Summit

Two robots. One hill. Three minutes.

The STEMsters Robotics Competition. An autonomous robotics competition for middle and high school teams in Southern California.

Register a team

Deadline: Saturday, October 17

Purchase materials Interested but not ready to commit? Join the interest list Read the game manual
Zone 4 Flat Band
The sensor reads blue. Ground level, and where the blue robot starts.

Drag the robot, or press the arrow keys.

Before the match, you choose a strategy. Will your robot race for the top, charge its opponent, or try to push from farther away? You might use the colored rings to find your position or a sensor to track the other robot. Once the match starts, nobody can steer. For three minutes, you watch your plan meet someone else’s. Then you change the build or code and try to think one step further ahead.

Summit

Summit is the SRC game for 2026. Two autonomous robots, one red and one blue, compete on a small raised hill. A robot wins by pushing its opponent off the Hill, or by being higher on the Hill when time expires. Once a match begins, no one may touch or control them.

Two micro:bit robots on the Hill, one on the red half and one on the blue, facing each other across the white Plateau
Constraints
Robots fit within 10 cm by 10 cm at the start and weigh 500 g or less. No height limit, and after the start signal they may expand without restriction.
Controller
A micro:bit running the team's own code controls the robot. Every other part is the team's choice.
Match
Matches last three minutes. The referee's field controller starts and stops both robots at once.
Tournament
Every team plays the same number of qualification matches, then the field seeds into a single-elimination bracket.

The Hill

A 3D-printed PLA mound, 42 cm across, rising 2 cm to a flat top. Each ring is a different colour so that a colour sensor can identify where the robot is.

The Hill, top and side view, with the five zones named
Zones, innermost first
Zone Outer dia. Profile
1 Plateau 10 cm flat, +2.0 cm
2 Inner Slope 16 cm 18.4°
3 Outer Slope 22 cm 18.4°
4 Flat Band 36 cm flat, start zones
5 Edge Band 42 cm flat, boundary
Buy the practice field — $10

Game Manual

Open the manual
Game manual, page 1 1 Game manual, page 2 2 Game manual, page 3 3 Game manual, page 4 4 Game manual, page 5 5 Game manual, page 6 6 Game manual, page 7 7 Game manual, page 8 8

Under $150, robot included

Most robotics competitions cost several hundred dollars per team before the first match is played, and that cost decides who gets to take part. Teams may compete with the kit, with a robot of their own design, or with a combination of the two.

Kit bot + practice fieldOptional. A complete, competition-legal robot and a practice field. Does not include a micro:bit.
$100
micro:bitRequired for every robot, and sold separately from the kit.
$20
Everything $120
Purchase materials
The kit robot, three-quarter.

The kit is a Wukong expansion board with a built-in battery, two continuous-rotation motors, an ultrasonic sensor for finding the opponent, a colour sensor for reading the zone, LEGO Technic chassis parts, and the starter code. It is programmed in MakeCode. The micro:bit is required and sold separately.

The optional kit gets you to a working robot quickly. The interesting part begins when you change it and see whether your idea works against another team.

The parts included in the kit, laid out

Saturday, October 24, 2026

The gym at Arcadia High School, Arcadia, California. Parking and entrance details are emailed to registered teams the week before.

8:00–9:00 AM
Staff setup and field testing
9:00–9:40 AM
Team check-in, inspection, open practice, calibration
9:40–9:50 AM
Opening meeting and rules briefing
9:50–10:00 AM
Final calibration / teams queue for first matches
10:00–11:45 AM
Qualification series
11:45 AM–12:20 PM
Lunch + rankings finalized
12:20–12:30 PM
Elimination bracket announcement / preparation
12:30–1:45 PM
Elimination bracket
1:45–2:15 PM
Buffer / exhibition matches if ahead
2:15–2:30 PM
Awards and photos
2:30–3:00 PM
Cleanup

Awards

The Champion, Finalist, Semifinalists, and Middle School Champion receive trophies. The overall Champion also takes home the Summit championship banner.

Champion
The bracket winner, middle school or high school.
Finalist
The runner-up: the team that reached the bracket final.
Semifinalists
The two teams that reached the semifinals of the bracket.
Middle School Champion
The middle school team that went furthest in the bracket, ties broken by qualification rank. If a middle school team wins the Championship, this goes to the next-best middle school team.

Register your team

Before you arrive

  • Read the game manual
  • Load the starter code and enter the team number we email you
  • Get a signed consent and release form for each student

Every student needs a completed consent and release form. Sign it online.

$20 per team

Teams are 1–4 students in grades 6–12. You’ll receive your team number by email after registering.

Build from scratch or use the optional $100 Summit kit. A BBC micro:bit is required and can be purchased separately for $20. Practice fields are also available for testing and calibration before competition day.

Register a team

Deadline: Saturday, October 17

Purchase materials Join the interest list Game manual

Compete hard. Help the team that needs it. Treat a win and a loss the same way.

Climb together is the SRC conduct rule, and it applies to students and adults alike. Respect the referees and the volunteers — most of them are high school students who built this competition.