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The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is a global robotics competition for young people. The World Robot Olympiad competition uses Lego Mindstorms manufactured by LEGO Education. First held in 2004 in Singapore, it now attracts more than 20,000 teams from nearly 60 countries.

The competition consists of 4 different categories, Regular, College, Open and Soccer and for the Regular and Open categories, it consists of three different age groups: Elementary, Junior High and Senior High. Participants below the age of 13 are considered as Elementary, participants from ages 13 until 16 years old are considered Junior High and participants between 17–19 are considered Senior High. Participants can also compete outside their age group, but they must be younger than the specified age range and must partner up with someone in that age range. For example, a 12-year-old participant can join the Junior High sub-category only if teamed up with someone between 14 and 16.

History
WRO was formally established in 2003, with the first international WRO final being organized in 2004. Organizations from China, Japan, Singapore and Korea are considered the founding countries. In 2004 teams from China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand took part in the first international final, held in Singapore.

In 2003 the four founding countries established the international WRO Committee (now known as the WRO Advisory Council), which decided to establish a new and permanent robotics organisation, based on the idea that students from all over the world should have the opportunity to meet with other students to fulfil the new mission statement:

"To bring together young people all over the world to develop their creativity, design & problem solving skills through challenging & educational robot competitions and activities"

The WRO Committee decided on the new name World Robot Olympiad, and new WRO logos were developed.

Finally the WRO Statutes and a set of General Rules were worked out to ensure a sound and safe future for WRO. One of the major decisions, which appears in the Statutes, was that the international WRO event should be hosted by a new country each year and the WRO Committee should elect a chairman.

In 2017, the host country of WRO was Costa Rica. This was the first time the competition was held outside the Asia Region and the first time it came to the Americas.

WRO Categories
At WRO, challenging competitions are offered for everyone in the age from 6 – 25. WRO have four competition categories, with their own characteristics and challenges: Each season the challenges and theme for the Regular and Open Category are developed with the country that hosts the International Final. The WRO Football rules and the Advanced Robotics Challenge game are designed together with experts in the robotic sciences community.
 * Regular Category
 * Open Category
 * WRO Football
 * Advanced Robotics Challenge

Regular Category
Teams must create a robot which can complete a specified mission determined by the organiser and usually based on the Open Category theme. Before the competition begins, the robot must be fully dismantled: for example, the batteries must be taken out of the brick or the tyres must be taken out from the wheels. It must be built in a specified time (150 minutes) before the first qualification round begins. If a team finishes building their robot before the 150 minutes finish, the team can practice on the competition fields. Each robot is restricted to be 25 xx before the round begins, and may consist of only LEGO certified parts, with specified motors and sensors depending on each competition. It must finish the mission autonomously, within a maximum time of two minutes. Teams are judged on their scores. If two teams' scores are equal, they are judged by their time to the nearest millisecond.

Regular Category characteristics

 * Three age groups: Elementary (up to 12y), Junior (13-15y) and Senior (16-19y.)
 * Hardware: The controller, motors and sensors used to assemble robots must be from LEGO® MINDSTORMS® sets (NXT or EV3). The HiTechnic Color Sensor is the only third-party element that can be added to this configuration. Only LEGO branded elements may be used to construct the remaining parts of the robot.
 * Software: The use of programming software depends on the age group:
 * For Elementary and Junior age group only LEGO® RoboLab, NXT and EV3 software are allowed.
 * For Senior age group, any software and any firmware can be run on NXT / EV3 controllers.
 * Maximum robot size: 25 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm.
 * Surprise Rule: A surprise rule will be announced when the competition starts, to test the team’s ability to adapt their hardware or programming. (Note: some member countries have a slightly different approach to the surprise rule.)
 * Assembly: The teams bring their robot completely disassembled. In the first part of the competition they will have 150 minutes to assemble their robots from loose parts without instructions.
 * Team: A team consists of 1 coach and 2 or 3 team members.

Open Category
The Open Category is a project based competition. Students create their own intelligent robotics solution relating to the current theme of the season. Teams will present their project and their robot model to a group of judges on the competition day.

Open Category characteristics

 * Three age groups: Elementary (up to 12y), Junior (13-15y) and Senior (16-19y.)
 * Hardware: The robot model must be controlled by a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT or EV3 brick, but there no further restriction on the balance between LEGO® and other elements.
 * Software: Free choice of programming language / software.
 * Maximum size: Teams present the idea in a 2m x 2m x 2m booth on the competition day.
 * Team: A team consists of 1 coach and 2 or 3 team members.

WRO Football
With WRO Football is introduced a fun and exciting game with teams of two autonomous robots playing football (soccer). Every year little changes are introduced for the game to motivate the students to keep on developing their robots.

WRO Football characteristics

 * One age group: 10–19 years old.
 * Hardware: Teams need two robots to participate in WRO Football. The controller, motors and sensors used to assemble robots must be from LEGO® MINDSTORMS® sets (NXT or EV3). Only LEGO branded elements may be used to construct the remaining parts of the robot. In addition, teams will need the HiTechnic infrared ball and can use the HiTechnic infrared and compass sensors.
 * Software: Only LEGO® RoboLab, NXT and EV3 software are allowed.
 * Maximum robot size: Each robot must fit inside an upright 22 cm diameter and 22 cm high cylinder and must not weigh more than 1 kg.
 * Assembly: The teams bring their robot completely disassembled. In the first part of the competition they will have 120 minutes to assemble their robots from loose parts without instructions.
 * Team: A team consists of 1 coach and 2 or 3 team members.



Advanced Robot Challenge (University/College)
The Advanced Robotics Challenge (ARC) is the newest category. The games are designed to test older and more experienced student's engineering and programming skills to the limit.

Teams compete on a set challenge. Robots may be pre-built and may use certain TETRIX and MATRIX elements. Teams may use either one MyRIO or KNR controller, or two EV3/NXT controllers; there are no restrictions on choice and number of sensors, motors and servos. The size of the robot before it begins must be within 45 xx. The maximum time differs depending on each competition.

In 2015 and 2016 it ran a Bowling game and in the 2017 season it was introduced the Tetrastack challenge.

Advanced Robotics Challenge characteristics

 * One age group: 17–25 years old.
 * Hardware: Robots must be built using MATRIX and TETRIX® building systems only. There are no restrictions about the use and brand of sensors, batteries or electrical motors and servos.
 * Controllers: Only National Instruments™ myRIO or KNR (myRIO based). Note: 2017 is the last year that LEGO® EV3 controllers can be used.
 * Software: Control software must be written in LabVIEW from National Instruments™ or any text-based language like C, C++, C#, RobotC, Java or Python.
 * Maximum robot size: 45 cm x 45 cm x 45 cm.
 * Team: A team consists of 1 coach and 2 or 3 team members.

Changes to the Gameplay
As the missions of the Regular, WRO Football and College Category get tougher and more teams in the Open Category are willing to present more creative-looking robots, organisers have to make changes to the list of eligible sensors, motors and bricks to be used in the competition. Initially only RCX bricks, motors and sensors were allowed. In the 2007 competition NXT bricks, motors and sensors were allowed as well. In 2011 the NXT colour sensor was added; in 2012, the HiTechnic colour sensor. In 2013 an EV3 robot was exhibited that used all four motors. In 2014, however, EV3 bricks, motors and sensors were allowed, but the number of motor ports was limited to three, and the EV3 Gyro sensor was not allowed. The 2015 competition allowed four motor ports and the gyro sensor, but not RCX bricks, motors, or sensors.

There are also a few changes to the number of categories. The earlier versions of this competition, before 2006, consists of only Regular and Open and that further sub-divides to only two age groups, Primary and High School.

Compete with peers
WRO have the ambition of being relevant to students of different ages. That is why it is offer competitions on platforms that provide fun and challenging experiences.

It is also why it have decided two of the categories into three age groups. In the Regular Category, each age group has a different mission. In the Open Category, the challenge is the same for all participants, but they are judged within their age group.

Please note:

''The mentioned ages reflect the age of the participant in the year of the competition, not at the competition day. For participation in the international WRO final it is strictly enforced that students cannot, at any time in the year of the competition, be older than specified in the age group definitions. Example: A participant that is still 12 years old at the time of the international WRO final in November, but turns 13 years old in December the same year cannot participate in Elementary Category.''

Qualification for the international final
Only teams that participated in a national competition in one of our member countries can qualify for the international final. The WRO Table of Eligibility (TOE) defines how many teams a WRO National Organizer can register for the international final.
 * The number of teams a National Organizer may send to the international final depends on the number of teams in the national competition.
 * Each competition category has its own TOE.
 * A country has to have minimum 5 teams in a competition category to register teams for the international WRO final for that category.
 * A team may participate in only one competition; Regular Category, Open Category, WRO Football or Advanced Robotics Challenge.
 * Any student may participate in one team only.
 * The numbers in the tables are maximum per age group and category and cannot be transferred from one age group or category to another. National Organizers may register fewer teams than allowed, but never more.
 * In Regular category, if a country does not compete in a certain age group, it is not allowed to swap teams around. (For example: If you have 5–99 teams and you don't compete in Senior age group, it is not allowed to bring 1 Elementary and 2 Junior teams.)

Countries participating
Previous host countries are italicised while future host countries are bolded. Countries which are both previous and future hosts will have an asterisks (*).

Sponsors

 * Lego Education
 * National Instruments