Hello everybody,
as some of you may already have noticed we have removed the “Draft” status from the 2026 season rules. There have been no major changes but over the regional competition season a couple things have come up that we have clarified.
First things first: You can find the new rules in the usual place: https://robocup-junior.github.io/soccer-rules/master/rules.pdf and all the detailled changes on GitHub.
Notable clarifications and updates (especially if you’re coming to the international RoboCup in Incheon but also everywhere else):
- If you compete in Infrared league (formerly Lightweight), you may have bright red parts or lights on your robot that never were a problem because you opponents never had cameras that could also see the ball. You need to be prepared to be able to turn those off or tape them of as the interference rules mean that you cannot keep these things visible if the other robot sees them as “close enough to orange”. If you are in Vision league you have probably already experienced this.
- We will be unable to accommodate 5 members per team in Incheon.
- The new scoring rubric is now done and notably includes a short video to be submitted in addition to the written TDP (although the written TDP and poster remain the largest part of it).
We will also be kicking of the discussion process for next seasons’ rules soon (at RoboCup at the very latest), so if you have experienced issues that can be addressed by adapting the rules, ideas for improvements or any other thoughts on the topic please share them with the tag #soccer-rules-2027 .
Best Regards
David (for the Soccer Committee)