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Orebro University, Sweden, seeks a postdoctoral researcher with
experience in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics to work in a
European project on culturally aware assistive robots.
Application deadline: February 20, 2017
Expected starting date: March 2017
======================================================================
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Task Description
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We seek a postdoctoral researcher who will work at the AASS research
center of Orebro University, in the context of the EU project CARESSES.
The CARESSES project (www.caressesrobot.org) aims to make assistive
robots that are culturally aware, meaning that they adapt to the culture
of their assistee. The researcher will develop methods for making the
actions and behaviors of the robots consonant to a given cultural
profile, and will implement those methods on real assistive robots.
The researcher will also work in close collaboration with other partners
within the project. This includes taking part in extensive user
evaluation campains involving elderly volunteers living in assistive
residences in the UK.
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Required Competences
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In order to perform the above tasks, applicants are expected to have a
strong background in Artificial Intelligence, especially in the areas of
knowledge representation and reasoning and of automated planning, as
well as good programming skills. The appointed researcher must be able
to successfully work in a large international team, and to cope with
project committments and deadlines. The appointed researcher must also
be willing and available to travel within and ouside the EU, and to
spend extensive periods of time in the UK during the evaluation
campains. A proven record of working with robots is a plus, as well as
previous experience in human-robot interaction, in user-centered design,
and in user-based evaluation of welfare technologies.
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Eligibility and Assessment Criteria
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To qualify for this position appplicants must hold a doctoral degree in
Computer Science or related subjects. The degree must have been awarded
at most three years before the application deadline. Candidates who
obtained a degree earlier may be considered if there are specific
reasons like illness, parental leave, or other similar circumstances.
Applicants should show that that they have the competences needed to
perform this project as well as the ability to work collaboratively in a
scientific environment. Proficiency in spoken and written English is
necessary. Special importance will be given to the following additional
criteria:
- The applicant should show evidence of scientific excellence, e.g.,
impact of conducted research both before and after the obtainment of
the PhD degree;
- The applicant should show the ability to work within collaborative
international projects, e.g., experience in previous EU projects.
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Application
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The position is a full-time position for a bounded term of two years.
The salary depends on the successful candidate's qualifications and
experience. Our ambition is to create a place of work that is
characterised by gender equality and diversity.
Applications must be sent through the Orebro University website here:
https://www.oru.se/english/working-at-orebro-university/jobs-and-vacancies/…
Applications must include:
* Covering letter
* CV
* An account of research qualifications
* Copies of relevant course/degree certificates and references
* Copies of scientific publications (maximum of 10)
The application deadline is February 20, 2017, strict.
Inquiries: Prof Alessandro Saffiotti <asaffio(a)aass.oru.se>
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About the Host Institution
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Orebro University (www.oru.se) is a modern university which currently
enrolls more than 15,000 students. It is located in Orebro, a city of
130,000 inhabitants situated in central Sweden.
The Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS, aass.oru.se)
is one of the Strong Research Environments at Orebro University. It
carries out multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of
robotics and artificial intelligence. The research and human
environment at AASS is young and enthusiastic. Researchers come from a
dozen different countries and have different scientific and cultural
backgrounds. AASS frequently hosts international researchers and is
involved in many national and international projects, both in
fundamental and applied research.
AASS is internationally renowned for its research in mobile robotics,
cognitive robotic systems, robot ecologies, assistive technologies,
and artificial olfaction. The work will be carried out at the
Cognitive Robotic Systems laboratory of AASS.
======================================================================
Call for Participation
RoboCup -2017 RoboCup@Home League
July 25 - July 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan)
http://www.robocup2017.orghttp://www.robocupathome.org/http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/
RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance
the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions
(RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup
Junior).
The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot
technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications.
It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service
robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is
used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home
environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited
to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in
dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural
light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviours, Behaviour
Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration.
The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three Leagues officially referred
as
- Domestic Standard Platform League [DSPL] (Toyota HSR)
- Social Standard Platform League [SSPL] (SoftBank Robotics Pepper)
- Open Platform League [OPL]
This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for
RoboCup@Home League 2017.
Important dates:
*Feb. 12, 2017* Intention of Participation
Mar. 12, 2017 Deadline for submission of qualification material and
preregistration
(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home
Wiki).
Mar. 26, 2017 Qualification announcement
The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps:
Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)
The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org)
to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event,
including the following basic information:
Team Name:
League:
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Web site:
Only one platform can be specified per team.
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)
Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1
character set.
***** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ******
Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)
The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee (
oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the
RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information:
Team Name:
League:
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Web site: Link to a team video:
Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts:
Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official
template.
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)
Considerations:
- Only one platform can be specified per team.
- All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification
***MUST*** be in the team’s website.
- The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character
set.
*Important Notice:* As platforms are independent, you must send an
application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying
different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP)
must match the robot to qualify.
***** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ******
Instructions for the Team Video
===========================
As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification
video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the
robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last
year's rulebook.
*[Standard Platforms Only]* The robot shown in the video must not be
altered or modified in any way.
Instructions for the TDP
========================
The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the
technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including
also the following:
- Innovative technology and scientific contribution
- Photo(s) of the robot
- Focus of research/research interests
- Re-usability of the system for other research groups
- Applicability of the robot in the real world
- Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision
should be included, but not OpenCV).
- *[Open Platform Only]* Brief, compact description of the robot's
hardware.
- *[Standard Platforms Only]* Specify all external computing devices, if
any.
For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format
<http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the
RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without
altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from
here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>.
Instructions for the Web site
==========================
While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach
of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader
audience, including:
- Photos of the robot(s)
- Videos of the robot(s)
- Description of the approaches and information on scientific
achievements
- Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download)
- Link to repositories with software for the community
- Team members
- Previous participation in RoboCup
Evaluation criteria:
=================
Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria:
- Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions,
re-usability by the league, applicability in real world)
- Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction,
people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features)
- Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable
content, open-source software and other contributions)
- Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and
open-source software)
- Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home)
We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general
audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus
on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall
system.
*Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the
rulebook. You may download the latest version from:
https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook.
With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya,
The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees
Call for Participation
RoboCup -2017 RoboCup@Home League
July 25 - July 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan)
http://www.robocup2017.orghttp://www.robocupathome.org/http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/
RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance
the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions
(RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup
Junior).
The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot
technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications.
It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service
robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is
used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home
environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited
to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in
dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural
light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviours, Behaviour
Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration.
The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three Leagues officially referred
as
- Domestic Standard Platform League [DSPL] (Toyota HSR)
- Social Standard Platform League [SSPL] (SoftBank Robotics Pepper)
- Open Platform League [OPL]
This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for
RoboCup@Home League 2017.
Important dates:
Feb. 5, 2017 Intention of Participation
Mar. 12, 2017 Deadline for submission of qualification material and
preregistration
(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home
Wiki).
Mar. 26, 2017 Qualification announcement
The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps:
Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)
The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org)
to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event,
including the following basic information:
Team Name:
League:
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Web site:
Only one platform can be specified per team.
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)
Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1
character set.
***** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ******
Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)
The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee (
oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the
RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information:
Team Name:
League:
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Web site: Link to a team video:
Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts:
Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official
template.
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)
Considerations:
- Only one platform can be specified per team.
- All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification
***MUST*** be in the team’s website.
- The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character
set.
*Important Notice:* As platforms are independent, you must send an
application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying
different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP)
must match the robot to qualify.
***** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ******
Instructions for the Team Video
===========================
As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification
video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the
robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last
year's rulebook.
*[Standard Platforms Only]* The robot shown in the video must not be
altered or modified in any way.
Instructions for the TDP
========================
The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the
technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including
also the following:
- Innovative technology and scientific contribution
- Photo(s) of the robot
- Focus of research/research interests
- Re-usability of the system for other research groups
- Applicability of the robot in the real world
- Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision
should be included, but not OpenCV).
- *[Open Platform Only]* Brief, compact description of the robot's
hardware.
- *[Standard Platforms Only]* Specify all external computing devices, if
any.
For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format
<http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the
RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without
altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from
here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>.
Instructions for the Web site
==========================
While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach
of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader
audience, including:
- Photos of the robot(s)
- Videos of the robot(s)
- Description of the approaches and information on scientific
achievements
- Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download)
- Link to repositories with software for the community
- Team members
- Previous participation in RoboCup
Evaluation criteria:
=================
Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria:
- Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions,
re-usability by the league, applicability in real world)
- Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction,
people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features)
- Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable
content, open-source software and other contributions)
- Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and
open-source software)
- Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home)
We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general
audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus
on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall
system.
*Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the
rulebook. You may download the latest version from:
https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook.
With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya,
The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees