2nd What Bimanuals Can Do

(WBCD 2026) Competition

Real Tasks. Real Robots. Real Benchmarks.

in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026
1-5 June 2026 Β· Vienna, Austria

(Remote participation sites will be available in Shanghai, China and Silicon Valley, USA.)

Contact: [email protected]

🚨 WBCD 2026! Registration Now: Google Form 🚨

πŸ“… Info Session: Jan 24, 2026 Β· 5–6 PM PST Β· Join Google Meet Β· Submit Questions

Overview

Real Tasks. Real Robots. Real Benchmarks.

The WBCD Competition challenges teams to solve real-world manipulation tasks that represent actual industry needs with billion-dollar market potential. Unlike typical research benchmarks, our tasks are carefully designed by leading robotics companies to address genuine commercial applications in logistics, life sciences, and manufacturing.

Compete for a $200,000 total prize pool, with first-place winners receiving a competition robot worth $50,000-$60,000. Teams will use bimanual teleoperation systems to complete complex tasks requiring coordinated dual-arm manipulationβ€”a critical capability for next-generation automation.

Competition Format & Schedule

Key Dates

Dec 17, 2025
Registration opens
Jan 24, 2026
Info session
Feb 10, 2026
Registration deadline
Feb - May, 2026
Preparation with sponsors
June 1 - 4, 2026
Competition @ ICRA

Competition Phases

Before Competition

Registration
Team information, track selection, and location preference.
Proposal Submission
Submit a competition proposal and await review to qualify for the finals.
Simulation Preliminaries
Participate in the simulation-based preliminary round to familiarize with tasks and debug manipulation policies.
Data Acquisition
Acquire UMI data for policy training and testing.
Hardware Familiarization
Teams may contact hardware sponsors in advance to familiarize themselves with the real robots.

At Competition

On-site Tasks
Teams use robots provided by sponsors to collect data and complete tasks. Organizers serve as judges.
Multiple Locations
Three sites: Vienna, Austria πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ή | Silicon Valley, USA πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ | Shanghai, China πŸ‡¨πŸ‡³

Awards

$200,000 Total Prize Pool

Track 1: Logistics Packing

πŸ₯‡
1st Place ~$50,000 Robot from Galaxea
πŸ₯ˆ
2nd Place $10,000
πŸ₯‰
3rd Place $5,000

Track 2: Lab Experiments

πŸ₯‡
1st Place ~$50,000 Robot from AgileX
πŸ₯ˆ
2nd Place $10,000
πŸ₯‰
3rd Place $5,000

Track 3: Deformable Manipulation

πŸ₯‡
1st Place ~$50,000 Robot from ARX
πŸ₯ˆ
2nd Place $10,000
πŸ₯‰
3rd Place $5,000

WBCD 2025 Highlights

Live finals at ICRA 2025 with real robots and real tasks.
88
teams registered
15
teams selected final stage
30+
real robot arms on-site

What People Said About WBCD 2025

Organizers

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Zhuo Xu

Research Scientist, Google Deepmind
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Lingfeng Sun

Research Scientist, Robotics and AI Institute
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Dennis Gu

General Manager of WBCD Competition
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Peter Yu

CTO, XYZ Robotics
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Yao Mu (Mark)

Assistant Professor, AI Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
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Huazhe Xu (Harry)

Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University
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Michael Cho

Founder, Frodobots Lab
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Danfei Xu

Assistant Professor, Georgia Tech
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Weize Li

PhD Student, Clemson University
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Tao Chen

CEO, Dexmate
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Toru Lin

PhD Candidate, UC Berkeley
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Di Huang

CEO, World Engine AI
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Tianxing Chen

PhD Student, HKU
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Kaifeng Zhang

PhD student, Columbia University
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Max Yin

CEO at CyberOrigin
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Calvin Zhou

Co-Founder at RoboForce
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Wenhao Yu

Staff Research Scientist, Google Deepmind
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Yong-Sik Kim

NIST
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Joseph J. Lim

Associate Professor, KAIST
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Xinghao Zhu

Researcher, NVIDIA
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Xiaohan Zhang

Research Scientist, Robotics and AI Institute
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Hongyu Li

Ph.D. candidate, Brown University
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Shihan Lu

Postdoctoral Researcher, Northwestern University
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Paul HungHon Cheng

Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL
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Qinghua Guan

Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL
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Cheng Pan

Ph.D. Candidate, EPFL
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Yang Ning

Senior System Engineer, ByteDance
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Zhigen Zhao

PhD Candidate, Georgia Tech
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Meiding He

Deep Tech Journalist
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Yijia Yang

MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan
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Charlie Cheng

Researcher at UC Berkeley
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Xiatao Sun

PhD Candidate, Yale University
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Yuhang Zheng

PhD Student, NUS
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Zhengxiao Han

Researcher, Northwestern University
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Xiangyu Chen

Graduate Student, HKUST(GZ)