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.

31 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
• FIRST Robotics Competition Chairman's Award — FIRST: Most prestigious FRC team award. Recognizes team that best embodies FIRST mission.
• 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.
• BEST Robotics Competition — BEST Robotics: Free robotics competition. Six-week design challenge.
• 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.
• FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Dean's List Finalist — FIRST: Top individual student award in FRC. 10 winners selected from ~300 semi-finalists.
• 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.
• NASA Lunabotics Competition — NASA: University-level robotics competition to design, build, and operate lunar regolith mining robots for simulated Moon environments.
• 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.
• Robofest Robotics Competition — Lawrence Technological University: Robofest is an autonomous robotics competition for 4th–12th grade students organized by Lawrence Technological University.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• World Humanoid Robot Games Competition — World Humanoid Robot Association: International humanoid robotics competition featuring soccer, combat, dance, and autonomous challenges for students and hobbyists.
• 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.
• Micromouse Robotics Maze Competition — IEEE Micromouse: Students design autonomous robots that navigate a maze as fast as possible in IEEE Micromouse robotics competitions.
• IranOpen Robotics Competition — IranOpen Organizing Committee & Qazvin Azad University: IranOpen is an annual robotics competition in Iran featuring student and professional teams in RoboCup-style and technical leagues.
• 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.
• Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition — Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC): An annual autonomous ground vehicle design and robotics contest focused on self‑driving technologies and outdoor navigation.
• Critter Crunch Robot Combat Competition — Denver Mad Scientists Club: Critter Crunch is a long-running Denver robot combat contest where builders design remote-controlled machines to push rivals from the ring.
• CanSat Student Satellite Design Competition — American Astronautical Society (AAS): CanSat is a student design‑build‑launch competition to create a soda‑can‑sized satellite that is launched and recovered.
• Autonomous Racing at F1 in Schools — F1 in Schools Ltd: International STEM competition where students design autonomous racing systems inspired by Formula 1 engineering.

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