Robot soccer is being played in different leagues at the tournament. In the Small Size League teams of small robots on wheels play each other using a golf ball. Each team has a single central computer that controls all the robots.

In the Middle Size League mobile eighty centimeter-high robots play with a real soccer ball. Each robot player in this category thinks and plays autonomously, communicating with teammates. TU/e team Tech United has already two world championships to its name in this category.

Furthermore, there is the Standard Platform League, in which all teams have exactly the same robots, so it’s the programming that makes the difference. Here, too, the robots make decisions autonomously and communicate with each other, just as in a real soccer team.

The @Home-League is also represented at the tournament. This is a competition for robots that act as home helpers. The matches comprise challenges, such as taking an order for drinks and then serving them in the right place. The robots have to be able to understand, recognize and follow  people as well as place the right drink between other objects.

Apart from the matches, there are all kinds of workshops and demonstrations. Like professors telling children about robots, workshops in which you can build or program a robot yourself, robot artist Kolja Kugler showing what his impressive music robots can do, and robots to cuddle, etc.

The aim of the RoboCup tournaments is to accelerate the development of affordable and reliable autonomous robotics. For example, robots that can work as a home helper, which can help senior citizens live at home independently for longer. Since the rules are becoming increasingly stricter and the teams share their knowledge after the tournaments, the technology progresses fast.

The teams participating are mainly teams from universities throughout Europe that are constantly working to improve their robots. There are also Junior competitions for schoolchildren from elementary and high schools. Around 300 schoolchildren are bringing their robots to Eindhoven to compete in the Junior soccer, rescue and dance categories.

In 2013 TU Eindhoven organized the RoboCup World Cup, which attracted 40,000 visitors.

Source: TU/e press team