Open Robotics Competition
About #
Open Robotics Competition is a new competition designed to be open, affordable, and decentralized. In the competition, you build a 9x9x9 inch robot to compete in an FTC/Vex style competition where the robot completes a set of tasks to earn points.
What makes ORC different #
Openness: #
Unlike most other competitions in this space, anyone is welcome to participate regardless of age and educational status (you do not need to be in high school or university to compete). We also are very loose in regards to hardware limitation with our most notable limitation being a motor size limit (to prevent robots from just being overpowered drivebases).
Affordability: #
We took multiple steps to make this competition of the most affordable robotics competitions available. We picked our size constraints carefully so that competitors can take advantage of the mature market for 3lb combat robot motors and speed controllers. Our maximum allowed size also fits within the print volume of a normal 3d printer (Such as the Bambu A1 or Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2) allowing robots to be almost entirely 3d printed without issue. In addition to this, our field is considerably cheaper than an FTC or Vex field coming in at around $500 for the official bill of materials (Though this price tag can be lowered significantly while staying within the official rules by buying certain components from other brands than the ones we have listed).
Decentralization #
The ORC Game Design Committee (GDC) effectively has two purposes, to maintain the community (The ORC discord and this website), and to make the rules. Beyond these two primary purposes, the community takes over. This means that anyone can host an ORC competition without relying on any official resources beyond the game manual. While members of the GDC may host events and resources, they are technically not any more or less official than community hosted events and resources. In effect this means that there are very few overhead costs for us to run this competition and makes it easier for others to continue the competition easily if something were to ever happen to the current GDC.
TLDR: We provide the rules, the community handles the rest.
Where to learn more #
The best place to get involved with the competition is the discord server linked above. The discord will be the first place which we make any announcements and is the best place to talk with the community.
When do the competitions start: #
Colorado has two competitions this season:
- Saturday 10/24/26, from 9a - 3p at Lib21C in CO Springs (map link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/LprvVhHfYpDvK6uR9)
- Saturday 11/21/26, from 8a - 4p at a great venue in Monument, CO (Waiting to recieve more spesifics). This will be at the “MITEE Gobble Squabble”