The 2019 RoboCup World Championship is set to kick off in Sydney for the first time today, with five-time champions 'rUNSWfit' looking to regain their crown against 170 other teams.

The team from UNSW will be one of many, with over 1,200 participants from universities and research laboratories form over 30 countries competing in the tournament.

The annual tournament was created in 1997 in order to advance the state of art intelligent robots, with the goal to field a team of robots to beat a human team by 2050.

The rUNSWift team is made up of five undergraduate students, and one postgraduate student, although there are 12 students on the team in total.

rUNSWift student team leader Kenji Brameld said: "At the end of each meet, all teams release their code so we can all analyse what the best teams have done in attempt to create robots with winning strategies."

"This is why the competition is more and more challenging every year.

"Nao-Team HTWK from the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences in Germany won last year, so they're obviously one of the teams to beat. 

"There are a few German university teams that are really strong, but rUNSWift's preparations have been going well so I think we're in with a shot."

The competition has been part of an initiative to improve and challenge the capacity of artificial intelligence and robotics, allowing university students to stand out from the pack in Australia's tech workforce.

Chair of RoboCup 2019 Organising Committee and UNSW Professor Claude Sammut said: "In the standard platform league, all teams use the same hardware - the physical humanoid robot."

"The test is to create the best software, so the teams must push technological boundaries to try to create robots with the best movement, vision, processing, decision-making and strategy in order to win.

"It enhances their (University students) hands-on learning experiences and greatly increases their employability.

"They get to work with some of the leading researchers in AI and robotics as well as developing practical skills in software and mechatronic engineering."

The RoboCup will take place at Sydney's Internation Convention Centre at Darling Harbour from July 4 - 7, with tickets available here.