Latin American Robotics Competition - LARC 2026
From November 2 - 6, 2026, the 26th edition of the Latin American Robotics Competition (LARC) will take place at Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, D.C. Colombia — bringing together the most creative, bold, and skilled robotics teams from across the region.
Over five action-packed days, students from high schools and universities will compete in challenges that test innovation, engineering, and teamwork. With seven university-level categories and two high school challenges, LARC promotes not only technical excellence but also collaboration, access, and inclusion in STEM.
Competition description
Categories
- IEEE LARC OPEN
- IEEE LARC SEK
- IEEE LARC VSSS
- IEEE LARC HRR - Humanoid Robot Racing
- IEEE LARC Line follower
- IEEE LARC IAR - International Airship Racing
IEEE LARC OPEN
This edition of the Latin American Robotics Competition challenges you to build an autonomous coffee-picking robot a game-changer for our region! Did you know Latin America is one of the world’s top coffee producers? Yet hundreds of workers still harvest beans by hand.
Your mission: Design a robot that can identify ripe coffee cherries, pick them without damaging the plant, and leave unripe ones to grow. Then, it must sort and transport the harvest to a processing area, navigating real world obstacles along the way.
IEEE LARC SEK
Design an autonomous robot that can identify, harvest, and sort coffee beans! Your creation must navigate a coffee plantation, carefully picking only ripe (red) and overripe (blue) beans while leaving green ones untouched. Then, it needs to dodge obstacles and deliver its harvest to the processing area depositing the beans in their matching-colored boxes.
Your mission: Using educational robotics kits, build a bot that can maximize its harvest in just 8 minutes! The more ripe and overripe beans you collect (and correctly sort!), the higher your score. Ready to put your skills to the test and revolutionize coffee farming? Let’s make robotics history!
IEEE LARC VSSS
The VSSS competition challenges teams to develop cutting-edge miniature robots capable of high-precision movement and intelligent decision-making on a compact field. Your mission? Engineer agile, autonomous robots that master fast-paced gameplay through innovative hardware and software solutions – pushing the limits of small-scale robotics.
Your mission: Design and program robots to navigate a 150cm × 130cm matte-black wooden field (with 5cm walls) with ping-pong table-like texture. The arena features corner triangles to prevent ball traps, demanding perfect control and strategy. Teams must actively follow Discord updates and clarify any rules – staying informed is crucial for success.
IEEE LARC HRR - HUMANOID ROBOT RACE
Humanoid robots capture global attention, but achieving coordinated, fluid movement while maintaining balance remains a major hurdle in robotics. That’s why, in 2012, the IEEE RAS Latin American Robotics council launched a groundbreaking competition: Humanoid Robot Racing (IEEE HRR) designed to push the boundaries of bipedal mobility.
Your mission: Build the Future of Humanoid Robotics The IEEE HRR competition has a clear goal advance walking and running algorithms to create more agile, stable humanoid robots. By challenging researchers to optimize bipedal movement, we’re paving the way for robots that can seamlessly interact with humans bringing sci-fi visions closer to reality. Ready to race toward the next breakthrough? The track is waiting!
IEEE LINE FOLLOWER
The Line Follower Competition challenges teams to design and build fast, intelligent, and fully autonomous robots capable of accurately following a predefined track at high speed. Participants must combine advanced sensing, efficient control algorithms, and optimized mechanical design to achieve the best performance while maintaining precision and stability throughout the course.
Your mission: Develop and program an autonomous robot capable of navigating a challenging line-based circuit featuring curves, intersections, sharp turns, and variable track conditions. Robots must operate without human intervention, relying on real-time sensor processing and control strategies to complete the course in the shortest possible time. Success in the competition demands innovation in electronics, mechanics, and embedded software, as well as careful optimization for speed and accuracy.
IEEE IAR - International Airship Racing
The International Airship Racing (IAR) category at LARC challenges teams to design, build, and operate autonomous lighter-than-air robotic systems in a dynamic, hands-on competition.
Participants must navigate constrained environments using platforms with limited sensing, actuation, and payload capacity, pushing the boundaries of control, perception, and autonomy. The competition emphasizes robust system design, efficient resource utilization, and reliable aerial interaction.
More than a contest, IAR serves as a platform to advance research and education in aerial robotics, fostering innovation in embedded systems, multi-agent coordination, and intelligent autonomy, while promoting teamwork, creativity, and fair evaluation across all team