World Robot Olympiad


The World Robot Olympiad is a global robotics competition for young people. The World Robot Olympiad competition uses Lego Mindstorms manufactured by LEGO Education. First held in 2004 in Singapore, it now attracts more than 26,000 teams from more than 65 countries.
The competition consists of 4 different categories, Regular, College, Open and Soccer and for the Regular and Open categories, it consists of three different age groups: Elementary, Junior High and Senior High. Participants below the age of 13 are considered as Elementary, participants from ages 13 until 16 years old are considered Junior High and participants between 17–19 are considered Senior High. Participants can also compete outside their age group, but they must be younger than the specified age range and must partner up with someone in that age range. For example, a 12-year-old participant can join the Junior High sub-category only if teamed up with someone between 14 and 16.

History

WRO was formally established in 2003, with the first international WRO final being organized in 2004. Organizations from China, Japan, Singapore and Korea are considered the founding countries. In 2004 teams from China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand took part in the first international final, held in Singapore.
In 2003 the four founding countries established the international WRO Committee, which decided to establish a new and permanent robotics organisation, based on the idea that students from all over the world should have the opportunity to meet with other students to fulfil the new mission statement:
"To bring together young people all over the world to develop their creativity, design & problem solving skills through challenging & educational robot competitions and activities"
The WRO Committee decided on the new name World Robot Olympiad, and new WRO logos were developed.
Finally the WRO Statutes and a set of General Rules were worked out to ensure a sound and safe future for WRO. One of the major decisions, which appears in the Statutes, was that the international WRO event should be hosted by a new country each year and the WRO Committee should elect a chairman.
In 2017, the host country of WRO was Costa Rica. This was the first time the competition was held outside the Asia Region and the first time it came to the Americas.

WRO Categories

At WRO, challenging competitions are offered for everyone in the age from 6 – 25. WRO have four competition categories, with their own characteristics and challenges:
Each season the challenges and theme for the Regular and Open Category are developed with the country that hosts the International Final. The WRO Football rules and the Advanced Robotics Challenge game are designed together with experts in the robotic sciences community.

Overview of all WRO Categories

Regular Category

Teams must create a robot which can complete a specified mission determined by the organiser and usually based on the Open Category theme. Before the competition begins, the robot must be fully dismantled: for example, the batteries must be taken out of the brick or the tyres must be taken out from the wheels. It must be built in a specified time before the first qualification round begins. If a team finishes building their robot before the 150 minutes finish, the team can practice on the competition fields. Each robot is restricted to be before the round begins, and may consist of only LEGO certified parts, with specified motors and sensors depending on each competition. It must finish the mission autonomously, within a maximum time of two minutes. Teams are judged on their scores. If two teams' scores are equal, they are judged by their time to the nearest millisecond.

Regular Category characteristics

The Open Category is a project based competition. Students create their own intelligent robotics solution relating to the current theme of the season. Teams will present their project and their robot model to a group of judges on the competition day.

Open Category characteristics

With WRO Football is introduced a fun and exciting game with teams of two autonomous robots playing football. Every year little changes are introduced for the game to motivate the students to keep on developing their robots.

WRO Football characteristics

Advanced Robot Challenge (University/College)

The Advanced Robotics Challenge is the newest category. The games are designed to test older and more experienced student's engineering and programming skills to the limit.
Teams compete on a set challenge. Robots may be pre-built and may use certain TETRIX and MATRIX elements. Teams may use either one MyRIO or KNR controller, or two EV3/NXT controllers; there are no restrictions on choice and number of sensors, motors and servos. The size of the robot before it begins must be within. The maximum time differs depending on each competition.
In 2015 and 2016 it ran a Bowling game and in the 2017 season it was introduced the Tetrastack challenge.

Advanced Robotics Challenge characteristics

As the missions of the Regular, WRO Football and College Category get tougher and more teams in the Open Category are willing to present more creative-looking robots, organisers have to make changes to the list of eligible sensors, motors and bricks to be used in the competition. Initially only RCX bricks, motors and sensors were allowed. In the 2007 competition NXT bricks, motors and sensors were allowed as well. In 2011 the NXT colour sensor was added; in 2012, the HiTechnic colour sensor. In 2013 an EV3 robot was exhibited that used all four motors. In 2014, however, EV3 bricks, motors and sensors were allowed, but the number of motor ports was limited to three, and the EV3 Gyro sensor was not allowed. The 2015 competition allowed four motor ports and the gyro sensor, but not RCX bricks, motors, or sensors.
There are also a few changes to the number of categories. The earlier versions of this competition, before 2006, consists of only Regular and Open and that further sub-divides to only two age groups, Primary and High School.

Age Group Definitions

Compete with peers

WRO have the ambition of being relevant to students of different ages. That is why it is offer competitions on platforms that provide fun and challenging experiences.
It is also why it have decided two of the categories into three age groups. In the Regular Category, each age group has a different mission. In the Open Category, the challenge is the same for all participants, but they are judged within their age group.
Please note:
The mentioned ages reflect the age of the participant in the year of the competition, not at the competition day. For participation in the international WRO final it is strictly enforced that students cannot, at any time in the year of the competition, be older than specified in the age group definitions. Example: A participant that is still 12 years old at the time of the international WRO final in November, but turns 13 years old in December the same year cannot participate in Elementary Category.

Age groups Regular Category

Age groups Open Category

Age group WRO Football

Age group Advanced Robotics Challenge (ARC)

Table of Eligibility (TOE)

Qualification for the international final

Only teams that participated in a national competition in the warudo one of our member countries can qualify for the international final. The WRO Table of Eligibility defines how many teams a WRO National Organizer can register for the international final.

Qualification Open Category

Qualification Football Category

Qualification ARC

Hosts

YearHost cityHost venueCompetition ThemeNational OrganiserDescription of Regular Category challengesNotes
2004SingaporeDowntown East Pasir RisRobots in SportsScience Centre
2005 Bangkok, ThailandBangkok Science CenterSensitive robotsGammaco
2006 Nanning, ChinaHumanoidSemia
2007 Taipei, TaiwanNational Taiwan UniversityRobot for Rescue
2008 Yokohama, JapanPacifico YokohamaSaving the Global Environment
2009 Pohang, South KoreaPostechArtistic RobotsFor the elementary category, the robot has to shoot a ping-pong ball into an allocated cup. For the Junior High category, the robot must collect 100 ping-pong balls and bring it back to the base. For Senior High, the robot place coloured balls into a compartment depending on its colour.
2010 Manila, PhilippinesSMX Convention CenterRobots promote tourismFelta Multimedia
2011 Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi National Exhibition CentreRobots for life improvementAbu Dhabi Education Council ADECFor elementary, the robot has to solve a labyrinth while taking three ping-pong balls along the way. For Junior High, the robot has to climb a flight of stairs while trying carrying an egg. For Senior High, the robot has to place lego blocks into a certain area depending its size and colour.
2012 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaSunway Pyramid Convention CenterRobot Connecting PeopleSasbadi Sdn BhdIn the elementary category, the robot has to disposed a number of ping-pong balls depending on the colour of a square cell that it is on. In the junior High category, the robot has to move a series of cylinder over hurdles before sorting them out based on their colours. In Senior high, robots have to pick up a hollow brick and slot in on a coloured pole of the same colour.
2013 Jakarta, IndonesiaEcovention HallWorld HeritageMikroskil/MikrobotFor Elementary, the robot has to sort out batik cubes by colour in a pattern. For Junior high, robots have to restore Borobudur by removing the stupas from 4 different relic statues and determine which one is broken which it has to bring to the finishing area. For Senior High, the robot has to pick up eggs of a Komodo Dragon and leave the other eggs alone.
2014 Sochi, RussiaSochi Main Media CentreRobots And SpaceAssociation of Children's Goods Industry EnterprisesFor Elementary, robots have to build a rocket with the colours of the Russian Flag. For Junior High, the robot has to pick up space debris and failed satellites and leave the working satellites. For Senior High, the robot must activate solar panels and replace the solar panels which are not working.
2015 Doha, QatarAl ShaqabRobot ExplorersFor elementary, robots must push nine cubes and dispose a number of ping-pong balls depending on the cubes' colour. For Junior High, the robot must first scan a colour key to determine a location of an artefact before it leading to one other artefact. There are five artefacts in total but there are some artefacts which the robot can't pick up. For senior high, the robots must place a block on top of a mountain depending on the mountain and the block's colour.
2016 New Delhi, IndiaRap the ScrapIndia STEM FoundationWRO India 2016 will engage students to Rap about waste – an important social issue. Students are expected to come up with innovative solutions using robotics technology to Rap the Scrap i.e. to reduce, manage and recycle waste!
2017 San José, Costa RicaSustainabots: Robots for sustainabilityAprender Haciendo S.ASustainabots are designed to care for the planet, the people and themselves. A Sustainabot is developed to change our world without affecting it, integrating the 3 pillars of Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Economical.The main themes are Sustainable Tourisms, Carbon Neutrality and Renewable and Clean Energy. The creation of sustainable robots can help us to have sustainable regions all around the world. They can help reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
2018 Chiang Mai, ThailandFood MattersThailand will be the first country to host WRO twice.
2019 Győr, HungarySmart Cities
2020Quebec, CanadaClimate SquadThe event is cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The first time a WRO event has been cancelled.
2021Dortmund, Germany

Countries participating

Previous host countries are italicised while future host countries are bolded. Countries which are both previous and future hosts will have an asterisks.
CountryFirst joinedOrganiserNotes
Armenia2014Ayb Educational Foundation
Australia2011RoboCup Junior Australia
Bahrain2011AMA International School
Belarus2014School of Robotics
Bolivia2009Centro de Tecnologia Aplicada
Brazil2014AMEducação
Brunei2012STEP Centre, Ministry of Education
Canada2014Robotique Zone 01 Robotics
Chile2019Fundacion Redes Creativas
China2004Semia
Taiwan / Chinese Taipei2004ESUN Robot Association in TaiwanBoth Chinese Taipei and Taiwan are used in this Olympiad although the name Chinese Taipei is officially used by the WRO committee. Both Chinese Taipei and Taiwanese flags are used during the competition but the Chinese Taipei flag is officially used.
Costa Rica2009Aprender Haciendo Costa Rica S.A.
Denmark2006Dept. of Computer Science at Aarhus University / DITEKWas previously organised by FIRST Scandinavia along with Sweden and Norway
Egypt2007Searag
Germany2009Technik Begeistert e.V.
Ghana2012Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation
Greece2009Knowledge Research SA
Hungary2015Edutus College
Honduras2017
Hong Kong2004SemiaOrganised by the Organiser of China as Hong Kong is part of China
India2004
Indonesia2004Mikroskil/Mikrobot
Iran2006Global Brand Toys
Japan2004Afrel
Kazakhstan2014AEO "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools" in partnership with Ministry of Education and Science
Kuwait2011MILSET Regional office for Asia
Lebanon2009Raymond Education
Malaysia2004
Mexico2012Fundación Care and Share for Education, A.C. / Edacomwww.wro.org.mx
Mongolia2011MIND STORM
Nepal2018STEM Foundation Nepalwww.stemnepal.org
Netherlands2018Stichting WRO Nederlandwww.wro-nederland.nl
Nicaragua2017
Nigeria2011ARC Lights Limited
Norway2006FIRST ScandinaviaDespite having an organiser, Norway sent no teams to compete.
Oman2010Edutech Middle East
Palestine2015
Panama2015-
Peru2009IEP W. von Braun SRL
Philippines2004Felta Multimedia
Qatar2007College of the North Atlantic
Romania2013Knowledge Research
Russia2004Innopolis University
Saudi Arabia2008Royal Commission Robot Club
South Africa2009Hands on Technologies
South Korea2004Advanced Learning Co. Ltd
Singapore2004Science Centre SingaporeHosted the first Olympiad
Spain2013Fundació educaBOT
Sri Lanka2004See below.
Sweden2007FIRST ScandinaviaStopped competing by 2009
Switzerland2013IngCH – Engineers Shape Our Future
Syria2011Syrian Computer Society SCS
Thailand*2004GammacoThailand will be the first country to host the Olympiad twice.
Tunisia2014IEEE Tunisia section
Turkey2015Bilim Kahramanları Derneği
Ukraine2009Prolego
United Arab Emirates2006Abu Dhabi Education Council
United States of America2014Lawrence Technological University
Vietnam2013

Winners

2018

Regular Category

Open Category

Football Category

Advanced Robotics Challenge (ARC) Category

Previous Years

Sponsors