The SIT Lab and CEAIR are organising the East Midlands Service Robotics Competition 2026, in conjunction with colleagues from Global Business, Tourism and Hospitality Management at SHU, and the University of Lincoln and the University of Nottingham . The event will take place in June 2026.
The competition is designed as a RoboCup-style regional event that brings together robotics researchers, students, hospitality academics, local businesses and industry representatives. This year’s challenge focuses on service robotics in hospitality. Robots will be asked to operate in a restaurant-style environment, interacting with customers, taking orders, navigating the space, collecting items from a counter and delivering them to the correct table.
Alongside the competition runs, the day will include a poster and showcase session, giving students and researchers the opportunity to present work in areas such as human-robot interaction, navigation, manipulation, applied AI and service robotics. The event also aims to connect robotics research with real-world hospitality practice by involving local businesses and representatives from the Sheffield hospitality sector.
The day will conclude with a discussion panel on the use of robots in hospitality, bringing together perspectives from robotics, hospitality and local business. The panel will explore where service robots may be useful, what challenges remain, and how universities, students and businesses can work together to shape future applications.
The ambition is to establish the competition as a regular regional event that supports collaboration between research, teaching, industry and the wider community.
