ROBOTICON is a celebratory showcase of competitive youth STEM programs, mostly terrestrial robots but also some aerial drones.  It features FIRST and REC Foundation robotics scrimmages and qualifying competitions, demonstration events, lightweight combat robotics, and more, and ROBOTICON is the only place where you can see all these different youth competition opportunities in one place!

Read on to see the different competitive programs you’ll be able to enjoy seeing and playing at ROBOTICON 2023!

With the exception of the FIRST Robotics Competition off-season event on October 7 & 8, which will be held at Brooks De Bartelo Collegiate High School, all the other robotics competitions, demos, scrimmages, and showcase events will be held at University Mall, in and around AMRoC Fab Lab at the west end of the mall.

FIRST Robotics Competition teams will be playing the 2023 season game, Charged Up! at ROBOTICON!  Check out the video below to see how the game is played.  Visit the FIRST Robotics Competition | FIRST (firstinspires.org) website to learn more about programs and to find a contact in your area.

FIRST LEGO League gives youth ages 4 to 14 an engaging way to explore STEM-related research, design, and programming in a way that strengthens students’ communication skills and teamwork.

There are three levels of programming:

• FIRST LEGO League Discover – PreK- Grade 1 (ages 4-6) with hands-on activities in the classroom and at home using LEGO® Duplo bricks.
• FIRST LEGO League Explore – Grades 2-4(ages 6-10) focusing on the fundamentals of engineering as they explore real-world problems, learn to design and code and create unique solutions made with LEGO bricks and powered by a LEGO Education robot.
• FIRST LEGO League Challenge – Grades 4-8 (ages 9 – 14)  engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem.

Visit the FIRST LEGO League website to learn more and find the right contact in your area.

FIRST Tech Challenge, for  youth in 7th to 12th grade,  challenges teams to design, build, program, and operate robust small scale robots in an alliance format.

FIRST Tech Challenge robots use an Android operating system in an accessible, real world engineering experience that’s guided by adult Coaches and Mentors.

Students also keep an engineering portfolio to document their build processes.

The 2023 game is called CenterStage.

Visit the FIRST Tech Challenge website to learn more and find the right contact in your area.

The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation series of events include VEX competitions for K-12, as well as the Aerial Drone Competition, and VEX U for collegiate level game play.  REC supports more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 tournaments worldwide. Here’s the 2022-23 games that will be played at ROBOTICON – most of which are full scale qualifying events for the new season.

For more information about any of the programs below, visit the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation website.

VEX IQ Competition Slapshot is played on a 6’ x 8’ rectangular field.  Two robots compete in the Teamwork Challenge as an alliance in 60-second-long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points.

Teams also compete in the Robot Skills Challenge where one robot takes the field to score as many points as possible. These matches consist of Driving Skills Matches, which will be entirely driver controlled, and Programming Skills Matches, which will be autonomous with limited human interaction. 

VEX Robotics Competition Spin Up is played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two (2) Alliances – one (1) “red” and one (1) “blue” – composed of two (2) Teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen (15) second Autonomous Period, followed by a one minute and forty-five second (1:45) Driver Controlled Period.

The Aerial Drone Competition offers an exciting educational drone sporting event that focuses on hands-on, student-centered learning.

Teams learn about drones, flight principles, programming, documentation and communication skills while expanding their understanding and building interest for Drone-related workforce and career opportunities.

Look for the 2023-24 Season Challenge video soon!

Under SPARC Tournament Rules, ROBOTICON will be hosting official Beetleweight, Ant weight and Fairy weight class combat robotics tournaments.  Check out the video below from our State Fair Frenzy Tournament at the Florida State Fair in February.  The tournament is open to anyone, of any age.  Review tournament rules before registering to confirm you can build a robot to the required specifications before the event.