Tsinghua Vulcan team advances to the finals! Compete with German United for the gold medal in 5v5 football match

On August 17, the 5v5 semi-finals of the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games Football Tournament kicked off at the "Ice Ribbon". The Vulcan team from Tsinghua University and the two domestic strong teams, Guangchi team from Beijing University of Information Technology, started the match at the same time, and the Agricultural University Institute of Technology and HTWK Robots + NaoDeviels United from Germany. In the end, Vulcans advanced to the finals with the German United. On the green field, 10 robots stood in their own arranged formations and paced on the spot. With a whistle, the robots stepped forward to fight. The reporter noticed at the scene that during the battle, several robots close to the football often rushed up, squeezed together, and even collided, fell to the ground and overlapped.

Why does this happen frequently? Yan Bixi, a professor led by Beijing University of Information Technology, told reporters that this is because the decision-making process of each robot is similar, and the task coordination function between robots still needs to be improved. After the robot discovers the football target, it can get close quickly, but when it comes to the football, it will slow down. "This involves tracking technology for dynamic targets." Yan Bixi said that these are the directions that the team will focus on next step.

Compared with running, dancing and other projects, robot football games rely entirely on AI strategies to run independently, without any manual remote control, and no human protection officer intervention. From the 3v3 competition system to the 5v5 competition system, the field area is larger, which not only requires the robot body to have stronger endurance, but also puts forward higher requirements for the robot's technical performance in the field of target detection, path planning, team collaboration, etc.

However, the reporter noticed that more than half of the robots can stand independently after falling to the ground, either lying on the ground with an action similar to "waisting down" and getting up, or squatting up with both hands facing the ground. After standing for a second or two, the robot began to pace with his feet again and re-enter the competition.

"Robots nowadays play football, which is about two or three years old for humans." Yan Bixi smiled. However, with the rapid development of technology, the vision of winning the World Cup of Human Football in 2050 is also very likely to become a reality. "I believe that it won't take long to play robot football games very smoothly and have a strong viewing experience."

In the end, Tsinghua Vulcan team and HTWK Robots + NaoDeviels United completed the promotion, stood out from the total of more than 50 teams to compete for the final medal of the 5v5 football match.