Robotics Erlangen: Innovating Robot Soccer

Since 2007, Robotics Erlangen has been passionately building small soccer robots for the RoboCup, the world championship of robot soccer.
We are a group of students from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Over the years, we have formed a strong team dedicated to developing new technologies for robot soccer. International collaboration with other teams, universities, and industry partners like EuroCircuits is essential—and also one of the most rewarding aspects of our work.

Our team brings together various disciplines and study programs, working on everything necessary for robot soccer. This includes the development of mechanics, electronics, control systems, firmware, radio communication, and artificial intelligence.

Electronics:

For several years, a new generation of our robots was not completed on time, and maintaining the old ones became too complex due to discontinued components. The electronics, in particular, posed a significant challenge. We struggled with chips that became unavailable during the COVID-19 pandemic, hand-assembled circuit boards that were too prone to errors, and general supply chain issues.

When development was finally completed in February 2024, we faced another challenge: within the next three months, we needed over 100 circuit boards to build enough robots for tournaments in Germany and the World Championship. Each of our robots consists of five motor controllers, a kick controller, a mainboard, and a power distribution board that connects everything together. Handling this on our own was impossible.

Collaboration with Eurocircuits:

Thanks to their generous support, we were able to obtain all the circuit boards in the required quantity and quality within a short time.

Eurocircuits has also proven to be a valuable partner for individual prototypes. Their short delivery times and excellent design rule checkers are ideal for students. This allows us to catch errors before production, experiment with new ideas, and continue learning.

As a result, Eurocircuits has become one of our most important partners for reliable electronics and fast development.

Success at the World Championship:

The highlight of every season is the RoboCup, the world championship of robot soccer. The ultimate goal of the tournament is for robots to compete against the reigning human world champion by the mid-21st century. While humanoid robots are not yet at that level, we compete in the Small Size League, which focuses primarily on the team aspect of the sport.

As every year, we gave it our all to win a title in Eindhoven. Thanks to the support from EuroCircuits, we managed to secure 3rd place at the RoboCup in Eindhoven against strong international competition.

For more information please visit the Robotics Erlangen website.