Contest Coordinator: Kainin Ares Wilson, Kubota
2026 Event Overview: A two-member team designs and builds a robot prior to the competition while documenting the process. Then the teams must turn in their robot for an inspection and complete a written test. The teams must also present their engineering notebook for an inspection and interview. Then, during the competition, there will be two separate but related challenges. The first will be a demonstration of proficiency in five specific skill test challenges. The second is a simulated urban search and rescue mission to traverse a course and locate, secure, and properly dispose of ordnances. Both challenges will require teams to demonstrate proficiencies in remotely operating the robot via camera, navigating, manipulating the arm mechanism to collect simulated ordnances, traversing various types of terrain, and communicating between driver and spotter. Each team will perform one round of the five skill trials and one round of the simulated mission to locate and dispose of two ordnances. In both challenges, teams will be under time constraints to complete the objective.
Challenge breakdown is as follows.
Arm Mechanism Skill Challenge: Teams will demonstrate how effective they can operate their arm and claw mechanism to open and retrieve ordinances
Navigation Skill Challenge: Teams will demonstrate basic navigation skills while controlling an ordnance by driving to specified areas of the field and handling the ordnance in a safe manner.
Drive Chassis Skill Challenge: Teams will navigate multilevel terrain challenges to test the engineering of their chassis and overall drive train. (Examples might be driving up smooth ramps, or rough ramps, a teeter totter, or a debris field, and so on.)
Camera POV Skill Challenge: Teams will demonstrate their Tele-Op/remote control driving proficiency using only POV (point of view) information transmitted from an onboard camera by navigating through a complex tunnel.
Communication and Collaboration Skill Challenge: Teams will demonstrate communication and collaboration skills by navigating a course using only direction from a spotter. This simulates a potential hardware failure on a robot where the driver must depend only on information from the spotter for successful completion of the challenge.