Last Nov. 6  to 8, 2009 the WRO was held at POSTECH gymnasium with 215 teams, totalling about one thousand participants, from 32 countries including Korea, Japan, Russia, Denmark, Singapore, Taiwan, Sweden, Indonesia, etc. The participants were qualified at a preliminary Olympiad in each country.

With Gyeoungsang-buk Province, Pohang City, and POSTECH hosting, with the Pohang Institute of Intelligent Robotics (PIRO) and the Korea Creative Intelligence Robot Association (KCIRA) managing, during three days, the WRO was composed of a regular category of performing given missions with robots and an open category making robot in accordance with a given theme. The theme of this year was Art & Robots.

All of the participants were divided into three groups by age, Elementary, Junior- High, and High. For the regular category,  Elementary groups competed with each other in an ‘Iron Robot Triathlon’, whose goal was to shoot a ball. The Junior-High competition was to carry as many ping-pong balls as possible to a base camp, and that of the High group was Robot Pocket Ball.

For the open category, Creative robots they made were scored on the criteria of video judges on how creative and technical the designs were, and so on.

For the results, there was a tendency for Southeast Asia nations to share the Gold Medals, with Sweden and Russia winning Silver and Bronze.

All participants were screened for the H1N1 Flu Virus by a heat sensor camera. Masks was given to everyone in the gym with hand cleaner sets everywhere. Also, 40 translator volunteers from the universities in Pohang made the overseas participants feel at ease during the competition.

To add to this, there was a Robot Festival held outside the gym so that the general population could understand and feel science more easily. The activities like a Robot Tour Bus, Dance, and Soccer were greatly enjoyed by almost one hundred thousand people. Also the 6th Pohang Family Science Festival was held in conjunction with the WRO. POSTECH became a Robot Festival space with harmony between local and overseas people.

Through this scientific event, the organizers wished participants to be enriched not only with hard technical skills but also the soft skills of learning about different cultures, and exchanging different ideas and sharing friendship.