The European Robotics League 2026 was officially opened on Wednesday in Scheveningen. The international robotics competition takes place in public spaces around the boulevard, the pier and the dunes. This makes the event different from robotics demonstrations held in conference centres or laboratories: the participating teams test their systems in conditions that are closer to real-world use.
The opening ceremony was hosted by Steve Doswell, who noted that many people have an image of robots in their minds, but rarely see them up close and in action. According to Doswell, this is one of the main goals of this year’s edition: bringing robots out of labs and test halls and making them visible to the public. “This week, our teams have brought the robots out into the public arena,” he said during the opening.
ERL 2026 takes place from 12 to 15 May in Scheveningen and brings together international teams, researchers and technology companies around robotics applications in realistic urban environments. The event is organised by euRobotics and the City of The Hague and uses Living Lab Scheveningen as its test environment.
Five real-world challenges
During the competition, teams work on five so-called episodes. These focus on inspection and maintenance, coastal protection and nature preservation, emergency response and public health, a barista challenge, and smart waste or sand management. The scenarios reflect areas in which robots may play a role in the future, including inspection, emergency support, logistics and the management of busy urban spaces.
The choice of Scheveningen is deliberate. The boulevard, beach, pier, harbour and dunes together form a complex environment in which robots have to deal with people, wind, sand, uneven surfaces and changing conditions. As a result, the event is not only a demonstration, but also a practical test for autonomous systems.
The Hague as a test environment
Deputy Mayor Saskia Bruines placed the competition in the broader context of Scheveningen as an area where technology is tested in public space. She referred to the history of the coastal district, where technology was already visible early on in the Kurhaus, the pier and the harbour.
According to Bruines, the European Robotics League fits with the role of Living Lab Scheveningen. In this test area, the municipality works with companies, researchers and residents on applications including crowd management, smart energy systems, digital security and privacy. She also pointed to maritime innovation in the harbour, where companies are working on underwater robots and unmanned vessels.
“This leading European competition brings innovative robotics into real-life public environments,” Bruines said. “In doing so, it demonstrates very concretely how robotics can help address social and urban challenges.”
Bruines stressed that robotics is not only a technical development, but also a social subject. Technology, she said, only becomes truly useful when people can understand it, experience it and discuss it. “Technology only becomes truly useful when people can understand it, experience it, and talk about it together, and see how it helps in their daily lives,” she said.
She also linked the competition to the European debate on technological autonomy. Europe wants to continue working with the rest of the world, she said, but must also be able to determine its own course. According to Bruines, this is one of the reasons why euRobotics and initiatives such as the European Robotics League are important: they bring talent together and help new ideas move toward practical use.
euRobotics: competition as a learning environment
Francesco Ferro, president of euRobotics, addressed the role of ERL within the European robotics ecosystem. He said euRobotics aims to increase the visibility of robotics in Europe and to bridge the gap between research, universities and companies.
“Our mission is quite clear,” Ferro said. “We aim to make robotics more visible in Europe. The idea is to build a bridge between researchers, universities and companies.”
He mentioned standardisation, regulation and the scaling of robotics in Europe as important themes. According to Ferro, Europe needs to work on the conditions that allow robotic systems to move from research and demonstration into broader use. “We try to put all our effort into collaboration,” he said, pointing to topics such as standardisation in robotics and the regulatory framework.
Ferro said competitions such as the European Robotics League are important because they test robots beyond controlled demonstrations. This includes issues such as interoperability, robustness and the use of robots in concrete scenarios. “From a technical point of view, interoperability is very important,” he said. “How can we use different robots with the same code in order to make this happen? And on the other side, robustness: we need to reach the same level of robustness that we see in robotics worldwide.”
According to Ferro, ERL differs from many other competitions because teams are not only competing, but also showing what they have built and learned in practice. “ERL is not only a competition,” he said. “It is something very important to demonstrate the work that the students and the teams have done.”
That emphasis reflects the structure of ERL, which is designed to benchmark robotic systems in realistic environments. The competition is positioned as a place where research, education, companies and public applications come together.
Teams from France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
During the opening, several team captains introduced their projects. A team from Grenoble Alpes University in France is taking part in the episode on emergency response and public health. The team works with a drone and focuses on a scenario in which robotics can support incident response or public health operations.
A team from Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom is participating in the barista episode. The representative of Smart City Consultancy said Milton Keynes is used as a testbed for robots-as-a-service. The team wants to show in Scheveningen how robots can function in a public setting.
Saxion is also present with the EcoScan team. Two students are taking part in the episode on coastal protection and nature preservation. Their drone is intended to inspect the dunes and help map native and invasive plant species. Team captain Andrea stressed that this is relevant not only for nature management, but also for the wider living environment.
Local students from Maris College are also involved in parts of the programme, giving the competition an educational dimension. Public activities include building Lego robots and flying drones. The organisers want ERL to reach not only professionals and students, but also residents, visitors and young people.
Robotics in public space
The opening made clear that ERL 2026 is mainly about how robots function in an environment where technology, the city and society come together. The applications range from inspection and maintenance to nature management, emergency response and service tasks. Because the competition takes place in public space, the limits and possibilities of robotics become more visible than in a closed test environment.
For The Hague, the event is also a way to position Scheveningen as a testing ground for urban innovation. For euRobotics, it is a platform to strengthen European cooperation in robotics. For the participating teams, it is above all a practical test: can their robots deal with real conditions, public spaces and socially relevant tasks?
As Bruines summarised at the end of her speech: “In the end, it is not the robots that shape the future, but the people who build that future together.”
