The robo.innovate Hackathon 2025 brought together 105 students from around 13 countries from different backgrounds, to address challenges in robotics, AI, and IoT. With 14 robots, participants competed for cash prizes based on business value, market demand, technical feasibility, scalability, and novelty. We are very grateful to our industry, academic, and startup hosts who mentored students to develop solutions for real problems and to our Industry and Academic jury, for evaluate the groundbreaking ideas, challenge the teams, and award the best solutions.
robo.innovate hackathon 2025
4th Edition | 17 - 20 March | Munich Urban Colab | On-site
solve real-world problems with Robotics / AI and IoT
The robo.innovate hackathon marks Bavaria's fourth Robotics / AI and IoT challenge, held on-site at the Munich Urban Colab in Munich from March 17 to 20, 2025.
Anyone passionate about hardware, software and latest technology should join to tackle real-world problems through innovative solutions. As a Robotics / AI and IoT hub in Munich, robo.innovate collaborates with the TUM Venture Lab Robotics / AI and esteemed industry partners to organize the event, offering a four-digit prize pool distributed among the winning teams. Students, makers, hackers, can participate individually or as a team in exciting challenges of our partners and seize the unique chance to be part of the robo.innovate hackathon 2025.
Our winners
The Hackathon Champions!
Team GROWBOT for their Automated Care for Forest Management at the MIRMI Challenge.
Most Scalable Solution
Team ExVO for their Automated Unpacking for Production Processes at the BMW Challenge.
Best Problem-Solution Fit
Team SEAL Robotics for their Container Securing with Robotics.
Time schedule
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Participants can register for the hackathon until March, 3rd; either as individuals or in teams. Indicate your preferences for the challenges and list the skills you would throw in. Our team checks your application and comes back to you. You will receive confirmation about your assigned challenge after the registration deadline.
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From 6th to 10th March, team allocation takes place, ensuring participants are grouped perfectly for the hackathon. During this period, individual registrants are matched with like-minded peers based on their skills, interests, and preferred challenges, while pre-formed teams finalize their assignments. This process fosters collaboration by creating balanced and dynamic teams, preparing them to tackle their challenges with the best mix of expertise and creativity. Participants receive confirmation of their teams and challenges, giving them ample time to prepare for the exciting journey ahead.
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The event's centerpiece is the four-day hackathon, held from March 17 to 20 in the workshop area of the Munich Urban Colab. Building on their prior conceptual work and preparations, participants use this opportunity to develop and program their ideas into functional prototypes. With on-site mentors and experts readily available, teams benefit from expert guidance and support, enhancing their solutions throughout the week. On the final day, March 20, each team showcases their concept and prototype to an esteemed robotics jury, which selects and awards the winning teams.
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In the evening on 20 March, a well-selected jury consisting of professors, experts and scientists in Robotics and AI will evaluate the various solutions of the hackathon teams. Winners and all participants can expect great prices. Stay tuned!
Hackathon Challenges
Beneath you find information about this year's Hackathon challenge hosts.
#01 Rohde & Schwarz
Future of Test & Measurement
The goal is to enable high bandwidth measurements, e.g. 6G, with decreased hardware demand for signal processing and to enable transfer and storage of I/Q streams on the cloud.
Increasing hardware requirements lead to rising costs and resulting in environmental impact on materials and power consumption.
Rohde & Schwarz is a global technology group striving for a safer and connected world. With its Test & Measurement, Technology Systems and Networks & Cybersecurity Divisions, the company creates tomorrow's innovations today. The company's leading-edge products and solutions empower industrial, regulatory and military customers to attain technological and digital sovereignty.
#02 BMW
Automated Unpacking
The goal is to design an automated system that is a robot gripper or a combination of a robot gripper and an external device to unpack individually packed car parts in a pick and place task.
Unpacking assembly parts is a side process in robotic kitting applications, which one of the most important processes in production logistics.
BMW, founded in 1916, is a leading German automaker focused on premium vehicles. Their mission is to drive sustainable mobility through innovation, quality, and performance.
Achieving this through advancements in electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and smart manufacturing, BMW integrates robotics and AI to enhance production efficiency and develop self-driving technologies. This commitment to innovation positions BMW at the forefront of the automotive industry, combining luxury with cutting-edge technology.
#03 Franka Robotics
Vertical Farming Automation
Teams will develop an automation solution for a small-scale vertical farm using the Franka Research 3 manipulator.
Participants will design, program, and prototype an innovative approach to improve the efficiency of vertical farming, leveraging robotics for sustainable food production.
Franka Robotics is a German, research-driven robotics company headquartered in Munich and operating globally. Founded in 2016, it is part of the Agile Robots SE group since 2023.
Their mission is to enable the growing community of robotics and AI professionals to shape a pivotal moment in human evolution: giving AI a robot body. We achieve this by developing the reference robotics platform that facilitates big-thinkers to explore, collaborate, create and share – thereby driving continuous advancements in robotics and AI.
#04 MIRMI
AI and Robotics driving Tree Growth Optimization
Thriving young trees are vital for a sustainable and resilient natural environment. To support their growth, we are developing a robot-assisted solution that enhances tree care.
By delivering precise, plant-specific data, for example, the system enables informed decision-making, leading to improved growing conditions, higher survival rates, and more efficient reforestation efforts.
MIRMI – The AI-Mission Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, is an Integrative Research Institute at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) with over 70 professors spanning various fields.
Focused on robotics, perception, and artificial intelligence, MIRMI aims for human-centered solutions in health, work, environment, and mobility. It develops intelligent machines that interact and learn from humans. Starting as from 2018, MIRMI is a central hub for robotics and machine intelligence research and is as of today No. 1 in Germany and Europe and No. 2 worldwide in AIRankings 2013-23.
#05 UTokyoIPC & navel robotics
Smart Care Support Robot for Elderly Care Facilities in Japan
Japan is facing a severe aging population issue, and the shortage of caregivers in elderly care facilities has become a critical problem. Caregivers experience significant workloads, especially during night shifts, assisting residents with mobility, bathing, and monitoring their health conditions. Additionally, reducing the risk of infectious diseases in care facilities has become a growing concern.
In this hackathon, participants will develop a robotic solution or a software solution that reduces the burden on caregivers and enhances the safety and comfort of elderly residents.
UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd. (UTokyo IPC), established in 2016, is wholly owned by the University of Tokyo.
Their mission is to expand the university's innovation ecosystem through investment, incubation support, and fostering deep-tech startups. They support researchers, entrepreneurs, and startups by assisting with business plan development, team building, and facilitating collaborations between startups and the industrial world.
#06 RoboTUM
No-Code Cobot
Participants will develop an intuitive teleoperation interface that allows non technical users to remotely control a collaborative robot (cobot) to draw on a whiteboard. The goal is to simplify robotic interaction, making it accessible and ser-friendly while ensuring precision in execution.
RoboTUM is the student robotics initiative at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where the next generation of innovators push the limits of robotic technology.
Driven by hands-on development, competitions, and deep industry collaboration, RoboTUM is a launchpad for ambitious projects that redefine what’s possible. From humanoid robotics to autonomous systems, its teams don’t just participate in the field—they shape its future.
#07 Awesome Robotics
Smart gift personalization with robots and lasers
Personalization turns a normal gift into something special and let’s you think about a person or event every time you see or use it.
Laser engraving is one often used method to add a name, logo, date or quote to an object, but even though the engraving itself is automated, there are still a lot of tedious and boring manual processes that we want to automate to create the perfect gift.
Awesome Robotics is a young startup from the Venture Lab Robotics/AI that develops a laser engraving machine that can customize a gift with a laser without any manual work.
They work at the boundary between classical automation with a robot arm (UR10) and Robotics/AI for sensitive part handling, and computer vision for pose estimation or quality control to achieve our goal of an 'lights out etsy store'.
#08 SEAL Robotics
Container Securing Robots
As of today, sea freight containers are secured manually with so-called twistlocks. However, port operators are facing major problems in the fulfillment as labor shortage rises in parallel to the global freight demand.
This challenge aims to develop a robotic system that is able to secure containers fully automatically, leveraging AI-based perception and a compliant light weight robot system.
SEAL Robotics aims to revolutionize freight container logistics with a disruptive robotics solution. The system will enable port operators to secure freight containers at drastically increased efficiency with guaranteed and traceable reliability.
Committed to sustainability, SEAL Robotics supports SDG goals by improving port capabilities and promoting resource-efficient infrastructure in maritime logistics.
#09 The Robot Learning Company
Enabling Robots to Learn
The era of physical AI -robots understanding physical environments- is here, and it’s rapidly transforming the world’s industries. The goal of this challenge is to bring AI, specifically LLMs, VLMs, and end-to-end imitation learning to traditional (or novel) robot applications.
The Robot Learning Company (TRLC) is building a platform that enables roboticists to create and deploy robot learning models. It provides tooling for collecting and organising data, training and deploying models, and closes the active learning loop so robots improve over time.
With this, TRLC is allowing developers to focus their resources on their domain problems instead of re-inventing the wheel by building their own tooling. Using TRLC’s platform is usually 10x cheaper and faster than building a robot learning pipeline in-house.
Registration and Information
Registration closed!
Hackathon location
Munich Urban Colab (MUCL)
Freddie-Mercury-Str. 5
80797 Munich
Germany
FAQ
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We provide you the chance to get creative and solve a real-world problem with applied robotics solutions that may kickstart your own business ideas, increases your enthusiasm for robotics and presents you exciting companies. Participating companies provide material and equipment to get you started as quick as possible to conceptualize and physically build an program your own robotics solution. At the end of the event the ideas, and ideally the prototypes, are pitched to and judged by a jury.
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Everyone, who's interested in robotics, tech or/and innovative topics, is welcome!No tech or business background needed - just a good amount of energy and willingness to learn and innovate. Also no experience in hackathons is needed (beginners are welcome!)
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No, it is free for challenge participants.
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When registering, you can state your preferences among the presented challenges. After aggregating all applications, we will assign every team and individual applicants as close as possible to their highest preferences while also trying to balance applicants per challenge and to address every challenge. For that reason, we cannot guarantee everyone to get their highest preference.
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Preferably, a team should consist of 5-8 people. Individual registrations are also highly welcome. Before the kick-off, we will match teams and individual registrations so that everyone knows their team constellation at the kick-off.
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You will be informed of your assigned team and challenge until March 11, allowing you time to prepare for the event.
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Yes, every participating company that defined a challenge will provide mentors and experts to support you. On top, every mentor will block dedicated time for individual teams to present their solutions, challenges and questions for discussion and input.
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Depending on the challenge, participants will have access to various materials and equipment for prototyping, including robotic arms, sensors, and other tools. If you need any additional materials, they can be requested in advance or sourced on-site.
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For the winners, there will be a pool of 4-digits prize money distributed among the top 3 teams. The exact prices will be announced in the coming weeks.
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Yes, full attendance is required. The event is a team-based competition, and regular participation is necessary for effective collaboration and project development.
Our Partners / Supported by
