ROBORACER GRAND PRIX Rules

Date: 2025-09-12

Table of content

1. General

International ROBORACER Autonomous Racing Competition is a racing competition open to teams of all levels. Competing teams may consist of any number of members; however, each participant should be a member of only one team.

This competition will be held as an in-person competition from August 24th (Monday) to August 27th (Thursday), 2026, at BEXCO in Busan during IFAC 2026 (The International Federation of Automatic Control).

ROBORACER Autonomous Racing Competition Schedule: August 24th (Monday) ~ 27th (Thursday), 2026

Teams can register for the competition through the official website.

2. Competition General

  1. The competition consists of 5 phases:
    • Phase 0: Video submission demonstrating obstacle avoidance capability
    • Phase 1: Registration and inspection
    • Phase 2: Mapping and practice sessions (mapping, regulated practice, open practice)
    • Phase 3: Qualification (time trials)
    • Phase 4: Head-to-head race

  2. Teams registered to the in-person competition need to provide and build a car by themselves according to the constraints listed below. In addition, each team must have a unique vehicle (i.e., a research lab may not field six teams with one car).

  3. To enhance the quality of future ROBORACER Autonomous Racing competitions, winners of each race are encouraged to release their algorithm code under an open-source license in the RoboRacer Autonomous Racing Community repository on GitHub.

2.0 Video Submission

  1. Teams must submit a video demonstrating obstacle avoidance capability before the competition.

  2. No specific format is required.

  3. The submission must demonstrate the vehicle completing more than two laps on the track while avoiding static or dynamic obstacles.

  4. Please adhere to the deadline.

2.1 Vehicle classes

  1. Vehicle Class allows only cars that meet the following constraints:

    1. The vehicle must be built in accordance with the ROBORACER guidelines, but alternative components are allowed as long as they comply with the regulations. Any unclear or ambiguous issues should be confirmed with the race organizers in advance.
    2. Each vehicle will be inspected as a part of qualification whether it meets the criteria. In case the criteria are not met, the vehicle cannot participate.
    3. The ROBORACER Autonomous Racing Competition emphasizes algorithmic performance. Hardware designed to provide an unfair advantage is strictly prohibited..
    4. Chassis: Any chassis listed as 1:10 scale car is allowed. Preferably 1:10 Traxxas (e.g., TRA74054, TRA6804R, TRA68086), but generally, any chassis with similar dimensions is allowed. Both 4WD and 2WD are permitted.
    5. Tires: No limitations (Both sponge and rubber are allowed). However, chemical additives are strictly prohibited.
    6. Main Computation Unit: No limitations.
    7. LiDAR: Both Hokuyo LiDARs with 0.25° or 0.125° resolution are allowed, as well as 30 m range LiDAR. In particular, 3D LiDAR is also permitted this time (however, please be aware that high-cost 3D LiDAR units may be damaged in high-speed race).
    8. Camera: Both mono camera (e.g. Logitech C270, Logitech C920, Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2, Arducam) and stereo cameras (e.g. Intel Realsense, ZED) are allowed. Cameras that provide additional information such as detection or VIO results from onboard processing in camera are not allowed. (Depth information is allowed)
    9. Motor: No limitation on spec. Only single motor can be used in power-train.
    10. Battery: 4s LiPo Battery or lower. Only one Battery or the combinations of lower-cell cells (Ex: 2s + 2s is allowed).
    11. Detection Box: The car has to be easily perceivable by the opponent’s LiDAR. Therefore, the car must occupy a space of size at least 12×12 cm at every horizontal plane between 10 to 30 cm above the ground.
    12. Foam Bumper: The bumper has to be soft to minimize the damage. These two components (Detection Box and Foam Bumper) must be attached if more than one car is on the track.
    13. Other sensors: Other sensors (IMUs, encoders, custom electronic speed controllers) are allowed. Indoor GPS sensors (e.g. Marvelmind) are not allowed.

2.2 Track & racing environment

The competition will take place at BEXCO in Busan. The characteristics of the environment where the track will be built are:

TBA

2.3 Mapping & Practice

  1. Mapping: About 5 minutes for each team
  2. Practice: Regulated practice and Open Practice
  3. We will provide sample obstacles.
  4. The dedicated time for Mapping, Regulated practice and Qualification may vary depending on the number of participating teams.
  5. The dedicated time slots for the Mapping and Regulated practice sessions will be designated on a first-come-first-serve basis, and only teams that have successfully completed registration and inspection will be eligible.

2.4 Inspection

  1. The purpose of the Inspection is to check that the hardware of the autonomous cars meets the competition requirements and the cars are not dangerous for the environment, opponents, and people.

  2. The car is supposedly built according to instructions, but alternative components may be allowed as long as they comply with the Rules. Any unclear or ambiguous points should be checked in advance with the race organizers.

  3. The team must demonstrate that it is possible to trigger emergency brake through remote human control (but not for intervening during the race!).

  4. The inspection of the vehicles is done on the first competition day.

  5. The inspection is done by the race referees.

  6. The inspection has to be completed before the Time Trials and after significant changes to the cars hardware or algorithms.

2.5 Race Rules

General Rules for Qualification and Head-to-Head Race

  1. All computational processing must be carried out onboard.!!

  2. No protests regarding Wi-Fi will be accepted. Please ensure that your autonomous system is designed to operate independently regardless of Wi-Fi conditions. You may ask teams not participating in the race to turn off their Wi-Fi, but this is purely to facilitate your team’s visualization and debugging, not related to algorithm integrity!

  3. Strictly prohibit manual (human) emergency brake

  4. No data must be transmitted to the vehicle during the race.

Joystick Rules
  1. Joystick use or joystick pressing during the race is not allowed.
  2. Please change the code for autonomous <-> human control switching from “press and hold” method to “on/off” toggle method.

Joystick Exceptions:

  • At the start or re-start (for start)
  • For emergency stop (e.g., after crash, reverse driving, remaining stuck in an obstacle for more than 5 seconds)
  • For entering pit-stop zone on the manual drive zone for pit-stop
Remote Computer Rules
  1. Computer (keyboard and mouse) use during the race is not allowed.
  2. Monitor can only be used for data plots or visualization through Rviz.
  3. Only one laptop can be connected for visualization (e.g., RViz) or debugging purposes.

Remote Computer Exceptions:

  • When your car is out of track
  • When your car is in pit-stop region
  • When your car needs re-localization (only for giving initial-guess to your localization algorithm)
Pit-stop Rules

This is a designated zone for adjusting parameters without removing the vehicle from the track.

  1. When the vehicle is in the pit-stop zone, you can use computer (mouse and keyboard) for parameter updates along with malfunction repair or re-localization.
  2. Joystick can only be used in the manual drive zone to enter the pit-stop zone.
  3. Do not manually drive with joystick when restarting from the pit-stop zone.
  4. Manual driving to enter the pit during head-to-head race must not affect the opponent vehicle in any way.
Re-entering Rules
  • If the vehicle leaves the track for any reason, the vehicle must be placed back at the location where it crashed, although the vehicle’s direction can be slightly adjusted.
  • This rule also applies when the vehicle stops for unknown reasons.
  • This rule applies to both qualification and head-to-head race.
  • Taking the vehicle to arbitrary locations (e.g., starting line) is strictly prohibited.
Hardware Maintenance Rules
  • Any hardware repair and maintenance inside the track is prohibited (not even in pit-stop).
  • Examples: repairing broken parts, sensor recalibration, battery replacement, etc., all maintenance activities

2.6 Qualification (Time Trial)

2.6.1 Definitions

  1. Touching means moving the object by less than 5 cm. Moving by greater distance is called Crashing.

  2. Moving the track border by any distance is called Crashing.

2.6.2 General

  1. Time Trials: The track is same for both practice and race. For 4 minutes out of the given 6 minutes (This may change depending on total number of teams.)

  2. Static Obstacles: One obstacle will be placed randomly in each obstacle area. (Each obstacle will be smaller than 0.5m x 0.5m). Position of obstacle will be open on the morning of Qualification day and will be fixed for all teams. Obstacles will be removed in the middle of the qualifying time.

  3. Each vehicle must demonstrate that it can drive autonomously through a track without crashing.

  4. Teams can change their algorithm configuration only in the pit-stop zone or out of track during the race.

  5. The map (track layout) is known a priori and the track layout does not change over the whole competition. Keep in mind that cars crash into the walls and the layout of the track might slightly shift a little bit. Please consider this in your algorithms.

  6. Two goals (two leaderboards):
    • Fastest lap time
    • Highest number of completed laps without crashing
  7. Crash Handling: As long as the vehicle can continue the race without any intervention in the track, we do not check minor ‘touch’. Only when the vehicle severely crash the track needing manual (human) intervention, we invalidate that lap time and reset the count of completed laps.

2.7 Head-to-Head Race

2.7.1 General

  1. Head-to-Head Race: Two cars are positioned at different starting lines located on opposite sides.

  2. Static Obstacles: A total of two static obstacles are used. One obstacle will be placed randomly in each zone after all teams are ready to race. The static obstacles on the track will be removed sometime after the race starts.

  3. Objective: Each car must complete 20 laps first while avoiding obstacles and opponents within the time limit.

  4. Race Start: Race will begin no later than 10 minutes after the start preparation begins, regardless of the readiness of both teams.

  5. The race track has the same layout as in the training and qualification sessions.

  6. The algorithms must not intentionally hinder the opponent or perform any damage to it. The referees will have the final say in whether a driver is in violation of the rule.

  7. The head-to-head race will be organized as a knockout tournament with brackets seeded by results of the qualification.

  8. Overtaking may be carried out on either the right or the left.

  9. Ultimately, organizers reserve the right to assign blame in the case of vehicle collision in the head-to-head tournament.

  10. Do not stop the race on your own without a stop signal from the referee!

2.7.2 Requirements for qualification
  1. The team has successfully completed the Time Trial.
  2. The car must be equipped with front foam bumper and detection box.
  3. The car has to be easily perceivable by the opponent’s LiDAR. Therefore, the car must occupy a space of size at least 12×12 cm at every horizontal plane between 10 to 30 cm above the ground.
2.7.3 Penalties and Warnings
1 Lap Additional Penalty Cases:
  1. Complete rear-end collision
  2. Serious accident with major impact even if not a complete rear-end collision
  3. Fatal accident (spin or crash) due to any form of human intervention (physical interference, remote signals like manual brake or driving)
  4. Accumulation of 3 warnings

Only one penalty per incident even if multiple violations are involved

Warning Cases:
  1. Human intervention on your own vehicle during the race
  2. Interference with opponent vehicle during the race
  3. Violation of remote signal regulations (joystick, keyboard, mouse)
  4. Fatal accident (spin or crash) that does not warrant a 1-lap penalty

Only one warning per incident even if multiple violations are involved

Example Cases:
2.7.4 Evaluation
  1. The first car to complete 20 laps is declared the winner.
  2. Decisions regarding any incidents are at the sole discretion of the on-site referee and must be respected.