Soccer: a team of 1.5-meter-tall robots will be on the pitch for you at Maker Faire Rome 2025

Where athletes once trained in the flesh, now artificial intelligence algorithms are at work. From 17 to 19 October 2025, Rome’s Gazometro Ostiense will become a hi-tech arena where robots compete against each other. At Maker Faire Rome – The European Edition, you’ll witness something truly rare: soccer matches played on a full-size pitch (the one in the photo is smaller and from a previous edition of Maker Faire Rome) by five-foot-tall humanoids, designed to run, kick, and make decisions autonomously.

credits photo LaPresse – Andrea Panegrossi 

The evolution of the machine: from the laboratory to the field

In recent years, humanoid robotics has accelerated. Robots are no longer limited to repetitive tasks or controlled environments. They are programmed to adapt, move precisely and read their surroundings. This is possible thanks to new generations of artificial intelligence applied to movement, coordination and strategy.

Demonstrating this progress, Maker Faire Rome 2025 will host a demonstration tournament between robot footballers. This is not a simulation: the robots really play. They move around the pitch, react in real time and apply algorithms developed over years of academic research.

At Maker Faire Rome is the Biotronic Arm from the Biotronico Fermi Roma Group, a biomimetic robotic arm that reproduces the structure and functioning of a human limb using Arduino

From RoboCup to Rome

Since 1997, RoboCup has been the world’s leading competition for robot footballers. Every year, university teams from around the world compete in different categories, with the stated aim of developing artificial intelligence capable of beating a human team one day.

The SPQR team from Sapienza University of Rome is one of the longest-running teams in the competition. It has been participating in RoboCup with its robots since 1998 and, in 2025, will bring one of the most advanced humanoid models internationally to Maker Faire Rome.

An unprecedented tournament

The event in Rome will be the first European event dedicated to football between humanoid robots with these characteristics. It will also be the second in the world, after the World Humanoid Robot Games held in Beijing in August 2024.

Teams from the Netherlands and Germany, which together with Italy represented Europe in China, will also be present at Maker Faire Rome. The public will have the opportunity to see the robots that have already faced international challenges in action, now protagonists in a high-tech educational competition.

Robot footballers, beyond the show

Behind the matches lie months of work. Every movement, every action on the pitch, is the result of code, sensors and real-time calculations. The algorithms used to make these robots play are not limited to sport. They have applications in logistics, rehabilitation and domestic robotics.

Football thus becomes a technical and scientific training ground: a way to test, improve and show the public the real potential of humanoid robotics. The encounter with the ball is not just entertainment, but a living laboratory for artificial intelligence.

From 17 to 19 October, Maker Faire Rome 2025 will offer the public a unique opportunity: to observe how artificial intelligence moves on the field, how academic ingenuity takes concrete form and how robotics is entering everyone’s lives in an increasingly dynamic way.

📍 See you at the Ostiense Gasometer

🎯 Discover the full program and consult the exhibitor catalog to learn more about robotics projects.