2026 Drillbotics competition results¶
Official announcement
The canonical public announcement is published on Drillbotics.com: Drillbotics 2026 Competition Results.
The 2026 Drillbotics competition cycle is complete. Congratulations to all participating teams for their work across the physical and virtual modes.
Results¶
| Mode | Recognition | Team | Country/region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mode Physical (P) | 1st place | Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) | Argentina |
| Mode Physical (P) | Joint 2nd place | Clausthal University of Technology (TU Clausthal) | Germany |
| Mode Physical (P) | Joint 2nd place | Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) | Norway |
| Mode Virtual (V) | 1st place | Palawan State University / Sunway University collaboration | Philippines/Malaysia |
| Mode Virtual (V) | Runner-up | UMaT Well Control | Ghana |
Conference paper invitation¶
ITBA has been invited to prepare the 2026 Drillbotics conference paper and present the winning work at the SPE Drilling Conference, March 9-11, 2027, in Stavanger, Norway.
Looking ahead¶
The 2027 Drillbotics rules will be published later in 2026, with notable changes expected. Teams interested in the next cycle should watch the official Drillbotics site and this guidelines site for updates.
Acknowledgements¶
The Drillbotics Committee thanks the judges, reviewers, sponsors, faculty advisors, volunteers, and industry supporters who made the 2025-2026 cycle possible.
Special thanks to Curtis Cheatham, Blakley Farrow, Andre Fernandes, Fred Florence, Rong Lu, Nestor Ruiz, Harry Soilemezidis, Shashi Talya, Narendra Vishnumolakala, Shang Zhang, Eric Cayeux, and Enrique Losoya.
Additional thanks to John de Wardt, Rium Johnson, Sarah Kern, Cody MacDonald, Jessica Corenchuk and the IPT team, William Fox, Stacie Ehler, Greg Hickey, Sam Dharmaselvan, Alex Ngan, Dimitrios Pirovolou, Freeman, and the broader DSATS/SPE support network.