[E-Daily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] The Naver (NAVER(035420)) Connect Foundation is hosting a robotics competition for high school students using NVIDIA’s robot simulation platform. The initiative aims to allow young people to experience the latest robotics technologies used in industrial settings firsthand as we enter the era of physical AI.

The Naver Connect Foundation announced on the 16th that it will host the “Naver Connect Robotics Cup 2026 powered by NVIDIA Isaac Sim.”

The competition is hosted by the Naver Connect Foundation and sponsored by NVIDIA and the Ministry of Education. Naver Labs, Naver Chijichik, and the Korea Association of Information Teachers are providing operational support.

The competition will utilize NVIDIA’s robotics simulation platform, “Isaac Sim.” The Naver Connect Foundation explained that this marks the first time Isaac Sim has been used in a robotics competition for high school students in Korea. Isaac Sim is a platform that allows users to simulate and control robots in a virtual environment. The Naver Connect Foundation plans to provide an infrastructure that enables students to experience robot control and simulation using standard laptops, without the need for expensive robotic equipment or high-spec physical hardware.

Learning support tools will also be provided. The Naver Connect Foundation will offer step-by-step guidebooks for following commands and code in Isaac SIM, an AI learning tutor to assist with troubleshooting, and teacher’s manuals. This is to make complex robotics technology easily accessible to high school students.

The competition missions consist of hands-on tasks that explore cutting-edge technologies such as robotics simulation, natural language control based on large language models (LLMs), reinforcement learning, and sensor recognition. In the preliminary round, participants will be given a mission to make a robot walk stably through a cycle of learning, evaluation, analysis, and refinement. In the final round, they will perform an autonomous strategy mission where robots use AI to avoid obstacles.

Applications can be submitted on the competition’s official website until August 7. Teams consisting of up to four high school students from across the country and one supervising teacher are eligible to apply, with a total of 200 teams to be selected. Following online preliminary rounds and a main tournament in October, the offline finals will be held at the Naver headquarters on November 22.

The Naver Connect Foundation plans to support students so they can continue their robotics research at school even after the competition.

Teams advancing to the quarterfinals will be provided with AI research stations, including three sets of high-performance PCs. Supervising teachers of teams advancing to the semifinals will also receive research grants to support ongoing robotics education at their schools.

The research data generated by participating students during the competition will be released as open source to help expand the educational ecosystem.

Kong Ki-jung, Chairman of the Naver Connect Foundation, stated, “As the importance of physical AI—which interacts with the real world—grows globally, we prepared this competition to effectively nurture future talent in Korea.” He added, “Since this competition offers participants the opportunity to work directly with industrial-grade technology and receive ongoing research support, we hope to see widespread participation from talented students.”