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MSL Team Plans Survey
by Jorrit Olthuis 24 May '26

24 May '26

Dear MSL teams, Now that we are slowly reaching the end of the MSL league <https://robocup.org/news/181>, we would like to know about your plans in the coming years. Using this information, we will make plans for the final RoboCup MSL global tournaments and explore possibilities for continuing in local tournaments where feasible. We would like to ask every team to fill out this form by *May 26*: https://forms.gle/59G2e5EpVkmrNZATA If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Best regards, The MSL Technical Committee

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Deadline for Pre-Application Approaching - RoboCup 2026 Humanoid Soccer League Competition
by Reinaldo A. C. Bianchi 08 Jan '26

08 Jan '26

Deadline for Pre-application Approaching - January 10th Summary: Deadline for pre-Application is on January 10th. For pre-application the team should submit the team name, home page, team leader name and email and inform in which Division and with how many robots the team intent to participate in Incheon. RoboCup 2026 Humanoid Soccer League Competition June 30th - July 6th, 2026, Incheon, South Korea ======================================= The RoboCup Humanoid Soccer League invites teams to apply for participation at the RoboCup 2026 Humanoid Soccer Competition in Incheon, South Korea. 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. More information can be found on the official website: https://www.robocup.org/ The Humanoid Soccer League (HSL) was formed through the unification of the Humanoid League (HL) and Standard Platform League (SPL) and will take place for the first time at the RoboCup 2026. 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. The Humanoid Soccer League will host competitions in the following divisions, depending on the height and weight of the robot players: * Small Robot Division: height < 110 cm, weight < 15 kg * Middle Robot Division: height < 125 cm; weight < 25 kg * Large Robot Division: height < 190 cm; weight < 80 kg Teams in each division will have the choice to play in two team configurations: 1. Foundation - with a smaller number of players; 2. Advanced - with a larger number of players. In a game, if one team chooses to play in a Foundation configuration, then both teams must play in this configuration. The maximum number of players in a game for each configuration is shown in the table below: * Small — Foundation: max 4 | Advanced: max 7 * Middle — Foundation: max 3 | Advanced: max 5 * Large — Foundation: max 3 | Advanced: max 5 Teams are welcome to apply even if they are unable to provide a full team of robots (the maximum number of robot players). Teams are encouraged to form and apply as joint teams. Joint proposals will be judged on their combined merit. For more details on divisions, please refer to the Humanoid Soccer League rules at: https://github.com/RoboCup-HumanoidSoccerLeague/HSL-Rules. 1. Robots ======================================= Teams may apply for participation with both commercially available and with humanoid robot platforms constructed by the teams. A selection of robots is available for purchase through the RoboCup Humanoid Robot Program at a special RoboCup offer: https://robotprogram.robocup.org/ As part of the RoboCup Humanoid Robot Program, there will be a pool of humanoid robot models K1 and T1 provided by the company Booster for RoboCup 2026. Teams will be able to borrow the robots from the pool and use them in their games. 2. Application Process and Timeline ======================================= 2.1. Important Dates --------------------------------------- * Submission system open: January 1st, 2026 * Pre-application deadline: January 10th, 2026 * Submission deadline: January 31st, 2026 * Team review period: February 3rd - 20th, 2026 * Announcement of qualified teams: March 2nd, 2026 2.2. Online Submission --------------------------------------- All application materials must be submitted online at: https://submission.robocuphumanoid.com/login Teams may apply for participation in one or several divisions. Teams applying for participation in several divisions must submit individual application materials for each division. Please be informed that the submission system is being updated. To submit an application, it is necessary to create new accounts on the system. Accounts of the teams that used the system last year should be available and can be used this year. 2.3. Review Process --------------------------------------- Each application to the Humanoid Soccer Competition will be reviewed by two members of the Technical Committee and two other randomly assigned teams applying to the Humanoid Soccer Competition. The combined reviewing score will be used to decide whether a team qualifies for participation. Reviewing other teams' material is mandatory for teams that want to participate in the Humanoid Soccer Competition. Failing to provide an adequate review by the provided deadline will have consequences for the team's own qualification status. 3. Application Material (Robot/Team information to submit) ======================================= For the qualification process, teams must provide the following material: 3.1. Pre-application / Team-Information --------------------------------------- Team name URL of the team's home page Name of team leader or team contact person E-mail address of the team leader or contact person Competition Division: Small, Middle, Large – with robot numbers 3.2. Video --------------------------------------- Teams need to provide a video of their current or previous physical robot demonstrating the robot's autonomous soccer-playing skills. The recommended skills needed for the qualification are: * Localization of unknown ball position * Walking ability towards the ball * Robot positioning at the ball for kicking * Kicking the ball towards the goal * Passing the ball from one player to another * Avoiding other robots autonomously * Ability to get up autonomously after a fall We encourage teams to include in the video more complex and intelligent behavior, such as demonstrating localization, and robots playing in a game. Recordings from actual soccer matches are welcome. If possible, please provide footage that demonstrates the robot's behavior without wires attached. We understand that teams transitioning to new robot platforms from the former SPL and HL leagues may not yet have their physical robots, nor soccer-ready software/hardware to demonstrate by the qualification deadlines. Teams may alternatively demonstrate in their video their software/hardware capabilities from previous years on other robot platforms, and/or capabilities in simulation. We encourage teams, if possible, to include a demonstration of their current capabilities on their intended platform. * The maximum duration of the video must not exceed ** 5 minutes **. * The qualification video must be supplied as a link (e.g., uploaded on the team’s website or on some video server like YouTube). The qualifying team is responsible for ensuring that the video is accessible and viewable with modern browsers. Note, if YouTube is used, make sure the video adheres to YouTube's TOS (especially concerning music copyright) to prevent the video from being blocked for the reviewers. Teams that do not provide a qualification video or a viewable video will not be qualified. 3.3. Team Description Paper --------------------------------------- A team description paper must be submitted. For teams that have previously participated in the Humanoid League or Standard Platform League, the team description paper must include: * Lessons learned from participation in previous RoboCup competitions. * Highlight major challenges that the team is trying to solve for the upcoming competition. * Outline the plans for the major changes that the teams anticipate to have implemented by the RoboCup 2026 competition. * Describe the implementation status of the planned changes at the time of submitting the application. * Explain the impact of the team’s participation and research in RoboCup on (1) the Humanoid Soccer League, (2) the team’s university/community. * Demonstrate own contribution to the RoboCup Humanoid Soccer League or humanoid robotics research in general: Describe in detail the “research publishable” significant advancements the applying team has made and is going to use at RoboCup 2026. This can, for instance, include software or hardware releases, paper publications, provision of league infrastructure, or data sets. * Any other information that supports your application. For teams that have never participated in the RoboCup Humanoid League or Standard Platform League, the Team Description Paper must outline the scientific aspects of their humanoid robotic system and highlight their research focus. The submission should show clear contributions and advancements intended to be used during the competition. The team description papers are intended to highlight the changes and scientific developments since the last RoboCup. Thus, we expect the usage of material from previous TDPs or Extended Abstracts to be minimal. If material from previous TDPs is used, it must be cited appropriately. Submissions of last year's Extended Abstract will be desk-rejected. The team description paper is limited to ** 4 pages **, excluding references, and must be submitted in PDF format. The team description paper must follow the LNCS format, which can be downloaded from: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…. Teams that do not follow the LNCS formatting and style guidelines will not be qualified. No exceptions to this rule will be made. 3.4. Software Description --------------------------------------- During the application process, a form will be provided to submit brief details about the algorithms used or anticipated to be used for participation in the 2026 competition. The form will include brief questions in the following areas: * Walking * Vision * Localization * Behavior * Team Communication Responses to the questions are expected to reflect the current and anticipated status of the software during the RoboCup 2026 competition. If software from other teams, third-party software libraries, or "off-the-shelf soccer-ready" libraries/algorithms are used, teams must reference this use. References should include the team, competition, and year when code is used from another team, or reference publicly available documentation for software libraries. Teams should describe how they have adapted the use of this software within their own codebase. 3.5. Hardware Specification --------------------------------------- A one-page specification (PDF) must be provided for each different type of humanoid robot used by the team that includes the following: * Robot picture (can be on a separate page) (3D model if the physical one is not available yet) * Robot name * Height of the robot * Weight of the robot * Number of degrees of freedom and type of motors on each kinematic chain of the robot * Actuator model name and Wattage * Type of sensors used (incl. type of camera(s) and specific manufacturer part number (e.g., "6-DoF IMU" is NOT an acceptable description)) * Computing unit(s) * Materials (e.g., Torso aluminium, legs and arms CFRP) * Electronics (e.g., CM730 for communicating with servos) * Battery (e.g. 3S1P 2200mAh LiPo) * Open Source link if applicable * Other specs (Jerseys if already available) Teams that are using pre-approved, unmodified HSL standard platforms only need to provide information directly available from the manufacturer's documentation to confirm they are using an unmodified standard platform. Teams do not need to provide details where information is not available via manufacturer-provided documentation, such as due to commercial confidence. 3.6. Letter of Commitment --------------------------------------- A one-page letter addressed to the RoboCup Humanoid Soccer League Technical Committee, including the following: * a statement committing to participate in the RoboCup 2026 Humanoid Soccer League competition; * a statement committing to make a person with sufficient knowledge of the rules available as a referee during the competition. The letter must be signed (by hand or using a digital signature software as Adobe or DocuSign) by the team leader and submitted either as a JPG, PNG, or PDF file. A template for this letter can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qNILlggOj5j_cHhof1b6NICPyfgVrp-M/edit?u… If you have doubts regarding the ability of your team to participate (due to funding, visas, etc.), please apply by the deadline, but note this in your application email. Declining to participate in any competition after the official early registration period has opened may negatively affect future applications (the later you decline, the worse it will affect future applications). The TC may include the fulfillment of the statement of commitment of participation, as well as the performance of the team's referee in previous RoboCup competitions, into consideration for qualification. Teams must guarantee to have at least one member per division they participate in, acting as a referee, available independently. Note that teams may be scheduled to play a game and referee a different game at the same time. 4. Organizational Information ======================================= 4.1. Rules --------------------------------------- The current version of the rules may be found here in the git: https://github.com/RoboCup-HumanoidSoccerLeague/HSL-Rules. The current version is under development and subject to change. We expect the final version of the 2026 rules to be published in spring 2026. For more information about the Humanoid Soccer League and connections with other teams, please refer to the RoboCup Official Discord: https://discord.gg/fjrepNWk. 4.2. Plagiarism --------------------------------------- Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other people's words, code, and ideas, is not tolerated in the RoboCup community. For a more detailed description, see the point "Publishing Ethics" at: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu… The teams and team members who plagiarize other people's work and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification. 4.3. Publication --------------------------------------- Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams, the submitted materials of the qualified teams will be made publicly available on the Humanoid Soccer League website. Teams applying for participation, therefore, implicitly grant the right of publication of their qualification material to the Humanoid Soccer League. Therefore, teams should ensure their qualification materials contain no commercial-in-confidence information or other content that would restrict publication. 4.4. Visa Process --------------------------------------- South Korea offers visa-free entry for many countries for short tourism/business stays (under 90 days), but most need the K-ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) before arrival. Please verify your visa requirements at the South Korea Visa Portal: https://www.visa.go.kr/main/openMain.do The letters of invitation are issued by the RoboCup federation, not the TC, and they are part of the official registration process. We look forward to seeing you all at the RoboCup 2026! With best regards, Technical Committee of the RoboCup Humanoid Soccer League 2026 Esta mensagem, juntamente com qualquer outra informação anexada, é confidencial e protegida por lei. Somente os seus destinatários estão autorizados a usá-la. Se você não for o destinatário, por favor, informe o remetente e, em seguida, apague a mensagem, observando que não há autorização para usar, copiar, armazenar, encaminhar, imprimir ou tomar qualquer ação baseada no seu conteúdo.

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RoboCup Portugal Open 2026 - Barcelos
by António Fernando Alcântara Ribeiro 05 Jan '26

05 Jan '26

Dear RoboCup Middle Size League Community, It is with great pleasure that we, Carolina and I (António), as local chairs, announce the RoboCup Middle Size League at RoboCup Portugal Open 2026. 🤖 The event will take place at Pavilhão Municipal de Barcelos in the city of Barcelos, Portugal, from April 22nd to 25th, 2026. 🇵🇹 We hope to have as many teams as possible to make this a memorable event, because this is one of the last Middle Size League tournaments. We will have one setup day (April 22nd) and three competition days (April 23rd - 25th). For more information, you can visit the official event website: https://www.festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/2026/. The registration can be accessed via website (SOON). Parallel to the event, there is a scientific conference (ICARSC 2026) IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Systems and Competitions (April 22nd - 23rd): https://www.icarsc.pt/2026/ For any questions or help with the registration, feel free to send me an e-mail: afaribeiro00(a)gmail.com or lopesanacc(a)gmail.com Looking forward to seeing you in Portugal 🦾 [image: image.png][image: image.png] Best Regards, António Ribeiro and Carolina Lopes

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Call for Participation: RoboCup2026 Middle Size League
by 刘斐 04 Jan '26

04 Jan '26

Call for Participation  RoboCup 2026 Middle Size League June 30 to July 6, 2026 (Incheon, South-Korea) https://2026.robocup.org We would like to invite all MSL teams to participate in the 2026 RoboCup MSL World Championships. If you are interested to participate, please take the time to pre-register your team for the RoboCup 2026 MSL competitions.  1)    Pre-registration  For the pre-registration please send an e-mail to rc-msl-oc(a)lists.robocup.org and liufei(a)caa.org.cn containing the following data: ·   Team name ·   URL of the team’s home page ·   Name of the team leader ·   E-mail address of team or team leader ·   Affiliation ·   Country ·   Link to the qualification materials  Please send more information about teams to introduce them better on MSL website(https://msl.robocup.org/teams). Sending following information would be optional: ·   Logo ·   Profile (Describe team with at most 150 words). ·   Most research topics (up to 6 topics)   2)    Qualification materials  Please note that, according to the rules, the evaluation of some parts of the qualification materials will contribute to the scientific challenge final result.  By the time of pre-registration, please have ready the following qualification materials:  a)    A Team Description Paper describing the most innovative contributions or scientific results (the TDP is limited to 8 pages and must be formatted according to the LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). b)    A list of 5 scientiﬁc papers published during the last 5 years of the team which are related to RoboCup. Abstracts of these papers and a complete reference to each paper must also be submitted. When more papers are submitted, only the first 5 will be considered. c)    A list of results and awards obtained by the team in the last 3 years. d)    A video showing the capabilities of the team’s robots (the maximum duration of the video is 60 seconds; if the submitted video is longer than 60 seconds, only the first 60 seconds will be considered for evaluation). e)    A list of contributions of the team to the RoboCup MSL community. f)     Declaration if the team will be part of a mixed team. g)    A mechanical and electrical description together with a software flow chart. h)   List of MAC Addresses used by the team, with explicit indication of those that will be used for wireless communication and their type: robots or development computers. All other MAC addresses will be blocked. (Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than June 23, 2026.) i)    List of size and weight of the robots (If there are many different robots, please give the data for each type separately. Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than June 23, 2026.): Dimensions: Length*Width*Height(cm) Weight: (kg)  For being able to participate in the RoboCup competition, teams have to ensure, at least, the minimum cumulative following criteria: ·   Demonstrate in the video that they are able to perform the basic actions to be able to play. ·   Produce a Team Description Paper (TDP) according to the above definition. ·   Obtain a minimum of 50 points in the overall qualification procedure.  The details regarding the qualification materials are contained in the rules and regulations document available at https://msl.robocup.org. Please read it thoroughly.  The qualification materials should be placed in a dedicated page of the team's web page. Please include the link to the qualification materials in the pre-registration information. 3)    Important dates  ·   Deadline for pre-registration and submission of the qualification materials: February 28, 2026 ·   Announcement of qualified teams: March 15, 2026  4)    Rules  The MSL Technical Committee will not publish new rules for 2026, therefore the rules from 2025 (version 26.0) will be used. These rules are available at: https://msl.robocup.org/rules    5)    Publication  Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualification materials of the qualified teams will be made publicly available. Therefore, teams applying for participation, grant the right of publication of their qualification materials to the MSL league(MAC addresses are an exception and should remain private).   6)    Plagiarism  Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples' words, code and ideas (see “https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/plagiarism/plagiarism.html” for a more detailed description) is not tolerated in the RoboCup community.  The teams and team members that plagiarize other peoples' work and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification.   The 2026 MSL Organizing and Technical Committees Fei Liu OC Chair, Middle Size League, RoboCup 2026  

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Information for the MSL Euro-Asia Open in France
by Valentin GIES 13 Oct '25

13 Oct '25

Dear MSL teams, Following the discussion during the meeting on October 6th, it has been brought to our attention that the originally scheduled dates for the RoboCup 2025 Euro Asia Open, December 4–9, 2025, may not be feasible for some teams. To accommodate the majority of participants, we are exploring alternative dates for the competition. We kindly request your input in selecting time slots from the proposed options below. The final dates will be determined based on the number of teams able to participate. Here is the link for voting : https://framadate.org/KtXnc9l13qRNHRKE Your timely response will greatly assist us in finalizing a schedule that works for as many teams as possible. Please submit your selections by*October 17th**.* Here are a few informations about the event : The Euro-Asia Open will be organised in Toulon, in the south of France, close to Marseille and Nice which are also large french airports. Competition location is Gymnase des Lices (see picture above), it is very close to Toulon train station (red circle on the map above) and to the center of the city, making it convenient to attend the event. Registration will be free, we kindly ask teams to tell as soon as possible when the date will be decided if they participate or not. Best regards, Valentin Gies, for the MSL executive committee

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MSL Team Meeting on Monday October 6th at 1:00 p.m. GMT
by Valentin GIES 05 Oct '25

05 Oct '25

Dear MSL teams, Here is the link for the team meeting scheduled on Monday 6th at 1:00 p.m. GMT. https://rendez-vous.renater.fr/MSL_Team_Meeting_396738-c6e7af-efd6b1 We will discuss about the tournament in France (it would be great to have a final list of participating teams) and about the ideas proposed by your teams to smooth the transition from MSL to the humanoids joint league. See you tomorrow, Valentin, Jorrit and Antonio for the MSL Exec / TC comittee.

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Link for today's MSL Team Meeting - 3:00 p.m. GMT UTC Time
by Valentin GIES 24 Sep '25

24 Sep '25

Dear MSL Teams, Here is the link for today's online MSL Team Meeting : https://rendez-vous.renater.fr/ROBOCUP_MSL_TEAM_MEETING_c0cc6b-e2fea8-e76436 See you at 3:00 GMT - (1:00 p.m. for european teams) Best regards, The executive committee

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MSL Team meeting on wednesday 24th september at 3:00 p.m. GMT
by Valentin GIES 21 Sep '25

21 Sep '25

Dear MSL teams, Following our last message, an online meeting will be organised on next wednesday, 24th september, at 3:00 p m. GMT. We will discuss about the evolutions of MSL, about a tournament and workshop in December, and the organisation of the rest of the year. We hope your team will be able to participate. A link for connections will be sent before the meeting. Best regards, The executive committee

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About the meeting
by 刘斐 15 Sep '25

15 Sep '25

Hi, Valentin In the mail you mentioned "Falcons team proposed a schedule for that meeting : Wednesday 24th 2025, starting at 8:00 p.m. Would it be ok for your teams ?" Could you specify the Month and the Time Zone of the meeting? Fei Liu OC Chair, Middle Size League, RoboCup 2025  

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Important information for MSL future
by Valentin GIES 13 Sep '25

13 Sep '25

Dear MSL RoboCup Teams, There are major upcoming changes to RoboCup Soccer that affect the MSL and its members. What is Happening? To start, the trustees are taking substantial action to streamline RoboCup Soccer in pursuit of the 2050 goal of playing a match against the World Cup winner. The first and most substantial change is that all soccer leagues will be converging on humanoid (bipedal) robots by 2028. The new leagues will be related to humanoid robotics and simulation only. The Middle Size League will no longer be a major category event after the 2027 RoboCup (the MSL will be at the 2027 event, and not at the 2028 event and after). This is true for many of the other leagues, and there will be substantial changes to the humanoid rules and non-soccer events as well. The official press release from the RoboCup federation can be found here: https://www.robocup.org/news/181 The MSL community has several transition paths forward. We understand each team is unique, and will have team specific concerns. We have explicitly been told by the trustees we are invited to continue our league under the RoboCup name at regional events after 2027, in regional competitions such as the Portuguese Open or a Euro-Asian Open in December. The trustees have also begun a transition plan for teams who would like to switch to one of the humanoid leagues and remain on the world event stage. For teams looking to transition quickly, the trustees are working to get discounts and collaborative use of commercial bipedal robot platforms. Here is a link for teams interested in these platforms (https://robotprogram.robocup.org/). We will communicate additional details about the humanoid rules and transition assistance as it becomes available. Expect additional communication directly from the governing bodies of global RoboCup. We understand these are big changes and they may come as a surprise to all of you. The committee members decided the new direction during this year’s RoboCup, as the overall desires of the RoboCup trustees became more clear. What to expect in the coming weeks. Obviously, things will be changing. T*he trustees will be hosting a meeting with soccer Execs on Thursday 17th September*. We will keep you informed of what will be proposed and discussed. *To prepare this meeting, we would like MSL teams to send us ideas and proposals on how the huge work done by teams in MSL can help for going toward 2050 RoboCup objectives more efficiently, and what can be adopted in humanoid league to make transition from MSL easier*. A MSL meeting will be organised following the Exec meeting so that we can discuss all together of what can be the future of MSL and how we can contribute altogether. Falcons team proposed a schedule for that meeting : Wednesday 24th 2025, starting at 8:00 p.m. Would it be ok for your teams ? Best regards, The MSL Executive committee

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Important information for MSL future
by Valentin GIES 13 Sep '25

13 Sep '25

Dear MSL RoboCup Teams, There are major upcoming changes to RoboCup Soccer that affect the MSL and its members. What is Happening? To start, the trustees are taking substantial action to streamline RoboCup Soccer in pursuit of the 2050 goal of playing a match against the World Cup winner. The first and most substantial change is that all soccer leagues will be converging on humanoid (bipedal) robots by 2028. The new leagues will be related to humanoid robotics and simulation only. The Middle Size League will no longer be a major category event after the 2027 RoboCup (the MSL will be at the 2027 event, and not at the 2028 event and after). This is true for many of the other leagues, and there will be substantial changes to the humanoid rules and non-soccer events as well. The official press release from the RoboCup federation can be found here: https://www.robocup.org/news/181 The MSL community has several transition paths forward. We understand each team is unique, and will have team specific concerns. We have explicitly been told by the trustees we are invited to continue our league under the RoboCup name at regional events after 2027, in regional competitions such as the Portuguese Open or a Euro-Asian Open in December. The trustees have also begun a transition plan for teams who would like to switch to one of the humanoid leagues and remain on the world event stage. For teams looking to transition quickly, the trustees are working to get discounts and collaborative use of commercial bipedal robot platforms. Here is a link for teams interested in these platforms (https://robotprogram.robocup.org/). We will communicate additional details about the humanoid rules and transition assistance as it becomes available. Expect additional communication directly from the governing bodies of global RoboCup. We understand these are big changes and they may come as a surprise to all of you. The committee members decided the new direction during this year’s RoboCup, as the overall desires of the RoboCup trustees became more clear. What to expect in the coming weeks. Obviously, things will be changing. T*he trustees will be hosting a meeting with soccer Execs on Thursday 17th September*. We will keep you informed of what will be proposed and discussed. *To prepare this meeting, we would like MSL teams to send us ideas and proposals on how the huge work done by teams in MSL can help for going toward 2050 RoboCup objectives more efficiently, and what can be adopted in humanoid league to make transition from MSL easier*. A MSL meeting will be organised following the Exec meeting so that we can discuss all together of what can be the future of MSL and how we can contribute altogether. Falcons team proposed a schedule for that meeting : Wednesday 24th 2025, starting at 8:00 p.m. Would it be ok for your teams ? Best regards, The MSL Executive committee

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MSL Roadmap
by Olthuis, Jorrit 29 Jun '25

29 Jun '25

Dear MSL teams, In follow-up to the MSL workshop in Toulon earlier this year, the Technical Committee has developed a roadmap for the MSL rulebook. It is available on the website: https://msl.robocup.org/roadmap During the workshop, many participants agreed with the observation that the MSL has stagnated in its development. Games played now are not always better or more interesting than several years ago. While there are many ideas on how to move the league forward, the difference in team maturity means that it is not always feasible to announce new rules in December/January and play with those changes in July. The roadmap aims to announce bigger rule updates further in advance, such that all teams can schedule the work in the way they want. At the same time, it moves the research in the league forward while still allowing people to find their own research focus. If you have any questions after reading the roadmap, feel free to contact the Technical Committee: rc-msl-tc(a)lists.robocup.org. Best regards, The MSL Technical Committee

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Update MSL at RoboCup
by Jorrit Olthuis 24 Mar '25

24 Mar '25

Dear MSL teams, Before the qualification deadline we have contacted everyone to ask about their plans to travel to Brazil, as well as if they are interested in a European MSL event. We want to thank everyone for their response. In this email, we would like to update everyone about the current status. Now that the qualification has finished, we see that very few teams that have qualified for the main competition are considering traveling to Brazil. The RoboCup Federation requires at least 3 teams in the main competition to host MSL. Currently, we are not sure if MSL will meet this criterion. We are contacting the last teams to see if they plan to travel to Brazil. We have no definitive update regarding the European tournament yet. However, we are investigating several options. We are rather positive that a European MSL tournament will be organized in September-December of this year. Location is still to be determined. Best regards, RoboCup MSL Executive Committee

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European competition
by Josip Dujic 25 Feb '25

25 Feb '25

Hello, do we have location for organising RoboCup MSL 2025 in Europe or it will be in Brazil? We need to know that before 1.3.2025. so we can apply for fundings. Thank you and best regards, Josip Dujić.

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Trip to Brazil' thoughts
by RinCorn 09 Feb '25

09 Feb '25

glad to see you, I'm the teamleader of Team Water, a team of the Robocup 2025 msl  - Is your team currently considering a trip to Brazil?  We are not considering a trip to Brazil - Does your team have the necessary budget for the trip to Brazil? No I don't think so. My teammates and teachers who represent the college don't have the budget to Brazil. - How likely is your team to participate in a European event? Sure We Would like to come to European event, I hope we could meet there from：银桢(Yin Zhen),Team Water

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Falcons Participation Brazil
by Lex Coenen 08 Feb '25

08 Feb '25

Hi ExCom, We are currently looking into the challenge to get support and funding for the expensive trip. With our limited growth in team capabilities, it will be difficult to say the least. So, it's very likely we will not get funding from ASML for the Brazil tournament. If we could organize a European tournament, we would join. Kind regards Lex Coenen Team Captain Falcons Ps. Please add this email to the list. -- Dear RoboCup MSL Teams, We hope this email finds you well. The 13th RoboCup MSL Workshop, organized by the University of Toulon, occurred on January 24 and 25. During the workshop, several important topics were discussed, including the teams' progress, the league's evolution, advancements toward the 2050 objective, and the upcoming RoboCup 2025 in Brazil. One of the key points of discussion was the high costs associated with participating in RoboCup 2025 in Brazil. It was unanimously acknowledged that the estimated costs, including travel with robots, accommodation, and participation fees, would exceed €50,000 per team. This poses a significant challenge, particularly for teams with limited budgets. In light of this, organizing an alternative MSL event in Europe was proposed. Such an event could be more affordable for both European and Asian teams while still providing a competitive and collaborative platform for all participants. This email aims to inform you of the discussions held during the workshop and to gather your feedback on this matter. Your input is important as we consider the best way forward for the MSL community. We will explore alternatives to the Brazil event and send a follow-up email once we have received feedback from all MSL teams. This situation does not eliminate the need for a qualification process (LINK) (deadline: February 28), as this will most likely be used in the event, regardless of the location or organization team. Additionally, if the European event does not occur, the qualification remains necessary for teams wishing to compete in Brazil. Please reply to this email with your thoughts and opinions by February 9. To facilitate your response, please find below the key questions to address: - Is your team currently considering a trip to Brazil? - Does your team have the necessary budget for the trip to Brazil? - How likely is your team to participate in a European event? Thank you for your attention and cooperation. We look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Executive Committee of RoboCup Middle Size League _______________________________________________ RoboCup-mid in RoboCup.org Mailing list To send a message to this list send email to robocup-mid(a)lists.robocup.org To unsubscribe send an email to robocup-mid-leave(a)lists.robocup.org Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg> --- The information contained in this communication and any attachments is confidential and may be privileged, and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the body of this communication or the attachment thereto (if any), the information is provided on an AS-IS basis without any express or implied warranties or liabilities. To the extent you are relying on this information, you are doing so at your own risk. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments. Neither the sender nor the company/group of companies he or she represents shall be liable for the proper and complete transmission of the information contained in this communication, or for any delay in its receipt.

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Interest attending European MSL event
by Olthuis, Jorrit 31 Jan '25

31 Jan '25

Dear RoboCup MSL Teams, We hope this email finds you well. The 13th RoboCup MSL Workshop, organized by the University of Toulon, occurred on January 24 and 25. During the workshop, several important topics were discussed, including the teams' progress, the league's evolution, advancements toward the 2050 objective, and the upcoming RoboCup 2025 in Brazil. One of the key points of discussion was the high costs associated with participating in RoboCup 2025 in Brazil. It was unanimously acknowledged that the estimated costs, including travel with robots, accommodation, and participation fees, would exceed €50,000 per team. This poses a significant challenge, particularly for teams with limited budgets. In light of this, organizing an alternative MSL event in Europe was proposed. Such an event could be more affordable for both European and Asian teams while still providing a competitive and collaborative platform for all participants. This email aims to inform you of the discussions held during the workshop and to gather your feedback on this matter. Your input is important as we consider the best way forward for the MSL community. We will explore alternatives to the Brazil event and send a follow-up email once we have received feedback from all MSL teams. This situation does not eliminate the need for a qualification process (LINK)<https://msl.robocup.org/uncategorized/2025-call-for-participation> (deadline: February 28), as this will most likely be used in the event, regardless of the location or organization team. Additionally, if the European event does not occur, the qualification remains necessary for teams wishing to compete in Brazil. Please reply to this email with your thoughts and opinions by February 9. To facilitate your response, please find below the key questions to address: - Is your team currently considering a trip to Brazil? - Does your team have the necessary budget for the trip to Brazil? - How likely is your team to participate in a European event? Thank you for your attention and cooperation. We look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Executive Committee of RoboCup Middle Size League

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(no subject)
by JosipDujic_RC_MSL_TC 12 Jan '25

12 Jan '25

Hello, My name is Josip Dujić, and I am sorry to inform you that my team, Udruga Mehatroničara from Croatia, was unable to raise enough funds to participate in the 2025 RoboCup MSL competition in Brazil. However, three of us would still like to come and volunteer. Our question is: do we need to pay for registration, and what is the process for us to be there and assist the rest of the team? Best regards, Josip Dujić

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Call for Participation: RoboCup2025 Middle Size League
by 刘斐 02 Jan '25

02 Jan '25

Call for Participation  RoboCup 2025 Middle Size League July 15 to 21, 2025 (Salvador, Brazil) https://2025.robocup.org We would like to invite all MSL teams to participate in the 2025 RoboCup MSL World Championships. If you are interested to participate, please take the time to pre-register your team for the RoboCup 2025 MSL competitions.  1)    Pre-registration  For the pre-registration please send an e-mail to rc-msl-oc(a)lists.robocup.org and liufei(a)caa.org.cn containing the following data: ·   Team name ·   URL of the team’s home page ·   Name of the team leader ·   E-mail address of team or team leader ·   Affiliation ·   Country ·   Link to the qualification materials  Please send more information about teams to introduce them better on MSL website(https://msl.robocup.org/teams). Sending following information would be optional: ·   Logo ·   Profile (Describe team with at most 150 words). ·   Most research topics (up to 6 topics)   2)    Qualification materials  Please note that, according to the rules, the evaluation of some parts of the qualification materials will contribute to the scientific challenge final result.  By the time of pre-registration, please have ready the following qualification materials:  a)    A Team Description Paper describing the most innovative contributions or scientific results (the TDP is limited to 8 pages and must be formatted according to the LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). b)    A list of 5 scientiﬁc papers published during the last 5 years of the team which are related to RoboCup. Abstracts of these papers and a complete reference to each paper must also be submitted. When more papers are submitted, only the first 5 will be considered. c)    A list of results and awards obtained by the team in the last 3 years. d)    A video showing the capabilities of the team’s robots (the maximum duration of the video is 60 seconds; if the submitted video is longer than 60 seconds, only the first 60 seconds will be considered for evaluation). e)    A list of contributions of the team to the RoboCup MSL community. f)     Declaration if the team will be part of a mixed team. g)    A mechanical and electrical description together with a software flow chart. h)   List of MAC Addresses used by the team, with explicit indication of those that will be used for wireless communication and their type: robots or development computers. All other MAC addresses will be blocked. (Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than July 8, 2025.) i)    List of size and weight of the robots (If there are many different robots, please give the data for each type separately. Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than July 8, 2025.): Dimensions: Length*Width*Height(cm) Weight: (kg)  For being able to participate in the RoboCup competition, teams have to ensure, at least, the minimum cumulative following criteria: ·   Demonstrate in the video that they are able to perform the basic actions to be able to play. ·   Produce a Team Description Paper (TDP) according to the above definition. ·   Obtain a minimum of 50 points in the overall qualification procedure.  The details regarding the qualification materials are contained in the rules and regulations document available at https://msl.robocup.org. Please read it thoroughly.  The qualification materials should be placed in a dedicated page of the team's web page. Please include the link to the qualification materials in the pre-registration information. 3)    Important dates  ·   Deadline for pre-registration and submission of the qualification materials: February 28, 2025 ·   Announcement of qualified teams: March 15, 2025  4)    Rules  The rules and regulations for the RoboCup 2025 Middle Size League had been published at: https://msl.robocup.org/rules  The updated rules and regulations had been released by December 31, 2024   5)    Publication  Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualification materials of the qualified teams will be made publicly available. Therefore, teams applying for participation, grant the right of publication of their qualification materials to the MSL league(MAC addresses are an exception and should remain private).   6)    Plagiarism  Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples' words, code and ideas (see “https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/plagiarism/plagiarism.html” for a more detailed description) is not tolerated in the RoboCup community.  The teams and team members that plagiarize other peoples' work and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification.   7)   Waiver of the team fee for NEW Teams  For the 2025 International RoboCup competition, NEW major teams can apply for team fee waiver. A NEW team is defined as a team all of whose team members have never participated in an annual international RoboCup competition. The waiver concerns only the team fee and does not imply any waiver of fees for team members.   The 2025 MSL Organizing and Technical Committees Fei Liu OC Chair, Middle Size League, RoboCup 2025  

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Updated rulebook RoboCup 2025
by Olthuis, Jorrit 31 Dec '24

31 Dec '24

Dear MSL teams, The updated rules for RoboCup 2025 have been published. They are available on the MSL website: https://msl.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Rulebook_MSL2025_v26.0.p… Best regards, MSL Technical Committee

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13th MSL Workshop - Detailed program - 24-25 January 2025 - Toulon University
by Valentin GIES 20 Dec '24

20 Dec '24

Dear MSL teams, As already announced, the 13th International MSL Workshop will be held on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January 2025. The workshop location is : Universite de Toulon (Building E - 3rd floor) Avenue de l'Université 83130 La Garde (close to Toulon) France https://www.univ-tln.fr/Campus-de-La-Garde.html Schedule of the workshop is : * Friday 24th morning (starting at 9:00): o Traditional team presentations (20min + 10 minutes Q&A per team) * Friday 24th afternoon : o MSL Roadmap and how to realize it + Short / middle term evolutions + Long term evolutions for reaching 2050 objectives o Brazil 2025 : team participation / difficulties / suggestions for RoboCup Board * Saturday 25th morning (starting à 9:00): o Goalkeepers evolution. o Ensuring safety for MSL / playing with humans * Saturday 25th afternoon : o Quadrupeds / bipeds and MSL o How to get more teams in MSL ? o Additional topics to be defined The Workshop organisation would like to know which teams are coming and the number of participating team-members (for teams who didn't reply yet...). Friday and Saturday lunches and friday dinner will be organized by Toulon University. Please contact Margaux (preferable via email : walter.margaux2(a)gmail.com and contact(a)robotclubtoulon.com) to register your team for the MSL workshop. If the registration is received, a confirmation will be sent . With kind regards, The MSL workshop organisation Margaux, Maelig, Charline and Valentin -- Margaux Walter Mobile: +33 7 83 75 27 04 e-mail: walter.margaux2(a)gmail.com

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13th MSL Workshop : 24-25 January 2025 - Toulon University - France
by Valentin GIES 01 Dec '24

01 Dec '24

Dear MSL teams, The 13th International MSL Workshop will be held on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January 2024. The workshop location is Toulon University - Building E, Avenue de l'Université, 83130 La Garde. It is close to Toulon, 20mn drive from Toulon/Hyeres Airport, 1h drive from Marseille airport and 1h20 drive from Nice airport. The main topics are: The traditional team presentations (20 minutes + 10 minutes Q&A per team) The MSL Roadmap and how to realize it Ensuring safety for MSL Other topics (some in parallel sessions) will be decided by the TC/EC comittees. The Workshop organisation would like to know which teams are coming and the number of participating team-members. Please contact Margaux (preferable via email : walter.margaux2(a)gmail.com and contact(a)robotclubtoulon.com) to register your team for the MSL workshop. If the registration is received, a confirmation will be sent . With kind regards, The MSL workshop organisation Margaux, Maelig, Charline and Valentin -- Margaux Walter Mobile: +33 7 83 75 27 04 e-mail: walter.margaux2(a)gmail.com

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MSL Rule and Roadmap Proposals
by Olthuis, Jorrit 12 Nov '24

12 Nov '24

Dear MSL teams, We would like to ask your ideas on 2 topics: * Every year, the Technical Committee updates the rulebook based on proposals by MSL community. Next to the normal open question for rule change proposals, we are looking for suggestion on how to improve human safety on the field. Teams are generally looking to becoming more powerful, therefore we want to ensure safety (e.g., for referees, human players, and during repairs). Please fill out this form before November 30: https://forms.gle/pTyWAHHNpdxZtJubA * The Executive Committee is looking at possible future directions for the MSL league. This involves evolving the rules over multiple years to move the league, step by step, into a (research) direction and to make steps towards the RoboCup wide goal of beating the human world champions in 2050. As a first step, we would like to hear from you. What direction(s) do you believe the MSL league should be going in the next 5 year? What should be the major new developments in MSL? Later, at the MSL workshop in Toulon in January, we will continue the discussion about this. Please submit your ideas through this online form: https://forms.gle/8aA5nYLb22TV7qcD8. Best regards, MSL Technical Committee

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RoboCup Early Visa Invitation Letters
by 2024＠robocup.org 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

Dear RoboCuppers, We are very much looking forward to inviting all of you to Eindhoven, The Netherlands for RoboCup 2024! To allow more teams to join RoboCup 2024, we offer early visa invitation letters. Participants that require a visa to join RoboCup in The Netherlands may apply for an early visa invitation letter. This letter allows for making an earlier appointment at an embassy to request a visa, rather than only after completing registration. There are some constraints on who can receive a visa invitation letter. You can find the details, as well as the request form, on the RoboCup 2024 website: https://2024.robocup.org/?page_id=2998 We hope to see you at RoboCup 2024! Best regards, RoboCup 2024 Organisation 2024(a)robocup.org <mailto:2024@robocup.org>

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Call for Participation: RoboCup2024 Middle Size League
by 刘斐 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

Call for Participation  RoboCup 2024 Middle Size League July 15 to 22, 2024 (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org We would like to invite all MSL teams to participate in the 2024 RoboCup MSL World Championships. If you are interested to participate, please take the time to pre-register your team for the RoboCup 2024 MSL competitions.  1)    Pre-registration  For the pre-registration please send an e-mail to rc-msl-oc(a)lists.robocup.org and liufei(a)caa.org.cn containing the following data: ·   Team name ·   URL of the team’s home page ·   Name of the team leader ·   E-mail address of team or team leader ·   Affiliation ·   Country ·   Link to the qualification materials  Please send more information about teams to introduce them better on MSL website(https://msl.robocup.org/teams). Sending following information would be optional: ·   Logo ·   Profile (Describe team with at most 150 words). ·   Most research topics (up to 6 topics)   2)    Qualification materials  Please note that, according to the rules, the evaluation of some parts of the qualification materials will contribute to the scientific challenge final result.  By the time of pre-registration, please have ready the following qualification materials:  a)    A Team Description Paper describing the most innovative contributions or scientific results (the TDP is limited to 8 pages and must be formatted according to the LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). b)    A list of 5 scientiﬁc papers published during the last 5 years of the team which are related to RoboCup. Abstracts of these papers and a complete reference to each paper must also be submitted. When more papers are submitted, only the first 5 will be considered. c)    A list of results and awards obtained by the team in the last 3 years. d)    A video showing the capabilities of the team’s robots (the maximum duration of the video is 60 seconds; if the submitted video is longer than 60 seconds, only the first 60 seconds will be considered for evaluation). e)    A list of contributions of the team to the RoboCup MSL community. f)     Declaration if the team will be part of a mixed team. g)    Declaration if the team requires 802.11b access-point. h)    A mechanical and electrical description together with a software flow chart. i)   List of MAC Addresses used by the team, with explicit indication of those that will be used for wireless communication and their type: robots or development computers. All other MAC addresses will be blocked. (Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than July 8, 2024.) j)    List of size and weight of the robots (If there are many different robots, please give the data for each type separately. Modifications are allowed before the competition, no later than July 8, 2024.): Dimensions: Length*Width*Height(cm) Weight: (kg)  For being able to participate in the RoboCup competition, teams have to ensure, at least, the minimum cumulative following criteria: ·   Demonstrate in the video that they are able to perform the basic actions to be able to play. ·   Produce a Team Description Paper (TDP) according to the above definition. ·   Obtain a minimum of 50 points in the overall qualification procedure.  The details regarding the qualification materials are contained in the rules and regulations document available at https://msl.robocup.org. Please read it thoroughly.  The qualification materials should be placed in a dedicated page of the team's web page. Please include the link to the qualification materials in the pre-registration information. 3)    Important dates  ·   Deadline for pre-registration and submission of the qualification materials: February 29, 2024 ·   Announcement of qualified teams: March 15, 2024  4)    Rules  The rules and regulations for the RoboCup 2024 Middle Size League had been published at: https://msl.robocup.org/rules  The updated rules and regulations had been released by December 31, 2023   5)    Publication  Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualification materials of the qualified teams will be made publicly available. Therefore, teams applying for participation, grant the right of publication of their qualification materials to the MSL league(MAC addresses are an exception and should remain private).   6)    Plagiarism  Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples' words, code and ideas (see “https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/plagiarism/plagiarism.html” for a more detailed description) is not tolerated in the RoboCup community.  The teams and team members that plagiarize other peoples' work and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification.   7)   Waiver of the team fee for NEW Teams  For the 2024 International RoboCup competition, NEW major teams can apply for team fee waiver. A NEW team is defined as a team all of whose team members have never participated in an annual international RoboCup competition. The waiver concerns only the team fee and does not imply any waiver of fees for team members.   The 2024 MSL Organizing and Technical Committees Fei Liu OC Chair, Middle Size League, RoboCup 2024  

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