Team SOBITS participated in the RoboCup 2026, a world competition for intelligent robots! They achieved 13th place overall and 4th place in the poster presentation category.
The research team "SOBITS," composed of members from the Faculty of Science and Technology's Faculty of Science and Technology, participated in the "RoboCup 2026" intelligent robot competition held in Incheon, South Korea, consisting of members from the Faculty of Science and Technology's Ryongwoon Choi Laboratory, Yoshinobu Hagiwara's Laboratory, and Shoshin Suzuki's Laboratory.
In this tournament, which featured 24 teams from around the world, the team participated in the "@Home League" and introduced the dual-armed robot "SOBIT HOME," which supports physical AI (VLA: Vision-Language-Action). As a result, they placed 5th (820 points) in the "Human Robot Interaction Challenge" and 9th place (605 points) in the "General Purpose Service Robot Challenge." Overall, they ranked 13th (1531.6 points), with their competition scores improving dramatically compared to the previous 2023 France tournament and advancing to the mid-tier group.
Additionally, in the "Poster Presentation" section explaining the research, it ranked 4th (36.6 points) amid the fierce competition of top teams worldwide, earning high international acclaim.
Furthermore, Valentin Kate, a PhD student at our university's Graduate School of Science and Engineering who served as team leader, was selected for the "*Technical Committee" (consisting of only one member from the Japanese team) for the upcoming RoboCup World Championship @Home League held in Germany.
During the competition, students not only competed in competitions but also engaged in technical discussions and information exchanges with research teams from around the world.
* The Technical Committee is the decision-making body responsible for setting rules and overall evaluation of competitions in the @Home league of the RoboCup World Championship. It is selected through voting and mutual voting by participating teams and stakeholders worldwide from team members who achieved excellent results in the previous year's World Championship, as well as individuals with high technical skills and significant contributions to the community. This selection is a remarkable achievement recognizing SOBITS's international activities and technical contributions, providing a valuable opportunity for our students to be directly involved in the operation of the World Championship and technical discussions.
[Comments from Participating Students]
■ Sim Jiahao (Graduate School of Science and Engineering Information Systems Science Major, 2nd year master's student), who played a central role in the team.
Competing in technology and exchanging opinions with world-class teams and researchers was an extremely valuable experience that allowed me to re-examine my own research. RoboCup is not just a competition, but a place where people improve their skills toward the common goal of social contribution, and seeing robots tackling complex household tasks made me feel the realization of the future. I will apply this experience to future research and the development of "SOBITS," and I will continue to take on challenges aiming to realize robots that contribute to society.
■ Kate Valentin (2nd year PhD, Graduate School of Science and Engineering Information Systems Science Major) selected for the Technical Committee
Fueled by the frustration of our first appearance in 2023, we challenged this tournament with the new robot "SOBIT HOME," which we developed over more than three years. Thanks to the efforts of all the members who supported us, we were able to give it our all. Although we did not reach our goals, the feedback we received became a great source of strength for us to aim for a top-tier research team.
We are also deeply honored to be the only member of the Technical Committee (TC) from Japan selected for next year's World Conference. While maintaining fairness in the rules, we will contribute to creating a system where scientific contributions are properly recognized, such as open-sourcing our robotics technologies, and will continue to contribute to the overall development of the robotics field.
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Professor
Choi Yongwoon
- Specialized Field
Perception information processing and intelligent robotics
- Research theme
Distance measurement system using stereo camera
Associate Professor
Yoshinobu Hagiwara
- Specialized Field
Intelligent Robotics, Intelligent Informatics
- Research theme
- Development of computational models for learning, recognition, and prediction of daily life physical support robots
- Development of basic technologies for symbol emergence systems for co-creative learning between humans and robots
Associate Professor
Akimasa Suzuki
- Specialized Field
User interface, affective informatics, measurement engineering
- Research theme
Research on intuitive interfaces between humans and computers