People attending a public robotics event in Milton Keynes, with a main stage displaying the event title 'Smart City' and a humanoid robot on the floor nearby.

Smart City Robotics Competition 2025

23-25 September 2025​

CENTRE:MK Milton Keynes, UK

Free Entry for Spectators, Teams, Schools & Exhibitors

Enter a Team or Sponsor
Register: Symposium 23rd_Sept
Register: Attend Competition 23-25 Sept
Register: Schools STEM Day 24th_Sept

Sponsored by

Logo for Milton Keynes City Council featuring initials 'MK' and the name written below.
Black circular logo with white lowercase text 'c:mk'
Eu Robotics logo with a stylized blue geometric shape and the words 'eu ROBOTICS' beneath it.
Logo of European Robotics League featuring a gold stylized star and the text 'European Robotics League' with the slogan 'EU Robotics at the heart'.
Smart City Consultancy Ltd
Cranfield University logo in shades of blue.
ECS logo with green, pink, and navy accents, and the words Electronics, Computers, Systems listed below.
Milton Keynes Tech Week logo with stylized abstract design and text on a gradient background
Black and white line drawing of a wide-eyed cat with its head tilted, surrounded by various cats and a large animal, possibly a tiger or lion, in the background.
Beckhoff logo in red text on a white background.
An indoor exhibition hall with the booth titled 'SMART CITY ROBOTICS' featuring a structured metal framework and various tables, screens, and seating areas, with several visitors walking and observing.

About the event

The Smart City Robotics Competition 2025, the flagship event in MK Tech Week, will involve team challenges, a tech exhibition, an evening symposium and robot demonstrations. You can participate or come along, the event is free and open to the public in centre:mk. The competition will run from Tuesday 23 September with the final in the afternoon of Thursday 25 September.​

You will see below the 5 Episodes that teams of university students and industry engineers will be tackling. You can sign up as a team or contact us to join a team. The challenges involve social interactions in a coffee shop or as a home assistant; mobile manipulation to open a door, or pack shopping; and flying drones for emergency medicine.​

The Exhibitors and Sponsors will be able to present during the event to the tech community and open to the public. This includes evening event opportunities with policy makers and VIP engagement, an exciting way to raise the profile of emerging technology and robotics. Milton Keynes hosted UK Government AI Safety Summit in 2023, is the 2nd fastest growing city in the UK and the 8th City in the UK for Tech Innovation.​

The previous 2023 event received global news coverage by 30 individual news articles. The competition is organised by Smart City Consultancy, supported by Milton Keynes City Council and the centre:mk, and is part of the European Robotics League, from euRobotics.​

Smart City Robotics Competition Brochure
Electric autonomous shuttle bus with teal and black design inside a shopping mall, displaying a sign for 'Ohmie LIFT' on the front, and sponsors' logos on the back, including Milton Keynes, BT, and CableFree.
A person in a wheelchair being assisted onto a bus, with two men near the entrance, one helping and the other smiling.
A futuristic self-driving electric shuttle with a predominantly teal exterior and a windowed side, parked indoors with a yellow sign that reads 'Milton Keynes. Better by design.' inside.
Two children in yellow jackets sitting on a bench inside a bus, looking out the window at autumn trees and parked cars.
View of the entrance to the Smart City Experience Center in a shopping mall, featuring a pink autonomous electric shuttle bus inside and robots in the foreground.
A self-driving electric shuttle bus with a green and black exterior, displaying 'Ohio LIFT' on an electronic sign, parked indoors in a modern building with large windows and hanging light fixtures.
Three people inside a bus, viewed through a glass window, having a conversation; one person holding a LEGO shopping bag.

Agenda

  • Monday 22 Sept 2025

    Early competition teams arrival and exhibitors.

    Pre-setup: Secure storage in centre:mk

    All week: Self-driving shuttle tours

  • Tuesday 23 Sept 2025

    Morning: Setup for Competition (Teams and Episodes). Setup for Exhibition

    Afternoon: Teams first mapping and practice

    Evening: MK Tech Week Symposium

  • Wednesday 24 Sept 2025

    All day: Competition practice. Exhibition. Schools visit and talks from Beverly Clarke MBE

    Evening: Team and Sponsor Event.

  • Thursday 25 Sept 2025

    Morning: Competition final practice, followed by Heats. Exhibition and robot demonstrations.

    Afternoon: Competition Finals. Competition team awards!

  • Full Agenda

    Download the agenda

Set of three children's books titled "The Digital Adventures of Ava and Chip" featuring themes of smart city, self-driving car, and smart home, with illustrations of children, buildings, and technology on the covers.

Robotics STEM Day

A woman speaking, holding a remote or clicker in her right hand, wearing a teal blazer and white shirt, with a visitor badge around her neck and a watch on her left wrist, waving with her left hand.

Wednesday 24 September 2025

Venue
Middleton Hall and Smart City Experience Centre, centre:mk

Schools are invited to attend the robotics competition and the Smart City Experience centre with special guest Beverly Clarke MBE.​

Groups of up to 20 students of any age, with accompanying supervision, to visit the teams and robots in the competition, the exhibition and demonstrations, visit the Smart City Experience Centre and Beverly Clarke MBE to hear about insights on STEM, the future of engineering and for the younger groups a reading from Beverly’s own books.​

Schools Robotics STEM Brochure

Competition Episodes

The Smart City Robotics Competition will feature five episodes, each presenting a unique challenge for the participating robots, in a real physical environment.

The episodes will be judged on qualities such as accuracy, damage, completeness, human interaction and time.

Episode Rules
Competition FAQ
Four people sitting at tables in a cafe, enjoying coffee and food, with a robot serving them and posters of drinks and pastries on the glass wall behind.

1. Deliver Coffee Shop Orders​

Robots take orders from new customers at their table, collect the order from the counter and deliver to the order. This is a challenging environment to navigate, interact with people and safely deliver coffee orders.​

A cartoon robot with a smiling face is selling milk and other products at a booth. The robot is holding a small milk carton and a box of bottles, and there is a boy buying milk, holding a box labeled 'MILK'. The booth has various items like bottles, boxes, and cans, with a green striped tablecloth and a green canopy overhead.

4. Select and Pack Shopping​

Given a shopping order, the challenge will be to navigate a shopping area to find products on the shelf, safely grasp the product and carry it to the delivery container, without dropping or damaging any products, in the fastest time possible.​

A woman and a robot carrying a grocery bag walk into an elevator, while a man in the background looks at his phone.

2. Through the Door​

The robot will navigate a doorway, requiring it to operate the door handle and open the door. This requires a good understanding of motion planning and control.​

A person dressed as a superhero providing first aid to an upset woman at a community health clinic with a sign reading 'Book & Bike' in the background.

5. Drone Medical Deliver​

This episode requires flying robots to safely navigate the scene and make a delivery for urgent medicine.

Children greeting a robot at a SciRoC challenge event, with a man and woman observing, inside a room with large windows.

3. Assisting a Person in their Home​

A person with limited mobility asks the robot to retrieve an object in the home. The robot will need to communicate with empathy and find a requested item on the table, pick it up, and pass it to the person safely hand.

Be part of the experience

A person controlling a robot with a robotic arm inside a store.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Promote, Recruit, Connect with Tech Industry, Government and Emerging talent from leading UK/European universities

Learn more
Three photos from a technology exhibition at an airport, showing a large open space with booths, displays, and people. The top photo shows an expansive view of the exhibition area with tables, chairs, and people walking. The middle photo features a stage with people, a robot, and a red digital screen displaying 'SMART CITY'. The bottom photo shows children gathered around a booth with the 'BECKHOFF' logo, where a presenter explains automation technology.

Register to Compete or Judge

Enter your team for the 3 day event as a hackathon of real-world challenges. University and Industry teams welcome.

You can sign up as a competition Judge or Technical Advisor.

Register Your Team or help as a Judge
Exhibition booth displaying various robots and drone technology with banners for Smart City Consultancy and DronePort MK, featuring autonomous vehicles, a quadruped robot, and other robotic devices.

Visit the robots

Visit centre:mk to see the robots in action, expert presentations, free schools visits and reading from Beverly Clarke. Join the evening events as part of MK Tech Week held at the competition venue.

Location

Location

 

Middleton Hall, Centre:mk

177 Silbury Blvd

Milton Keynes

MK9 3ES

When
23-25 September 2025​
9am–5pm

Full Agenda here

contact: duncan.russell@smccl.co.uk

Smart City Experience Centre

FAQs

  • The sponsorship packages are listed in this brochure. The brochure also contains examples of the media impact from the competition. The competition is the flagship event in MK Tech Week and will bring technology partners, customers, public bodies, policy makers and open to the public.

    https://tinyurl.com/robotcomp2025

  • We have limited resources and options and will be reviewing our capacity to provide financial support.

    Please contact Duncan Russell for information about support packages available duncan.russell@smccl.co.uk.

  • The agenda link above contains the overview of the agenda. Tuesday is the first competition day, and the morning will be getting the teams and competition episodes setup. By 12 noon all episodes will be available for robot mapping.

    Once we have a full list of teams, we will allot times for robot access to the Episode during each day. Thursday will be heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon. The results of the heats will contribute to the final score.

  • Please contact the event organisers about any requirements for the robots. Some changes will be permitted in order to support a range of robots and demonstrate realistic environmental changes.

    Modifications added by one team, such as navigation markers, may be used by other teams.