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RoboCup Smart Manufacturing 2026: Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 10 Mar '26

10 Mar '26

Call for Applications for Participation RoboCup 2026 – Smart Manufacturing League https://2026.robocup.org Venue: Incheon, South Korea Tuesday, June 30th through Monday, July 6th, 2026 The Smart Manufacturing League (SML) is a league of the RoboCup competition, focusing on embodied autonomous robotic systems for next-generation industrial and manufacturing environments. The Smart Manufacturing League (SML) is formed through the merger of the RoboCup Logistics League and the RoboCup@Work League, combining their complementary strengths to create a unified league that addresses end-to-end smart manufacturing challenges. The league aims to foster research and development in autonomous mobile manipulation, flexible automation, and intelligent logistics within realistic industrial scenarios. The goal of SML is to advance innovative robotic solutions that integrate mobility, manipulation, perception, planning, and human–robot interaction for cutting-edge industrial applications. These applications span manufacturing processes, flexible assembly and disassembly, parts handling, intra-logistics, warehouse and factory logistics, and safe collaboration with human workers. The SML competition is characterized by an abstracted realistic smart manufacturing environment, designed to enable diverse robotic platforms and research approaches. This environment includes manipulation objects such as parts, containers, and tools; infrastructure elements such as shelves, workstations, bins, and platforms of varying sizes; machines, and production stations. The environment is designed to reflect modern, interconnected factory and logistics settings. Competition challenges are defined through a set of structured tests and scenarios that evaluate key capabilities including but not limited to autonomous navigation, object perception, manipulation, transportation, precision placement, planning, task sequencing, communication, and coordination within dynamic industrial workflows. A rulebook, benchmarks descriptions, and technical details of the Smart Manufacturing League will be published on the official SML GitHub organization. We invite all interested parties to have a look and discuss using issues. The first competition of the new SML aims for the following: - Welcomes all teams and robot platforms, including humanoid ones. - Allows participation with existing systems, including former RC@Work and RCLL robots - Gaps in capability of teams and robots may be filled by human interaction - Encourages incremental improvements toward higher autonomy (less human intervention is preferred) Participation in the Competition All teams that intend to participate in the competition have to perform the following steps: 1. Submission of qualification materials including a Team Description Paper and a video of their robots performance. Details are below. 2. Final registration (qualified teams only) Qualification The qualification process serves a dual purpose: It should allow the Technical Committee (aka TC) to assess the safety of the robots a team intends to bring to the competition, and it should allow ranking teams according to a set of evaluation criteria in order to select the most promising teams for a competition, if not all interested teams can be permitted. The TC will select the qualified teams according to the qualification materials provided by the teams. The evaluation criteria will include: - Team description paper - Relevant scientific contributions/publications - The professional quality of the robot and software - Novelty of approach - Relevance to industry - Performance in previous competitions - Contribution to the SML League or the former RC@Work or RCLL, e.g. by Organization of events and/or provision and sharing of knowledge - The quality of the robot's performance of a task (selected by the team) shown in a video, e.g. a previous competitions of RC@Work or RCLL. - Team website Team Description Paper The Team Description Paper (TDP) is a central element of the qualification process and has to be provided by each team as part of the qualification process. The TDP should at least contain the following information in the author/title section of the paper: - Name of the team (title) - Team members (authors), including the team leader - Link to the team website - Contact information The body of the TDP should contain information on the following: - the focus of research/research interests - a description of the hardware, including an image of the robot(s) - a description of the emergency stop concept and its implementation - a description of the software, esp. the functional and software architectures - innovative technology (if any) - reusability of the system or parts thereof - applicability and relevance to industrial tasks - usage of components (software or hardware) developed by other RoboCup teams The team description paper should cover the technical and scientific approach in detail, while the team website should be designed for a broader audience. Both the website and the TDP have to be in English. All TDPs must be written using the following template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer… Submission and Evaluation All applications with the qualification material must be submitted by March 20th, 2026 through the following online form: https://forms.gle/1TsxcAB52gyToCWv9 Qualified teams will be tentatively announced by March 27th, 2026. Important Links of the Smart Manufacturing League (SML) Discord: https://discord.gg/RBTmHc3zMP GitHub: https://github.com/robocup-sml Mailing List: https://lists.robocup.org/mm/lists/robocup-sml.lists.robocup.org/ Regards, On behalf of the SML-Organizers

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RoboCup Smart Manufacturing League (SML) - RoboCup German Open 2026
by Asad Norouzi 30 Jan '26

30 Jan '26

Dear RoboCup Industrial Teams, At the RoboCup German Open 2026, we will proceed with two types of sessions: The first are strategy workshops, in which we will get together and discuss how we can further develop our unified long-term vision as one league (RC@Work + RCLL). The second part will be a practical challenge in which teams with different backgrounds can bring their robots and test new potential industrial tasks for 2026 and beyond. We want this workshop to be as inclusive as possible and invite all teams from the former RCLL and RC@Work leagues as well as new research groups to join the RoboCup German Open. Open elements and unresolved aspects will be explicitly refined onsite together with all teams, based on hands-on experience during the workshops. Many of you have been eager to hear how the Smart Manufacturing League (SML) will take shape for RoboCup 2026. Recent discussions within the previous RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Logistics communities have led to a strong shared understanding of the overall direction towards Industry 5.0 and beyond. While we share substantial common ground in vision, tasks, and robot designs, our ideas on how these should be implemented into a concrete competition format have not fully converged so far. To move forward constructively and gather practical experience as well as your feedback, we have decided to proceed with both a practical challenge that invites teams with diverse backgrounds and robot capabilities to bring existing platforms and practically test how the new tasks can take shape; and to also take the time in structured work sessions and discussions to further our joint understanding of a unified SML vision. We will reserve a lot of time for discussion and work sessions, in which we get together as the new unified league and discuss how we can further shape and refine our league concepts for 2026 and beyond. To facilitate early input and collaboration, we have set up a shared public folder where interested individuals, teams, and working groups can exchange ideas. One initial proposal outlining a coherent vision and competition structure is already available there, and additional contributions will follow over time. We strongly encourage teams to participate in the workshop and share their viewpoints. Teams are explicitly encouraged to raise questions and suggest improvements transparently via GitHub issues even before the RoboCup German Open. Our shared goal is to converge towards a robust and community-driven SML concept for RoboCup 2026 in Korea, 2027, and beyond. For the technical challenges, we will provide several scenarios, including: handling and assembly tasks using interlocking toy bricks to produce a variety of goods, and intra-production logistics challenges centered on the manipulation and transport of standardized Euro-Boxes to maintain material flow on the shop floor. Your robots do not need to be able to solve all tasks – you are welcome to bring any robot that was able to perform in the RCLL or RC@Work leagues and you will be able to participate in parts of the challenge. For one of the scenarios we would like to try during the RoboCup German Open, one that tests intra-production logistics, robots should be adapted to handle standard Euroboxes, a candidate skill likely to remain relevant beyond 2026. You can find more details about how the challenge setup will look like in https://nextcloud.robocup.de/s/gTwf5bTW2dzJNwB We strongly encourage teams to participate in all workshop formats. Most existing systems should already be able to perform a substantial subset of the proposed tasks. And the RoboCup German Open will be the perfect time for your team to get all hands on deck and get your robot ready for more challenges in South Korea! We have also extended the deadline for teams to register to the RoboCup German Open – you still have time until February 6 at 23:59 CET. We are looking forward to your participation, feedback, and contributions, and to shaping the next generation of RoboCup Industrial together. Links Shared folder for SML Vision & Concept papers: https://nextcloud.robocup.de/s/fMa7s7qMAAFTEEd RC@Work GitHub repository: https://github.com/robocup-at-work/sml-embodied-autonomous-intelligence RCLL GitHub repository: https://github.com/robocup-sml/workshop-paper Best regards, Asad, Marco, Matteo, Tarik & Maike

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About Smart Factory Tour in Siemence
by Wataru UEMURA 19 Nov '25

19 Nov '25

Dear all members of RoboCup Industrial (both Logistics and @Work), Because Siemens has been one of the leading companies driving Industrie 4.0, I believe their vision and activities closely align with the future direction of our league. Therefore, I would like to invite you to join the Smart Factory Tour at Siemens in Nurnberg on December 2, 2025. https://www.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/topic-areas/tia/futur… The tour schedule is as follows: LOCATION: Haus 1, Raum 2A7.3 Gleiwitzer Strase 555 AGENDA 1: Autonomous Factory Lab Tour 02.12.2025 | 09:00 - 10:30 Flexible Production Concepts (09:00 - 09:15) Our Vision: The Autonomous Factory (09:15 - 09:30) Advanced Robotics and Safety (09:30 - 09:45) Autonomous Production Planning and Execution (09:45 - 10:00) Industrial-grade Artificial Intelligence (10:00 - 10:15) Mobile Robots (10:15 - 10:30) AGENDA 2: Digitalization Showroom 02.12.2025 | 11:00 - 12:30 Digi Machine and its Digital Twin Digi Line (virtual production line of the SIMATIC S7-1500) Digi Factory (Electronics and more) Various TIA Digitalization Use Cases can also be demonstrated, such as: Robot Integration Virtual Commissioning Line Integration Industrial Edge If you would like to join this tour, please feel free to contact me. Best Regards, Wataru. ==================== Wataru UEMURA, Dr. Eng. Associate Professor, Ryukoku University Chairperson, RoboCup Japanese Regional Committee http://friede.elec.ryukoku.ac.jp/~wataru ====================

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Second Submission Follow up - RoboCup@Work Evaluation Status
by Team RoboManipal 22 Apr '25

22 Apr '25

Respected sir, We hope this message finds you well. We are Team RoboManipal from Manipal Institute of Technology, writing to kindly follow up regarding the second results of RoboCup@Work. As per your instructions, we have made the required changes and emailed the updated files to you. We would greatly appreciate any updates on the status of the results at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to your response. Regards, *Pratyush Agrawal* *Team Manager, Team RoboManipal * *+91 7600309171* <https://www.instagram.com/techtatvamit/> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/saumyaa-t-s-263a16285?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_…>

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RoboCup 2025 Qualified Teams
by Asad Norouzi 01 Apr '25

01 Apr '25

Dear RC@Work Teams and Participants! Please find below important information regarding participating teams for RoboCup@Work 2025 in Brazil. We had 12 pre-registered teams as follows (in alphabetical order): - Atena Team, Brazil - Auriga, Iran - autonOhm, Germany - b-it-bots, Germany - FBOT@Work, Brazil - GIM, Brazil - Mountaineers@Work, USA - RoboFEI@Work, Brazil - RoboHub Eindhoven, The Netherlands - SWOT, Germany - Team RoboManipal, India - UruBots, Uruguay RC@Work TCs have qualified the following 10 teams (in alphabetical order): - Atena Team, Brazil - Auriga, Iran - autonOhm, Germany - b-it-bots, Germany - FBOT@Work, Brazil - GIM, Brazil - Mountaineers@Work, USA - RoboFEI@Work, Brazil - SWOT, Germany - UruBots, Uruguay The rejected teams will receive an email shortly with an explanation about the reasons for not being accepted. They are given a second chance to refine their qualification materials for re-consideration. Some of the accepted teams will also receive an email shortly requesting them to adjust a few things to avoid disqualification during the competition. Congratulations to all the qualified teams! Looking forward to seeing you all in Brazil! On behalf of Execs & TCs

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RoboCup@Work 2025: Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 23 Jan '25

23 Jan '25

Call for Applications for Participation RoboCup 2025 – RoboCup at Work https://2025.robocup.org Venue: Salvador, Brazil Tuesday, July 15th through Monday, July 21st, 2025 RoboCup at Work: Competing for the Factory of the Future RoboCup at Work is a league of the RoboCup competition that replicates the use of robots in autonomous, industrial scenarios. It aims to promote research and development that enables the use of innovative mobile robots with advanced manipulators for cutting-edge industrial applications. Such applications include complex tasks ranging from manufacturing, automation, and parts handling to general logistics, as well as interaction with human workers. The RoboCup at Work league is characterized by an industrial environment. This consists of manipulation objects including nuts and bolts, arena elements such as shelves, bins, and platforms of different sizes, and networked automation devices like conveyor belts and drilling machines. The actual competition tasks to be performed in the environment are defined in a set of so-called tests. Each test addresses various mobile manipulation capabilities such as grasping, transportation, precision placement, and visual serving. The complete rules of RoboCup@Work as well as further technical details are (will be) posted on the RoboCup@Work website (https://atwork.robocup.org). Participation in the Competition All teams that intend to participate in the competition have to perform the following steps: 1. Submission of qualification materials including a Team Description Paper and a video of their robot performance. Details are below. 2. Final registration (qualified teams only) Qualification The qualification process serves a dual purpose: It should allow the Technical Committee (aka TC) to assess the safety of the robots a team intends to bring to the competition, and it should allow ranking teams according to a set of evaluation criteria in order to select the most promising teams for a competition, if not all interested teams can be permitted. The TC will select the qualified teams according to the qualification materials provided by the teams. The evaluation criteria will include: - Team description paper - Relevant scientific contributions/publications - The professional quality of the robot and software - Novelty of approach - Relevance to industry - Performance in previous competitions - Contribution to RoboCup at Work league, e.g. by Organization of events and/or provision and sharing of knowledge - The quality of the robot's performance of a task (selected by the team) shown in a video - Team website Team Description Paper The Team Description Paper (TDP) is a central element of the qualification process and has to be provided by each team as part of the qualification process. The TDP should at least contain the following information in the author/title section of the paper: - Name of the team (title) - Team members (authors), including the team leader - Link to the team website - Contact information The body of the TDP should contain information on the following: - the focus of research/research interest - a description of the hardware, including an image of the robot(s) - a description of the software, esp. the functional and software architectures - innovative technology (if any) - reusability of the system or parts thereof - applicability and relevance to industrial tasks - usage of components (software or hardware) developed by other RoboCup at Work teams The team description paper should cover the technical and scientific approach in detail, while the team website should be designed for a broader audience. Both the website and the TDP have to be in English. All TDPs must be written using the following template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer… Submission and Evaluation All applications with the qualification material must be submitted by February 23rd, 2025 through the following online form: https://forms.gle/hWNyHRHbzAZJbJgHA Qualified teams will be tentatively announced by March 10th, 2025. Important Links of RoboCup@Work League Official Website: https://atwork.robocup.org Discord: https://discord.gg/WaBHRdZq LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14158849/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/communities/1606361981937754115 Mailing List: https://lists.robocup.org/mm/lists/rc-work.lists.robocup.org/ Regards, RoboCup@Work EC/TC/OC

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Beginner Team asking for Help
by Otávio Leite 18 Jul '24

18 Jul '24

Hi! My name is Otávio Leite, I am a Computer Science undergraduate student in Federal University of Uberlândia, in Brazil. I am the captain of the Roboforge Robotics team, and we have participated regularly for a few years now in the CBR/LARC (Brazilian Robotics Competition / Latin American Robotics Competition: https://cbr.robocup.org.br). My team is very interested in getting to know more about the @Work league, and we would like to ask if there is a communication channel that teams are using for now! I've checked the discord link in the official website, but it seems to be invalid right now... Can I get some help with that? I'm also interested on watching the 2024 competition through the youtube live streams at the RoboCup Live channel, but it seems that it doesn't have a stream dedicated do @Work league. Does it have another channel, or something that I missed? Thanks in advance! Greetings, Otávio Leite

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RoboCup@Work 2024 - List of Pre-registered Teams
by Asad Norouzi 08 Apr '24

08 Apr '24

Hi everyone, Please find below the list of the pre-registered teams for RoboCup@Work 2024. Let me know ASAP if you have pre-registered and don't see your team in the list. - Auriga - AutonOhm - b-it-bots - DEMOCRITUS INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS - Robo-Erectus@Work - Robohub Eindhoven - robOTTO - S.R.B - Team Robotics & Circuits - UNSW@Work Regards, Asad On behalf of EXEC/TC/OC

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RoboCup@Work 2024: Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 08 Feb '24

08 Feb '24

Call for Applications for Participation RoboCup 2024 – RoboCup at Work https://2024.robocup.org Venue: Eindhoven, The Netherlands Monday, July 15th through Monday, July 22nd, 2024 RoboCup at Work: Competing for the Factory of the Future RoboCup at Work is a league of the RoboCup competition that replicates the use of robots in autonomous, industrial scenarios. It aims to promote research and development that enables the use of innovative mobile robots with advanced manipulators for cutting-edge industrial applications. Such applications include complex tasks ranging from manufacturing, automation, and parts handling to general logistics, as well as interaction with human workers. The RoboCup at Work league is characterized by an industrial environment. This consists of manipulation objects including nuts and bolts, arena elements such as shelves, bins, and platforms of different sizes, and networked automation devices like conveyor belts and drilling machines. The actual competition tasks to be performed in the environment are defined in a set of so-called tests. Each test addresses various mobile manipulation capabilities such as grasping, transportation, precision placement, and visual serving. The complete rules of RoboCup@Work as well as further technical details are (will be) posted on the RoboCup@Work website (https://atwork.robocup.org). Participation in the Competition All teams that intend to participate in the competition have to perform the following steps: 1. Submission of qualification materials including a Team Description Paper and a video of their robot performance. Details are below. 2. Final registration (qualified teams only) Qualification The qualification process serves a dual purpose: It should allow the Technical Committee (aka TC) to assess the safety of the robots a team intends to bring to the competition, and it should allow ranking teams according to a set of evaluation criteria in order to select the most promising teams for a competition, if not all interested teams can be permitted. The TC will select the qualified teams according to the qualification materials provided by the teams. The evaluation criteria will include: - Team description paper - Relevant scientific contributions/publications - The professional quality of the robot and software - Novelty of approach - Relevance to industry - Performance in previous competitions - Contribution to RoboCup at Work league, e.g. by Organization of events and/or provision and sharing of knowledge - The quality of the robot's performance of a task (selected by the team) shown in a video - Team website Team Description Paper The Team Description Paper (TDP) is a central element of the qualification process and has to be provided by each team as part of the qualification process. The TDP should at least contain the following information in the author/title section of the paper: - Name of the team (title) - Team members (authors), including the team leader - Link to the team website - Contact information The body of the TDP should contain information on the following: - the focus of research/research interest - a description of the hardware, including an image of the robot(s) - a description of the software, esp. the functional and software architectures - innovative technology (if any) - reusability of the system or parts thereof - applicability and relevance to industrial tasks - usage of components (software or hardware) developed by other RoboCup at Work teams The team description paper should cover the technical and scientific approach in detail, while the team website should be designed for a broader audience. Both the website and the TDP have to be in English. All TDPs must be written using the following template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer… Submission and Evaluation All applications with the qualification material must be submitted by March 3rd, 2024 through the following online form: https://forms.gle/iaJnpiWKjCXpCnC49 Qualified teams will be tentatively announced by March 18th, 2024. Important Links of RoboCup@Work League Official Website: https://atwork.robocup.org Discord: https://discord.gg/WaBHRdZq LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14158849/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/communities/1606361981937754115 Mailing List: https://lists.robocup.org/mm/lists/rc-work.lists.robocup.org/ Regards, RoboCup@Work EC/TC/OC

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RoboCup@Work Rulebook 2023 Released
by Asad Norouzi 07 Apr '23

07 Apr '23

Hi, The rulebook for RoboCup@Work 2023 has been released. You can download the latest version from here: https://atwork.robocup.org/rc2023/ Best Regards, Asad

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