WORLD ROBOT OLYMPIAD 2026
WRO 2026
The theme for 2026 is - Robots Meet Culture
In 2026 teams will explore how robots can help shape, protect, and grow art and culture in today’s world. From ancient cave paintings to modern digital art, from fashion to architecture, people have always used creativity to tell stories, preserve traditions, and inspire change. And robots are becoming creative partners and protectors of our cultural history. They can bring old art back to life, help create new and exciting forms of art and make cultural treasures easier to access for people everywhere. Robots can also help communities share their stories in new and powerful ways.
When Robots Meet Culture endless possibilities arise!
The UK will follow the international rules, which can be found here 2026 Season - WRO Association
The WRO UK season
January - season launch
Though RoboSports and Future Engineers remain essentially the same (subject to some annual rule adjustments), RoboMission and Future Innovators have an annual theme. This is announced in January, at which point the registration opens, RoboMission table mats can be printed or ordered and teams can start preparing their competition entries.
April to June - UK regional competition events
Teams will be invited to compete at their regional event or the nearest event where we are able to represent their chosen competition category.
July - UK national final
Location TBC
Teams that have performed sufficiently well at the regionals to be selected for the national final will have the chance to compete against each other and potentially progress to represent the UK at international events.
September to November - international events
If your performance at the UK events has been good enough that you could represent the UK at one of the international events then there are international opens that you can go to. The European open is our region where we can offer multiple teams the opportunity to go. In the other global regions we can usually send fewer teams.
Europe - Croatia
Asia & Pacific - India
Americas - California, USA
The International Final in 2026 is in Puerto Rico in November.
More information is available at International Events - WRO Association