FH Upper Austria Takes the World Title at RoboCup 2025 in Brazil

Austria is World Champion! Robotics Team from Wels Takes the Title in the Rescue Robot League

What Austria can’t always achieve on the soccer field, it has now accomplished with robots — right in a place where big soccer victories are usually celebrated. In the Brazilian mega‑city of Salvador, the “Dynamics” robotics team from the Wels Campus of FH Upper Austria claimed the world championship title. In the final of the Rescue Robot League, they kept their Swiss competitors from Team Solidus at a clear distance.

Over 60,000 spectators followed the RoboCup World Championship events throughout the weekend, cheering on the diverse robot competitions. In addition to rescue robotics, visitors could also watch soccer robots, household robots, drones, and more. The world’s leading experts in technology‑driven rescue systems can now officially be found in Upper Austria.

But the FH Upper Austria team didn’t stop at winning overall World Championship gold. They also secured victories in the specialty categories Autonomy and Dexterity.

Challenging Rescue Missions Mastered by Robots

Teams from all over the world faced demanding, highly realistic rescue and recovery scenarios in Brazil. The Wels team impressed with innovation, precision, and a perfectly coordinated robotic system.

“The outstanding off‑road mobility of our robot was one of our biggest advantages,” says team leader Raimund Edlinger, assistant professor at the Wels Campus of FH Upper Austria and head of Team Dynamics. “It allowed us to handle even complex manipulation tasks in extremely tight spaces. We also managed to activate all emergency stop buttons and safely and efficiently close the ball valves. That earned us crucial strategic points.”

For those who appreciate the technical details, Edlinger adds:
“Inside a closed‑room labyrinth, we fully explored the arena four times in just 30 minutes. We hit a high score with 98.3% 3D map coverage and a measurement accuracy of only 3.1 cm. Let’s just say it — that’s an engineering achievement at its finest.”

Risk in the Final Rewarded – Revenge Match Awaits in South Korea 2026

The major risk which Team Dynamics took in the final, paid off. This triple victory marks the most significant success in the team’s history — and it's also Austria’s very first World Championship title in this RoboCup category. That absolutely deserves to be highlighted!

But the team has no intention of resting on its success. And why would they? The next RoboCup World Championship is already set for 2026 in South Korea, and the mission is crystal clear:
defend the title.

(AI-generated translation)