The launching ceremony took place at the Hanoi City Digital Transformation Center, with the participation of representatives from the Institute for School Design Research (Ministry of Education and Training), the principals of primary and secondary schools, and representatives from educational and technology organizations and partners accompanying the competition. Building upon the 19-year history of the Robothon competition, AIROC 2026 incorporates artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robotics, and Digital Twin simulation technology into challenges for students. This year's theme is "Synapse City," simulating a smart city. Competing teams must program robots to process data, move, and solve environmental problems. On the model, the robot will perform three main tasks: delineating the polluted area; transporting neutralizing blocks to the treatment site; and recovering the contaminated blocks and bringing them back to the laboratory for analysis. Through AIROC 2026, students gain access to a modern robotics ecosystem, experience AI, IoT, and Digital Twin technologies, and apply their knowledge to solve real-world problems. This also fosters creative thinking, programming skills, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork skills. Furthermore, combining physical robots with a simulated environment allows students to practice and test algorithms, optimize programs before deploying them on a real-world model, and simultaneously gain access to advanced technologies being applied in industry and smart cities. Speaking at the launch ceremony, a representative from the Institute for School Design Research, Ministry of Education and Training, stated that education in the digital age should not only equip students with knowledge but also help them develop the capacity to adapt, be creative, and master technology. AIROC 2026 is divided into four levels for students aged 6 to 18. Depending on the age group, teams use standard or advanced Leanbot robots, combined with Blockly, Python, or C++ programming languages. Registration for the competition is open from July to September