United Robotics Group attending and sponsoring German Open of RoboCup 2024 in Kassel and presenting robotics portfolio for the education sector

Kassel/Bochum, April 18th 2024 - The United Robotics Group (URG), European market leader in the field of service robotics, is taking part in this year's German Open of RoboCup from April 17 to 21 in Kassel. As a sponsor of the event, the company will be showcasing innovative robot solutions for the education sector from its portfolio at its stand next to the SPL area in hall 5. The RoboCup is the world's largest competition for robotics and artificial intelligence and a central initiative for the promotion of young talent – this year supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This makes the event the ideal platform for the United Robotics Group to demonstrate the various applications of its robotics solutions for the education sector.

NAO, which has been used in schools and universities around the world for many years, is actively involved in competitions and demonstrates its skills in the RoboCup Major Standard Platform League. In a match, two teams of either 5 or 7 NAO robots compete, with one player per team acting as goalkeeper. The robots operate autonomously, communicating only with each other and the GameController. Teams develop software for perception, decision-making, and action execution, using either RoboCup provided libraries or custom coding. During the competition, the URG will provide a repair team (NAO clinic).

At the German Open of RoboCup, teams from universities, colleges and companies with their robot systems will face their opponents in several leagues in Halls 3 to 5 of Messe Kassel. Over 800 talents from all over the world will be taking part - including the major leagues with over 30 teams from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and the USA. In addition, the best 200 school teams from Germany compete against each other in the junior leagues in age groups from 10 to 19. The competition is divided into four categories: RoboCupSoccer, RoboCup@Home, RoboCupRescue and RoboCupIndustrial.

"As part of RoboCup, we show how ambitious visions can be realized with URG solutions in the area of learning and education. The focus is on promoting talent in the tech sector. It's about nothing less than systematically preparing them for the requirements of tomorrow," explains Nadia Schmiedl, CTO of the United Robotics Group. "In this way, we want to prepare young talent for the future, in which robotics will be used more and more frequently due to current social challenges such as demographic change and the associated shortage of skilled workers. This is also about increasing the acceptance of the technology," continues Schmiedl.

Four solutions, one goal: winning for optimized educational methods

At its own booth next to the Standard platform League area in hall 5, URG will be demonstrating four specific solutions from its portfolio:

· Blockly. Interactive Robotics is primarily aimed at service robotics offerings in the education and healthcare sectors. The solution is suitable for teaching forms of human-robot interaction and for strengthening digital skills through to advanced programming. The solution does not require any technical knowledge and is therefore particularly accessible and flexible to use in different areas.

· Jupyter AI Package NAO stands for the integration of the NAO service robot into Jupyter notebooks. The solution uses real-time data from NAO's sensors as well as remote control functions and enables teachers to teach programming, data science and machine learning in a practical way and adapt it flexibly to different learning requirements.

· NAO Maze allows the NAO service robot to navigate through a maze using ArUco marker detection technology. The solution uses NAO's sensors and cameras to do this. This technology is mainly used for tasks such as mapping, route planning or obstacle avoidance.

· The combination of the service robot Pepper with ChatGPT opens up a new dimension of interactivity and expressiveness. In contrast to conventional text-based approaches, the inclusion of a physical robot stands for extended communication including gestures and real-time interactions. In educational institutions, the combination of ChatGPT and robots offers an innovative approach to interactive learning. Learners can receive personalized support, ask questions and participate in dynamic conversations that mimic real-life interactions.

In addition to the competitions and showcases, URG's CTO Dr. Nadja Schmiedl will be a prominent participant in the high-profile roundtable on April 19, which will provide a compact overview of relevant topics and the current status quo. The roundtable will start at 2 p.m. with the participation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the form of representatives of the VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH project management organization on behalf of the ministry. The main topics are the role of competitions in promoting talent in intelligent robotics and the significance of robotics and AI for societal challenges.

The winners of the German Open will meet again at RoboCup 2024, which will take place from July 17-21 in Eindhoven (Netherlands) and at which the United Robotics Group will also be represented.

About United Robotics Group

Founded in 2020 by Thomas Hähn, the United Robotics Group unites nine service robotics companies to create a unique ecosystem by combining hardware and software expertise under one roof. More than 450 employees from 28 nations work in the company. Headquartered in Bochum, Germany, the United Robotics Group brings together cutting-edge technology and robotics experts from the social and industrial world with the common goal of supporting humanity with technology and facilitating processes for people so that they can focus on human interactions in a safe environment. As the CobiotX company that created this third generation of robotics - robots for

humans - the United Robotics Group is committed to developing standardised and customised solutions. The aim is to overcome social and business challenges in the fields of life science, health and care, hospitality, education, intralogistics and inspection & maintenance. Quality, data protection and sustainability are the driving forces here. People are at the centre of all planning. United Robotics Group is a subsidiary of RAG-Stiftung Beteiligungsgesellschaft (RSBG SE), which focuses primarily on technology and engineering-driven companies. The SoftBank Robotics Group is a minority shareholder of the United Robotics Group. www.unitedrobotics.group

Press contact:

Johannes Kober Head of Corporate Communication & Public Affairs, United Robotics Group GmbH j.kober@unitedrobotics.group | +49 174 6159342

Ewa Krzeszowiak & Betty Lauerbach, FleishmanHillard Germany URG_Germany_Press@fleishman.com | +49 173 2674225 | +49 162 1340666