Robot competition

A robot competition is an event where the abilities and characteristics of robots may be tested and assessed. Usually, they have to outperform other robots in order to win the competition. Many competitions are for schools, but several competitions with professional and hobbyist participants also exist.

History

Robotic competitions have been organized since the 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 a Micromouse competition was organized by the IEEE as shown in the Spectrum magazine.
Although it is hard to pinpoint the first robotic competition, two events are well known for their longevity: the All Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament, of Robot-Sumo in Japan, and the Trinity College International Fire Fighting Robot Contest.
Two contemporary events are Robocup and Robo One. Companies like Lego and VEX have also developed branded events, which they call leagues, although they function more like individual cups in regional qualifiers with finals.
There is some controversy about whether university-specific challenges should be considered competitions or workshops. The general trend is to open competitions to the public, to prevent nepotism and improve the quality of the competing robots.
Some organizations have tried to standardize robotics competition through the introduction of full-fledged leagues with a standard calendar, but the model has worked only in some countries, such as Spain, where the National League was founded in 2008 and still functioning.

Types of competitions

There are many types of robot competitions, making it hard to compare them or establish standards for them. For example:

Publicly popular, vs. popular with competitors
Indoors vs. outdoors
Branded materials vs. open materials
Minors/students, vs. professionals/clubs
Itinerant vs. fixed-location
Nature of movement: humanoid, wheeled, aerial, aquatic, underwater, etc.
Competitions

Major competitions and organizations

All these competitions are indoors, itinerant in their location and showcase different categories. The competitions in this listing have a yearly recurrent major impact in their locations with a huge national impact or an international significant reach. Map in reference

Competition	Branded	Students / Pros	Founded	Short description
FIRST	Yes	Students	1992	US-based international organization
BEST Robotics	No	Students	1993	American student competition
FIRA	No	Both	1997	Asian organization competing with Robocup
Robocup	No	Both	1997	Organization similar to FIRA but with more expansion
Battlebots	No	Pros	2000	American TV Program
ABU Robocon	No	Students	2002	Asian organization similar to FIRST
Robo One	No	Both	2002	Asian humanoid reference event
RoboGames	No	Both	2004	American well known competition
World Robot Olympiad	Yes	Students	2004	Similar to Lego and Vex, with less branding
VEX Robotics Competition	Yes	Students	2007	International robotics competition in multiple grade levels
Technoxian	No	Both	2014	India-based international Robotics competition
RoboMaster	Yes	Students	2015	China-based international team shooting competition
RoboCap League	Yes	Students	2021

Historically relevant competitions

These competitions had an important impact on the evolution of technology, public awareness or other robotic competitions in the world.

Competition	In / Out	Branded / Open	Students / Pros	Location	Movement	Short description	Year first run	Still active
IEEE Micromouse competition	Indoors	Open	Both	Itinerant	Wheeled	Mouse labyrinth navigation done in several locations: APEC, Taiwan and Japan	1979	Yes
International Aerial Robotics Competition	Both	Open	University only	2 Venues	Aerial	Fully autonomous aerial robots; multi-year missions; 2 simultaneous venues	1991	Yes
AUVSI Foundation's Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition	Outdoors	Open	Students	Fixed	Wheeled	Students customize autonomous buggies at Oakland University	1993	Yes
Trinity Fire Fighting Robot Competition	Indoors	Open	Both	Fixed	Wheeled	Fire fighting historical event at Trinity College	1994	Yes
RoboCup	Indoors	Open	Both	Itinerant	Wheeled/Legged	Several league	1997	Yes
RoboSub and Roboboat	Outdoors	Open	Both	Fixed	Underwater	AUVs innovation in San Diego	1997	Yes
Eurobot	Indoors	Open	Students	Itinerant	Wheeled	Changing normative student event originated in France	1998	Yes
Centennial Challenges	Outdoors	Open	Pros	Itinerant	Several	NASA's contests for non-government achievements	2003	No
DARPA Grand Challenge	Outdoors	Open	Pros	Fixed	Wheeled	Autonomous street cars in the USA	2004	No
European Land-Robot Trial	Outdoors	Open	Pros	Itinerant	Wheeled	Military R&D in Europe	2006	Yes
UAV Outback Challenge	Outdoors	Open	Both	Fixed	Aerial	UAVs innovation in Australia	2007	Yes
Roborace	Outdoors	Branded	Pros	Itinerant	Wheeled	Autonomous Formula E cars	TBD	?
ANA Avatar XPRIZE	Indoors	Open	Pros	Long Beach, CA	Wheeled	Telepresence Systems	2018-2022	No

Local active competitions with Wikipedia pages

Location for these competitions is fixed, usually linked to a venue or institution.

Competition	In / Out	Branded / Open	Students / Pros	Movement	Short description	Last edition
National Engineering Robotics Contest	Indoors	Open	Students	Several	A student competition at NUST	Active
Pioneers in Engineering	Indoors	Open	Students	Wheeled	Student competition	Active
Botball	Indoors	Open	Students	Wheeled	Student competition	Active
Student Robotics	Indoors	Open	Students	Several	Student competition at the University of Southampton	Active
DEF CON	Indoors	Open	Students	Several	Hacker event with a competition	Active

Unsourced or discontinued minor competitions

The following events appear to be inactive or have no reference that show them to be active.

OFF Road Robotics Competition

This competition is organized by the Robot Association of Finland.
The goal is to build a robot which is able to move without human help off-road. The competition is held annually at the mid-summer Jämi Fly In air show in Finland. The competition track is randomly selected 10 minutes before competition by the judge, marked with four wooden sticks to make a 200-meter track. The track consists of sand roads and fields containing bushes and rocks. The robots must run outside the sticks from start to finish without human assistance as fast as possible. YouTube movies and pictures from the 2007 and 2008 competitions are available.

International Autonomous Robot Racing Challenge (IARRC)

Student teams from around the world compete in an outdoor racing competition, where small-scale robots race against other robots to the finish line, without any human guidance or control. Their skills are put to the test in a static judging event, a drag race and a circuit race event, where the vehicles navigate around obstacles and obey the traffic rules. These robots are finding their way into applications such as space exploration, mining, search and rescue, remote sensing and automotive inspection.
Robot Racing is an effort to promote research in autonomous mobile robotics technology. The competition provides students with engineering design challenges, including components of mechanical, computer, control software, and system integration. Students work together to design and build robotic vehicles that can navigate twisting, obstacle-filled courses without any human guidance or control.

Mobile Autonomous Systems Laboratory competition (Maslab)

The Mobile Autonomous Systems Laboratory, or Maslab, is a university-level vision-based autonomous robotics competition. The competition is open to students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and requires multithreaded applications of image processing, robotic movements, and target ball deposition. The robots are run with Ubuntu Linux and run on an independent OrcBoard platform that facilitates sensor-hardware additions and recognition.