Middle schools with robotics experience, high schools new to robotics and advanced elementary schools with robotics experience.  Some understanding of robotic systems and electricity is helpful.  If you have limited experience with land-based robotics competitions, or have robotics experience but no competition experience, NAVIGATOR is a great place to start.  

Participation in the NAVIGATOR class is open to students in middle (grades 5-8) and high (grades 9-12) schools as well as students in home schools, after school programs, clubs, and community organizations of comparable grade levels.

In regions that have different school grade configurations, the NAVIGATOR class age requirement may vary.  Contact the regional coordinator in your area for more information.  

Number of Teams

The number of teams per school/instructor will vary depending on the regional event.  More than one team per school/instructor may be permitted, provided that there are no common students (i.e., students can only participate on one team). Contact your regional coordinator for more information.   

If the regional event cannot host more than one team per school/instructor, teams are encouraged to hold an in-school run-off to determine which team will represent their school/instructor at the competition. 

2025 Scoring Guide

• Company Spec Sheet
• 2025 Corporate Responsibility Score Sheet
• Product Demonstration
• Technical Documentation
  • Technical Documentation Supplemental Information
• Marketing Display
• Engineering Presentation
  • Scoring Rubric for Technical Documentation and Engineering Presentation
• Initial Safety Inspection sheet
• On-Site Safety Inspection sheet
• LASER Safety Inspection sheet
• NRD (Non-ROV Device) Inspection sheet
• 2025 Safety Tutorial
  • 2025 SAFETY BRIEFING.mp4 on Vimeo