We are Team S.A.R.C.A.T., a group of three students competing together in the RoboCup Junior German Open. We participate in the 2vs2 Open League, which challenges teams to build autonomous robots capable of playing soccer on a miniature field. As the highest league, the rules and specifications are very strict, especially regarding size constraints.

This video showcases this years European championship in Bari, Italy where student teams that previously qualified at their respective national tournament participate.

This season we are firstly participating playing in the 2vs2 Open League participating in the German Open 2026, We have designed several PCBs that together form the Electrical Design of our Robot.

On the top side of the robot, we use a compact 4-layer PCB that integrates an ESP32 microcontroller, a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 with support for a CSI-capable camera, and an M.2 Hailo-8L AI accelerator:

To accommodate our motor controllers and voltage regulators we opted for a second PCB. Due to size constraints this needed to be rather small so we chose for the Nano Version of our previous motor controllers measuring only 23mm by 16mm:

The bottom PCB features:

• 5 sockets for ESCON2 Nano 24/2 motor controllers
• 1 ESP32 microcontroller to manage PWM and DIR signals for motor control
• 5V and 3.3V voltage regulators
• Status LEDs

This design enables precision motor control while minimizing size. The five controller slots accommodate four wheel motors and one dribbler motor. Placing all voltage regulators used in the robot on one pcb centralizes power management, preventing high voltage from reaching peripheral PCBs and ensuring safe power distribution.

With the support and guidance of PCBWay, producing our delicate PCBs would become far more efficient and faster than what is possible with the limited resources of our current sponsors. Their knowledge and capability would allow us to focus more on innovation and refinement, ultimately improving our performance. We also hope to inspire other RoboCup teams to pursue greater innovation and collaboration within the competition.

• robotics
• robocup