28TH Roboracer AUTONOMOUS Racing Competition

Roboracer Autonomous Racing is a semi-regular competition organized by an international community of researchers, engineers, and autonomous systems enthusiasts. The teams participating in 28TH Roboracer Racing Competition at IV 2026 will build a 1:10 scaled autonomous race car according to a given specification and write software for it to fulfill the objectives for the competition: Don't crash and minimize laptime.

ICRA 2026 will host an in-person competition in the form of the 28TH Roboracer Autonomous Racing Competition as well as a virtual benchmark competition in the form of the Roboracer Sim Racing League. The main focus of the 28TH Roboracer Autonomous Racing Competition is an in-person competition with physical cars. Each team will bring their own Roboracer car and write the software for their car. The teams have access to a detailed build manual and can use open-source software that helps them get started with the car. The organizers provide the race setup (rules, submissions, guidelines), the track, and related infrastructure and organize the race itself. For the competition, teams first take part in a qualification session in order to determine seeding. In the qualification session, teams compete in a time trial where they need to demonstrate that they are able to finish laps without colliding with the track bounds at run time. Afterwards, teams compete in a knockout phase in head-to-head racing in an intense battle with their autonomous driving algorithms. Since vehicles and hardware are standardized, teams must develop robust perception, planning, and control algorithms that can deal with the uncertainties of a new track and new competitors. The Racing Competition phase pits competitors against each other on the same track.

The 5th Roboracer Sim Racing League is a virtual benchmark competition where teams can participate remotely. The teams will be provided with a simulator environment and a standardized car model. The teams will have to write software for their car to fulfill the objectives for the competition: Don't crash and minimize laptime. The teams will submit their software to the organizers, who will run the software on the simulator and evaluate the performance of the software. The teams will be ranked based on their performance in the simulator. The Sim Racing League is a great opportunity for teams to participate in the competition without the need to build a physical car and travel to the competition. For more information on the 5th Roboracer Sim Racing League, please visit the 5th Sim Racing League website.