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SERŠ TEAM and the Japanese team TOKAI with the Slovenian and Japanese flags at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon
1st place RoboCup 2026 · Incheon

SERŠ TEAM — World champions

At the RoboCup 2026 world championship, together with the Japanese team TOKAI, we won 1st place in the world in the RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze SuperTeam category.

Read the story Our sponsors
1st Place in the world
News · July 2026

Best in
the world

RoboCup is the world's largest competition in robotics and artificial intelligence. This year in Incheon it hosted around 3,000 competitors from 45 countries.

In July 2026 the team of the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Maribor competed at the RoboCup 2026 world championship in Incheon, South Korea — and came home as world champions.

The team was Tadej Božičko and Mark Ptičar, mentored by Professor Miran Waldhütter. They competed in the RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze league, which brought together the 30 best teams from around the world.

Their biggest success came in the international SuperTeam category, where together with the Japanese team TOKAI they took 1st place in the world. The category demanded close cooperation and fast integration of our systems with an international team — our software and our readiness for the unexpected made the difference.

The title is the result of months of hard work, programming and testing — and proof that a team from Maribor can compete with the best in the world.

We could not have done it without our sponsors. This win is yours too.

— SERŠ TEAM
1st
Place in the world
~3.000
Competitors
45
Countries
30
Teams in Rescue Maze
Tadej Božičko and Mark Ptičar with the Slovenian flag at RoboCup 2026
Songdo ConvensiA, Incheon
Miran Waldhütter, Tadej Božičko and Mark Ptičar with the robot
Mentor and team with the robot
Group photo in South Korea
Together in Korea
The RoboCup 2026 Incheon trophy in hand
The world champions' trophy
Traditional Korean architecture
A moment from Korea
The team working on the robot in the competition hall
Preparing in the hall
RoboCup 2026 competition hall
Competition hall
SERŠ TEAM technical poster
Technical poster
Congratulations from the Mayor of Maribor to SERŠ TEAM
From the Mayor
Your achievement proves that with knowledge, dedication and cooperation you can reach for the highest honours in the world.
Aleksander Saša Arsenovič · Mayor of the City of Maribor
Competition poster (PDF)Technical presentation of the robot, RoboCup 2026
Hardware · Season 2026

Robot RM26

An autonomous rescue robot that searches a maze for victims without human help. Built for precision and speed.

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1 / 16
RM 2026 Testing
Main controller
STM32F767ZIT6

ARM Cortex-M7 · 216 MHz · real-time control

Vision and recognition
Raspberry Pi 5 8 GB

AI victim recognition

Camera system
2× Pi Cam 3 Wide

120° field of view · full coverage

Distance sensors
VL53L3CX ToF

Precise laser distance measurement

System · running in parallel
2× camera → RPi 5 · vision ↔ STM32F767 · control ← ToF lasers
Team 2026

The people
behind the robot

A small team with a lot of passion. Every member brings their own skills — together we build more than just a robot.

Miran Waldhütter Mentor

Miran Waldhütter

Team leader and mentor with many years of experience in competitive robotics. The driving force behind the team's organisation and growth.

MentoringLeadership
Tadej Božičko

Tadej Božičko

Software development and integration of the robot's hardware — from system architecture to final integration.

LeadSoftwareHardware
Mark Ptičar

Mark Ptičar

Robot software, the team's web presence, and public and sponsor relations.

SoftwareWebPublic relations
Are you a SERŠ student interested in robotics?

We are always looking for new members — programmers, electronics engineers and designers.

Join us
Our story · since 2012

Fourteen years
among the best

We are the only Slovenian team to have competed at every RoboCup world championship since 2012 — bringing home a long list of awards.

  1. 2026
    Incheon · South Korea

    World champions in the SuperTeam category

    1st place in RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze SuperTeam together with the Japanese team TOKAI. Tadej Božičko and Mark Ptičar.

    1st · world
  2. 2025
    Brazil

    RoboCup 2025 World Championship

    Competing in the Rescue Maze league and starting work on the all-new RM26 robot.

  3. 2024
    Eindhoven · Netherlands / Hannover · Germany

    World and European championships

    A return to Eindhoven, where we first became world champions a decade earlier, and the European championship in Germany.

  4. 2023
    Varaždin · Croatia

    Double European champions

    1st place in CoSpace Advanced (Nejc Konjiček, Luka Škrinjar) and 1st place in Rescue Simulation (Rene Potočnik, Nejc Drobnič).

    2× 1st · Europe
  5. 2019
    Sydney · Australia

    RoboCup 2019 World Championship

    Real-time problem solving and strategic decisions under pressure.

  6. 2018
    Montreal · Canada

    Award for best innovation

    Rescue Maze — Jaka Waldhütter and Rok Mihailović Krpan.

    Award · world
  7. 2017
    Nagoya · Japan

    RoboCup 2017 World Championship

    Competing in the city where the RoboCup story began in 1997.

  8. 2016
    Leipzig · Germany

    RoboCup 2016 World Championship

    Continuing our unbroken run at world championships.

  9. 2015
    Hefei · China

    3rd in the world in CoSpace

    Simon Perkovič and Uroš Štok.

    3rd · world
  10. 2013
    Eindhoven · Netherlands

    Our first world title

    1st in the world in Rescue Maze — Bojan Potočnik and Matej Drobnič.

    1st · world
  11. 2012
    Maribor · Slovenia

    The beginning

    A small but dedicated team of SERŠ students starts out in competitive robotics. The very first year brings excellent results and an appearance on national television.

All news and competition reports since 2011

14
Years of experience
2×
World champions
32
Competitions
20
Awards

Innovation

Every project starts with "What if?" and a search for unconventional solutions.

Cooperation

Every member is a vital link in the chain — and, as SuperTeam showed, across borders too.

Excellence

Average is never enough. We compete for the top spots.

Support

Our
sponsors

Without our sponsors and donors every step would be harder. Thank you for believing in us — this title is yours too.

We couldn't have done it without you

We sincerely thank each of our sponsors — Comtron, Ledinek, DEM, Poligram and Erasmus+ — for their support and trust. Your help lets us build, develop and proudly represent Slovenia at world competitions.

For sponsors More about our partners
Season 2027

Be part of the next win

Your support buys components, covers competition costs and develops young talent. Your logo travels with us on the robot, shirts and posters — in front of the global robotics community.

How you can help Contact us
Contact

Get in
touch

Have a question, an idea for cooperation, or want to support the team with a donation or sponsorship? We would be glad to talk.

The button opens your email app with a ready-made message to ler@sers.si.