With a flawless record and an impressive goal tally of 73:0, B-Human, the joint team of the University of Bremen and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), continued its unprecedented streak of success.
From the first minute of play, B-Human dominated the tournament, winning every match with ease. The autonomous NAO robots showed their exceptional skills in the preliminary round and finished with a goal difference of 44:0. This made the Bremen team the only one of the ten participating teams to have a positive goal difference. In the quarterfinals, the team extended this record to 73-0 with a 10-0 win over R-ZWEI KICKERS from Kaiserslautern, followed by a 10-0 win over SPQR from Italy in the semifinals and a 9-0 win over the HULKs from Hamburg in the final. As in previous years, B-Human's precise passing was particularly impressive.
Dr. Thomas Röfer, B-Human project manager and researcher at DFKI's Cyber-Physical Systems department, emphasized: "Every title we win confirms that our research in AI-controlled robotics is on the right track. Our robots are constantly evolving – in terms of tactics, game understanding, and perception. These developments are key to the future of autonomous systems."
Progress in Autonomous Game Control
Each year, the RoboCup rules become more and more similar to human soccer. This year, the focus in the Standard Platform League is on the interaction with the human referee. Normally, robots receive the referee's decisions by radio. Recently, however, kickoffs and goals have also been announced by whistles, which means that the robots must be able to hear them. Last year, the transmission of information through the referee's gestures was introduced, which the robots have to recognize visually. Initially, this encompassed the signal for the robots to enter the field at the start of every half. This year, the referee will also use gestures to indicate which team is allowed to act in a standard situation – whether it's a free kick, penalty, corner, goal kick, or throw-in.
Next Challenge: RoboCup World Championship
With the victory in Nuremberg, B-Human is now focusing on its next big goal: the 2025 RoboCup World Championship, which will take place in Salvador, Brazil from July 15 to 21. There, the team will aim to continue its success and win the World Championship title once again.
About B-Human
Since 2009, B-Human has been one of the top teams in the Standard Platform League. During the 2025 RoboCup German Open, the team reached a special milestone in their preliminary match against the HULKs: the 200th official league match and the 1400th goal.
B-Human is a joint project of the University of Bremen and the DFKI department Cyber-Physical Systems. With numerous national and international titles, the team is one of the most successful in RoboCup history. It consists of 26 students of the University of Bremen, one alumnus, and two doctoral students. It is scientifically supervised by Dr. Thomas Röfer (DFKI’s Cyber-Physical Systems research department, headed by Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler) and Dr. Tim Laue (Multisensory Interactive Systems research group, headed by Prof. Dr. Udo Frese, University of Bremen).
Since 2017, the main sponsor is CONTACT Software, a leading provider of solutions for product lifecycle management and digital transformation. Other supporters include JUST ADD AI, cellumation, Ubica Robotics, and the University of Bremen’s Alumni Network.
Further information:
https://robocup.de/?lang=en&pagename=home
Contact:
Dr. Thomas Röfer
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI)
Cyber-Physical Systems Research Department
Phone: +49 421 218-64200
Email: Thomas.Roeferprotect me ?!dfkiprotect me ?!.de
Dr. Tim Laue
University of Bremen
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
Phone: +49 421 218-64209
Email: tlaueprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
