Aerospace Robotics Competition · STEM-ED est. 2013

BUILD.CODE.FLY.

Middle and high school teams build a quadcopter, program it to fly a mission on its own, pilot it head to head, and answer an ethics question out loud.

Read the 2026–27 rulebook

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01Level · Build

Take it apart.

Learn the aerospace vehicle. A quadcopter the team can name, assemble, and present.

The season rulebook sets the size and cost limits.

Every part below is on the 2025–26 ARC kit list. Point at one to find it on the drone.

01Propellers12 × 4.5 in, CW and CCW pairs
02GPSHere4 multiband RTK GNSS
03Flight controllerThe Cube Orange+
04Motors ×4KDE2814XF-515 brushless
05FrameTarot 650 carbon fiber, 4-axis
06ESCs ×4KDEXF-UAS35 speed controllers
07Power boardMini Carrier Board PRO v2, 100 A
08Telemetry radioRFD900x-US modem
09ReceiverBetaFPV SuperD ELRS 2.4 GHz
10Battery6S LiPo, 22.2 V, 4000 mAh

02Level · Code

Write the flight.

Write the flight program. A vehicle that flies a mission without someone on the sticks.

The autonomous round is programmed before the team reaches the field.

Try it here. Pick a starter program or write your own, then run it and watch the drone fly your code on the field. This practice language lives on this page; it is not the one ARC teams use on competition day.

mission.py

takeoff(1.5)
repeat 4:
    forward(3)
    turn(90)
land()

READY · 10 moves compiled

Command list

takeoff(1.5) lift off to 1.5 m
forward(2) back left right up down in metres
turn(90) right, turn(-90) left
wait(1) hover for a second
led("cyan") red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, white, off
repeat 4: then indent the lines to repeat
land() back to the pad

03Level · Fly

Take the sticks.

Head-to-head, student-piloted. The vehicle still needs code to stay in the air, and the round is decided in the moment rather than entirely before the match.

A team needs at least two people, so one can fly and one can back them up.

A seven-gate practice course. Beat your best time. The real round is flown on the competition field.

↑↓ fly · ←→ turn · WS climb · AD slide · on a phone, two sticks

04Level · Account

Say it out loud.

Answer an ethics vignette out loud. A spoken response to the moral problems these machines actually raise.

Asynchronous lectures from the Saint Anselm Center for Ethics in Society run through the year.

“As students learn to develop and our society increasingly adopts autonomous systems, we must ensure that our approach, from the inception, is founded on an ethical framework.”
Tucker Hamilton, STEM-ED, CEO