30TH Roboracer AUTONOMOUS Racing Competition

2026 IEEE 104th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2026-Fall)
Calender September 6th - 9th 2026
Location The Hilton Boston Park Plaza, Boston, MA, United States

30TH 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 30TH Roboracer Racing Competition at VTC2026-Fall 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.

VTC2026-Fall will host an in-person competition in the form of the 30TH 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 30TH 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.


VTC2026-Fall Conference Access: As part of our collaboration with the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (IEEE VTS), all registered Roboracer teams will receive full access to the VTC2026-Fall conference from September 6th to 9th. This includes access to all technical sessions, keynotes, and networking events throughout the conference.

IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (IEEE VTS) — Connecting the Mobile World

Organizers:

Rahul Mangharam
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
Ahmad Amine
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
Koneshka Bandyopadhyay
Founder & CEO
Neobotics Foundation Inc.