Free Robotics Programs for High School Students

Free robotics is usually sponsored robotics — corporate-backed teams, university outreach programs, and competitions with fee waivers that keep hardware costs off your family's budget.

If your school has no team, several programs here help you start one — founding a rookie team is a bigger admissions story than joining an established powerhouse.

38 verified programs match this page; 30 of the featured listings are completely free; 1 can be done online.

Featured programs

Browse 30+ curated programs for high school students:

• World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY) — Ready AI: Join a global AI competition for grades 6-12 to solve real-world problems using artificial intelligence. Build STEM skills, boost college applications
• BEST Robotics Competition — BEST Robotics: Free robotics competition. Six-week design challenge.
• MIT Robocon Tech Team Robotics Competition — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Robocon Tech Team: A student-led MIT team that designs and builds robots for international ABU Robocon competitions.
• Zero Robotics Programming Competition — MIT/NASA: Program robots that compete aboard the International Space Station. Finals run on actual SPHERES satellites in microgravity on ISS.
• VEX Robotics World Championship Excellence Award — REC Foundation: Excellence Award is the highest honor at VEX Worlds. Given to teams that exemplify overall excellence in building a quality robotics program.
• Roborace Autonomous Racing Series — Roborace Holdings Limited: Roborace is an international autonomous racing series showcasing AI and robotics in full-scale electric race cars.
• Robo-One Biped Robot Competition — Robo-One Committee: Robo-One is a Japanese biped robot fighting and performance competition that challenges teams to design, build, and control humanoid robots.
• VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) — Robotics Education & Competition Foundation: Compete in the VEX Robotics Competition to design, program, and engineer robots for exciting challenges. Build STEM skills and enhance college applica
• NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge — NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: An annual NASA engineering competition where student teams design, build, and race human-powered rovers over simulated extraterrestrial terrain.
• FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Dean's List Finalist — FIRST: Top individual student award in FRC. 10 winners selected from ~300 semi-finalists.
• MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) — MIT Lincoln Laboratory & MIT School of Engineering: Rigorous 4-week STEM program. Students work on real engineering challenges in robotics, AI, cybersecurity. Free for selected students.
• European Rover Challenge Robotics Competition — European Space Foundation: An international Mars rover competition and space science event bringing student teams together to design and operate planetary rovers.
• MATE ROV Competition (High School Division) — MATE Inspiration for Innovation: Compete in the MATE ROV underwater robotics competition for high schoolers. Gain hands-on STEM skills, tackle real-world ocean challenges, and boost c
• Nickelodeon Robot Wars Student Competition — Nickelodeon: A Nickelodeon-branded robot combat competition once used as a kids’ spinoff of the UK TV series Robot Wars.
• SeaPerch Underwater Robotics Program — Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Foundation & RoboNation: Build underwater robots in this hands-on STEM competition for grades 6-12. Gain engineering skills, boost college applications, and explore marine rob
• DARPA Grand Challenge (Autonomous Vehicles) — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): A historic DARPA competition that advanced autonomous ground vehicle technology through real-world desert races.
• National Robotics League Combat Robots — National Robotics League (NTMA): A combat robotics competition where students design, build, and battle robots in a real-world engineering challenge.
• E-Yantra Robotics Competition — IIT Bombay (e-Yantra Project, CSE Dept.): A major educational robotics competition by IIT Bombay that teaches embedded systems and robotics through themed challenges.
• FIRST Robotics Competition Chairman's Award — FIRST: Most prestigious FRC team award. Recognizes team that best embodies FIRST mission.
• Robofest Robotics Competition — Lawrence Technological University: Robofest is an autonomous robotics competition for 4th–12th grade students organized by Lawrence Technological University.
• National Robotics Week Competitions — Various Organizations: Explore robotics competitions during National Robotics Week! Grades 6-12 gain hands-on STEM skills, network with peers, and enhance college applicatio
• NYU ARISE Summer Research Program — NYU Tandon School of Engineering: Gain hands-on STEM experience in a free 7-week summer research program for high school juniors and seniors. Build skills for college and explore engin
• Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic Challenge — University of Oulu: An international multi-robot autonomous ground vehicle challenge focused on collaborative robotics, perception, and navigation.
• NASA Lunabotics Competition — NASA: University-level robotics competition to design, build, and operate lunar regolith mining robots for simulated Moon environments.
• FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) — FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology): Design, build, and program robots in an exciting hybrid STEM competition. Gain hands-on engineering, coding, and teamwork experience to boost college
• DEF CON Robot Contest (DC23/23B RC) — DEF CON Communications, Inc.: A DEF CON competition where teams design and program robots to autonomously complete hacking-themed physical challenges.
• Robotica Robotics Competition for Students — FIRST Robotics Competition Team 203 (Camden County College): Robotica is a high school team-based robotics competition hosted at Camden County College, featuring robot contests and engineering challenges.
• Autonomous Racing at F1 in Schools — F1 in Schools Ltd: International STEM competition where students design autonomous racing systems inspired by Formula 1 engineering.
• International Aerial Robotics Competition — Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International: A long-running international competition challenging teams to solve complex missions with fully autonomous aerial robots.
• Micromouse Robotics Maze Competition — IEEE Micromouse: Students design autonomous robots that navigate a maze as fast as possible in IEEE Micromouse robotics competitions.

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