The world's largest robot competition RoboCup 2025 begins

Every summer, a landmark event in the field of robotics takes place - RoboCup. Thousands of teams working on creating robots and programming their behaviour gather in one place to see the work of others and show off their own. This year, the traditional RoboCup 2025 event takes place from 17 to 21 July in Salvador, Brazil. The event is divided into several categories:

Football.

Perhaps the most covered part of the competition in the press, primarily because it has an element of real sport. In turn, the football league is divided into a number of categories:

• Humanoids. The most difficult league, and therefore the least similar to real football. Walking on two limbs is still a difficult task for robots, not to mention monitoring the situation on the field, team interaction, or using football techniques to overcome obstacles. In addition, robots for this type of competition must rely only on the "senses" that humans have. The task is really difficult, so it is not for the faint of heart. On the other hand, such specialists will be able to find jobs in companies that develop commercial robots.
• Standard platform - all teams use the same robot model, improving only its software. This year's robot is the NAO6 from Aldebaran. Despite the fact that NAO6 looks like a children's toy, it is a full-fledged robot that moves on two legs. Its humanoid structure allows it to perform quite spectacular goalkeeping techniques. If you have a knack for programming, you will be able to appreciate the work done by the participants of the competition.
• Medium size - teams develop robots independently, there are restrictions on the size, weight, and set of sensors.
• Small size - the robots are developed independently in compliance with the size and weight restrictions, the situation on the field is recorded by the centralised SSL-Vision surveillance system, each team has a central computer that receives data from this system, analyses it and controls all the robots of its team on the field via wireless communication. The ball is a golf ball. Since the players of this league do not have to keep their balance and move with the help of such a complex mechanism as legs, it is the most dynamic league.
• Virtual simulation models - there is no physical field, there is a software virtual field, and teams develop models of behaviour with the ball and team interaction. It is divided into two sub-leagues: 2D and 3D.

Rescue.

Rescue has two main areas. The first is urban rescue during disasters and emergencies. The scenario is designed to test planning, the use of various sensors, and terrain mapping. The second is simulation, which is more focused on planning and organising the work of various services during emergencies, as well as developing realistic simulations of emergencies and the natural phenomena that characterise them.

Junior

An educational programme for children from primary school to university. It provides information, lectures, tools for work and helps to find like-minded people to join forces.

Industrial robots

This is perhaps the most commercially popular field, and its developments are already being used in real life. Currently, it has the only competitive area - logistics. It provides a simulation of a warehouse where robots have to move goods as efficiently as possible, depending on demand, volume, dispersion and other parameters.

Home

This direction is focused on creating a universal home robot assistant, as in the film I, Robot. The set of tests is aimed at testing robot orientation in a non-standardised home environment, their interaction with people, room mapping, computer vision, and adaptive behaviour.

Flying robots

A novelty of 2025 proposed by the Brazilian organising committee for #RoboCup2025. It includes a launch pad, three ground bases for landing and take-off, and two suspended bases. Please note that this is not an FPV driven by a human, for whom such a task is not a problem, but a fully autonomous robot that independently controls its stay in the air, recognises surrounding objects and determines its direction of travel. Currently, this league is not included in the official set of competitions, but the organising committee in Brazil proposes to include it in the permanent programme for competitions in the coming years. The idea is a good one, as flying drones and robots are already being used in parcel delivery (e.g., by Amazon) and in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

It remains unclear why there is still no self-driving car league, as enthusiasts build models for such robots even on the platform of a regular Raspberry Pi.

The official broadcast is available on Twich.

RoboCup 2025 is an important event in the world of robotics that helps to attract young talents to robotics development, exchange ideas and test their developments in practice. Many companies help potential development teams by providing their own platforms. Also, leading companies developing robots and computer vision systems are actively looking for young professionals at such events. So, may the strongest team of roboticists win!