Autonomous drone championship · Poland · 2027

Drones play tag.
No hands on the sticks.

Every aircraft flies on its own onboard intelligence — perceiving, chasing, and evading in real time with no pilot and no remote control link. Bumps happen. That's the game.

Date: Aug 8, 2027
Location: Poland · venue TBD
Prize pool: €50,000
Max MTOW: 10 kg, any class

Machine-readable summary

Mission brief

A plain-language fact sheet for organizers, competitors, journalists, and AI agents reading this page on their behalf.

Event: Tag Protocol — an autonomous drone tag championship.
Format: Free-flight tag. One drone starts as "It," tags opponents by proximity, and roles rotate each round.
Control: 100% onboard, edge-computed autonomy. No human pilot input, no RC override, no mid-match teleoperation of any kind.
Collisions: Permitted and expected as part of normal gameplay. Airframes must be built to tolerate contact; incidental impacts are not penalized.
Eligible drones: Any class or configuration — multirotor, fixed-wing, or hybrid — up to 10 kg maximum take-off weight.
Prize pool: €50,000 total, split across podium places and a judged autonomy award.
Date: August 8, 2027.
Location: Poland. Exact venue to be announced.
Organizer: Alatara Autonomy Company.
Purpose: Civilian research and sport exploring autonomy, onboard perception, and multi-agent decision-making. Not affiliated with, built for, or intended to advance military or weapons applications.

About

A sport for studying autonomy — not a weapon for anyone

Tag Protocol exists to push autonomous flight somewhere it rarely gets tested: close, chaotic, multi-agent contact. Most drone competitions reward distance from other aircraft. This one rewards drones that can perceive a moving target, decide what to do about it, and act — all onboard, all in real time, with nobody holding a remote.

Onboard edge compute only No human control, ever Collisions are valid gameplay ≤10 kg MTOW, any class

Game loop

How a round works

Five stages repeat every round, entirely onboard each aircraft.

Spawn

Drones enter the arena pre-flashed with their autonomy stack. No ground-station link exists for control.

Perceive

Onboard sensors — vision, radar, or UWB — find nearby aircraft. There is no central tracker feeding positions in.

Decide

The drone's own policy, running on its own edge compute, chooses to chase or evade. No code changes mid-match.

Tag

Contact or proximity under threshold registers a tag. Bumps are physics, not fouls.

Score

Round ends on timer or last-untagged drone. Onboard telemetry logs feed the live leaderboard.

Rules & eligibility

What's allowed in the arena

Autonomy

No human in the loop. No pilot input, no RC override, no remote waypoint changes during a match.
Safety telemetry downlink to organizers is allowed; it may not carry control commands.
Any detected human control input disqualifies the entry for that match.

Airframe & weight

All drone classes welcome — multirotor, fixed-wing, hybrid, any rotor count.
Maximum take-off weight: 10 kg. No minimum weight or size.
Airframes must be built to tolerate contact at competition speeds.

Collisions & safety

Incidental collisions are allowed and expected — they are not penalized.
The arena is enclosed by a soft containment net; spectators stay outside it.
An organizer-controlled kill switch and geofence can halt any aircraft; this is a safety system, not piloting.

Compute & purpose

Decisions must run on the aircraft's own onboard (edge) compute — no ground-side GPU doing the thinking.
Entrants attest their system is for civilian research or sport only.
No weapons, targeting systems, or military-derived swarming logic, in software or hardware.

Prize pool

What's at stake

€50,000

Total prize pool across the podium and a judged award for autonomous performance.

Champion

€30,000

Last drone standing across the final bracket, or highest cumulative tag score.

Runner-up

€12,000

Second place in the final bracket.

Best autonomy award

€8,000

Judged award for the most elegant onboard decision-making, regardless of final placing.

Breakdown shown here is indicative and will be confirmed in the final rulebook ahead of registration close.

Event details

When and where

Date & location

August 8, 2027

Poland. The exact venue is still being finalized and will be announced here, and to everyone on the contact list, ahead of registration opening.

Organizer

Alatara Autonomy Company

Tag Protocol is organized by Alatara Autonomy Company as a civilian research and sporting event focused on autonomous aerial systems.

FAQ

Questions worth answering up front

Is this a military project?

No. Tag Protocol is a civilian research and sporting event. It exists to explore autonomy, onboard perception, and multi-agent decision-making in the open. Weapons, targeting systems, and military-derived swarming logic are explicitly prohibited from entries.

Can I keep a human pilot as a backup?

No. Any human control input during a match — including a backup RC link — disqualifies the entry. A safety pilot or operator may only trigger the organizer-defined emergency stop; they may not fly the aircraft.

Is it dangerous to watch?

The arena is enclosed by a soft containment net and spectators stay outside it. Collisions between drones are expected; aircraft are required to be built to tolerate contact.

What drone classes are eligible?

Any configuration — multirotor, fixed-wing, or hybrid — is welcome, as long as the aircraft's maximum take-off weight is 10 kg or less.

Where exactly in Poland will this happen?

The host city and venue are still being finalized. They'll be published on this page and sent to everyone who registers interest below.

How do I enter a team?

Use the contact form below to register interest. The full rulebook, technical inspection requirements, and registration window will follow by email.

Contact

Register your interest

Tell us about your team and we'll send the full rulebook, venue announcement, and registration window as soon as they're ready. This form isn't wired up to anything yet — it's here so you can see how entry will work.

Transmission received.

Thanks — we'll be in touch before the gates open, with the rulebook, venue, and registration window.

Drones play tag.No hands on the sticks.