LTU’s 2026 Robofest will have students ‘Building Bridges’

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.—Robofest, the international youth robotics competition created by Lawrence Technological University professor C.J. Chung in 1999, announced the theme of its 2026 Game competition, “Building Bridges,” during a global Zoom call Friday morning.

In the game, an autonomous robot builds a bridge by moving a bridge “footing” and bridge “beams”—one-inch-by-two-inch wood blocks—into place, and then tests the span by sending a test load—a tennis ball—across a “river” to a bin in a second stationary bridge footing.

Friday’s Zoom meeting began with a video recap of the 2024-25 competition year, featuring competitors from across the United Sates and the countries and territories of Algeria, Canada, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Macau, Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Taiwan and Tunisia.

Now in its 27th season, Robofest is a festival of competitions with autonomous robots offering students the opportunity to have fun while mastering the principles of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics). More than 38,700 students from 39 countries and territories, and 18 U.S. states, have participated in Robofest since its founding.

Unlike other robotics competitions, Robofest robots must be completely autonomous, controlled only by software code written from scratch by participants. Barriers to entry are also lower, with a registration fee of just $100—and any small robot platform and programming language are allowed. (Robot kits for Robofest, from LEGO, VEX and other manufacturers, start at about $400.) Teams compete in Junior (grades 5-8) and Senior (grades 9-12) divisions.

All Robofest competitors automatically qualify for a $3,000-a-year Lawrence Tech scholarship. Winning teams are eligible for up to a $20,000-a-year Lawrence Tech scholarship.

Besides the Game competition, other Robofest competition categories include:

• Exhibition, in which teams have complete freedom to create interactive and intelligent robotics projects—in essence, thinking up a problem, and designing a robot to solve it.
• RoboMed, in which teams create biomedical robots and devices.
• RoboArts, in which teams create robots that perform in the visual, kinetic, or performing arts—everything from painting to sculpture to dance to music.
• BottleSumo, in which teams compete to be the fastest robot to push multiple bottles off a playing field, and then push their opponent off a playing field in a head-to-head matchup.
• Vision Centric Challenge, an advanced machine-vision competition simulating a manufacturing inspection environment.
• Unknown Mission Challenge, in which teams are presented with a number of tasks the day of the competition. and must build and program their robot to accomplish the tasks in just two hours.
• RoboParade, in which robots pull a decorated “parade float” along a parade route. This year’s parade theme is “Animal Kingdom.”

Registration is now open for Robofest teams. An Unknown Mission Challenge Scholarship Competition for high school students is scheduled for early November. International competitions begin in November, with U.S. qualifier competitions running from February through April. The 2026 Robofest World Championships will be held on the LTU campus in Southfield May 14-16. There will also be workshops for coaches and competitors over the winter. Robofest is always looking for local volunteer host sites for its regional qualifying competitions.

More information is available at www.robofest.net.

Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 independent, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as Specs@LTU, which offers communication training programs of the former Specs Howard School, and LTU’s growing Center for Professional Development. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation’s top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best in the Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.