Welcome to Robofest!
Robofest is Lawrence Technological University’s international autonomous robotics program for students in grades 4 through 12. Student teams design, construct, and program their robots to act independently and compete for trophies and LTU Scholarship in a variety of competitions.
Starting a Robofest Team is easy!
| Step 1: | Gather friends from your school, neighborhood, after school clubs, church, or homeschool to form your team. |
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Step 2: |
Choose a coach – any adult (parent, teacher, or friend) who would like to coordinate team meetings, competition registration, etc. The coach does not need to be technologically knowledgeable and can support more than one team. A technical mentor is suggested, if available, and can be a parent, a volunteer from a local company, a teacher, a high school or college student, or anyone interested in learning robot design or programming. New Coach Registration |
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Step 3: |
Read the General Rules on Main Page, and choose your competition category. Learn more about each competition on the category's page (links below). Base your selection on your skill level, amount of time required, competition date, and what sounds fun to you! |
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Step 4: |
Review the competition category rules, supplies required and registration and competition dates. Acquire the robot hardware, software and a laptop. Possible sources for funds are schools, fundraisers, grants, and donations. Register for your chosen category at a competition site. |
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Step 5: |
Technical help on designing and programming robots is available on the Robofest eAcademy. You can also attend Robofest workshops at Lawrence Tech or Webinars. If you have questions or need help getting started, email |
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Step 6: |
Have fun creating and programming your robot! |
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Step 7: |
Participate in your Robofest competition! Feel the thrill of success. Learning to build and program a robot makes you a winner! |
For New Coaches - Robofest Coach's Video for information to get started
US Age to Grade Level for International Teams Comparison Chart
Robofest Competition Categories:
for category-specific rules and other information, click on the category name to go directly to the page
| Category | Description | Age Division(s) | Team Size | Skill Level |
| Game | Putting math skills to the test, teams compete to accomplish robotic missions using fully autonomous robots. Unknown factors will be revealed at competition. (Qualifier Category) | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-5 | Intermediate/ Advanced |
| Exhibition | In this creative competition, students have total freedom to show off any autonomous robotics project. (Qualifier Category) | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-5 | Intermediate/ Advanced |
| RoboMed | Intelligent and interactive (bio)medical robotics/device projects. | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-5 | Intermediate/ Advanced |
| BottleSumo | Robots vie to intentionally push bottles off the table or be the last robot remaining on the table. | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-3 | Beginner |
| RoboParade | Elaborately decorated robotic vehicles autonomously parade along a route in this colorful, creative display. | Expanded Junior (grades 4-8) |
1-5 | Beginner |
| RoboArts | Robots can perform, dance, paint, make music, paint, etc. in this interactive competition. | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-5 | Intermediate/ Advanced |
| Unknown Mission Challenge (UMC) | Teams build and program an autonomous robot to complete totally unknown missions in 2 hours. The goal of this category is to develop on-the-fly problem solving skills. | Junior (grades 5-8) & Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-4 | Intermediate/ Advanced |
| Vision Centric Challenge (Vcc) |
Advanced competition using any vision-based robot. | Senior (grades 9-12) | 1-3 | Advanced |
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