
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!
Arc-Lights Foundation is excited to announce the WRO 2026 season.
The winner of the WRO Nigeria competition will get an opportunity to participate in the WRO Final hosted in San Juan, Puerto Rico by our National Organizer over there! Register your interest to WRO 2026 to get the latest updates on WRO Nigeria and WRO news.
We will shortly be releasing more information on the 2026 competition – you will not want to miss this!


These rules are the official rules for the WRO International Final and the Open Championships*
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 Questions & Answers page . The answers given there are an official part of the rules!
The regulations for each category are described in the General Rules for that category. Additional regulations are:
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:
“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.
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.
Please note: