Welcome to WRO® 2026

Robots Meet Culture

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The WRO® theme for 2026 is Robots Meet Culture.

In 2026 teams will explore how robots can help shape, protect, and grow art and culture in today’s world. From ancient cave paintings to modern digital art, from fashion to architecture, people have always used creativity to tell stories, preserve traditions, and inspire change. And robots are becoming creative partners and protectors of our cultural history. They can bring old art back to life, help create new and exciting forms of art and make cultural treasures easier to access for people everywhere. Robots can also help communities share their stories in new and powerful ways.
When Robots Meet Culture endless possibilities arise!

The official international Games & Rules for WRO 2026 will be shared on this page on
January 15th, 2026.

At this page you will also be able to find the Q&A and more important information about competing when we launch the season.

More information about our international events can be found here.

Be aware that in your country local competitions may follow slightly different rules than the international rules. Our National Organizers will choose the competition set up that is the best fit for the situation in a country. Always use the rules your National Organizer provides for the competition in your country.
Do you have questions relating to the games & rules? Please contact your National Organizer first. Click on the button to find your National Organizer.

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Rules of the categories

These rules are the official rules for the WRO International Final and the Open Championships. If you are joining a competition in a country, make sure that you use the rules provided by your National Organizer because they can be slightly different!*
Please be aware that our RoboMission and Future Innovators categories have a General Rules document and in addition a document with the season challenge.

Clarifications and answers to questions about the rules are given on our Q&A page. The answers given there are an official part of the rules!

THE GAME RULES FOR 2026 WILL BE PUBLISHED ON
15TH OF JANUARY, 10:00 UTC+0

*We are aware that there are big differences between our member countries, for example in educational systems.
Therefore our National Organizers can make adaptions to these games & rules, so they fit the situation in their country.

Questions & Answers

We will publish frequently asked and important questions related to the WRO® Games & Rules.

The answers on our Q&A page should be seen as additions to the rules and will be used for the WRO International Final. Please contact your National Organizer first when you have questions relating to the games & rules and you cannot find an answer here. Click on the button to see all Questions and Answers.

WRO® Guidelines

The regulations for each category are described in the General Rules for that category.
Additional regulations are:

  • A team may participate in only one category per season. Any student may participate in one team only.

  • The age group defines the maximum age of the student in the calendar year of the competition. (Not their age at the date of a competition.)
  • The minimum age of a coach at an international WRO® event is age 18.
  • Coaches may work with more than one team.

The WRO® Guiding Principles

We are aware that a competition usually means that those involved are driven to win. This applies to team members, coaches, parents and even to countries. We feel there is nothing wrong with that, as long as the guiding principles of the competition remain intact.

We expect all teams and coaches participating in the competition to respect the WRO® Ethics Code.

The WRO® Guiding Principles are:

  • Teams are encouraged to learn and master new skills while having fun together.
  • Coaches, mentors and parents are there to guide the teams, not to do the work for them.
  • Participating and learning are more important than winning.
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WRO® Ethics Code for Teams

“It is not whether you win or lose, but how much you learn that counts.”

We are participating in a competition. We like to win. We want to learn. And we also want to have fun.

We want to play fair. We design our own robot and we write our own software. It is not fair if someone else does that for us.
We can only learn if we try things ourselves. Our coach can teach us things and guide us. And we can also get inspired by others.
But our coach should not do the work for us. And we do not simply copy a robot or software from someone else.
We use the examples we find to design our own robot and programming.

Sometimes we fail and that is OK. Original ideas come from failing.

Winning is nice but failing is part of our journey.

Judging at the WRO® International Final

Note: In national competitions the national organizer is responsible for the judging process.

At the WRO® International Final we have many judges from all over the world that help make the tournament possible.
All judges are experienced judges from our member countries and are selected with help of our National Organizers. They are volunteers and need to follow the Guiding Principles for WRO Judges.

This document explains the judging process at the international final.

Please note:

  • The Head Judges have the final word in judging decisions. This means that complaints about judging need to be made on the tournament day directly.
  • All Judges have the responsibility to be mindful of irregularities during the whole event. Teams or coaches that break the Ethics Code can be reported to the Category Head Judges. They can decide to investigate the incident. This can have consequences for the team.
  • It is the team itself – and not the coach – that communicates with the judges. The coach should only interfere when requested by a judge.
  • If needed a Judge can ask a person to act as translator for the team at any time. This does not necessarily have to be the coach. It can also be another person.
  • After an incident is handled, we kindly ask team members and coaches not to raise any further arguments on that specific issue with the table judge.

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