Section 1: Competition Overview

1.1 Dates & Venue

Venue Layout

The 2025 RoboBoat Competition (RoboBoat 2025) will be conducted March 4-9, 2025, at the Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. Multiple courses will be used for the competition.

1.2 Competition Structure

RoboBoat 2025 includes (1) the Autonomy Challenge that demonstrates autonomous performance and safety; and (2) Design Documentation that presents each team’s work and vehicle design.

1.3 Eligibility

Student teams from anywhere in the world are eligible to participate. All teams must build an ASV to compete and only enter one vehicle in the competition. *

*First-year teams are eligible to participate in RoboBoat without an ASV. These teams are expected to participate in Design Documentation and send representatives on-site at the event as a learning experience. First-year teams are expected to indicate this option in their registration form.

1.3.1 Eligibility Details & Team Composition

• Teams must be comprised of 75% or more full-time students. Student members are expected to make significant contributions to the engineering development cycle of their ASV.

• The majority of team members must be college or high school students. Teams may also include middle school students. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

• Teams may be comprised of 25% or less alumni, industry, academic or government partners.

• A minimum of three (3) team members are required for safe operations on-site at RoboBoat.

1.4 Competition Schedule and Timeline

The event schedule is also available on the RoboBoat website.

Date	Event	Location
Online
04 October - 18 December	Registration	Start Registration (Online)
20 January	Event Submission Deadline: Team Member Registration Team Demographics Merchandise Order Vehicle Information On-Site Requirements	Registration Portal (Online)
27 January	Design Documentation Deadline: Technical Design Report Website Team Introduction Video Communicaty & Outreach (optional)	Registration Portal (Online)
In-Person Event
03 March (morning)	Team Check-in / Orientation	Nathan Benderson Park
04-06 March	Practice Course Open Qualifying Round Design Presentations System Assessments	Nathan Benderson Park
07-08 March	Semi-Finals Round	Nathan Benderson Park
09 March	Finals Round Awards	Nathan Benderson Park

1.4.1 Daily Team Meeting

Each competition day starts and ends with a mandatory team meeting for all teams, conducted by the Technical Director. Team leads (or their designated team representative) are required to attend all meetings. All participants are strongly encouraged to attend.

The Technical Director summarizes the day’s events, describes any course changes for the following day, and teams are encouraged to provide feedback.

1.5 Points of Contact

RoboBoat Questions:	Registration Questions:	On-Site Logistics/Safety:
roboboat.org/discord [e-mail]	[e-mail]	[e-mail] 850.642.0536

1.6 RoboNation Code of Conduct

All team members must abide by the RoboNation Code of Conduct while participating in the Competition. Failure to abide by this Code of Conduct at any point during the competition season may result in the disqualification of the team and/or participants from the Competition, components of the competition, the full competition, and/or future competitions.

1. Give your best effort. Display honesty, integrity, and sportsmanship while engaging in friendly competition. Compete fairly. Team products are solely the creation of student participants’ own efforts, ideas, and designs with supporting mentors providing only verbal advice.

2. Respect others. All participants and guests will display courtesy and respect toward officials, volunteers, other teams, and guests of the Competition.

3. Act with integrity. All participants and guests will behave in a responsible manner and follow the rules of the competition and host organization.

4. Support each other. All participants will embody the spirit of RoboNation and endeavor to engage with, learn from, and support one another.