RWU achieves top result at RoboCup 2024 in Eindhoven

This year's Robotics World Championships took place in Eindhoven from July 17 to 21. The RWU team finished in eighth place, achieving its best result to date at the annual tournament between international colleges and universities.

Weingarten / Eindhoven - With a total of six members and two robots, the RWU robotics team traveled to Eindhoven for a week to compete against teams from all over the world at the RoboCup.

The competition is divided into different categories. RWU is competing in the @Home league. Here, the robots compete in various service robotics disciplines. For example, the robot has to serve breakfast in an unfamiliar environment. Or it has to welcome guests and then accompany them to their seats.

RoboCup 2024: 300 teams from 45 countries and over 50,000 spectators

RWU was particularly impressive at the start of the competition and remained in the top five for a long time, even ahead of some of the RoboCup's favorite teams. In the end, the team, which has given itself the name "Serious Cybernetics Corporation", ended up in eighth place. A total of 17 teams competed in the @Home league, including universities and colleges from Brazil, Japan and Mexico. Despite their different cultures and origins, the participants in the world championship had one thing in common: a passion for robotics, which was reflected in the cable salads, empty soft drink cans and kitchen utensils brought along by all the teams.

A German team won the competition this year. Victory went to the team from the University of Bonn. Second and third place went to teams from Portugal and South Korea. Across all leagues, 300 teams from 45 countries took part in RoboCup 2024 in Eindhoven and thrilled over 50,000 spectators.

Next year, the tournament will take place in Salvador on the Brazilian Atlantic coast. "Whether we can compete there is not yet certain," says the team leader of the RWU team Benjamin Stähle. "Financing and planning such an overseas trip with all the equipment is anything but easy. We would have to rely on sponsors. So it's all the better that this year's tournament was so successful for us."

Text: Alec Weber