Compete hard, help each other, and learn together
RoboCupJunior is a competition, but the people who take part will tell you that what they remember most is the community. Teams compete hard on the field and help each other off it. This is the spirit we ask every team, mentor and volunteer to bring.
Collaborative Competition
It is common to see a team lend a spare motor or sensor to their rivals so they can keep competing, or to spend a break helping another team debug. The team you help today may be the one that helps you tomorrow. Winning feels better when everyone has had the chance to give their best.
SuperTeams: Rivals Become Teammates
In SuperTeam challenges, teams from different regions are combined into one team and have a short time to work out how to play, search or perform together. They have to communicate across languages and make different robots and ideas work as one, just like real engineering teams.
That spirit carries on beyond the competition. Former rivals often keep in touch, share code and designs, and some even go on to build robots together at the next level of RoboCup.
Your Robot, Your Work
In RoboCupJunior, the robot is designed, built and programmed by the students. Mentors guide, ask questions and help teams learn, but they don’t build the robot for them. That is why judges talk to every team member: understanding why your robot works matters as much as whether it works.
Failing Is Part of Learning
Every experienced RoboCupper has a story about a robot that failed in front of everyone: too heavy to move, a battery that died mid-run, a sensor fooled by the lights. Mistakes are proof that you tried something hard. The skill that matters is recovering, learning and improving, and that skill lasts far beyond competition day.
Everyone Is Welcome
RoboCupJunior is for every student, whatever their background or experience, and whether they love building, coding, designing or performing. Diverse teams bring more ideas and solve problems better. We especially encourage schools to bring more girls and students from under-represented communities into robotics.
Run by Volunteers
Every RoboCupJunior event, from a local workshop to the International Competition, is organized by volunteers: teachers, parents, students, researchers and former competitors. Be kind and patient with them. And when your own competing years end, consider joining them as a mentor, referee, judge or organizer. Many of today’s organizers started as competitors.
Part of Something Bigger
RoboCupJunior began with a demonstration at RoboCup 1998 in Paris, and held its first competition in Melbourne in 2000. Today it is the educational pathway to RoboCup’s grand challenge: by 2050, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can beat the human World Cup champions. The students in RoboCupJunior today are the researchers and engineers who will help get there. Read more about our history.