The high-tech world of robotic competitions is going virtual.

Each year, the Doolittle Institute in Fort Walton Beach and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Munitions Directorate sponsor the Mini-Urban Challenge, a competition where high school students build, program and test robotic cars that must navigate through a physical “mini-city.” Thanks to the help of Robomatter, a company formed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, students can now prepare for the challenge by participating in a virtual, three-dimensional computer simulation of the competition’s course.

“The virtual Mini-Urban Challenge is great, because it enables all students to learn programming skills, whether or not they have access to a physical robot,” Jesse Flot, director of Robomatter’s Robot Virtual Worlds, said in a press release.

The Doolittle Institute is a non-profit that is chartered to create an innovative environment for bringing together the best minds of industry, academia and government. Since 2013, the group has sponsored the Mini-Urban Challenge.

“We have five regional competitions around the country,” explained Sally Sage Hills, the institute’s program manager for the Mini-Urban Challenge.

The Florida regional competition will take place at Northwest Florida State College in April.

Steve Butler, the director of the Doolittle Institute, said Robomatter’s creation will benefit many STEM students.

“Robomatter’s virtual world will test and exercise the Mini-Urban Challenge robots,” Butler said. “The connection of our Mini-Urban ‘real world’ test environment to a bigger, simulated world will greatly enrich the experience of the participating students.”