The RoboCup - a soccer world championship in which robots compete against each other - has been running since 1997. Thousands of scientists of all ages send their bots onto the pitch in various categories. There are now other competitions in addition to soccer. German participants also competed in Sydney - and with great success.

Category 'Standard Platform League'

In the 'Standard Platform League' category, the 'B-Human' team from the University of Bremen and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) won the world championship title. As the reigning German champions, they beat the Nao team from Leipzig 2:1 in the rematch of last year's final. Last year, they were defeated by the students from Leipzig. Things didn't look good for them at first this year either, but shortly before the final whistle they scored two quick goals to avert the threat of extra time. The Standard Platform League category is particularly popular with the public, as the robots have a cute shape. In the mixed competition, in which different universities compete together, the Bremen students also won the title as team 'B&B' together with the University of Berlin.

The lighting conditions made it particularly difficult for the robots, as there were large windows right next to the pitch. Thanks to deep learning algorithms, the robot from B-Human coped perfectly with the conditions. After ball recognition had already been supported by a neural network in previous years, this time a so-called Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was used for robot recognition. The Bremen team also presented its scientific work on this at the RoboCup Symposium following the world championship.

Category 'Humanoid'

In the 'Humanoid Adult Size' class, human-like robots compete against each other. A team consists of two robots that communicate via WLAN. The '_NimbRo-OP2Xrobots' from the University of Bonn successfully defended their title from the previous year. The team was the dominant team throughout the tournament. In the end, they scored 48:0 goals. The Bonn team won the final 8:0 against Offenburg University.

The reason for their superiority was the significant improvement in the robot software. For the first time, the bots were able to kick and dribble the ball on the run, allowing them to quickly pass their opponents. They were also able to receive passes, shoot the ball into the goal and even jump into the air with both legs.

Category '@work'

In the '@work league', robots from the world of work master logistical tasks: They have to perform various tasks independently in warehouses and production facilities. For example, the robots have to find their way around independently, pick up objects correctly, transport them and set them down again. A German team also came out on top in this category: Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences from Sankt Augustin. In the final, 'b-it-bots' narrowly defeated the students from the University of Magdeburg.

The Basic Manipulation Test tests the state of software development. The 'b-it-bots' team was the only one to successfully grab objects from a rotating table. They also presented the basis of their success at the subsequent RoboCup symposium.

Category '@home'

As the name of the category suggests, mobile robots for everyday life compete against each other here. The main focus is on human-machine interaction. The 'homer' team from the University of Koblenz-Landau won the world championship title for the fourth time and three times in a row. The team used the specially developed robot 'LISA' and the robot 'TIAGo' from Pal Robotics.

Tasks included transporting garbage out of the house, loading a dishwasher and receiving and serving guests. In the final, the team demonstrated an approach to adaptive learning using the example of cleaning a toilet seat with a sponge gripper.

Next year, the RoboCup World Championship will take place in Bordeaux, France. We can look forward to seeing whether our German teams can defend their titles. In the year 2050, something big will be achieved: The robots should then win against the actual soccer world champion.