RoboCup 2027 will take place in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region

The countdown is on: Nuremberg will host the RoboCup World Championship in 2027. On Tuesday, 27 January 2026, the regional teams were welcomed in the hall of honour at Wolffscher Bau Town Hall. Nuremberg's Lord Mayor Marcus König, together with Dr Andrea Heilmaier, Head of Economic and Scientific Affairs, and Professors Dr Stefan May and Dr Thomas Sander from the Ohm, gave the symbolic starting signal for the ‘Home Game 2027’ mission. With the RoboCup, Nuremberg is continuing its long tradition as a city of inventors and toy manufacturers, but translating it into the digital age.

Tradition and high-tech came together in the historic Hall of Honour: surrounded by the city's history, schoolchildren and students demonstrated their self-built autonomous robots – from helper robots in factories to complex robot systems for disaster control.

‘It comes as no surprise that RoboCup 2027 is coming to Nuremberg; it is the logical consequence of our development,’ said Mayor Marcus König. ‘Where steam engines were once built, our young talents are now developing artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Our school and university teams are the best argument for our location. We are bringing the world championship home for them.’

‘Robotics is not a gimmick, but one of the most important economic factors of tomorrow,’ says Dr Andrea Heilmaier. ‘What these teams are doing here is perfect location marketing. With RoboCup 2027, we are presenting ourselves internationally as a hotspot for technology and innovation. At the same time, we are investing in the most important resource we have: the minds of our children. The students who are programming robots today are the engineers who will drive our economy forward in the future.’

The base of this success is a close-knit network of schools and Ohm University. The university acts as a mentor and technological driving force. Prof. Dr. Stefan May and Prof. Dr. Thomas Sander are the leading minds behind these successes (including the ‘AutonOhm’ team).

‘We have created something in Nuremberg and the surrounding region that is unparalleled: a continuous educational chain in the field of robotics – from school to university to doctoral studies,’ explains Prof. Dr. Stefan May. "The fact that our rescue robots rank fourth worldwide proves that we provide world-class training here. The 2027 World Cup is the perfect stage to showcase this excellence." Prof. Dr. Thomas Sander adds: ‘With hands-on technology and innovative teaching approaches, we are turning traditional learning models upside down and making robotics tangible in the truest sense of the word. The opportunity to qualify for robotics competitions, including this year's World Cup in South Korea and next year's in Nuremberg, through their own achievements drives school pupils and students to perform at their best.’

For the teams present from Nuremberg's Wilhelm Löhe School and Dürer Gymnasium, as well as Willibald Gluck Gymnasium in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Christoph Jacob Treu Gymnasium in Lauf an der Pegnitz, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium in Oberasbach, the reception served as motivation for the upcoming season. Their next stops are the qualifying tournament in Lauf an der Pegnitz on Monday and Tuesday, 23 and 24 February 2026, and the German Open in March.