Student Robotics

Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf win Student Robotics Competition 2026!

2026-04-22T00:00:00+01:00

The teams from SR2026

Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf, a longstanding competitor of Student Robotics, took first place, defeating Hills Road Sixth Form College along with returning competitors from The Ladies College and King Edward VI Grammar School in a nail-biting grand final after two days of exciting competition.

The game: The Neutral Zone

The 'Neutral Zone' arena

This year’s game, The Neutral Zone, had teams collecting lost samples after a disastrous chemical spill threatened to disrupt vital research!

There were two types of samples: acidic and basic, and the teams earned points for having only one kind of sample in their laboratory, since having one of each type would cancel each other out.

The game was open to a huge range of strategies, from collecting only one type of sample and quickly taking them back to their lab (or keeping them inside the robot), to more sneaky tactics involving stealing other teams’ samples.

Challenges

This year’s competition offered teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encouraged teams to start work on their robots early and covered movement, mechanics, sensing, stopping, transportation, vision, and using the simulator - core pillars to creating a successful robot. The Challenges could be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines earned the teams bonus league points which could make all the difference come the competition.

League Matches

This year there were over 40 in person league matches on Saturday and Sunday, giving teams the chance to refine their strategies and perfect their implementation in software.

Knockouts

Like last year, the knockout stage was Double Elimination, meaning that teams needed to lose two matches to be knocked out of the competition. With each round, the competition grew fiercer, and the robots were pushed to their limits as they raced to collect their samples and secure their place in the finals.

The Final

After the gruelling weekend, the final four teams were dialled in with consistent but varied strategies. This was a meet between four veteran teams of Student Robotics, so the stage was set for an exciting final match!

The match started with all four robots moving out of their laboratories in quick succession, with Hills Road Sixth Form College (HRS) securing an early lead by collecting samples within their robot. This was quickly followed by King Edward VI Grammar School (KEG) guarding a sample within their ‘castle walls’, and Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf (MAI) reliably securing theirs. Travis from The Ladies College (TLC) confidently moved out and displayed their tactic of storing a sample inside of their robot, using it as a “perch” for collecting others.

As the match progressed, HRS managed to secure the first major sample collection, taking three back to their lab. MAI proceeded to collect samples from the raised area of the arena, showcasing their dual strategy approach which ultimately proved vital. Meanwhile, the robot from KEG remained in their lab, guarding their well-earned sample.

After the timer reached zero, Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf secured a decisive victory using their simple yet reliable mechanism.

Results

For the first time, a prize was added for 4th place to recognise the achievement of those teams who reach the Grand Final of Student Robotics.

1st place: MAI — Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf
2nd place: HRS — Hills Road Sixth Form College
3rd place: TLC — The Ladies College
4th place: KEG — King Edward VI Grammar School
Excellence in Engineering: SWL — Space Studio West London (award sponsored by ITDev)
Rookie Award: TMD — Tormead School
Robot and Team Image: KEG — King Edward VI Grammar School
Online Presence: WGS — Wisbech Grammar School

The Excellence in Engineering Award is given to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. As engineers, we appreciate elegance, simplicity, and robust engineering. The Judges were impressed by the 3D printed design of The Tiffin School’s robot, and the simple yet reliable design of the Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf robot. However, this year the Excellence in Engineering award was given to one of our rookies: Space Studio West London. Their robot sported precise movement through the use of an odometer, and omni-wheels that allowed them to glide effortlessly and accurately around our arena to collect samples.

We’re always delighted to welcome new teams to Student Robotics and understand how big a challenge it can be without prior experience. To recognise this additional challenge, we award the Rookie Award to the highest-placed newcomer in the league, celebrating their incredible achievement, this year’s recipient was the Tormead School. The receipt of this year’s Rookie award was slightly unusual, in that it was accepted by only one member of their team, as the rest were unable to attend the competition. Instead, a dedicated Year 8 student who was involved in the programming of the robot was determined to represent their school.

King Edward VI Grammar School with their medieval themed robot.

We award the Robot and Team Image Award to the team that present themselves in the most outstanding way. As usual, our teams rose to the challenge and we saw some fantastic themes! We loved The College of Richard Collyer’s astroturf garden theme, which involved their robot taking the form of a beautifully-curated garden, complete with guardian snakes! However, the award for Robot and Team Image went to King Edward VI Grammar School for their medieval robot theme, and corresponding team outfits which included a King, Jester, and even a dragon!

Through social media, teams can share the problems they’re facing as well as their designs and successes. A few teams stood out to us this year with their regular uploads, such as The College of Richard Collyer, King Edward VI Grammar School, Peter Symonds College, Tiffin School, and Headington Rye School, but the winner of the Online Presence Award was Wisbech Grammar School for consistent and high quality posts throughout the year.

Check out the rulebook for all the details on the awards we give.

Media

If you would like to watch the competition back, the event livestreams are available on our YouTube Channel:

Saturday, Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLDyjLLuZgU
Sunday, Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoNyv2Ck7g

The playlists for the soundtrack to the competition are also available:

Photos of the event have been added to our Google Photos Album.

Thank You

This year’s competition would not have been possible without all of our amazing sponsors. Their generous support allows us to make Student Robotics free to enter and help us continue in our mission to bring the excitement of engineering and the challenge of coding to young people through robotics.

Our SR2026 Sponsors

We’re always looking to partner with more organisations. If you’d like to work with us, see our sponsor page.

Our Volunteers

We’d also like to thank our volunteers, who make Student Robotics happen every year! Some have helped at the competition itself, while others have been in teams working throughout the year to organise the event. Numerous volunteers were involved with making the event what it was. From organising logistics and supporting the Kit, to fundraising and marketing - it takes a lot to make Student Robotics. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s competition.

If you’re reading this and want to join us next year, sign up on our volunteering page.

Notes to editors

Student Robotics is an annual robotics competition for 16-19 year-olds in the UK and Europe. It was founded in 2006 by university students and is free to enter thanks to our sponsors and many volunteers. Since it was first run in 2008, the final competition has grown from one room at the University of Southampton¹ to the UK’s biggest autonomous robotics competition.

At the start of the academic year, teams are given a kit containing custom-made electronics at a Kickstart event, where the game for the year is announced. They then have until the Easter holiday to build fully-autonomous robots, which will compete against each other in the final competition. They are supported by volunteer mentors, and software to assist them in programming their robots is provided.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.

The SR Team

Student Robotics is independent from the University of Southampton. ↩

Teams React to Student Robotics 2026

2025-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

The simulator arena for SR2026's game 'The Neutral Zone'

On Saturday students from around the UK (and Europe!) attended our Kickstart event - some in person, some watched live - marking the start of the SR2026 competition year. Our teams of 16-19 year olds learnt about the kit provided to them, the support we can offer them, and most excitingly about this years game, The Neutral Zone.

In The Neutral Zone, teams are tasked with sorting out some mixed up chemicals. Their mission is to collect and catalogue samples, being careful which ones they collect. But when working with strong chemicals, care must be taken. If teams get acidic and basic samples too close together, they’ll react and neutralise each other, making them worthless. Feel free to check out our rulebook for the exact details.

With just five months until the Competition, provisionally taking place on 11th and 12th April 2026, our teams have their work cut out for them! Alongside building, programming, and testing their robots we’ve set some extra Challenges for teams, which can earn them additional league points. These challenges encourage teams to work on their robots from day one, helping them to learn to iterate and test early and often.

This may seem like a mammoth undertaking, and it is, but the teams don’t have to go it alone! Our Discord provides teams with easy access to our volunteer Blueshirts and the wealth of knowledge they hold. Teams will soon be able to ask for a Mentor, who will attend their regular meetings and provide guidance and advice throughout the year. We also host [Challenge Days][challenge-days] (formally known as “Tech Days”), dedicated days where teams can work on submitting a challenge with in-person guidance from our Blueshirts, as well as spend a day hacking on their robots and meeting other teams.

If you weren’t able to attend Kickstart this year, or would like a recap, you can:

watch our livestream where we explain the game and how this year’s competition will work.
take a look at our simulator activities if you haven’t already
download the microgames which are small tasks designed to let you become familiar with the kit.
If you’re a competitor, be sure to check out our Kickstarted, now what? guide for some next steps.
If you’re a team supervisor, be sure to check out our guide on running a team for suggestions on how best to support your team.

We can’t wait to see what amazing creations our teams will build, and look forward to sharing their progress with you over the next five months!

Registration opens for Student Robotics 2026

2025-09-06T00:00:00+01:00

All the teams from SR2024

We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2026 season of Student Robotics is now open!

Based in the UK, Student Robotics challenges teams of 16 to 19 year-olds to design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in our annual competition. Teams will have just six months to engineer their creations. As well as supplying teams with a kit, which they can use as a framework for their robot, we mentor the teams over this period to help them build the best robot they can and get the most out of the competition. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we provide all of this to our teams at no cost.

The competition cycle will start with an in-person Kickstart event hosted at the University of Southampton on November 8th. During the event the game and the structure of the competition will be announced.

The competition year will culminate with an in-person competition over two days around Easter 2026. This will see the robots compete through a league stage and a seeded knockout. As usual the prizes will recognise not only the teams which come top in the knockouts, but also those who excel in other ways.

Details of the game and prizes will be revealed at Kickstart. Details of the competition events will be published when they are available. We expect to confirm places towards the latter half of September.

We have also created some pre-Kickstart activities which enable anyone to start learning about robotics and our simulator.

If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2026, please fill in the entry form with the required information. Places are limited, so sign up soon to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing your teams!

The Highfield School win Student Robotics Competition 2025!

2025-04-24T00:00:00+01:00

The teams from SR2025

The Highfield School took first place in Student Robotics 2025, defeating fellow rookies from the School of St Helen and St Katharine and returning competitors Ruthin School and Royal Grammar School Guildford in a nail biting grand final after two days of exciting competition.

The game: Urban Heights

The 'Urban Heights' arena

This year’s game, Urban Heights, employed teams to shape their city’s skyline by delivering vital pallets of building materials to designated districts. Additionally, teams could dive into constructing multi-story marvels for bonus points, by stacking their pallets on top of each other with the aim of being the tallest stack in the district.

The game was open to a huge range of strategies, from delivering a mass of pallets to a single area, to forming stacks of three in the central district, knocking down opposing team pallets, and guarding your own structures.

Challenges

This year’s competition offered teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encouraged teams to start work on their robots early and covered movement, mechanics, and sensing - three core pillars to creating a successful robot. The Challenges could be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines earned the teams bonus league points which could make all the difference come the competition.

Virtual League

The first part of our competition this year was a virtual league, broadcast live in February. Across twenty-three matches, teams competed in a simulated version of the main competition, testing their coding skills against one another.

By the end, including the league points accrued from the Challenges, King Edward VI Grammar School were topping the leaderboard, with Queen Mary’s College and Abingdon School in joint 2nd, just 3 points behind.

League Matches

This year there were 50 in person league matches on Saturday and Sunday, giving teams the chance to refine their strategies and perfect their implementation in software.

By the end of the league stage The Highfield School led by just three points over the School of St Helen and St Katharine, with King Edward VI Grammar School and Royal Grammar School Guildford close behind.

Knockouts

This year the knockout stage was Double Elimination, meaning that teams needed to lose two matches to be knocked out of the competition. With each round, the competition grew fiercer, and the robots were pushed to their limits as they raced to deliver their pallets and secure their place in the finals. The extra chance before being eliminated resulted in some thrilling matches, with Ruthin School recovering from finishing 23rd in the league and running all the way to the grand final.

The Final

After the gruelling weekend of competition, the final four teams were dialled in with consistent but varied strategies. The excitement was only amplified by the fact that two of our finalists were rookie teams, who had never competed in Student Robotics before!

In a devastating start to the match Royal Grammar School Guildford tried some new code which unfortunately crashed immediately. The Highfield School pursued their usual method by gathering a large number of pallets in their middle district, then heading for the central high rise to deposit a token. Meanwhile, the School of St Helen and St Katharine went for stacks in each district of their quadrant, again finishing with a dive to the centre. Ruthin School missed a pallet but got to the centre first, aiming to deposit a stack and defend the area, but clipped the edge of the high rise and flipped onto their back. The fallen robot blocked The Highfield School and the School of St Helen and St Katharine managed to sneak in and drop a pallet on top with just four seconds remaining.

After a tense wait for the scores, The Highfield School had won by just two points!

Results

Winner: THS — The Highfield School
2nd place: SHK — The School of St Helen and St Katharine
3rd place: RTS — Ruthin School (award sponsored by University of Southampton Electronics and Computer Science department)
Excellence in Engineering: QMC — Queen Mary’s College (award sponsored by UK Electronic Skills Foundation)
Rookie Award: THS — The Highfield School
Robot and Team Image: SHK — The School of St Helen and St Katharine (award sponsored by IT Dev)
Online Presence: SHK — The School of St Helen and St Katharine

The Excellence in Engineering Award is given to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. As engineers, we appreciate elegance, simplicity, and robust engineering. Whilst the Judges were impressed by the advanced architecture of The Highfield School’s robot, and innovative lifting mechanism of King Edward VI School, This year the Excellence in Engineering award was given to Queen Mary’s College. Their robot sported precise movement, innovative design, and a column stack mechanism which allowed them to precisely stack pallets to ensure theirs were the highest.

The School of St Helen and St Katharine with their Alice in Wonderland themed robot.

We award the Robot and Team Image Award to the team that presents themselves in the most outstanding way. As usual our teams rose to the challenge and we saw some fantastic themes! We loved The College of Richard Collyer’s turtle theme, which included competitors in face-paint, however the award for Robot and Team Image went to The School of St Helen and St Katharine for their Alice in Wonderland themed robot. The robot was decorated with roses, playing cards, and even a looking glass, with team members all in fancy dress to match.

Through social media, teams can share the problems they’re facing as well as their designs and successes. A few teams stood out to us this year with their regular uploads, such as The College of Richard Collyer and The Ladies College from Guernsey, but the winner of the Online Presence Award was The School of St Helen and St Katharine for consistent and high quality posts throughout the year.

Check out the rulebook for all the details on the awards we give.

Media

If you would like to watch the competition back, the event was livestreams are available on our YouTube Channel:

Saturday, Day 1: https://youtu.be/iJwuYluRUjE
Sunday, Day 2: https://youtu.be/m4DT0_MfAuk

The playlists for the soundtrack to the competition are also available:

Photos of the event have been added to our Google Photos Album.

Thank You

Our SR2025 Sponsors

We’re always looking to partner with more organisations. If you’d like to work with us, see our sponsor page.

Our Volunteers

We’d also like to thank our volunteers, who make Student Robotics happen every year! Some have helped at the competition itself, while others have been in teams working throughout the year to organise the event. Our Competition Team designs, organises, and delivers Tech Days and the Competition weekend. Our Kit Team designs and supports the software and hardware our competitors use; the Infrastructure Team ensures that our website stays up and our internal teams can work collaboratively; the Fundraising Team ensures that we have the resources needed to run our events; and the Marketing Team makes sure our efforts are seen and heard by all. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s competition.

If you’re reading this and want to join us next year, sign up on our volunteering page.

Notes to editors

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.

The SR Team

Student Robotics is independent from the University of Southampton. ↩

Foundations laid for Student Robotics 2025

2024-10-16T00:00:00+01:00

On Saturday students from around the UK (and Europe!) tuned in to our Kickstart event, marking the start of the SR2025 competition year. Our teams of 16-19 year olds learnt about the kit provided to them, the support we can offer them, and most excitingly about this years game, Urban Heights.

In Urban Heights our teams have been hired by the city to shape its skyline! Their mission is to deliver vital pallets of building materials to designated districts. But greater rewards await teams able to construct multi-story marvels. Can they build it? Yes they can! Feel free to check out the building codes for the exact details.

With just six months until the Competition our teams have their work cut out for them! Alongside building, programming, and testing their robots we’ve set some extra Challenges for teams, which can earn them additional league points. These challenges encourage teams to work on their robots from day one, helping them to learn to iterate and test early and often. We also have our Virtual Competition, run in our simulator, which will be livestreamed in early February.

This may seem like a mammoth undertaking, and it is, but the teams don’t have to go it alone! Our Discord provides teams with easy access to our volunteer Blueshirts and the wealth of knowledge they hold. Teams can ask for a Mentor, who will attend their regular meetings and provide guidance and advice throughout the year. We also host Tech Days, dedicated days where teams can hack on their robots with in person advice from our Blueshirts and meet other teams.

If you weren’t able to attend Kickstart this year, or would like a recap, you can:

take a look at our pre-kickstart activities if you haven’t already
watch our livestream where we explain the game and how this year’s competition will work.
download the presentation in which we explain this year’s game and how the competition is running this year.
download the microgames which are small activities designed to let you become familiar with the kit.
If you’re a competitor, be sure to check out our Kickstarted, now what? guide for some next steps.
If you’re a team supervisor, be sure to check out our guide on running a team for suggestions on how best to support your team.

We can’t wait to see what amazing creations our teams will build, and look forward to sharing their progress with you over the next six months!

Registration opens for Student Robotics 2025

2024-09-02T00:00:00+01:00

All the teams from SR2024

We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2025 season of Student Robotics is now open!

Based in the UK, Student Robotics challenges teams of 16 to 19 year-olds to design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in our annual competition. Teams will have just six months to engineer their creations. As well as supplying teams with a kit, which they can use as a framework for their robot, we mentor the teams over this period. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we provide all of this to our teams at no cost.

The competition cycle will start with an in-person Kickstart event hosted at the University of Southampton on October 12th. During the event the game and the structure of the competition will be announced.

The competition year will culminate with an in-person competition over two days around Easter 2025. This will see the robots compete through a league stage and a seeded knockout. As usual the prizes will recognise not only the teams which come top in the knockouts, but also those who excel in other ways.

We have also created some pre-Kickstart activities which enable anyone to start learning about robotics and our simulator.

If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2025, please fill in the entry form with the required information. Places are limited, so sign up soon to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing your teams!

Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf win Student Robotics Competition 2024!

2024-04-18T00:00:00+01:00

The teams and volunteers from SR2024

Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf took 1st place in Student Robotics 2024 after an exciting final match against The Ladies’ College Guernsey, Headington School and Wisbech Grammar School. All the teams have worked amazingly hard over the past six months to design, build & program their robots and it was great to see them compete.

The game: Final Frontier

The 'Final Frontier' arena

This year’s game, Final Frontier, plunged teams into an interstellar battle for dominance between four formidable civilizations, all vying for control of the cosmos. Teams had to retrieve Asteroids scattered throughout the Asteroid field and transport them back to their home Planet or, even better, their intergalactic Spaceship currently under construction.

However the stakes are high as within the confines of the asteroid belt lies The Egg – a cosmic time bomb that, if disturbed, would spell chaos. Teams had to strategise, navigate the treacherous field, and decide whether to safeguard their own civilization or sabotage their rivals. With Asteroids worth points, Spaceships to manage, and The Egg lurking, the universe had never been this competitive.

Challenges

Following on from last year’s success, this year’s competition offered teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encouraged teams to start work on their robots early and covered movement, mechanics, and vision. They could be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines earned the teams bonus league points.

Virtual Competition

The first part of our league this year was a virtual competition, broadcast live in March. Across twenty-one matches, teams competed in a simulated version of the main competition, testing their coding skills against one another. Wisbech Grammar School offered the best performance on the day, coming 1st in all four of their matches, though the team from Haberdashers’ Schools remained at the top of the leaderboard due to points they’d earned from the Challenges.

League Matches

During the in person event teams participated in a further 69 league matches, allowing the robots to improve and evolve both their construction and strategies. The robots displayed impressive agility, precision and ingenuity as they navigated the arena to capture Asteroids (and Spaceships in some cases) as well as outmanoeuvre their opponents.

At the end of the league there were only two league points separating the top three teams (The Ladies’ College Guernsey, Wisbech Grammar School and Royal Grammar School Guildford), with the next few teams not far behind.

Knockouts

The knockout rounds saw teams from the league matches pitted against one another in intense, high-stakes battles. With each round, the competition grew fiercer, and the robots were pushed to their limits as they raced to collect tokens and secure their place in the finals.

The Final

Grabbing an Asteroid in the SR2024 Final

The thrilling final featured four teams which had shown consistent performance throughout the earlier stages and included teams from three schools which have previously won Student Robotics, so it promised to be exciting even before it started.

In a surprise move at the start of the match Wisbech Grammar School immediately captured The Ladies’ College’s Spaceship. This appeared to confuse The Ladies’ College’s robot, though it soon switched to placing Asteroids on its Planet instead. Meanwhile Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf managed to get a token into their own Spaceship, giving them a commanding lead.

The Ladies’ College and Headington School each captured two Asteroids, however Headington School’s robot gifted The Ladies’ College a third in the late stages of the match. Wisbech Grammar School’s consistent performance let them capture four Asteroids, and might have been enough to win had Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf not also captured some Asteroids into its robot.

Wisbech Grammar School were the source of another tense moment near the very end of the match when they attempted to steal The Ladies’ College’s first Asteroid, however they were unable to navigate off the Planet in time meaning that the Asteroid still scored for The Ladies’ College.

Results

Winner: MAI – Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf
2nd place: WGS – Wisbech Grammar School
3rd place: TLC – The Ladies’ College, Guernsey (award sponsored by University of Southampton ECS)
Excellence in Engineering award: ABS – Abingdon School (award sponsored by UK Electronics Skills Foundation)
Rookie award: HBS – The Henry Box School
Robot and team image award: MAI – Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf (award sponsored by ITDev)
Online presence award: WMC – Westminster City School (Instagram, TikTok)
Challenges award: RGS – Royal Grammar School Guildford

In the thrilling final, Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf triumphed over their opponents to win the Student Robotics 2024 competition. Meanwhile Wisbech Grammar School’s cunning tactics allowed them to edge out The Ladies’ College and Headington School.

The Excellence in Engineering Award is given to the team that displays the most extraordinary ingenuity in the design of their robot. As engineers, we appreciate elegance, simplicity, and robust engineering. This year the Excellence in Engineering award was given to Abingdon School for their robot’s precise use of Mecanum wheels and conveyor belt to take their Spaceship into the Asteroid field and fill it with Asteroids before returning to their home Planet.

Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf with their ladybird themed robot

We award the Robot and Team Image Award to the team that presents themselves in the most outstanding way. As usual our teams rose to the challenge and we saw some fantastic themes! We loved The College of Richard Collyer’s thunder theme, which included competitors in face-paint, however the award for Robot and Team Image went to Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf for their stand-out ladybird theme. All team members had red capes with black dots and their red acrylic robot sported a pair of giant googly eyes.

Through social media, teams can share the problems they’re facing as well as their designs and successes. A few teams stood out to us this year with their regular uploads, but the winner of the Online Presence Award was Westminster City School for consistent and high quality posts throughout the year on multiple platforms. The judges were especially impressed by their video interviews at the competition event itself.

Check out the rulebook for all the details on the awards we give.

Media

If you would like to watch the competition back, the event was livestreams are available on our YouTube Channel:

Saturday, Day 1: https://youtu.be/XhEUXg2m31k
Sunday, Day 2: https://youtu.be/CpCC2fTn0os

The playlists for the soundtrack to the competition are also available:

Photos of the event have been added to our Google Photos Album.

Thank You

Our SR2024 Sponsors

We’re always looking to partner with more organisations. If you’d like to work with us, see our sponsor page.

Our Volunteers

We’d also like to thank our volunteers, who make Student Robotics happen every year! Some have helped at the competition itself, while others have been in teams working throughout the year to organise the event. Our Competition Team designs, organises, and delivers Tech Days and the Competition weekend. Our Kit Team designs and supports the software and hardware our competitors use; the Infrastructure Team ensures that our website stays up and our internal teams can work collaboratively; the Fundraising Team ensures that we have the resources needed to run our events; and the Marketing Team makes sure our efforts are seen and heard by all. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s competition.

If you’re reading this and want to join us next year, sign up on our volunteering page.

Notes to editors

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.

The SR Team

Student Robotics is independent from the University of Southampton. ↩

SR2024 Kickstart Out Of This World

2023-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Student Robotics 2024 was Kickstarted on Saturday 21st October on our livestream. 30 teams from around the UK and Europe joined us as we introduced competitors to the competition, our Kits, and this year’s game! Teams will have six months to build, program, and test a fully autonomous robot, learning invaluable technical and soft skills along the way.

This year’s game, Final Frontier, plunges teams into an interstellar battle for dominance among four formidable civilizations, all vying for control of the cosmos. Teams must retrieve asteroids scattered throughout the asteroid field and transport them back to their home planet or, even better, their intergalactic spaceship currently under construction. However, the stakes are high, as within the confines of the asteroid belt lies The Egg, a cosmic time bomb that, if disturbed, could spell chaos. Teams must strategise, navigate the treacherous field, and decide whether to safeguard their own civilization or sabotage their rivals. With asteroids worth points, spaceships to manage, and The Egg lurking, the universe has never been this competitive. May the most ingenious civilization prevail in this high-stakes cosmic showdown! For complete details, including prizes up for grabs this year, you can consult our rulebook.

Over the next six months our teams will work to discover the best approach to designing and building their robots. With few constraints and help on hand, teams are free to tackle the problem at hand in any number of ways. Throughout the year teams will learn a wide variety of different technical skills, from programming for real world interactions, to building the hardware that makes up their robot. Competitors also gain invaluable practical experience working as part of a team, managing a real world engineering project, and producing their robot to a strict deadline.

Following on from last year’s success, we’re continuing to offer teams a set of Challenges to be completed throughout the competition year. These encourage teams to start work on their robots early and cover movement, mechanics, and vision. They may be approached in any order, and completing challenges before certain deadlines will earn the teams bonus league points. Full details are available in the rulebook and the deadlines are on our events page.

This year’s teams have already begun strategising their approaches, and we can’t wait to see their progress over the year!

If you weren’t able to attend Kickstart this year, or would like a recap, you can:

watch our livestream where we explain the game and how this year’s competition will work.
download the presentation in which we explain this year’s game and how the competition is running this year.
download the microgames which are small activities designed to let you become familiar with the kit.
If you’re a competitor, be sure to check out our Kickstarted, now what? guide for some next steps.
If you’re a team supervisor, be sure to check out our guide on running a team for suggestions on how best to support your team.

Robots 101 - The Code

2023-07-16T00:00:00+01:00

Welcome to another blog post in our 101 series! Today, we’re going to delve into the brains of your robot - its code.

Teamwork Makes The Code Work

First and foremost, your robot’s code should never be a one-person show. Make sure more than one person has access to the codebase and understands it. This is crucial for two reasons: First, if the primary coder is unavailable for any reason, others can step in and keep things moving. Second, multiple perspectives can identify potential issues and generate creative solutions that a single mind might overlook. Think of it as having a built-in code review process!

The Pulse of Your Robot - The Control Loop

Your robot interacts with the environment in a continuous cycle of sensing and acting. It’s essential to have a solid control loop in your code where your robot senses its environment and then decides what to do next based on that information. This loop should be at the core of your robot’s operation, allowing it to adapt and react to its surroundings.

Backup Your Code: The Magic of Version Control Systems

Mistakes and accidents happen, files get lost, and computers crash. To protect your work from these unpredictable events, ensure you regularly back up your code. Better yet, use a Version Control System (VCS) like Git with GitHub. A VCS not only provides a backup of your code but also tracks changes, making it easy to identify when and where things might have gone wrong or right!

The Six T’s: Test, Test, Test, Test, Test, Test!

If there’s one golden rule in the world of coding, it’s this: test your code. Then, test it again, and keep testing! You can utilise our web interface to help you quickly iterate on your robot, by live streaming the logs and viewing the last captured image. You can also use the web interface to stop and restart the execution of your code. The more robust your testing, the more reliable your robot will be when it counts!

The Benefits of Friendly Competition

If you have a large enough team, consider developing competing implementations of certain features or systems. This can be an effective way to explore different solutions and spark innovation. You can then choose the best elements from each, or select the most efficient solution overall.

Embrace Imperfections: Sensor Noise

It’s crucial to remember that real-world data is often noisy and imperfect. Your sensors may pick up interference, or there could be slight variations in readings. Your code should be robust enough to handle this noise and still make effective decisions. Techniques such as sensor fusion or filtering (like taking an average of multiple readings) can be highly beneficial here.

The Power of Documentation

Our Docs are a goldmine of knowledge and should be your first port of call whenever you’re unsure about something. Much like a good textbook or reference guide, our Docs are designed to support you in understanding your robot better. From getting started with your robot kit, to understanding the APIs, to troubleshooting common issues; the Docs cover a broad spectrum of topics you may encounter.

Coding your robot can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. It’s where the magic happens, where the inert pieces of metal, wood, and circuitry come to life and engage with the world. We hope these tips and strategies will help you avoid common pitfalls and pave the way for your success in the Student Robotics competition. Remember, every stumble is an opportunity to learn and improve. Keep coding, keep testing, and most importantly, have fun!

Registration opens for Student Robotics 2024

2023-06-28T00:00:00+01:00

All the teams from SR2023

We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2024 season of Student Robotics is now open!

Based in the UK, Student Robotics challenges teams of 16 to 19 year-olds to design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in our annual competition. Teams will have just six months to engineer their creations. As well as supplying teams with a kit, which they can use as a framework for their robot, we mentor the teams over this period. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we provide all of this to our teams at no cost.

The competition cycle will start with a live streamed Kickstart event on our YouTube Channel. During the event the game and the structure of the competition will be announced and kits handed out to teams.

The competition year will culminate in an in-person competition over two days in around Easter 2024, which will see the robots compete through a league stage and a seeded knockout. As usual the prizes will recognise not only the teams which come top in the knockouts, but also those who excel in other ways.

Details of the game and prizes will be revealed at Kickstart. Details of the Kickstart and competition events will be published when they are available. We expect to confirm places towards the end of September.

If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2024, please fill in the entry form with the required information. Places are limited, so sign up soon to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing your teams!