A competitive robotics team for under $700 a year.

Students design, build, wire and program three robots, then compete against other schools across a slate of fifteen events — autonomous line following, sumo, precision driving and team games. No shop, no machining and no prior robotics experience required, from the teacher or the students.

What we’re asking forApproval to purchase one team kit and name a staff advisor. A one-time equipment purchase the school keeps and reuses every year — not a subscription, not a recurring licence. A $49 tabletop pilot is also available if you would prefer to see it work on a desk first.

$599

6–8students per team, with three leading a robot build each

1–2×meetings per week, after school or in a class period

$49tabletop robot, if you’d rather pilot it on a desk first

0weapons, power tools or machining in school events

What students actually do

Four disciplines, one season

Mechanical design — gear ratios, weight distribution, traction and geometry, tested immediately in competition.
Electronics — wiring a drivetrain, managing a battery, and tracing a fault when something stops working.
Programming — drag-and-drop blocks for beginners and C++ for advanced students, on the same robot in the same season.
Breadth, not one trick — the season title requires entering events from three different disciplines, so a team has to both build well and code well.

Curriculum

Standards-aligned. The included curriculum maps to NGSS engineering design standards MS-ETS1 and HS-ETS1, and to CSTA computer science standards. A written crosswalk ships with the kit for department review.

Safety

Designed to clear review

No weapons. Fourteen of the fifteen events are non-contact or push-only. The one combat event is club-only and requires an enclosed arena.
No lithium batteries. Rechargeable NiMH packs, not the lithium cells that require special storage. 24 volt ceiling league-wide.
External power cutoff and a visible power indicator on every robot, plus an automatic stop if the signal is lost.
Safety module completed by every student before the kit is opened.
Published external standard. Rules follow SPARC, the recognised standard for robot competition safety, so your district can review the source.

Budget

The complete first-year cost

Team kit — three complete robots, controllers, charger, tools, spares and curriculum	$599
Season registration — waived for founding teams	$0
Rulebooks, track plans and prop files for all fifteen events — free and openly licensed	$0
Two league meets, per team — enter as many events at each as you like	$80
Fields and game pieces — six events need only floor tape; the rest use props you print or build	$0
Total, first year	$679
Or: tabletop pilot — one robot, seven events, runs on a desk, no season commitment	$49

This may not need to come from the general fund. A three-robot kit is durable equipment — an allowable use of career and technical education funds in most states, and several states run grants specifically for robotics teams. The total also sits well below the threshold requiring a competitive bid or board vote in most districts. We publish a state-by-state funding guide and will help find the right source at no charge.

Questions, or a quote for your business office? hello@robotbattleleague.com · robotbattleleague.com/funding-by-state/ All fifteen event packs are free to download and free to modify. English and Spanish.

Founding season 2026–27
Southern California & Baja California

Print this page, or choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog to email it. It is designed to fit exactly one sheet of US Letter.