RoboCup Junior — Soccer Robots
From 2015 to 2023, I designed, built, and programmed autonomous soccer robots for the RoboCup Junior Soccer Open League as part of Team PentaCore.
Achievements
- German Champion, Technical Challenge — International Soccer Open League (2023)
- South German Champion, Soccer Open League (2023)
- Qualified for German Championships in 1vs1 Soccer Open (2017, 2018)
Competitions were paused from 2020 to 2022 due to COVID, so our 2023 season was the comeback after a three-year gap.
The Robot
The robot runs on a Teensy 3.5 microcontroller (Arduino/PlatformIO) and features:
- Omnidirectional movement with encoder-based PID control
- IR ball detection via a Pixy camera
- Compass-based orientation (BNO055)
- Line detection to stay in bounds
- Laser-based distance sensors (VL53L1X)
- Bluetooth communication between robots
- Solenoid-powered kicker
- State machine architecture with dedicated striker and defender roles
Open Source
2023 was our last season — we aged out and the team disbanded. In 2026 I decided to open source the code so others can learn from it or use it as a starting point for their own RoboCup project. Hardware documentation may follow.