Articles tagged with "RoboCup"
Taking humanoid soccer to the next level: An interview with RoboCup trustee Alessandra Rossi - Robohub
The article features an interview with Alessandra Rossi, a trustee of RoboCup and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Naples “Federico II,” who has been deeply involved in the RoboCup humanoid soccer league since 2016. Rossi’s engagement has grown from participating as a team member and leader of the UK’s Bold Hearts humanoid KidSize team to serving on the Technical and Organizing Committees, the Executive Committee of the Humanoid League, and most recently, the RoboCup Board of Trustees. She has also contributed to educational initiatives, such as an online robotics module using RoboCup as a teaching benchmark, and co-authored a significant paper on current and future challenges in humanoid robotics, highlighting collaboration across RoboCup leagues. Looking ahead, RoboCup aims to realize its ambitious 2050 goal: a fully autonomous humanoid robot team defeating the reigning FIFA World Cup champions. To accelerate progress, the Federation plans key changes, including a stronger emphasis on humanoid robots and the
roboticshumanoid-robotsRoboCupAI-researchautonomous-robotsrobotics-competitionhumanoid-soccerRobohub highlights 2025 - Robohub
The article "Robohub highlights 2025" provides a comprehensive review of notable contributions and activities featured on Robohub throughout the year. It highlights a variety of research and discussions from global experts in robotics and AI, including innovative frameworks for robot manipulation learned solely from language instructions, as presented by Jiahui Zhang and Jesse Zhang, and RobustDexGrasp, a novel grasping framework introduced by Hui Zhang at CoRL 2025. The article also covers insightful interviews and podcasts, such as conversations with Heather Knight on integrating performing arts methods into robotics, and Professor Marynel Vázquez on human-robot interactions and social navigation by robots. Further, the summary touches on advancements in reliable controller design under uncertain environments (IJCAI 2025), reinforcement learning guided by social and ethical norms, and scalable deep learning for human activity recognition using wearable sensors. It also features updates from RoboCup 2025, including award-winning research, AI applications in the Small Size League, and the Robo
roboticsrobot-manipulationhuman-robot-interactionreinforcement-learningAI-in-roboticsRoboCuprobot-graspingRoboCup Logistics League: an interview with Alexander Ferrein, Till Hofmann and Wataru Uemura - Robohub
The RoboCup Logistics League, part of the Industrial League at RoboCup 2025 held in Salvador, Brazil, focuses on advancing intelligent robotics and AI in smart factory logistics. The league simulates an intra-production logistics scenario where teams of three robots manage the delivery and production of various products using six machines arranged on a playing field. Robots must navigate, avoid collisions, and handle simple manipulation tasks such as moving colored discs that represent product components. The primary challenge lies in production logistics and planning, requiring robots to collaboratively produce complex products within a limited timeframe. Unlike other RoboCup competitions, this league emphasizes long-horizon planning and real-time adaptation due to dynamic order arrivals and interactions with opponent teams. A key aspect highlighted by the league’s organizers is the necessity for online planning and execution monitoring. Since product orders are unpredictable and numerous, pre-planned sequences are ineffective. Robots must continuously replan and adjust their strategies during execution to respond to changing conditions on the field, including the actions of competing teams. This
roboticssmart-factoryindustrial-automationRoboCuplogistics-robotsAI-in-manufacturingproduction-logisticsSelf-supervised learning for soccer ball detection and beyond: interview with winners of the RoboCup 2025 best paper award - Robohub
The article highlights the award-winning research on autonomous soccer ball detection by the SPQR team, who received the best paper award at RoboCup 2025 held in Salvador, Brazil. The team addressed a key challenge in robotic soccer: accurate ball detection under varying conditions. Traditional deep learning approaches require large labeled datasets, which are difficult and labor-intensive to produce for highly specific tasks like RoboCup. To overcome this, the researchers developed a self-supervised learning framework that reduces the need for manual labeling by leveraging pretext tasks that exploit the structure of unlabeled image data. Their method also incorporates external guidance from a pretrained object detection model (YOLO) to refine predictions from a general bounding box to a more precise circular detection around the ball. Deployed at RoboCup 2025, the new model demonstrated significant improvements over their 2024 benchmark, notably requiring less training data and exhibiting greater robustness to different lighting and environmental conditions. This adaptability is crucial given the variability of competition venues. The SPQR team
robotautonomous-robotsself-supervised-learningdeep-learningRoboCupsoccer-robotscomputer-visionRoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup - Robohub
The RoboCup@Work League is part of the Industrial League within the international RoboCup initiative, which aims to advance intelligent robotics, AI, and automation. The @Work League focuses on mimicking aspects of industrial production systems, particularly the concept of the "factory of the future," where autonomous robots build customized products efficiently on a small scale. Unlike traditional factories that mass-produce identical items on large conveyor belts, the @Work League emphasizes the production of individual pieces with automation. The robots used in the competition are compact, fitting within a one-meter cube, and operate entirely on the ground to simplify logistics and reduce costs. In the competition, robots must autonomously transport objects between various workstations with only a single restart allowed per team, highlighting the need for reliability and consistent performance. Beyond object transportation, teams face specialized tasks such as precision placement—fitting objects into cavities of matching shape and size—and handling objects on a rotating table that simulates a conveyor belt. This rotating table is a practical abstraction
roboticsautomationindustrial-robotsRoboCupfactory-automationautonomous-robotsAI-in-manufacturing#RoboCup2025: social media round-up part 2 - Robohub
RoboCup2025 was held from July 15 to 21 in Salvador, Brazil, attracting around 3,000 participants competing across various robotics leagues. The event featured intense competition culminating in final rounds during the last days. Notably, in the #RoboCup2025 @Home Open Platform League (OPL) Final, the NimbRo team’s robot demonstrated impressive capabilities such as opening doors, removing trash, and closing a cabinet door, ultimately securing second place behind Korea’s team Tidyboy. Social media updates highlighted the tense atmosphere as top robots advanced to the finals, with teams overcoming challenges such as equipment damage during transport. Collaborative efforts among teams like RoboCanes (University of Miami), PUMAS (UNAM), @_erasers, and TIDbots enabled them to reach the finals in the @Home DSPL league. Additionally, the event included discussions on the future of RoboCup, reflecting the community’s engagement with advancing robotics and AI technologies. Overall, Robo
roboticsRoboCupAIautonomous-robotsrobot-competitionsservice-robotsrobotics-event#RoboCup2025: social media round-up 1 - Robohub
RoboCup2025 was held in Salvador, Brazil, attracting approximately 3,000 participants competing across multiple leagues. The event showcased a wide range of robotics competitions, highlighting advancements in AI and robotics technologies. During the initial days, teams engaged in various challenges, demonstrating innovative solutions and pushing the boundaries of autonomous systems. The coverage by Robohub and AIhub emphasized the event's role in fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange within the AI community. As a non-profit organization, AIhub aims to bridge the gap between AI experts and the public by delivering accessible, high-quality information. The RoboCup2025 event continues to be a significant platform for showcasing cutting-edge research and developments in robotics and artificial intelligence.
robotRoboCuprobotics-competitionAIautonomous-robotsrobot-leaguesSalvador-BrazilAn interview with Nicolai Ommer: the RoboCupSoccer Small Size League - Robohub
The article features an interview with Nicolai Ommer, an Executive Committee member of the RoboCup Small Size League (SSL), which is part of the international RoboCup initiative aimed at advancing intelligent robots, AI, and automation. The SSL involves teams of 11 small, cylindrical, wheeled robots that play soccer autonomously, with teams responsible for both hardware and software development. A central AI system processes data from an overhead vision system that tracks all robots and the ball, enabling teams to send commands to their robots. The robots can move up to 4 m/s and kick the ball at speeds up to 6.5 m/s, with recent rules reducing kick speed to enhance gameplay fairness and allow goalkeepers and defenders to intercept passes. A notable innovation in the SSL is the use of multiple independent auto referee systems to assist human referees in monitoring the fast-paced matches, particularly for fouls and collisions that are difficult to judge visually. These auto refs operate simultaneously and their decisions are combined via majority
robotroboticsRoboCupAIautomationautonomous-robotsrobot-soccerTackling the 3D Simulation League: an interview with Klaus Dorer and Stefan Glaser - Robohub
The RoboCup Soccer 3D Simulation League is a competition where teams control simulated Nao robots in an 11 versus 11 soccer match, with detailed motor-level control mimicking real robots. Unlike the 2D Simulation League, which focuses on simplified physics and team strategy, the 3D League aims for a more realistic robotic simulation. Currently, the league uses SimSpark, a simulator developed in the early 2000s that balances physical realism with the computational limitations of its time. However, SimSpark has limitations such as complexity, custom robot models, and communication protocols that hinder wider adoption and make it difficult to translate simulations to real robots. To address these issues, Stefan Glaser has been developing a new simulator based on the MuJoCo physics engine, which has recently become popular in machine learning communities due to its open-source availability and standardized model specifications. MuJoCo supports dynamic manipulation of the simulation environment, a key feature needed for RoboCup’s setup where agents join and form teams
roboticsrobot-simulationRoboCup3D-simulationNao-robotsrobot-controlrobotics-competitionPreparing for kick-off at RoboCup2025: an interview with General Chair Marco Simões - Robohub
RoboCup 2025 is set to take place in Salvador, Brazil, from July 15-21, marking a significant event for the international robotics and AI community. The event, hosted at the Salvador Convention Center, is expected to attract around 150,000 visitors, surpassing the 100,000 attendees from the last time Brazil hosted in 2014. Organizers anticipate participation from 300-400 teams and approximately 3,000 competitors. Efforts have been made to facilitate visa processes to increase international attendance, especially from teams previously hindered by travel restrictions. New global league partners, including Chinese companies Unitree, Fourier, and Booster Robotics, will showcase advanced humanoid and four-legged robots, enhancing the competition and public exhibitions. Over the past decade, Brazil has seen substantial growth in its RoboCup community, rising to become one of the top countries in terms of team participation. This growth is largely attributed to the development of RoboCupJunior, a program aimed at engaging younger
robotroboticsRoboCupAIautomationhumanoid-robotsrobotics-competition