Air
Micro UAV reconnaissance and navigation.
HMDS 2027Student competition
HERO Challenge
HEterogeneous RObot Challenge
Two tracks: Robotics and CanSat.
Robotics track
Single-robot competitions and cooperative missions
Drone navigation, Drone Soccer, ground-robot competitions and cooperative Air + Ground missions.
Drone Racing and Drone Soccer will be co-organized with PYC DRONE LABORATORY.
Competition concept
How the challenge works
Compete with individual robots or combine aerial and ground systems for cooperative missions.
Core principle
The best integrated system wins.
Mission completion, correct information transfer and demonstrated autonomy are rewarded above raw speed.
Ground
UGV checkpoint and obstacle navigation.
Challenge pathway
Competition categories
Compete with one robot or a coordinated team of robots.
Individual competitions
Single-robot challenges
Drone navigation, Drone Soccer and ground robot competitions. Each platform competes independently.
Drone navigation · Drone Soccer
Vehicle requirements
Vehicle limits
Micro aerial platform
- Under 100 g
- Maximum 150 mm motor-to-motor diagonal
- Propeller protection required
Ground platform
- 300 × 300 × 300 mm maximum at start
- Battery and antennas included
- Deployable designs permitted after Start
Japan Edition
Indicative competition areas
Exact obstacle sizes, positions and inspection dimensions are defined in the official Edition Annex.
UAV
Compact indoor arena
Gates, controlled navigation and aerial mission perception.
UGV
Approximately 4 m × 4 m
Checkpoints, gate, obstacles and colour-coded navigation elements.
Operating modes
Teleoperation to full autonomy
Teams may compete at different levels of autonomy. Higher demonstrated autonomy increases the scoring multiplier in cooperative categories.
Teleoperation
Vehicle actions are commanded directly by an operator.
× 1.00Partial Autonomy
One or more mission segments execute automatically.
× 1.15Supervised Autonomy
Mission execution is autonomous with limited supervisory intervention.
× 1.30Full Autonomy
No operator input after the Start Signal, including information handover.
× 1.50
Competition scoring
Scoring
Single-robot scoring considers task completion and performance. Cooperative scoring also considers information sharing and autonomy.
Single-robot competition scoring
Elapsed Time + Penalties
Lowest valid score wins.
Cooperative scoring
(Task Points × Autonomy Multiplier) + Time Bonus − Penalties
Highest valid score wins.
L0 Teleoperation ×1.00
L1 Partial ×1.15
L2 Supervised ×1.30
L3 Full autonomy ×1.50
Participation & rules
Engineering participation requirements
Maximum 8 students
Teams may include up to eight student members.
Commercial components allowed
Motors, sensors, flight controllers, ESCs, cameras, computers and commercial subsystems may be used.
No unchanged commercial platforms
Complete commercially available robotic platforms may not compete in their original configuration. Commercial platforms may serve as a development basis only when substantially modified by the team.
Engineering freedom
Sensor selection, computing architecture, perception, communication and control methods remain engineering choices unless specifically restricted by the rules.
See competition registration for fees and inclusions.
The competition defines
what each system must accomplish,
not a mandatory sensor, software or
control architecture.
Inspection and safety
Every vehicle must pass technical inspection
Power isolation
Vehicles require an accessible method of disconnecting main power.
Failsafe
Each vehicle requires an appropriate safety or abort function.
Energy storage
Batteries and other energy-storage devices must be securely installed.
UAV protection
Propeller protection is mandatory for the micro-UAV challenge.
Competition track
Programme
Competition dates and workshop times will be announced once confirmed.
-
Day 1
Single-robot competitions
Technical inspection, followed by single-robot competitions for aerial and ground robots, including FPV categories. Each category has its own winner. Drone Soccer opening rounds also take place.
-
Day 2
Cooperative and CanSat challenges
Robotics: cooperative Air + Ground competitions.
CanSat: Junior—parachute descent, data transmission and landing; Senior (Comeback)—descent, deployment and autonomous ground return.
Drone Soccer: final match.
Recognition
Competition awards
🏆 UAV Champion
🏆 UGV Champion
🏆 Air + Ground Champion
Autonomy Award
Systems Integration Award
Engineering Design Award
Multidisciplinary Team Award
Competition partner
Sponsors and partners
Co-organizing partner
PYC DRONE LABORATORY
PYC will co-organize the Drone Racing and Drone Soccer activities at HERO Challenge.
Equipment support
BETAFPV
BETAFPV supports HERO Challenge through the provision of FPV equipment.
Team benefit
ODrive Robotics
25% team discountRegistered HERO Challenge teams can receive 25% off all products in the ODrive worldwide or US web shop.
Registration
HERO Challenge fees
One fee covers both Robotics and CanSat. Choose the categories you plan to enter.
Early
€150
per student
Regular
€200
per student
Included in the fee
- Use of organizer-provided competition platforms
- Optional two-day pre-competition workshop
- Lunch on both competition days
Registration is not yet open. Contact us about registration.
Not included: symposium admission, travel and accommodation. Optional travel programmes are available through KaiLinks.