Farm Robotics Challenge Launches 2026 Season with $50,000 Grand Prize
The Farm Robotics Challenge, the only collegiate agricultural robotics competition of its kind, has officially launched its 2026 season. The competition is now open for registration to undergraduate and graduate student teams from colleges and universities worldwide.
The Challenge, organized by UC ANR Innovate and the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS), tasks students with creating and field-testing robotics and AI solutions to solve real-world problems facing modern agriculture.
"What makes the Farm Robotics Challenge unique is that students work directly with farmers to identify and solve real problems," said Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer at UC ANR and founder of UC ANR Innovate. “Teams are developing practical solutions growers can put to work, and the hands-on experience prototyping and field-testing prepares students for careers in agricultural technology, while helping address some of the pressing challenges our growers face today."
This year, the Challenge is partnering with the Reservoir, an early-stage venture capital investor and robotics incubator. The Reservoir will award a $50,000 Grand Prize investment to the winning team. This seed funding is designed to help student-built prototypes become market-ready solutions.
"The future of agriculture will be shaped by deep tech innovators who can move quickly from lab to field,” said Danny Bernstein, CEO of the Reservoir. “The Farm Robotics Challenge brings together the kind of early-stage talent we’re eager to back – engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs with the vision to tackle real problems and the grit to commercialize their solutions. By pairing this year’s $50,000 Grand Prize investment with our on-farm incubation and venture support, we aim to help these prototypes evolve into scalable companies delivering breakthrough technologies for growers.”
Past winners have included teams from the University of Georgia, the University of Illinois, Olin College of Engineering, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Key Dates for the 2026 Competition:
August 2025: Registration opens
October 30, 2025: Project proposals due
May 3, 2026: Final project submissions due
May 20, 2026: Awards Ceremony
The competition will award over $100,000 in prizes across multiple categories, and select teams will receive travel stipends to showcase their projects at FIRA USA, a leading North American ag tech conference.
“For the past four years, we’ve partnered with UC ANR Innovate and AIFS on the Farm Robotics Challenge because we believe the future of farming depends on the next generation of innovators. There are big problems to solve in how we grow our food, and we want these inventive, engineering minds focused on them,” said Brendan Dowdle, chief business officer at Bonsai Robotics. “Our robotics platform makes it easier to design, test and deploy AI, computer vision and autonomous systems. Every year, we’re inspired by the creativity and technical skill these students bring to the field, and the ideas just keep getting bigger. We can’t wait to see what they build next.”
For more information, including how to participate or sponsor, visit the Farm Robotics Challenge website.
