1st Call for Participation

RoboCup 2026

Humanoid Soccer League Competition

June 30th - July 6th, 2026, Incheon, South Korea

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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-gui....

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?us...

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-gui...

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

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