Genius Robotics is a student-centric competition which provides students understanding the role of engineering and research in environmental issues. Genius Robotics encourages students to discover novel solutions to known problems in the environment by requiring them to design, build, test and control their unique robots. It provides students with a lifetime experience and an opportunity to enhance their life skills such as being a team member, researching and problem-solving.

As Genius Olympiad community, we value the diversity of the participants and the respect to each other. We come together and speak up together to increase the awareness of environmental issues and the importance of acting together to build a better world together.

Each GENIUS Robotics project can be prepared and presented by a team of up to three students. Schools may apply with multiple teams. However, each student may be part of only one team. There can be only one robot for each team and can not be shared among teams. Only team members who participate will be recognized during award ceremony and announcements.


ROBOTICS | Game - Genie Firefighter

Genie Firefighter is designed to measure the performance of the robots and the teams in fire and rescue tasks. The field has a shared fire station warehouse in the middle, a shared flood zone and fire zone, accident zone and hospital on each side.

Robot Type and categories: The applications will be accepted in three categories as Lego, Tetrix and VEX. Any other robot development kit can be used only if it is approved by the Genius Robotics Committee; these will be accepted under one of the three categories based on its hardware specifications. (motor power, programming structure ..etc). Consult the committee before you start building your robot by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want to use any robot development kit other than Lego, Tetrix, VEX.

Mission: The mission has two parts: autonomous and driven. The robots compete in a field which will be divided into two identical subfields and shared regions (fire station warehouse and flood zone). The subfields will be separated by blue and red lines that teams will have their private region to complete the tasks. At each subfield, all zones are marked with color tapes and the hospitals are identified as blue bins. Please check the field drawings for more details.

There will be at least three rounds for each team and the team may compete in either blue or red side of the field; different rounds may be held in different fields. Each round will have both missions. 

First Mission Task: Fully Autonomous Task
As the first mission of the game, the Genie Firefighter is responsible to pick the injured person figure from the accident zone and transport him into the hospital (blue bin). The time given for this task is 30 seconds. 

Scoring of the first mission task:

Picking the injured person figure from the accident zone earns 25 points.
Transportation to the hospital (leaving the figure into the blue bin) earns 25 points.
Arrival back to the robot lot, after completing the first mission, earns 20 points. Robots will be considered back in the robot lot if any part of the robot is in the robot lot.

Second Mission Task: Driven Mode
Right after the time given for the first mission task, the second mission starts. In this task, Genie Firefighter will achieve fire extinguishing and rescue tasks.

For the fire extinguishing task, Genie Firefighter is responsible to pick up the resources from the fire station warehouse (the shared area in the middle of the field) and cover the fire zone with them. For each fire zone, transporting 3 cubes will be considered as the entire fire zone is covered and the fire is controlled. In the fire station warehouse, there will be only 6 cubes in total and teams shall consider the other team to be fair and pick up at most 3 cubes. Robots are not allowed to enter the fire zone while placing cubes. Robots can carry or drag the cubes.

For the rescue task, Genie Firefighter is responsible to rescue people (picking up people figures) from the flood zone and transport them into the hospital (blue bin). For this task, Genie Firefighter is not allowed to enter the hazardous region (the region surrounding the flood zone) for its own safety. Also, people figure cannot touch the hazardous section. People figure must be lifted from flood zone without getting a contact (neither robot nor figure) to the hazardous area. Robots can pick up up to five human figures at a time and there can be at most 5 human figure at the robot at any time.

Genie Firefighter is not allowed to pass the border of their subfield or the border of the flood zone but allowed to enter in the shared warehouse. The robot will start from the robot lot and teams are allowed to make modifications on the robot like adding or removing attachments or changing the code during the competition round ONLY within the robot lot. Any other interference is not allowed during the rounds.

Genie Firefighter is also responsible to transport the injured person into the hospital in case it could not complete the first mission. 

There will be 6 big cubes for fire extinguishing task, placed in the fire station warehouse. 

There will be total of 10 people figures who are stuck in the flood zone. Teams can collect more than 5 figures on the condition that they pick one at a time and carry at most 5 figures on the robot at any time.

Placement of cubes: Cubes will be randomly distributed into the fire station warehouse.

Placement of people figures: People figures will be randomly distributed into the flood zone (The inner square at the top right corner). 

The time given for this task is 3 minutes.

Scoring of the second mission task:

Each cube transported to the fire zone earns 15 points (cubes should be fully transported into the fire zone)
Each human figure saved from flood zone earns 10 points
Each human figure transported to the hospital earns 5 points
If Genie Firefighter fully controls the fire by transporting all 3 cubes to the fire zone, the team earns 25 points. 
If Genie Firefighter transports all people to the hospital (there is no people figure left in the flood zone or any other place in its own subfield including on the robot) earns 25 points
Each wasted resource left in the field outside of the warehouse loses 10 points.
Each not used resource left in the resource warehouse does not lose any points.
If Genie Firefighter picks up more than 3 cubes and prevents the other team to complete their task, it loses 50 points.
If Robot holds more than 5 human figures any time, the team loses 50 points
If the robot enters the flood zone or fire zone, the team loses 10 points each time
If the robot drops human figures to the flood zone, the team loses 10 points each time
If the human figure in the accident zone is not transported to the hospital at the end of the second mission, the team loses 25 points
If the robot passes to the other side of the field, it loses 10 points each time.
If the team interferes with the robot outside of the robot lot, the team loses 50 points.
If all tasks are completed (3 cubes in the fire zone, all people figures are in the hospital) 1 point will be earned for every 1 second of the time after the robot returns to the robot lot.
If teams violate any fair play rules, like destroying or blocking the opponent team’s robot intentionally, preventing the other team to achieve the tasks, the team will lose 50 points. In addition to these penalties, teams violating fair play rules can be subject to disqualification from the competition by the referee's decision. 

Robot Inspection and Build Up Rules:

All finalist robots will be inspected on the setup/practice day and any robot which does not apply the below rules would be disqualified and ineligible to compete in Genius Robotics. 

Size: Robot must fit in the 20-inch cube. Width: 20 in Height: 20 in Length: 20 The robot can resize itself during the game but initial size must meet this requirement.  

The number of motors: Teams can use up to 8 DC motors and any number of servo motors. There is no limit for the number of motor controllers. 

Power: Robots must use up to 12 V for each power item and it has to be provided with batteries. Teams are not allowed to use external power. 

Software: Any programming language can be used to control robots. 

Driving Robot: Robot can operate in autonomous or tele-op modes. If it is in tele-op mode, driven by the students, wired or wireless communication methods are allowed. For both cases, students have to stay on the longest side of their subfield. If it is wired communication, the wire cannot be used to pull the robot. It will be considered as touching the robot outside of the robot lot, the team loses 50 points. 

Project I.D.: Your robot must contain your project ID number, provided during application, at least on its one side. The size of the print should be at least 100 pts in Bold.

Game Materials: 

During the competition, the practice fields and the competition fields will be provided by GENIUS Robotics. Teams will not be allowed to bring their own field and game materials to the competition area due to space allocation concerns. However, they can bring any robot materials to maintain their robots. Genius Robotics will use only the listed items below for the competition and field map will be identified directly on black floor tiles using colored tapes according to the designed map, as given below. It is recommended but not mandatory to purchase the listed items. Any replacement to the listed materials would be accepted for teams to be able to get prepared for the competition. Genius Robotics do not provide or sell any materials to the teams, teams can purchase their own materials from the links or even make their own materials.

GENIUS ROBOTICS Judging Criteria (Master Game only)

1. Engineering book - 10% : Teams can gather any details about the robot inluding design choices, drawings, experiments, photos for the development stages, coding schemes and source codes and the system layout of the robot. This document may also contain some unstructured engineering notes and handwritten records. There is no specific format for the engineering book but teams must explain their project stages using the information in their engineering book.

2. Teamwork - 10% : Judges will score the involvement of each team member during the judging session. To get a good score, teams may divide their presentation and different team members may be responsible for each part.

3. Presentation  - 20% : Teams will present their project and explain the details about their robot by using their engineering book and optionally their poster. Each team will be given 6 minutes at most to tell about their design and engineering work. Judges may ask questions during or after the presentation. There is no specification for the optional project poster. Designing a poster is recommended. 

4. Master game score - 60% : (details are given above under master game scoring)

According to Master Game judging criteria, participants will receive 10% gold, 20% silver, 20% bronze, and 20% honorable mention awards. 



  • Application: A robotics project can be prepared and submitted by up to three students.
  • Application: Schools may submit multiple teams/projects, however, each student may be in only one team. Each must submit an appication, but same schools should use the same account for multiple applications. 
  • Application: Each team must have their own robot and robots can not be shared among teams, even they are from the same school. 
  • Application: The robot's description paper (engineering book, technical details, etc) with photos will be required for a complete application. All projects, including affiliated fair winners, must submit their robot (project) description paper. 
  • Application: (OPTIONAL) A YouTube of the video can be submitted with project paper. Please upload a video which is less than 3 min with a title: GENIUS Robotics_YEAR_TITLE. The Youtube link can be provided when an optional media link is asked for. The video can be for an existing robot for a different mission, we would like to see that your group have an existing robot which is capable of basic robot skills like lifting, picking etc. 
  • Application: Your file names must be in English characters.
  • Application: The project description paper should include: title, student names, city, and country, master game robot information (system used (tetrix, lego, Matrix etc), the cost, engineering drawings, description of the design, drawings, photos of the robot (through out the design phase and a final photo). The paper will be uploaded into the online application. Acceptable file formats for the project paper are doc and docx and PDF, not exceeding 5 MB in file size. Recommended page limit is 15, with acceptable font sizes 11 or 12 for any font type and page margins one inch or more (2.5 cm) from each side.

  • At the fair: Everyone including team members, guests, supervisors, and organizers are required to wear safety glasses in the competition area. Prescription glasses or sunglasses are NOT considered as safety glasses. Open-toe or open-back shoes are NOT allowed in the practice and competition area. You are allowed to bring your own poster board/presentation, which should be placed on 40x60 inches table. There is no height restriction for self-prepared boards. Shipping information is available in the Finalist Guide.
  • At the fair: Students may choose to present their robot and design using a poster. If you choose so, students should come to the competition with pre-printed materials to prepare their posters. 
  • At the fair: Students are allowed to make changes and improve their robots between application and fair presentation.
  • At the fair: We provide only 110 V outlet. We do NOT provide 220 V. 
  • At the fair: A table will be provided for each team for their set-up. 
  • At the fair: There will be 2 practice fields which will provide practicing for four teams at the same time. Teams will be asked to take turns in every 15 minutes. 
  • At the fair: Read Finalist guide under rules for more information.
  • At the fair: Supervisors are NOT allowed to stay in the competition area with their teams. The students should be able to handle all issues by themselves. 
  • At the fair: Teams must stay near their assigned desk not to miss any competition round. Teams missed their round will not be given second chance to make up. 

 GENIUS ROBOTICS | Questions and Answers

If you send us a specific question, their answers will be shared on this page for others as well:

1. Can we use any other development kit than Lego, Tetrix or Vex?

The answer is yes but you need the approval of the Genius Robotics committee. Contact by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2. Can we attend with a different robot for first mission task and second mission task?


3. What is the maximum size of the robot?

The robots must be smaller than 20x20x20 inches (50x50x50 cm) for the master game. For Sumo and Line follower robots' sizes, please refer the corresponding guidelines. 

4. Is there a restriction on controlling the robot?

First mission task must be autonomous. Second mission task must be controlled via a hand-held device (cable or wireless control). If you are using a hand-held device, the controller must stay only on the longest side of their map to control their robot. 

5. What if my robots is not ready before the application deadline, can I still apply?

Yes you can apply. Your final version of the robot does NOT have to be ready during application. However, you must have a robot in hand to provide a video showing your capabilities and drawings and plan for your robot which will be used in GENIUS Olympiad master game and any photos during initial design and built-up. 

6. Can I use Makeblock kits?

The answer is yes, but you need to let us know what type (starter or mbots). 

7. Can I use meet edison with other Lego parts?

Yes you can use meet edison along with Lego kit and register under Lego category.

8. When the mission is considered completed for a team to go back to robot lot and earn bonus points?

If there is no resources (cubes) left in the resource warehouse and if all resources transported to the allowed shelters (there is no waste) without causing any starvation (there is at least one water and one food resource in each shelter), the mission is considered completed. 

9. When both teams complete the mission, are they awarded based on the number of people figures they placed?

No, once the mission completed for any team regardless of how many figures placed, the teams will be awarded for bonus points based on the time left for the round. 

10. When the round ends, if robot has some human figures or cubes on it and could not place them on time, is there any penalty?

It depends on the robots last location. If robot is in the warehouse region, there is no penalty points but if the robot is at outside of the warehouse and could not locate the cubes on time, it is also considered as waste of resources and yes penalty will be applied. 

If human figures are not transported on time and there is no penalty since picking the figures and transporting them are separate tasks.

11. Can we have more than one controllers/operators acting simultaneously on same robot in case of manual robot?

You can have up to 2 controllers

12. Is there any restriction on orientation of robot in robot zone to start the game?

Robot zone is the free area that you can do anything including changing the starting direction of the robot.

13. How much time is provided to calibrate and setup robot before each rounds?

There is no certain time but the competition rounds will take around 5 hours total (2,5 hours each session) and each team will have about 4-5 rounds. So you can think of one round at every 30 minutes. It may change based on our competition scheduler software.

14. What if the robot interferes or destroys an opponent’s robot intentionally or due to lack of control?

This is against fair play rules and the team would be disqualified from Genius Robotics if it is intentional. If it is due to lack of control, team would lose lots of points each time it interferes the opponent robot.

15. Can we collect many figures/cubes and place them to the hospital/fire zone together?

You can collect  and carry up to 5 figures together.

16. Is there any difference on touching/detecting and crossing the opponent’s border?

You can touch the border (3 inches) to detect the opposite side but crossing the border is not allowed (penalty points).

17. Is it allowed to cross the border by extended part of the robot, not with the original size?


18. How much time is allocated for the second mission?

3 minutes.

19. How many human figures can each team collect?

Each team can collect all the figures (10 figures) as long as they obey the limits as picking and carrying at most 5 figures together. 

20. Will human figures be in a standing position?


21. Can teams collect the figures dropped to the hazardous region?

Yes. They can collect them without entering the hazardous region.







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