[RoboCup-mid] Call for Participation: RoboCup2026 Middle Size League

4 Jan 2026


      Call for Participation
&nbsp;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.
&nbsp;1)&nbsp; &nbsp; Pre-registration
&nbsp;For the pre-registration please send an e-mail to r*******c@lists.robocup.org and l****i@caa.org.cn containing the following data:
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Team name
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  URL of the team’s home page
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Name of the team leader
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  E-mail address of team or team leader
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Affiliation
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Country
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Link to the qualification materials
&nbsp;Please send more information about teams to introduce them better on MSL website(https://msl.robocup.org/teams). Sending following information would be optional:
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Logo
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Profile (Describe team with at most 150 words).
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Most research topics (up to 6 topics)
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2)&nbsp; &nbsp; Qualification materials&nbsp;
Please note that, according to the rules, the evaluation of some parts of the qualification materials will contribute to the scientific challenge final result.&nbsp;
By the time of pre-registration, please have ready the following qualification materials:&nbsp;
a)&nbsp; &nbsp; 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)&nbsp; &nbsp; 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)&nbsp; &nbsp; A list of results and awards obtained by the team in the last 3 years.
d)&nbsp; &nbsp; 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)&nbsp; &nbsp; A list of contributions of the team to the RoboCup MSL community.
f)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Declaration if the team will be part of a mixed team.
g)&nbsp; &nbsp; A mechanical and electrical description together with a software flow chart.
h)&nbsp; &nbsp;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)&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;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)&nbsp;
For being able to participate in the RoboCup competition, teams have to ensure, at least, the minimum cumulative following criteria:
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Demonstrate in the video that they are able to perform the basic actions to be able to play.
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Produce a Team Description Paper (TDP) according to the above definition.
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Obtain a minimum of 50 points in the overall qualification procedure.&nbsp;
The details regarding the qualification materials are contained in the rules and regulations document available at https://msl.robocup.org. Please read it thoroughly.&nbsp;
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)&nbsp; &nbsp; Important dates&nbsp;
·&nbsp;&nbsp; Deadline for pre-registration and submission of the qualification materials: February 28, 2026
·&nbsp;&nbsp;  Announcement of qualified teams: March 15, 2026&nbsp;
4)&nbsp; &nbsp; Rules&nbsp;
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:&nbsp;https://msl.robocup.org/rules%C2%A0;
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5)&nbsp; &nbsp; Publication&nbsp;
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).
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6)&nbsp; &nbsp; Plagiarism&nbsp;
Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples' words, code and ideas (see “https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/plagiarism/plagiarism.html%E2%80%9D for a more detailed description) is not tolerated in the RoboCup community.&nbsp;
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.
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The 2026 MSL Organizing and Technical Committees
Fei Liu
OC Chair, Middle Size League, RoboCup 2026
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