#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league knockout stages

This weekend saw the finale of the league competitions at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon, South Korea, with the winners in the small, middle, and large humanoid divisions decided. Congratulations to the following teams, who finished in the top three positions in each size class:

Small division

1. Invic, Wuhan University, China
2. Hamburg Bit-Bots, Universität Hamburg, Germany
3. GeoHBots, School of Artificial Intelligence, China University of Geosciences, China

Middle division

1. B-Human, Universität Bremen and German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Germany
2. HTWK Robots, Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Germany
3. Rhoban, University of Bordeaux, France

Large division

1. Tsinghua Hephaestus, Tsinghua University, China
2. CAU Mountain&Sea, China Agricultural University, China
3. Water, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, China

You can watch the action from one of the semi-finals in the middle division, which saw HTWK take on Rhoban.

In the final of the middle division, HTWK took on B-Human:

In addition to the main competitions, there were five league-wide awards:

• Best Customized Humanoid Award: HERoEHS (ALICE 4th version)
• Best Humanoid Software Award: B-Human (Game Controller)
• Open Research Challenge: Ruhrbot Devils (AI Camera Platform for Embedded 2D/3D Game Analysis in RoboCup HSL)
• Best Innovation Award: Bahia Robotics Team
• Best Referee Award: Anastasia Prisacaru (Berlin United)

Hear from Team Hephaestus of Tsinghua University, who won the large division:

Although the competitions have drawn to a close, RoboCup 2026 continues today with a symposium, which brings together researchers and practitioners from around the world to present and discuss innovative research in robotics and artificial intelligence. You can find out more here.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.