#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league day 2

The second day’s play at RoboCup 2026 has drawn to a close with another bumper set of matches. Teams have come from far and wide to take part in the humanoid soccer competition this year, with 17 different countries represented. China is the most represented country, boasting 15 teams across the three divisions. Other countries taking part are geographically widespread, ranging from Colombia to Malaysia, from Germany to Australia.

In advance of the competition, all applying teams provided a video, team description paper, and information about the robots and software that they use. You can see the complete set of these here. As a taster, here is the qualification video from team CAU Mountain&Sea (from China Agricultural University) who are currently leading the small division competition, and are in fourth place in the large division.

Yesterday’s play saw the first issuing of a red card. The robot received two yellow cards for unsafe challenges and was removed from play on safety grounds. You can see a clip of the second foul in question here.

In terms of the vital statistics of the robots, the heaviest and tallest robot is HERoEHS’s ALICE 4 robot, weighing in at 48kg and measuring 160cm tall. There is a big jump down in weight to the second heaviest bot, which is team BigHeroX’s Z4 bipedal humanoid, at 37kg. A number of teams are using the 35kg Unitree G1. At the other end of the spectrum, the lightest and shortest robot is ITAndroids’ Chape, at just 3.8kg and 53cm tall.

With the seeding rounds almost complete (the knockout rounds start tomorrow) the competitions are hotting up nicely. After four competed rounds in the small division, CAU Mountain&Sea is the only team to win all four matches, and sits atop the table with 12 points, and impressively only conceding one goal. Hamburg Bit-Bots and GeoHBots are in second and third place respectively, having both won three games and lost one.

The middle division has fast established itself as one of the most compelling competitions. B-Human has taken a commanding lead, winning all four matches so far with a +35 goal difference. Behind them, there are four teams on nine points: HTWK Robots, Rhoban, whIRLwind Amsterdam, and THMOS.

Over in the large division, teams have completed three rounds of seeding, with just one further round to come tomorrow. At this stage Tsinghua Hephaestus is the only perfect team, sitting on nine points. Behind them, two teams have each won two matches and drawn the third: PCMS-HRG and Robo-Erectus.

Once the seeding rounds have been completed, 12 teams from each division will make it forward to the knockout stages, with the quarter finals taking place in the evening.

Many thanks to JT Genter for providing the photos, videos, and facts for this article.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for Robohub and AIhub.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for Robohub and AIhub.