What is WRO?

The World Robot Olympiad is a global LEGO Robotics competition. It is an event that brings young people from all over the world together. This event combines the world of science, engineering, technology and education. Teams of youngsters get the opportunity to develop their creative and problem solving skills through various robotics challenges.
The Olympiad started in 2004 and was presented for the first time in Singapore. Currently 35 countries with almost 16,000 teams are participating in this event.
Each participating country has its own competition and the best teams are invited to attend and compete at the World Robot Olympiad.
The South African leg of the World Robot Olympiad is called the National Robot Olympiad.

Objectives of the WRO

Engineering, science and technology are very fast developing fields of study. Almost 80% of future jobs and careers in these fields do not exist at this time. Furthermore, do we also do not know what other fields of study might surface over the next couple of years. This creates a huge challenge for the education departments all over the world.
Although we cannot train and get them ready for the future jobs and/or careers we can develop their problem solving, creative thinking and innovative skills. These skills can then contribute to their successes in future careers.
The World Robot Olympiad is an event that aims to develop these youngsters and prepare them for future careers in science, engineering and technology.

What is the format of the Olympiad?

The Olympiad consists of the following categories:

A regular category – The fastest robot through an obstacle course
An open category – A robot representing a specific theme
A second generation football competition

There is also a special exhibition competition category that includes the following:

College and University - Open theme exhibition; presentation of any robotic project
Renewable energies Green City challenge and exhibition

Regular category – Fastest robot through an obstacle course

The objective of this category is for teams to strategize, design and build a robot that is able to complete tasks successfully while negotiating through an obstacle course. Each successfully completed task has a score value and the team with the highest score and the shortest time will be crowned as the winner.
Teams can design, build and program their robots before the event. They can have unlimited test runs in their preparation for the competition. However on the day of the competition the robot has to be built from scratch without any building instructions. Teams are allowed to download and use programs they have developed prior to the competition.
The competition consists of only two rounds. The best score of the two rounds will determine the winning team.
Robots can be built from any unmodified LEGO components from LEGO educational range of products. There is a limitation on the controller as well as the various electronic components that can be used. Programming of the controller can only be done in NXT-G or Robolab programming languages.

Open category – Robotic innovation that represents the theme

Each year the Olympiad presents a different theme for the open category. Teams must design, build and program a robotic innovation that represents this theme. A booth area of 2m3 is provided to each team to set up their robotic innovation. Teams can decorate this area in any way they feel assists with their representation of the theme. They can use posters, models and other material for decoration.
Teams in this category must prepare a report on their robotic innovation, which will be collected by the judges on competition day. The various robotic innovations and the teams will be judged on their report, their presentation, the robotic innovation’s technical design and the robotic innovation’s creativity.

A second generation football competition

This is a football competition played by two teams consisting of two robot players each. The game consists of two ten minute halves. The team with the highest number of goals at the end of the time is the winning team. There are restrictions on the electronic components, the size of the robot and the program languages that can be used.

College and University - Open theme exhibition; presentation of any robotic project

College and university student can use any equipment to build a robotic project and display it during the Olympiad. The displays and exhibitions will not be judged or ranked. The objective is rather to inspire the youth and act as role models to the youth.

Renewable energies Green City challenge and exhibition

This challenge consists of a mat with various challenges robots must complete in a specific time frame. Successfully completed challenges will score the team points. The team with the highest score will be the winning team.
The competition consists of only two rounds. The best score of the two rounds will determine the winning team.
Robots can be built from any unmodified LEGO components from LEGO educational range of products. There is a limitation on the controller as well as the various electronic components that can be used. Programming of the controller can only be done in NXT-G or Robolab programming languages.

Why is LEGO used?

It simply evens the playfield for all teams. Teams then compete on their ability to strategize, design, build and program a robot able to complete tasks successfully in the time available.

Who can participate in the Olympiad?

The World Robot Olympiad allows students from primary, junior high and high schools to participate in the regular and open categories. For the football category there is only one age group. The break down of ages for the different competitions is as follows:

Elementary (Primary) School Age: Date of birth falls on or after January 01, 1999
Junior High (Middle) School Age: Date of birth falls in the period January 01, 1996 to December 31, 1998. (If date of birth falls outside this range, it must not fall more than 6 months after this period)
High (Secondary) School Age: Date of birth falls in the period January 01, 1992 to December 31, 1995. (If date of birth falls outside this range, it must not fall more than 6 months after this period).
WRO GEN II Football: Birthday falls in the period January 01, 1992 to December 31, 2000. (If date of birth falls outside this range, it must not fall more than 6 months after this period)
College & University Exhibition: Open to all post‐secondary school students.

NOTE:

Participants are not confined to school‐going students. Anyone can participate in the corresponding age groups.
College and university students may participate in the regular or open category if the individual students fit into the HS age group bracket!
College and university students older than HS age group may participate in “College & University Exhibition” if invited by the host country.

Teams and coaches

A team consists of 1 coach and 2 or 3 contestants.
The minimum age to be a coach is 20 years old.
Coaches can be teachers, parents, other family members or friends.