RoboCup 2016: World championship of intelligent robots

The RoboCup 2016 attracted 3,500 participants from over 45 countries and regions. They brought over 1,200 robots with them, which competed against each other in the soccer, care/service, rescue and industry disciplines as well as the junior leagues. From the first to the last minute, the participants were thrilled with their autonomous robots and cheered each other on.

Vision 2050: Robot team wins against soccer world champions

The RoboCup is backed by a global community of tens of thousands of members. They are pursuing an exciting vision: in 2050, a team of autonomous robots wants to compete against the reigning FIFA World Champion - and win. Even if this goal still seems visionary at the moment, numerous successes in the individual leagues were once again recorded this year, demonstrating the steady progress being made, according to the organizers.

2016: Team Delft wins in the "Stowing" and "Gripping" categories

The Amazon Picking Challenge took place alongside RoboCup for the first time. 16 international research teams sent their self-designed robots into the competition. They set themselves the task of picking twelve very different objects from a shelf and placing them safely within a very short space of time. The Delft team from the Netherlands beat their opponents convincingly in both the Stow category and the Pick category. The winners can look forward to prize money totaling 50,000 euros.

igus Humanoid becomes world champion

igus Humanoid becomes world champion

At the Amazon Picking Challenge 2016, second place in the Stow category went to the only German team in the competition: NimbRo Picking from the University of Bonn, which received prize money of 10,000 euros. In the RoboCup - in the TeenSize soccer category - the team even came out on top. Always on the ball: the humanoid soccer robot igus Humanoid. NimbRo used an open-source 3D-printed robot that is being developed together with igus GmbH in a transfer project funded by the German Research Foundation. The researchers and the Cologne-based motion plastics specialist have been working together for more than three years. In addition to winning the competition, the igus Humanoid Open Platform was also awarded the first international Harting Open Source Prize.

"The Amazon Picking Challenge shows the current state of robot technology. It's impressive to see how much it has developed since last year," says Joey Durham, Manager & Research Scientist at Amazon Robotics. "We were also impressed by the performance of the teams in the Stow category, which was held for the first time this year."

Next Amazon Picking Challenge 2017

The aim of the Amazon Picking Challenge is to strengthen the exchange between science and industry in robotics and to share open solutions for the challenges in unstructured automation projects that are typical for logistics. Amazon announced that the competition will be held again next year.

The 21st RoboCup will take place in Nagoya, Japan, from July 25 to 31, 2017.

Contact:RoboCup 2016www.robocup2016.org/de

Amazon Picking Challengewww.amazon-logistikblog.de/innovationen/pickingchallenge

igus GmbHwww.igus.de