Robotic Origami
applications encouraged
Prize: up to $1m
Challenge active
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Challenge overview
mission details
summary
The Robotic Origami Grand Challenge (GC/02) advances robotic dexterity through increasingly complex origami tasks, benchmarking robots against expert human practitioners on fine-motor control, perception, planning, and bimanual coordination.
The first benchmark, coming to IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh, tasks robots with folding a traditional Japanese paper airplane (kami hikōki) — a classic six-fold figure judged by an Origami Grand Master from the Nippon Origami Association (日本折紙協会) on accuracy, fidelity, and speed.
With up to $1M USD in prizes awarded against goals and benchmarks to be announced, GC/02 rewards systems that decisively outperform human baselines — while generating open datasets, evaluation standards, and hardware insights with applications across manufacturing, healthcare, and home robotics.
Co-organizers
BitRobot, FrodoBots Lab, Agility Robotics, Nippon Origami Association (日本折紙協会), Sharpa Hands, Lightwheel, Toyota Central R&D Labs. NUS, Stanford University, Tsinghua University
prize
Up to $1m
Up to $1M USD in prizes will be awarded to teams that demonstrate breakthroughs in robotic dexterity, with goals and benchmarks to be announced.
entry requirements
All considered
Teams and researchers of all levels are encouraged to participate in the Challenge, from hobbyist roboticists to research organizations. Prizes are awarded on merit and results, not team pedigree.
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