University of Seoul’s UOS Robotics team celebrates its victory after the award ceremony for the Autonomous Robot Manipulation Challenge at RoboCup 2026, held at Songdo Convensia in Incheon from July 2-6. Courtesy of University of Seoul
A student team of the University of Seoul won the Autonomous Robot Manipulation (ARM) Challenge at RoboCup 2026, the world’s largest robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) competition, held at Songdo Convensia in Incheon from July 2-6.
The university said Monday that the UOS Robotics team claimed the championship for the third time, following its victories in 2022 and 2023, reaffirming its position as a global leader in autonomous robotic manipulation technologies.
The team competed in the challenge under the guidance of Hwang Myun-joong, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering.
The six-member team comprises four graduate students — Jo Seong-bin, Choi Jung-hyun, Hong Su-hyun and Kang Doo-in — and two undergraduates, Kim Yeon-jae and Lee Yu-min. They belong to the department’s robotics laboratory.
Jo, a master’s student and team leader of UOS Robotics, attributed the victory to the team’s collaborative efforts.
“We actively applied the outcomes of our ongoing research to the competition tasks,” he said. “After recognizing the target objects, we used generative AI to generate multiple grasping poses and selected the one with the highest probability of success while considering the robot’s posture and potential collisions.”
He noted that in the final round, the team needed to revise its strategy because the score gap with the runner-up team was very narrow. “Through active communication and teamwork, we were able to turn the tide and secure the victory,” he added.
Hwang expressed pride in the team’s achievement, saying, “I am incredibly proud that the advanced robot vision technologies and manipulation algorithms our students refined through tireless research have once again led to a world championship title.”
He said the achievement is meaningful in that it was earned at the largest RoboCup in the competition’s history and the first to take place in Korea.
“I applaud our six students for their exceptional teamwork, and we will continue to nurture innovative robotics talent capable of making tangible contributions to the future of industry,” he added.
The ARM Challenge was jointly organized by MathWorks, a U.S. mathematical computing software firm, and Universal Robots, a Danish robotics company.
Participating teams were required to complete a recycling task in which robot manipulators identify and sort irregularly shaped objects, such as cans and bottles, into designated locations in a dynamic environment.
The UOS Robotics team developed advanced AI-powered perception and control algorithms using MATLAB and Simulink from MathWorks.
Approximately 50 teams competed in the event, with only five advancing to the finals through a simulation-based qualification round.
In the final round, UOS Robotics successfully deployed its algorithms on a Universal Robots UR5e collaborative robot, demonstrating outstanding grasping and manipulation capabilities to secure the title.
Established in 1997, RoboCup brings together leading robotics scholars, researchers and aspiring engineers from around the world to showcase the latest advances in robotic technologies.
A record 364 teams and 2,879 contestants from 45 countries took part in RoboCup 2026.
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