February 2021 - RoboCup-athome

[news] [@Home2021] First Call for Participation: EXTENDED
by Mauricio Matamoros 28 Feb '21

28 Feb '21

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2021-cfp-all/ *First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home Virtual 2021 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 22 – June 28, 2021 (Online) https://2021.robocup.org// <https://2021.robocup.org/> https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook 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 Virtual competition 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 virtual home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Navigation and Mapping in virtual environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2021. Important dates: Feb. 10, 2021 Publication of the Call for Participation Feb. 28, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. March 7, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. EXTENDED (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 14, 2021 Qualification announcement April 24, 2021 Robot model reception The qualification procedure consists of three simple steps: Step 1) 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 2021 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 (new teams only). OR Hereby team [Team Name] countersigns its qualification for RoboCup@Home 2021 (qualified teams only). The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email 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:* Teams qualified for the 2020 RoboCup@Home do *NOT* need to resubmit their TDPs. ***** Deadline: Sunday, February 28, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation Teams qualified do not require to confirm attendance. Step 3) Robot Model Submission (Open Platform League): Qualified teams ***MUST*** send the robot model to be used during the competition via email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org). Please follow the template below: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Virtual robot model attached to the email based on the official simulator. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-RModel] (YourTeamName) The Technical Committee will inspect the robot models to verify they are compatible with the simulator and that all sensing and actuation is performed at component level and not bypassed by reading the variables of simulator such as position, pixel collision, etcetera. *IMPORTANT:* OPL teams may opt to use the official robot models of any of the Standard Platform League. In these cases, instead of attaching the robot models, the email must state which model will be used by the team. ***** Deadline: Sunday, April 25, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running virtual robot model, 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 following abilities: robust full-stack navigation (navigation, self localization, online mapping and collision avoidance), object manipulation, and object recognition. Is strongly advised to show a test of any of the RoboCup@Home RuleBooks from 2009 on. *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” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are encouraged to use the standard robot in their Team Video. *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 6-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 (portability to the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *6 pages* (including figures and citations) - TDP length is *****6 pages***** (submissions over this hard limit will be discarded). 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 6 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *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. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. 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 virtual and/or real robot(s) - Videos of the virtual and/or real 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 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, portability to the 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team online, The 2021 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Greetings and test
by Luca Iocchi 16 Feb '21

16 Feb '21

Dear all, we moved the mailing lists on another server and I am just checking if everything works well. Let me also take this opportunity to greet all the RoboCup@Home community. I hope to (virtually) meet many of you during RoboCup 2021. Best regards, Luca

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[@Home2021] Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Mauricio Matamoros 11 Feb '21

11 Feb '21

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2021-cfp-all/ *Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home Virtual 2021 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 22 – June 28, 2021 (Online) https://2021.robocup.org// <https://2021.robocup.org/> https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook 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 Virtual competition 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 virtual home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Navigation and Mapping in virtual environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2021. Important dates: Feb. 10, 2021 Publication of the Call for Participation Feb. 28, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 14, 2021 Qualification announcement April 24, 2021 Robot model reception The qualification procedure consists of three simple steps: Step 1) 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 2021 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 (new teams only). *OR* Hereby team [Team Name] countersigns its qualification for RoboCup@Home 2021 (qualified teams only). The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email 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:* Teams qualified for the 2020 RoboCup@Home do *NOT* need to resubmit their TDPs. ***** Deadline: Sunday, February 28, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation Teams qualified do not require to confirm attendance. Step 3) Robot Model Submission (Open Platform League): Qualified teams ***MUST*** send the robot model to be used during the competition via email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org). Please follow the template below: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Virtual robot model attached to the email based on the official simulator. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2021-RModel] (YourTeamName) The Technical Committee will inspect the robot models to verify they are compatible with the simulator and that all sensing and actuation is performed at component level and not bypassed by reading the variables of simulator such as position, pixel collision, etcetera. *IMPORTANT:* OPL teams may opt to use the official robot models of any of the Standard Platform League. In these cases, instead of attaching the robot models, the email must state which model will be used by the team. ***** Deadline: Sunday, April 25, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running virtual robot model, 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 following abilities: robust full-stack navigation (navigation, self localization, online mapping and collision avoidance), object manipulation, and object recognition. Is strongly advised to show a test of any of the RoboCup@Home RuleBooks from 2009 on. *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” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are encouraged to use the standard robot in their Team Video. *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 6-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 (portability to the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *6 pages* (including figures and citations) - TDP length is *****6 pages***** (submissions over this hard limit will be discarded). 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 6 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *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. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. 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 virtual and/or real robot(s) - Videos of the virtual and/or real 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 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, portability to the 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team online, The 2021 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Call for Papers: Special Session on KR & Robotics (KR2021)
by Thanh Dinh 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

CALL FOR PAPERS **Special Session on Knowledge Representation and Robotics** at the 18th Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2021) November 6-12, 2021, Hanoi, Vietnam https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/ ------------------ Important Dates ------------------ Submission of title and abstract: March 24, 2021 Paper submission deadline: March 31, 2021 Author response period: May 24-26, 2021 Notification: June 15, 2021 Camera-ready papers: July 14, 2021 Conference dates: November 6-12, 2021 ------------------ Much progress has been made in robotics through the introduction of machine learning, often leading to autonomous systems that are effective but opaque with inexplicable behaviours. Many applications, however, require robots to explicitly capture knowledge and reason with it in order to achieve high-level cognitive skills. This special session is devoted to exploring the intersection of Knowledge Representation and Robotics. Papers are solicited in all areas of this intersection. In particular, we welcome papers that extend knowledge representation techniques to cope with the challenges posed by interacting with the physical world, such as: - dealing with uncertain, incomplete or contradictory information; - reasoning with time, space and perceptions; - grounding representations in the physical world; - combining discrete and continuous representations; - reasoning with bounded computational resources; - trustworthy and accountable robot behaviours; and - social intelligence for robots in human-centric environments. Robots are the archetypical integrated cognitive systems. Thus, we also welcome papers that address the integration of knowledge representation into whole robotic systems, such as: - integrating knowledge representation and machine learning; - integrating symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches; - integrating reasoning about actions and control; or - cognitive robot architectures. Finally, we welcome papers that show concrete examples where real robotic systems benefit from knowledge representation, for instance in: - sensor interpretation and understanding; - human-robot interaction; - multi-robot planning and coordination; or - dealing with errors and unexpected situations. ------------------ Information for Authors ------------------ The Special Session on KR & Robotics will allow contributions of both regular papers (9 pages) and short papers (4 pages), excluding references, prepared and submitted according to the instructions on the KR2021 website. The special session emphasizes KR & Robotics, and welcomes contributions that extend the state of the art at the intersection of KR & Robotics. Therefore, KR-only or Robotics-only submissions will not be accepted for evaluation in this special session. Submissions will be rigorously peer reviewed by PC members who are active in KR & Robotics. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of the overall quality of their technical contribution, including criteria such as originality, soundness, relevance, significance, quality of presentation, and understanding of the state of the art. ------------------ Remote Participation Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic ------------------ We understand that the global public health situation may make it difficult or impossible for some, if not all, participants to travel to Hanoi. For this reason, we commit to allowing authors of accepted papers to present virtually and will work hard to enable the best possible experience for all conference participants. ------------------ Chairs ------------------ Alessandro Saffiotti (University of Orebro, Sweden) Mary-Anne Williams (University of New South Wales, Australia) ------------------

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Call for Papers: Special Session on KR & Machine Learning (KR2021)
by Thanh Dinh 08 Feb '21

08 Feb '21

Call for Papers **Special Session on Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning** at the 18th Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2021) November 6-12, 2021, Hanoi, Vietnam https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de ------------------ Important Dates ------------------ Submission of title and abstract: March 24, 2021 Paper submission deadline: March 31, 2021 Author response period: May 24-26, 2021 Notification: June 15, 2021 Camera-ready papers: July 14, 2021 Conference dates: November 6-12, 2021 ----------- Description ----------- Over the last two decades, Machine Learning (ML) has made incredible progress and become very effective at solving specific tasks while being robust across many experimental learning applications. Deep learning, statistical (relational) learning, reinforcement learning and logic-based and/or probabilistic learning are among the many ML approaches that are witnessing such advancements. On the other hand, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR) has continued to be at the core of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research providing solutions for explicit declarative representation of knowledge and knowledge-based inference, which have theoretical and practical relevance in many aspects of AI as well as in new emerging fields outside AI. The synergy between these two areas of AI has the potential to lead to new advancements on the foundations of AI that offer novel insights into open fundamental challenges including, but not limited to, learning symbolic generalisations from raw (multi-modal) data, using knowledge to facilitate data-efficient learning, supporting interpretability of learned outcomes, federated multi-agent learning and decision making. This year, for the second time, KR2021 will host a special session on "Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning". This special session aims at providing researchers and industrial practitioners with a dedicated forum for presentation and discussion of new ideas, research experience and emerging results on topics related to computational learning and symbolic knowledge representation and reasoning. This special session provides the opportunity for fostering meaningful connections between researchers from these two main areas of AI and, at the same time, offering the possibility to learn about progress made on these topics, share their own views and learn about approaches that could lead to effective cross-fertilisation among research in ML and KR and new innovative solutions to key AI research challenges. ---------------------- Expected contributions ---------------------- The Special Session on KR and ML at KR2021 invites submissions of papers across KR and ML on advancements in one of these areas for the purpose of addressing open research challenges in the other, integration of computational learning and knowledge representation and reasoning, and the application of combined KR and ML approaches to solve real-world problems, including case studies and benchmarks. We welcome papers on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to: -- Learning ontologies and knowledge graphs -- Learning action theories -- Learning common-sense knowledge -- Learning spatial and temporal theories -- Learning preference models -- Learning causal models -- Learning tractable probabilistic models -- Probabilistic reasoning and learning -- Graphical models for knowledge representation and reasoning -- Reasoning and learning over knowledge graphs -- Logic-based learning algorithms -- Neural-symbolic learning -- Interplay between logic & neural and other learning paradigms (e.g., logics for reasoning about neural networks, embedding of logical reasoning in neural paradigms) -- Statistical relational learning -- Multi-agent learning -- Machine learning for efficient knowledge inference -- Symbolic reinforcement learning -- Learning symbolic abstractions from unstructured data -- Machine-learning-driven reasoning algorithms -- Explainable AI -- Transfer learning -- Multi-agent learning -- Expressive power of learning representations -- Knowledge-driven natural language understanding and dialogue -- Knowledge-driven decision making -- Knowledge-driven intelligent systems for internet of things and cybersecurity -- Application of knowledge-driven ML to question answering and story understanding -- Application of knowledge-driven ML to Robotics --------------------------------------------- Submission Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria --------------------------------------------- The special session emphasizes KR and ML, and welcomes contributions that extend the state of the art at the intersection of KR and ML. Therefore, KR-only or ML-only submissions will not be accepted for evaluation in this special session. Submissions will be rigorously peer reviewed by PC members who are active in KR and ML. Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of the overall quality of their technical contribution, including criteria such as originality, soundness, relevance, significance, quality of presentation, and understanding of the state of the art. In this special session, the selection process of the highest quality papers will apply the following criteria: * Importance and novelty of using knowledge representation and reasoning to advance machine learning, or novelty of using machine learning solutions to advance knowledge representation and reasoning. * Applicability of the proposed solutions in real-world. * Reusability of datasets, case studies and benchmarks for systems and/or application papers. * Proved theoretical or empirically demonstrated practical advancement of the proposed solution with respect to baseline pure KR or ML approaches. Details on formatting and submission can be found on the KR21 website. -------------------------------------------------- Remote Participation Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic -------------------------------------------------- We understand that the global public health situation may make it difficult or impossible for some, if not all, participants to travel to Hanoi. For this reason, we commit to allowing authors of accepted papers to present virtually and will work hard to enable the best possible experience for all conference participants. ------ Chairs ------ Vaishak Belle (University of Edinburgh, UK) Luc De Raedt (KU Leuven, Belgium)

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