The innovation project asks teams to solve a real-world problem related to a theme (this is usually NOT a robot or anything related to a robot). They do research to determine a problem to solve, work through a solution using the engineering process, create a prototyped solution, and elicit expert feedback on their solution. At the competition, they present their project to judges in a closed-door session. No coaches allowed in the room! They have to make a fun and engaging presentation, and communicate what they made and the process they used to get there.

Every season, FLL sends each registered team a mat, and a lot of Legos. They follow instructions to build mission models, and then they design and build a robot to solve the missions. They have size and equipment constraints, and all of the pieces used to build it have to be official Lego pieces.

In the judging room, teams explain their approach to the robot and its different features and attachments. They also explain how they approached the missions and show code samples.

Teams have 2.5 minutes to run their robot to solve as many missions as possible. They write programs using block coding (or Python if they're so inclined). They start their robot in the launch area, press the button to start it, and it runs autonomously to score points until it comes back to home base and they can touch it again. They get their best score of 3 robot runs throughout the competition day.

This is the only qualitative part of the robotics competition, and the only one where you know your placement before the awards ceremony at the end of the day.