Queen Máxima to visit RoboCup in Eindhoven

20 Jun, 2013

Her Majesty Queen Máxima will visit RoboCup 2013 on the afternoon of Friday 28 June 2013. RoboCup is the world championship for intelligent robots, which is being held this year in Eindhoven. The competition is aimed at promoting technology and accelerating the development of reliable, low-cost robot technology to serve our (ageing) society.

This year Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is hosting the more than 2500 participants from around 40 countries. “We are delighted that Her Majesty Queen Máxima has accepted the invitation from TU/e to visit RoboCup 2013, the world championship for intelligent robots, on the afternoon of Friday 28 June 2013”, said Arno Peels, Chairman of the Executive Board of TU/e. “We believe that with this visit the queen is underlining the importance of technology and innovation for our society, and by doing so she is contributing to the promotion of technology among high school students, as well as other groups.”

The participating teams in RoboCup 2013 will compete against each other with different types of robots, including soccer robots. The TU/e team will defend the robot soccer world title which they won last year in Mexico. “Of course I hope our team will repeat last year’s performance and retain their world championship title”, said Peels. “The knowledge that TU/e gains through robot soccer is very valuable, and is applied in many other applications, such as in the medical field. This shows why we do it: we urgently need this kind of technology in society.”

In the RoboCup@Home competition the teams show how their developments can help society. Operating in a simulated home environment, service robots show how they can help to carry out everyday tasks through which people who need support can continue to live in their own homes for longer. While in the RoboCup Rescue League, teams build rescue robots that are able to move around in a hard-to-access area and search independently for victims.

Next to the various competitions for university teams, there’s also the RoboCup Junior competition. This involves more than 1,000 primary school and high school students (aged 9 to 19) from 30 countries competing for the top honors. As well as robot soccer RoboCup also has a number of other competitions, including one for dancing robots.

RoboCup 2013 runs from 26 to 30 June, and entry is free of charge.