European Robotics League 2026: The Ultimate Test in The Hague

About the Event

Get ready for a masterclass in organised chaos. From 12-15 May 2026, the European Robotics League (ERL) is set to descend upon the seaside resort of Scheveningen in The Hague, turning the Dutch coast into a high-stakes proving ground for the continent’s most ambitious autonomous machines. This isn’t your typical, sanitised trade show where robots perform “spontaneous” dances on carpeted floors. This is a crucible—an initiative by the international non-profit euRobotics designed to benchmark robotic systems against the messy, uncompromising reality of the physical world.

Forget the sterile safety of the laboratory. The competition will play out in the “Living Lab Scheveningen,” a real-world testbed where machines must grapple with public squares, bustling boulevards, and the biting, unpredictable winds of the North Sea. A collaborative effort between euRobotics, the City of The Hague, the Province of South Holland, and the City of Rotterdam, the event aims to push the very limits of what autonomous systems can actually achieve when the training wheels come off.

For those tired of the “vapourware” and over-polished marketing reels, this is the place to be. It is an essential date for robotics engineers, deep-tech investors, and anyone curious to see if a delivery drone can actually drop off a defibrillator on a wind-swept beach without ending up in the drink. Attendees will witness the bleeding edge of automation, rub shoulders with the brilliant minds coding the future, and get a brutally honest look at the current state of the art. Best of all? It’s entirely free for the public to watch the future unfold—one logic gate at a time.

Programme Highlights: The Gauntlet

The European Robotics League has a reputation for setting challenges that look deceptively simple on a whiteboard but prove maddeningly complex in the wild. While the specific “episodes” for 2026 are still under wraps, the competition is built around the ERL’s core pillars, testing robots in scenarios inspired by the “Smart City” of tomorrow. Expect a series of trials that are practical, valuable, and—given the unpredictability of AI—occasionally hilarious.

Based on previous ERL outings and the focus on urban integration, we expect the following themes to dominate the leaderboard:

• Urban Logistics & Delivery: Can these machines navigate a shifting city landscape to deliver the goods? We’re looking for everything from nimble pavement bots to drones attempting to hit their marks with centimetre-perfect precision.
• Inspection and Maintenance: Teams will likely be tasked with deploying robots to survey public infrastructure, perhaps even scaling the iconic Scheveningen Pier to spot structural gremlins.
• Emergency Response: A cornerstone of the ERL, this track puts robots into simulated disaster zones. Think search-and-rescue, hazard identification, and data harvesting when every second is critical.
• Human-Robot Interaction: The ultimate litmus test. Robots will need to collaborate with—and safely avoid—actual human beings in public spaces, performing assistance tasks without causing a diplomatic incident or a trip hazard.

Featured Competitors

While the official team sheet is yet to be finalised, the European Robotics League invariably attracts the crème de la crème from Europe’s most prestigious tech institutes. Past years have seen decorated squads like homer@UniKoblenz from Germany and RoboticsLab UC3M from Spain showing the world how it’s done. However, the real stars are the machines themselves—a diverse fleet of custom-built ground and aerial vehicles pushed to their absolute breaking points.

The competition serves as a prime scouting ground for the industry. It’s where groundbreaking academic theory meets the unforgiving laws of physics, and where the next generation of robotics pioneers truly makes its mark.

Preliminary Schedule

The four-day event promises a packed itinerary of competition, innovation, and almost certainly a few frantic, last-minute system reboots.

Day 1-2 (12-13 May 2026)

• Morning: Team Arrivals, Final Calibration, and Rigorous Technical Inspections
• Afternoon: Preliminary Competition Rounds across all categories
• Evening: Workshops and Technical Deep Dives into the latest stacks

Day 3 (14 May 2026)

• All Day: Main Competition Heats – the pressure starts to mount
• Afternoon: Live Demonstrations for the public and industry partners
• Evening: Networking Events and “Robot Talk” over drinks

Day 4 (15 May 2026)

• Morning: The Finals – The top-tier teams go head-to-head for the crown
• Afternoon: Awards Ceremony & Closing Remarks
• Late Afternoon: A collective sigh of relief (and perhaps some celebratory champagne) from the engineers

Registration

For spectators, the European Robotics League 2026 is free to attend, offering a rare, front-row seat to the future of robotics in action.

For the brave souls looking to enter the fray, team registration remains open until 1 February 2026. Dust off your ROS builds, charge your battery packs, and prepare to be judged by the most unforgiving critic of all: reality.

• Register your team at: https://erl2026.eu/
• Audience Admission: Free of charge, no registration required.
• More Information: The full programme details will be released in Spring 2026.