Events and competitions¶
Competitions, conferences, and workshops where the maritime robotics community meets. Dates were checked in October 2026 from official announcements; always confirm on the official site before you make plans.
Coming up¶
| Dates | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 25-26, 2026 | ROSCon Singapore | Singapore |
| Nov 8-14, 2026 | Maritime RobotX Challenge (6th edition) | Marina Bay, Singapore |
| Nov 25-26, 2026 | ROSCon Belgium | Nivelles, Belgium |
| Monthly | Maritime Community Working Group meeting | Online |
| Apr 6-8, 2027 | Ocean Business | National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK |
| May 24-28, 2027 | ICRA 2027 | Seoul, South Korea |
| 2027 (dates to be announced) | OCEANS 2027 | Aberdeen, UK |
Competitions¶
-
RoboNation, with ONR and partners. Biennial on-water ASV competition on the WAM-V platform: navigation, perception, docking, and, from 2026, mandatory multi-vehicle autonomy.
Next: November 8-14, 2026, Singapore.
-
Simulation-only version of RobotX in Gazebo. The last competition edition was VRX 2023, and no later edition is announced. The simulator is maintained and is the best free way to start with ASV autonomy.
-
RoboNation. Student AUV competition with tasks in a pool: gates, targets, manipulation, and acoustic pingers.
2026: 29th edition, July 11-16, Irvine, California, 58 teams.
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MATE Inspires. Student ROV competition from middle school to university, with regional events that lead to a World Championship. Teams build their own vehicles and present engineering documentation.
2026: World Championship June 25-27, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
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Singapore AUV Challenge, organized by IEEE OES Singapore with NUS and Singapore Polytechnic. Pool-based AUV tasks for students.
2026: May 28-31, held with OCEANS 2026 in Sanya, China (the first edition outside Singapore).
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Njord Autonomous Ship Challenge
NTNU, Trondheim. Student teams build and program autonomous vessels for tasks set by the organizers.
2026: August 10-14, Trondheim, Norway.
Past challenges¶
- MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge: USV and UAV teams in the Arabian Gulf. The finals were in Abu Dhabi in early 2024, with a prize pool of more than US$3 million. University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER) was the best-performing team. The simulator is still public (osrf/mbzirc).
- SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe): the last known edition was in 2016.
Which competition suits you?¶
| VRX (simulator) | MATE ROV | SAUVC | RoboSub | RobotX | Njord | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware needed | None | ROV you build | AUV you build | AUV you build | Your autonomy on a WAM-V | Model-scale vessel |
| Level | Any | School to university | University | University | University and research | University |
| Autonomy | Full | Mostly piloted | Full | Full | Full, multi-vehicle | Full |
| Good first step if... | You want to learn ASV autonomy now | You want a build project with a team | You are in Asia-Pacific | You want a demanding AUV project | Your team has funding and support | You are interested in autonomous shipping |
Conferences¶
| Conference | Focus | Recent and next |
|---|---|---|
| MTS/IEEE OCEANS | Ocean engineering and technology; large exhibition | 2026: Sanya (May 25-28) and Monterey (Sep 21-24). 2027: Aberdeen |
| IEEE/OES AUV Symposium | Autonomous underwater vehicles | 2026: Southampton, UK, Sep 1-3. Biennial |
| ICRA | Robotics; marine sessions and workshops | 2026: Vienna, Jun 1-5. 2027: Seoul, May 24-28 |
| IROS | Robotics; marine sessions and workshops | 2026: Pittsburgh, Sep 27 - Oct 1 |
| ROSCon | ROS developers; marine talks in recent years | 2026: Toronto, Sep 22-24; regional events in Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, and Belgium |
| Oceanology International | Ocean technology exhibition and conference | Biennial in London; 2026: Mar 10-12 |
| Ocean Business | Ocean technology exhibition with in-water demonstrations | 2027: Southampton, Apr 6-8 |
Workshops and schools¶
- Breaking the Surface: annual field workshop on marine robotics run by LABUST (University of Zagreb) in Croatia, with lectures and at-sea demonstrations. See the Breaking the Surface page.
- ICRA and IROS marine robotics workshops: topics include marine perception, underwater manipulation, and long-term autonomy. Check each year's workshop list.
- REMARO (Reliable AI for Marine Robotics) ran summer schools and hackathons; materials from the TU Delft 2022 hackathon are public.
- MOOS-DAWG: annual MOOS-IvP developers and users workshop at MIT.
Community meetings¶
The ROS Maritime Community Working Group meets online every month. Meetings are open to everyone and include project presentations and discussion. See Community for how to join.
Taking part¶
Competitions: form a team early, read the rules for the year, and develop in simulation first (VRX for surface vehicles; Gazebo, Stonefish, or a team simulator for AUVs). Keep good engineering documentation; most competitions score it.
Conferences: submit papers or workshop abstracts, or present a poster. Many conferences offer student registration rates and travel grants.
Know of an event we missed? Add it with a pull request, or post it on Discourse.