RoboCup @ the University of Wisconsin -- Madison

Team Description

We are a team of researchers and students at UW–Madison participating in the international RoboCup competition. Our mission is to advance autonomous robotics through competition-driven innovation, focusing on multi-agent coordination, real-time decision-making, and reinforcement learning.

About RoboCup

RoboCup is an international research initiative that uses robot soccer competitions as a challenge for participating teams to program autonomous robots capable of competing in dynamic, uncertain, and multi-agent environments. As a multidisciplinary competition, RoboCup advances the state-of-the-art in robotics and artificial intelligence by fostering innovation in areas like real-time computer vision, multi-agent coordination, machine learning, and real-time decision-making and control. Additionally, students gain hands-on experience developing complete AI and robotics systems while contributing to cutting-edge research and building essential skills in teamwork, problem-solving, and system-level engineering.

RoboCup at Wisconsin

The University of Wisconsin – Madison has participated in RoboCup competitions for 3 years now and done remarkably well in this short time. First competing in the lower division of the standard platform league (all teams use the same robot), the UW – Madison team finished 3rd in their first year. Since 2024, the University of Wisconsin has teamed up with the University of Texas at Austin. In 2024, the joint team won their competition. In 2025, the joint team moved to the upper division and finished 3rd overall. The key to the team’s success has been its expertise at integrating cutting-edge AI methods into the robot’s decision-making and the team has published research on its approach at premier robotics conferences. In 2026 and beyond, the team plans to move toward using more advanced humanoid robots to continue pushing the state-of-the-art in AI and robotics.

Getting Involved

• Interested in sponsoring? We're currently looking for industry sponsors to advance our mission of conducting leading AI and robotics research and training students for careers in these fields. If your company is interested in sponsorship, please reach out to Josiah Hanna (jphanna [at] cs.wisc.edu).
• Interested in joining the team? We are currently pausing of on-boarding new team members while planning next steps for the coming year. Please check-back in a few weeks (updated 9/29). We're always looking for motivated and hardworking students to join the team. If you're a current UW -- Madison undergraduate or graduate student and are interested in learning more about joining the team, please contact Josiah Hanna (jphanna [at] cs.wisc.edu) or Will Cong (wycong [at] wisc.edu. Please include your CV and a brief statement of relevant background experience in robotics, software engineering, machine learning, or computer vision. Successful students are proactive, able to work independently, and able to learn new skills as they go.
• Interested in AI and robotics but not sure you're ready to contribute? UW -- Madison's CS department offers a wide variety of courses in AI, robotics, and computer vision. You might consider: CS 540 (Intro to AI), 566 (Computer Vision), and 639 (Autonomous Robotics / Intro to Robotic Systems). The engineering department also offers robotics and machine learning courses.

Historical Results

• 2025 RoboCup – 3rd Place, Standard Platform League Champions Cup
• 2024 RoboCup – 1st Place, Standard Platform League Challenge Shield
• 2023 RoboCup – 3rd Place, Standard Platform League Challenge Shield

Scientific Publications