Robo-Magellan Robotics Competition

Robo-Magellan is an outdoor autonomous robot navigation competition originally created and popularized by the Seattle Robotics Society. In this event, teams design and build small mobile robots that must use onboard sensors (such as GPS, cameras, and rangefinders) and software to autonomously navigate from a starting point to one or more GPS-specified waypoints and ultimately a traffic cone goal—often over rough or uneven terrain. Robots must handle real-world conditions like grass, curbs, and obstacles without any remote control. While Robo-Magellan is not limited to high school students, many robotics clubs and student teams choose it as a challenging capstone project. It’s well-suited for motivated high schoolers with some mentoring, particularly those interested in robotics, computer science, and engineering. Participants gain hands-on experience in mechanical design, embedded programming, sensor fusion, and path-planning algorithms, as well as practical skills in testing, teamwork, and iterative engineering. Different robotics clubs, hacker spaces, and regional robotics societies around the world host local Robo-Magellan-style events using the Seattle Robotics Society rules as a foundation.