a given time. It makes it possible to compare the different approaches for robot construction and control directly.
For students, these competitions allow them to dive deep into the world of robotics and explore how computer programming and robot design can solve problems big and small! They also let students apply theoretical knowledge in practice, help them learn team working skills, and get acquainted with robot design.
Some of the most noted robotics competitions today include robotic soccer championships like RoboCup and FIRA and competitions for unmanned vehicles, like the DARPA Grand Challenge, the European Land-Robot Trial (ELROB) and the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC).
Other popular ones are MicroMouse, where wheeled robots have to solve a maze, Robolympics, where robots compete in many disciplines, Robo-one, where remotely controlled humanoid robots engage in martial arts, and the AAAI Robot Competition, where robots have to solve different tasks in a conference environment.
In this post, we cover 15 top robotics competitions that you must participate in 2021.
VEX Robotics Competition – The largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program conducted globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.
Robo-One – a robot competition for bipedal humanoid robots.
FIRST Championship – A four-day robotics championship held annually in April in three challenges covering LEGO, Tech, and Robotics challenge.
World Robot Olympiad – A global robotics competition under four different categories, Regular, College, Open, and Soccer.
MIT Zero Robotics – A space-based programming competition for middle and high school students.
Micromouse – An event where small robot mice solve a 16×16 maze.
BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) – A national six-week robotics competition, designed to create interest in possible engineering careers.
Botball – A team-oriented robotics competition.
BotBash – An international robotic combat event in Phoenix, AZ.
EARLY – A robotics program for elementary school students.
FIRA RoboWorld Cup – Robot soccer competition for BA/BS level students and companies to develop their research in robotic.
SAUVC – Autonomous underwater vehicle competition.
Robo Expo – An event for students of all ages, with a shared interest in robotics.
RoboCup – An annual international robotics competition, consisting of promoting robotics and AI research.
Robofest – A festival of competitions and events with autonomous robots.
RoboGames – An Olympics of Robots with 50 different events: combat robots, fire-fighters, LEGO bots, hockey bots, walking humanoids, soccer bots, sumo bots, etc.
ABU Robocon – An Asian Oceanian College robot competition, founded in 2002 by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. ABU Robocon 2020 will be held at Suva, Fiji and the game will be based on Fiji’s national sport rugby.
Do you want us to add more interesting robotics competitions to this list? Tell us.
