The HTWK football robots won the world championship title at RoboCup 25 in Salvador (Brazil). In the final, they defeated the Chinese team TH-MOS 11:0
At this year's RoboCup in Salvador, Brazil, the robot football team from Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig) competed for the first time with two different robot teams. The "Boosted HTWK Robots" team won the world championship title in the "Humanoid League - Kid Size" of the international RoboCup on 20 July 2025 with a strong 11:0. The second team, which competed with Nao robots as usual, was narrowly eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Standard Platform League.
Since April, the football-loving Computer Science students at HTWK Leipzig have also been working with new humanoid robots from Booster Robotics. The Booster K1 robots are larger than the Nao robots that the team has been using in international competitions since 2009. In the Standard Platform League, the HTWK Robots have been at the top of the world in robot football ever since. Highlights include the 2018 world championship title and eight runner-up world championship titles.
Successful cooperation
"The cooperation with Booster Robotics is a leap to a new level for HTWK Robots. It enables us to make a quantum leap in terms of computing power, sensor technology and mechanical possibilities. The fact that our partnership has now been sealed with a world championship title is a dream come true. I would like to thank the team and everyone who supported us, especially Booster Robotics, for their passionate work," says Jens Wagner, HTWK Professor of Mobile Robotics and one of the HTWK Robots' supervisors.
HTWK Rector Prof Dr Jean-Alexander Müller is also delighted: "I would like to congratulate all those involved on site and the researchers who stayed at home on the Boosted HTWK Robots' world championship title in Brazil. The victory against the Chinese team is not only a sensational triumph, but also clear evidence of the outstanding research and development expertise of HTWK Leipzig and our alumni in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics. This achievement impressively demonstrates how we translate research into concrete, forward-looking applications at our university."
Introducing: Booster
The Booster K1 robots, which are approximately one metre tall and weigh 20 kilograms, are humanoid robots from Booster Robotics in Beijing (China). This new hardware has been available to HTWK Leipzig since April 2025. To take part in the RoboCup, the HTWK Robots team ported the software programmed for the Naos to the Boosters and taught the robots how to run, dodge, navigate, stand up and score goals thanks to artificial intelligence. One of the robots recently celebrated its European debut at the Leipzig company run, where it successfully crossed the finish line.
Background RoboCup
At RoboCup, university teams compete against each other in various leagues every year. The teams from HTWK Leipzig started in 2025 in the "Humanoid League - Kid Size" and in the "Standard Platform League", in which all teams use the same models. The challenge is therefore in the programming - robot football is therefore also known as the "battle of the algorithms". The HTWK teams consist of around 20 members who are studying at HTWK Leipzig or are already working as graduates. The aim of the RoboCup is for football robots to defeat the reigning flesh-and-blood football world champions in 2050. In 2025, 2,500 participants from 37 countries competed against each other in 250 teams in Brazil.
