Alabama Robotics Competition
Come test your computer programming skills and compete with other Alabama students for cool prizes! A fun day is planned with educational experiences, food and social activities. The Alabama Robotics Competition is an event where students write programs that navigate their robot across a series of obstacle courses. Awards will be given out in several categories across multiple grade levels (elementary school, middle school, and high school).
The next contest will be on April 5, 2025, at the Bryant Conference Center at the University of Alabama.
A flyer for the 2025 contest is available here.
Coaches may apply for their teams here.
Visit the Past Events page to view photos, contest problems, and other results from previous competitions.
Please use the navigation bar above for additional information.
Why another robotics competition?
There are several excellent robotics competitions that already exist, such as the popular BEST Robotics events in Alabama and the world-wide FIRST Lego League competitions. Our contest complements these other events by filling in missing gaps of participation. After hearing from various K-12 teachers, it has been observed that a competition is needed in Alabama that met the following goals:
- A competition that is open to all grades in K-12.
- An event in the Spring that offers students studying robotics additional activities to pursue throughout the entire school year (rather than just a Fall focus).
- An emphasis on programming skills, resulting in autonomous robot control, rather than a robot that is maneuvered by a remote control. Points are scored in this new competition based on the clever solutions of student programs, rather than the skill of a teammate with a remote control.
- A registration fee that is affordable - only $100 per team (several Lego competitions have registration, fees, and kit costs over $1,000).
Essential Details
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The competition is open to all Alabama students (public, private, or home schools) across all grade levels (elementary, middle, high schools). In 2025, we will only host grades 4-12 (grades K-3 will not be eligible this year).
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Teams consist of 2-5 participants. We have space for approximately 60 teams. The registration fee is $100 per team.
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The contest will feature several obstacle courses that must be navigated over a 2.5 hour period by an autonomous robot that is programmed by each team.
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Robot programs to navigate the obstacle course may be written in any language (e.g., Mindstorms LabView, Java/Lejos, RobotC, C#, etc). It is assumed that participants already know how to program in their selected language prior to the contest.
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Students will use their own robots and their own computers to compete in the contest. Robots should be assembled in a base configuration prior to the competition.
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Each registered student will receive a pizza lunch, snack break, contest bag, T-shirt, and a certificate of participation.
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Prizes and awards will be given to the top-four teams in each division (Elementary School, Middle School, High School).
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Teachers, parents and family are encouraged to attend (please let us know on the registration form).
Application Details
- The registration process is different this year. Each coach will register interest from their school. We will then send a second link in mid-March where team members may be entered. Our goal this year is to invite teams from many schools. That may mean that each school has fewer teams than in the past, based on the overall interest.
- All shirts are in Adult Sizes
Important Dates
- On March 10, we will begin sending registration forms to coaches to request the names of team members and their shirt sizes.
- April 5, 2025: Alabama Robotics Competition
Sponsors
We recognize the support of the University of Alabama System’s McMahon-Pleiad Prize for partial support of our contest. Thanks also to the Mandyam Family Computer Science Support Fund for ongoing support.
We are very grateful to zyBooks as our main corporate sponsor, as well as the UA Department of Computer Science!
