- RoboCup-athome - lists.robocup.org

[CFP] AI-HRI 2019: Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
by Justin W Hart 19 Jun '19

19 Jun '19

Hi everyone! Apologies if you see this posting multiple times. I'm the lead organizer of this years AI-HRI, and the theme is Service Robots. I think that this will be really relevant to participants in the league. Let me know if you have any questions. CALL FOR PAPERS: The sixth annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on November 7-9 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA, and is now open for paper submissions as indicated below. For more information, please visit the symposium website (https://ai-hri.github.io). IMPORTANT DATES: • SUBMISSION: July 20, 2019 • NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2019 • SYMPOSIUM: November 7-9, 2019 OVERVIEW: The past few years have seen rapid progress in the development of service robots. Universities and companies alike have launched major research efforts toward the deployment of ambitious systems designed to aid human operators performing a variety of tasks. These robots are intended to make those who may otherwise need to live in assisted care facilities more independent, to help workers perform their jobs, or simply to make life more convenient. Service robots provide a powerful platform on which to study Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in the real world. Research sitting at the intersection of AI and HRI is crucial to the success of service robots if they are to fulfill their mission. This symposium seeks to highlight research enabling robots to effectively interact with people autonomously while modeling, planning, and reasoning about the environment that the robot operates in and the tasks that it must perform. AI-HRI deals with the challenge of interacting with humans in environments that are relatively unstructured or which are structured around people rather than machines, as well as the possibility that the robot may need to interact naturally with people rather than through teach pendants, programming, or similar interfaces. TOPICS: • Architectures and systems supporting autonomous HRI • Interactive learning • Interactive dialog systems and natural language • Field studies, experimental, and empirical HRI • Tools for autonomous HRI • Design ethnography for service robots • Development, fielding, and experimentation for service robots • Physical human-robot interaction • Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI and robot tasking • Applications of autonomous service robots FORMAT: In addition to oral and poster presentations of accepted papers, the symposium will include panel discussions, position talks, keynote presentations, and a hack session with ample time for networking. • SPEAKERS: Keynote talks will give different perspectives on AI-HRI and showcase recent advances towards humans interacting with robots on everyday tasks. Moderated discussions and debates will allow participants to engage in collaborative public discussion on controversial topics and issues of interest to the AI-HRI community. • NETWORKING: A large part of this effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old connections, and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for networking and informal discussions. PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION: All accepted full and short papers will be presented orally and published in the proceedings through Arxiv. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a “full-length” or “lightning” presentation slot. Authors assigned to full-length talks will be invited to participate in a panel discussion. Authors assigned to lightning talks will be invited to participate in a poster session. SUBMISSIONS: Authors may submit under one of these paper categories: • FULL PAPERS (6-8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interacting learning research, HRI research focusing on the use of autonomous AI systems, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. • SHORT POSITION PAPERS (2-4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. In addition, philosophy and social science researchers are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the design, implementation, or analysis of HRI studies. Industry professionals are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the development, enhancement, or deployment of HRI technologies in the real world. Please see the AAAI Author Kit ( http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit18.zip) for paper templates to ensure that your submission has proper formatting. Contributions may be submitted here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aihri2019 Kind regards, The AI-HRI 2019 program chairs • Justin W. Hart (UT Austin) • Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) • Richard G. Freedman (Smart Information Flow Technologies and UMass Amherst) • Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) • Matteo Leonetti (University of Leeds) • Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) • Ross Mead (Semio) • Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) • Jivko Sinapov (Tufts University) • Elin A. Topp (Lund University) • Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines)

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Two full-time PhD positions in AI and robotics @Chalmers
by Karinne Ramirez 03 May '19

03 May '19

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce two PhD research positions at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The *application deadline is 15 July* 2019. We are looking for two talented and motivated researchers that would like to pursue a PhD in the areas of AI and Robotics. Both positions will start in September 2019 or soon after that. Each position is limited to a maximum of five years. We are looking for candidates for the following topics: **Topic one:* Intelligent Agents that Learn from their Past Experiences (Ref 20190206) *Description:* Embodied Artificial Intelligence is a multidisciplinary area that requires the cooperation of different fields such as computer science, engineering, robotics and dynamical systems. This PhD thesis will develop a novel learning algorithm to allow high-level intelligence, such as problem-solving and reasoning to be applied to real-world physical systems, e.g. robots. Mainly, this work will be focused on investigating learning methods on the semantic aspects of intelligence to develop general purpose solutions for robotic applications. The goal of this PhD thesis is to develop compact and flexible model representations to allow robots the transference of their past experiences to current situations. These compact models should be human-readable to provide adequate feedback to the person interacting with the intelligent agent, e.g. a robot. This feedback should provide information to users, in an efficient form, about possibly hazardous situations and potential errors, by predicting ahead-of-time the actions performed by either a human or a robot to infer their potential consequences. Thus, the communication between the users and the robots should be meaningful and bi-directional. *Further information about this position*, please visit: http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/Working-at-Chalmers/Vacancies/Page… **Topic two:* Learning & Understanding Human-Centred Robotic Manipulation Strategies (Ref 20190182) *Description:* Human-robot collaboration is one of the most promising applications of autonomous robots. For this, robots need to interact with humans in a meaningful, flexible and adaptable manner, especially when new situations are faced. Currently, the new emerging technologies such as virtual reality and wearable devices allow capturing natural human movements of multiple users. Then, the next generation of learning methods should take advantage of and bootstrap the learning of new activities by adapting to the massive processing of information obtained from these enhanced sensors. The goal of this PhD project is to develop semantic-based learning algorithms able to cope with a large amount of data generated from multi-modal/multi-level sensors and react to dynamically changing environments in real-time to produce robots with enhanced autonomy levels and manipulation capabilities. The massive collection of data will also contain information about the different styles of human demonstrations which will help in developing a more human-centred control solution. *Further information about this position*, please visit: http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/Working-at-Chalmers/Vacancies/Page… Both PhD positions are offered at the Department of Electrical Engineering in the area of Systems and Control within the Mechatronics group. We offer a dynamic and international work environment with about 200 employees from more than 20 countries, and with extensive national and international research collaborations with academia, industry and society. Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the dynamic city of Gothenburg. **Qualifications** By the starting date, the applicant should have a Master of Science degree or equivalent in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Math or in a related discipline. A successful applicant should have a strong background in machine learning methods and robotics as well as be familiar with reasoning methods and AI tools. Programming skills in C++ are strongly required and knowledge in ROS (Robot Operating System), Python, Prolog, Unity, and C# are welcome. A genuine interest and curiosity in the subject, excellent oral and written English communication skills are needed. **Application procedure** The application should be marked with Ref XXXX (depending on the topic, see above) and written in English. The application should be performed with the link provided earlier. Please include the following documents: CV: (Please name the document: CV, Family name, Ref. number) • CV • Other, for example, previous employment or leadership qualifications and positions of trust. • Two references that we can contact. Personal letter: (Please name the document as: Personal letter, Family name, Ref. number) • 1-3 pages where you introduce yourself and present your qualifications. • Previous research fields and main research results. • Future goals and research focus. Are there any specific projects and research issues you are primarily interested in? Other documents: • Copies of bachelor and/or master’s thesis. • Attested copies and transcripts of completed education, grades and other certificates, e.g. TOEFL test results. ***Application deadline: 15 July 2019*** Please, do not hesitate to contact me for further information. Best regards, Karinne

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Procter & Gamble Dishwasher Challenge Award
by Caleb Rascon 25 Apr '19

25 Apr '19

Greetings, We are happy to announce that the Procter & Gamble Dishwasher Challenge Award that is linked to the "Clean the Table" task of the Housekeeper scenario in Stage 2, will come with a 2,000 € for support for the winning team's research. We are very excited to see what teams are able to accomplish in this task, and delighted to support the winning team's future endeavors. It is important to mention that this support is expected to be used as a type of travel grant (for academic conferences or future RoboCup@Home related events). Sincerely, RoboCup@Home Executive Committee

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Research/Develop funding opportunity
by Martinez Ramirez, Luz Maria 24 Apr '19

24 Apr '19

Dear @Home teams, RobMoSys’s main goal is to create and consolidate an EU Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics to establish a common methodology for model-based software development, improve tools and foster interoperability by model interchange and composability. The Open Calls for Contributions to RobMoSys is one of the means implemented to achieve this goal. During the course of RobMoSys project runtime, a new Open Call will offer you the possibility to contribute to the RobMoSys ecosystem with great research funding opportunities. The second RobMoSys Open Call is scheduled to close on May 7th, 2019. (extended deadline!) The selected projects will be ready to start in autumn 2019. A budget of 2,55 Mio € is available for cascaded funding. More information in https://robmosys.eu/open-call-2/. "Get involved NOW! in the RobMoSys Community Forum: discourse.robmosys.eu" Luz Martínez Technische Universität München Department of Informatics VI Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Embedded Systems Schleißheimer Str. 90a 85748 Garching bei München Germany Telefon | Phone: +49 89 289-18071 Office: 0.018 http://www6.in.tum.de/

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Research funding opportunity
by Martinez Ramirez, Luz Maria 23 Apr '19

23 Apr '19

Dear @Home teams, RobMoSys’s main goal is to create and consolidate an EU Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics to establish a common methodology for model-based software development, improve tools and foster interoperability by model interchange and composability. The Open Calls for Contributions to RobMoSys is one of the means implemented to achieve this goal. During the course of RobMoSys project runtime, a new Open Call will offer you the possibility to contribute to the RobMoSys ecosystem with great research funding opportunities. The second RobMoSys Open Call is scheduled to close on May 7th, 2019. (extended deadline!) The selected projects will be ready to start in autumn 2019. A budget of 2,55 Mio € is available for cascaded funding. More information in https://robmosys.eu/open-call-2/. "Get involved NOW! in the RobMoSys Community Forum: discourse.robmosys.eu" Luz Martínez Technische Universität München Department of Informatics VI Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Embedded Systems Schleißheimer Str. 90a 85748 Garching bei München Germany Telefon | Phone: +49 89 289-18071 Office: 0.018 http://www6.in.tum.de/

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European Robotics League Smart Cities Robotics challenge
by Pedro U Lima 19 Apr '19

19 Apr '19

====================================== Call for Participation European Robotics League (ERL) Smart Cities Robotics Challenge 16th – 22nd September 2019 Middleton Hall, Centre:MK Milton Keynes, United Kingdom https://sciroc.eu/challenge-description/ https://sciroc.eu/call-for-participation/ ====================================== The European Robotics League - Smart CIties RObotics Challenge (ERL SciRoc Challenge) is an innovative concept for robotics competitions that aims to show how robots will integrate in the cities of the future. This novel biennial challenge held in Smart Cities across Europe offers a unique opportunity for consumer, professional and emergency service robots to come together and interact with the smart infrastructure of a familiar urban setting. The SciRoc EU-H2020 project consortium has carefully designed a series of episodes where humans and robots interact in a real smart-city shopping mall. We invite international teams from universities, research labs and robotics companies to demonstrate their technologies and systems in a realistic smart city environment. Moreover, we are glad to announce that we will provide financial support, up to £1000, to each team taking part in the competition. The first SciRoc Challenge will take place from 16-22 September 2019 at the Middleton Hall (Centre:MK) in Milton Keynes (UK). For more information on the European Robotics League, please visit www.robotics-league.eu Rules: The episodes selected for the competition are the following: (E03) Deliver coffee shop orders (E04) Take the elevator (E07) Serve goodies (E10) Open the door (E12) Fast delivery of emergency pills Application: Applicant teams can pre-register using the form here: https://sciroc.eu/call-for-participation/ The SciRoc Consortium https://sciroc.eu/ -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking.

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EU@HomeEdu 2019 - Call for Participation
by Luca Iocchi 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Dear @Home teams, as you probably know, RoboCup@Home Education is an educational initiative aiming at promoting RoboCup@Home and service robot development through creation of new teams. So this call is not for you (you already have an @Home team), but for institutions, schools, former RoboCupJunior members who may be interested in setting up a new young @Home team. Please feel free to forward this call to any group you think may be interested. Thank you. Best regards, Luca.

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Reminder - Second Call for Participation for RoboCup@Home 2019
by Maxime St-Pierre 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

This is a reminder for the Second Call for Participation for RoboCup@Home 2019 Second Call for Participation [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) [http://www.robocup2019.org](http://www.robocup2019.org/) http://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 at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome), RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, [RoboCup at Work](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) and RoboCup Junior). The [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 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 at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 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 at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to indicate your intention to participate in the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 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 at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to participate in the qualification process for the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 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 at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 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 at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) [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 at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) Organizing and Technical Committees

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Second Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Maxime St-Pierre 20 Dec '18

20 Dec '18

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) http://www.robocup2019.org http://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

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[jobs] Research Associate Intelligent Adaptive Systems (e.g neural networks, nlp or robotics)
by Wermter, Stefan 06 Dec '18

06 Dec '18

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/ ***********************************************

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