Second Call for Participation
RoboCup@Home 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.robocup2019.orghttp://www.robocupathome.org/https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook
-== Text-only version ==_
HTML version available at http://www.robocupathome.org/call-for-participation/cfp2-all-2019
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 Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration.
This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2019.
Important dates:
Dec. 30, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation
Jan. 20, 2019 Deadline for Intention of Participation
Feb. 17, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).
Mar. 10, 2019 Qualification announcement
Mar. 31, 2019 Deadline for Participation Confirmation
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 2019 event, including the following basic information:
Team Name:
League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ]
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Web site:
Only one team leader can be specified per team.
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Participation] (YourTeamName)
Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set.
**** Deadline: Sunday, 20th of January, 2019 23:59 GMT *****
Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)
The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Please fill in the following information:
Team Name:
League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ]
Country:
Affiliation:
Team Leader Name:
Contact information (E-mail):
Rank in local tournaments:
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: [@Home2019-Qualification] (YourTeamName)
Considerations:
Only one platform can be specified per team.
Only one team leader can be specified per team.
Only one contact email can be specified per team.
Only one team video url 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.
**** Deadline: Sunday, 17th of February, 2019 23:59 GMT *****
Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory)
All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event.
To confirm participation, please fill in the following information:
Team Name:
League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ]
Country:
Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League].
The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Confirmation] (YourTeamName)
Remark: Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation.
**** Deadline: Sunday, 31st of March, 2019 23:59 GMT *****
Instructions for the Team Video
============================
In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video.
As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook.
Remarks:
The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust.
When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated.
The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included.
We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube.
Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists"
Standard Platforms Only: Teams ***MUST*** use the standard-platform robot in their Team Video. SPL teams featuring a non standard-platform robot will have their application voided.
Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience.
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:
TDP
Group's research focus and interests.
Innovative technology and scientific contribution
Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups
Please specify when you are using software from other teams
Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world)
The impact of your research must be clearly visible
Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations)
Annex
Photo(s) of the robot
Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV)
Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any
Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only)
Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions
Annex should be appended after the References
There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged
TDP length is 8 pages + annex
DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video ***MUST*** be the league's standard one
For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application.
Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated.
Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience.
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
Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments
Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website.
Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software.
Qualification and evaluation criteria:
================================
Teams must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee in order to qualify. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top nl teams meeting the selection criterion can qualify for participation, being nlthe number of available slots in league l.
Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria:
Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world)
Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions.
Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world)
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. You're encouraged to be part of the discussion of its ongoing development.
With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney,
The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees
The Knowledge Technology Research Institute at the University of Hamburg
invites applications for a Research Associate (Postdoc or postdoc-level/
final year PhD candidate) in accordance with Section 28 subsection 2
of the Hamburg Higher Education Act (Hamburgisches Hochschul-
gesetz, HmbHG). The position commences on 1 Feb 2019 or as soon
as possible and is for three years plus a three year extension option
subject to the availability of resources.
Responsibilities:
Duties include teaching and research in the knowledge technology
institute. Research associates can also pursue independent research
and further academic qualifications as well as acquire teaching
experience. These duties are intended to promote academic achieve-
ment. Therefore, at least one-third of set working hours will be made
available for the associate's own academic work.
Specific Duties:
The successful candidate will manage the international Master Programme
in Computer Science (Intelligent Adaptive Systems) as well as contribute
to teaching (4hrs/teaching week). Furthermore, the candidate is expected
to conduct research in the area of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent
Systems.
Requirements:
A university degree in a relevant subject plus doctorate prefered.
Academic degree preferably in computer science qualifying the post
holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities. In particular,
an MSc or PhD in Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science is essential.
This post is open to Postdocs or experienced PhD candidates. Your
demonstrated research interests should be in the areas of Knowledge
Technology and Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Robotics,
Natural Language Processing, Vision, or Knowledge Representation
etc). You should have published in a field relevant to this post.
We are also looking for very good communication skills and teamwork;
a very good command of both German and English is a requirement.
Experience with teaching or organisation of MSc programmes is
considered an advantage.
The job is remunerated at the salary level TV-L 13. The position is
full-time and comprises 39 hours per week.
The fixed-term nature of this contract is based upon Section 2 of the
Academic Fixed-Term Labor Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitver-
tragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The
contract provides for a maximum extension of another three years de-
pending on the associate's achievements during the first stage.
The University aims to increase the number of women in research
and teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally
qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with
the Hamburg Equality Act (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz,
HmbGleiG).
Severely disabled applicants will receive preference over equally
qualified non-disabled applicants.
For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter,
Head of Knowledge Technology Institute or consult our website at
https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en/inst/ab/wtm/about/job/files/open-position…
Applications should include an application letter, full curriculum
vitae, pdf of best international publications, copies of degree
certificates, evidence for required German and English language.
The application deadline is 19 Dec 2018.
Please email applications in a single pdf file to:
Ms Katja Koesters, katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de
***********************************************
Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter
Director of Knowledge Technology
Department of Informatics
University of Hamburg
Vogt Koelln Str. 30
22527 Hamburg, Germany
Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de
http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~wermter/http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/
***********************************************