Participants from top universities competed in Cluj in the International Roboracer Autonomous Racing Competition, dedicated to the most advanced technologies in the field of autonomous vehicles.
"The final of the 25th edition of the International Roboracer Autonomous Racing Competition took place on Monday, June 23, 2025, at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN) HUB. The event is part of the prestigious IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium international conference and brought together participants from top universities in a competition dedicated to the most advanced technologies in the field of autonomous vehicles. The RoboRacer competition brought together international teams of students from the most prestigious universities around the world. Each team presented a 1:10 scale autonomous vehicle, built according to a detailed technical manual and programmed to compete on a real track, avoiding collisions and aiming to achieve the best lap time," reads a press release sent by the organizers on Tuesday.
The event took place in two stages - a qualifying session, in the form of a time trial in which teams had to demonstrate that they could complete the course without collisions, followed by a knockout stage (head-to-head racing), in which the fastest and most stable autonomous cars competed directly in races. During the competition, each participating car was programmed to complete the circuit 20 times, reaching speeds of up to 30 kilometers per hour.
"This race is aimed at beginners in the field, who use small vehicles programmed for speed competition. There is a test track on which the vehicles must perform a certain number of laps. The vehicle that completes the most laps in a defined time interval is declared the winner. The complexity of the competition stems from the need to implement autonomous behavior so that the vehicles can follow these trajectories without being manually guided. In addition, the difficulty is amplified by the fact that students configure their platform, choose actuators and sensors, and develop their own system guidance algorithm," Prof. Dr. Eng. Sergiu Nedevschi, president of the IEEE IV 2025 organizing committee was quoted as saying in the press release.
Of the eight teams having entered the competition, the FORZAETH team from ETH Zurich in Switzerland ranked first, impressing the jury with their technical performance and the stability of their autonomous driving algorithms. Second place went to the SZEnergy team from Szechenyi Istvan University of Gyor in Hungary, and third place went to the MechaByte team from German International University, Germany.
The RoboRacer competition is a benchmark in promoting applied research in the field of autonomous driving, highlighting teamwork, innovation, and passion for technology. RoboRacer Autonomous Racing took place during the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, one of the most prestigious international conferences dedicated to autonomous vehicles and intelligent mobility, now in its 36th edition and organized for the first time in Cluj-Napoca.
The IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium is an internationally renowned scientific event held annually under the coordination of the IEEE ITS Society. The conference provides an essential platform for cutting-edge research, dialogue between representatives of complementary fields, and technology transfer between academia and industry. IEEE IV 2025, which takes place in Cluj from June 22 to 25, is made possible thanks to the support of numerous members of the IEEE ITSS and the international scientific community who contribute through scientific papers.
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