Alliances are now live! View the Alliance Guide to learn more about collaboration

2026 High School Program

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Welcome Game Manual and API How To Submit Code Working With An Alliance FAQ

Teams

Alliances Galactic Greenhouse Teams

Leaderboard

Submission Log

Check Point Code Final Code

Alliance Guide

Alliance Guide

Alliance Guide

Alliance Guide

In an alliance model, multiple student teams collaborate strategically rather than compete in isolation. This mirrors real aerospace and robotics missions, where different groups specialize, coordinate plans, and exchange information to achieve a shared objective.  

To get started, reach out to partner teams directly—team contacts and email addresses are available on the Team Management page.

1. How Alliances Can Work

a. Shared Goals, Separate Roles

Each team keeps its own codebase, but agrees on a common strategy and complementary roles:

Team A Navigation and fast movement between plots
Team B Crop timing and watering optimization
Team C Bonus crops and endgame scoring

This prevents everyone from solving the exact same sub-problem and instead encourages specialization.

b. Information Sharing (Not Code Copying)

Alliances should exchange:

  • High-level logic and diagrams
  • Timing charts (e.g., "water every 12 seconds after planting")
  • Performance metrics (time to move plot→plot, success rate, etc.)

Share why and what, not the exact code.

c. Joint Testing Sessions

Run "alliance scrimmages" where:

  • Teams simulate matches against each other's bots
  • They log outcomes (score, collisions, idle time, etc.)
  • They iterate on strategy together

This creates a feedback loop similar to engineering design reviews.

2. Supporting Alliance Feedback

Create a simple, repeatable feedback template after each test match:

Alliance Feedback Sheet

Strategy Used
(short description)
What Worked Well
  • "Watering intervals stayed synchronized"
  • "No double-watering conflicts"
Issues Observed
  • "Both robots went to watering zone at once"
  • "Idle time after harvest"
Suggested Changes
  • "Add 2s wait before second robot enters watering zone"
  • "Prioritize nearest unwatered plot instead of fixed order"
Next Experiment to Try
One concrete, testable modification

Have each team:

  • Fill this out after every scrimmage
  • Share it in a common doc or channel
  • Tag which change they will personally implement

This turns vague comments ("it was slow") into actionable engineering tasks.

3. Coordinating Development

Alliance Roadmap

Week 1 Agree on global strategy & Each team optimizes its assigned role
Week 2 Integration and conflict resolution & Fine-tuning timing and edge cases

During Integration Weeks

Require version notes so partners know exactly what changed between tests:

v3: changed watering delay from 10s → 12s to avoid clashes

4. Making an Alliance Name

Every alliance needs a name! Work together with your alliance partners to choose a team name that represents your group. This will be used during the finals event and in any public-facing materials.

Submit your alliance name through the Zero Robotics website once alliances have been announced.

Key Takeaways

1 Specialize — Divide responsibilities so each team focuses on a different aspect of the game.
2 Share strategy, not code — Exchange logic, diagrams, and metrics rather than raw solutions.
3 Test and iterate — Run scrimmages, fill out feedback sheets, and turn observations into action items.
4 Track changes — Use version notes during integration so everyone knows what changed and why.

© 2026 MIT Zero Robotics Program | Space Enabled Research Group, MIT Media Lab