RoboCup is an international initiative that fosters research and education in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence through a variety of competitions (RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home, RoboCupIndustrial, RoboCupJunior) involving mostly multi-robot systems. RoboCupSoccer currently includes a number of different robot soccer leagues that focus on different research challenges.
The Humanoid Soccer League (HSL) was formed through the unification of the Humanoid League (HL) and Standard Platform League (SPL). The first HSL world championship took place at the RoboCup 2026 in Incheon, Korea.
HSL hosts games and challenges where teams of humanoid robots play soccer autonomously. The game of soccer serves as an environment for research, development, and education in all areas of autonomous humanoid robots, including hardware development, vision, bipedal locomotion, learning, behavior control, and team coordination. The focus is thereby on human-like abilities of the robots.
Resources for Teams
- Rules: https://github.com/RoboCup-HumanoidSoccerLeague/HSL-Rules/
- GameController: https://github.com/RoboCup-HumanoidSoccerLeague/GameController
- Official mailing list: All official announcements are sent through this list. Subscribe here: https://lists.robocup.org/mm/lists/robocup-humanoid.lists.robocup.org/
- Discord server: Connect with other teams, ask questions about the rules, and more: https://discord.gg/67qGN8ycwz
- RoboCup Humanoid Robot Program: A selection of robots is available for purchase through the RoboCup Humanoid Robot Program at a special RoboCup offer: https://robotprogram.robocup.org
RoboCup 2026 — Links and Announcements
Resources for Spectators
- Schedule: See the schedule for this year’s competition here.
- Results: Here are the 2026 competition results.
- Video: Watch the tournament live here.
- Socials: Follow RoboCup HSL League on Instagram.
Useful Links for Teams
Field Reservations: You can make reservations for fields in this Google Sheet. You are allowed to reserve both halves of a field for 15 minutes at a time, or one half of a field for two time slots.
Robot Inspections: You will be required to participate in a robot inspection with your robots on the afternoon of the 1st of July. Please book an appointment on this link.
Robot Inspection Volunteers: Your team might be required to perform a robot inspection on other teams’ robots. Volunteers for this can sign up here.
Call for Participation for the RoboCup 2026
The complete call for participation can be found here:
https://lists.robocup.org/archives/list/robocup-humanoid@lists.robocup.org/thread/RUYYOWTR7OULL4CPMDQP3MUSBYZ2TNFE
Important Dates
Submission system open: January 1st, 2026Pre-application deadline: January 10th, 2026Submission deadline: January 31st, 2026Team review period: February 3rd – 20th, 2026Announcement of qualified teams: March 2nd, 2026Early Registration: until May 4thRegular Registration: May 5th – Jun 2Late Registration: Jun 3 – Jun 16 (additional members only – no new teams)- RoboCup 2026: June 30 – July 6