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[jobs] Two Postdoctoral Positions: NICT Japan
by Komei Sugiura 20 Dec '16

20 Dec '16

Advanced Speech Technology Lab. at NICT, Japan has two open positions for *Postdoctoral Researchers*. ## ABOUT NICT-UCRI (NICT Universal Communication Research Institute) NICT is a Japanese national research institute that focuses on information and communications technology. NICT employs 900 researchers/engineers/staffs, and has ten research centers. NICT-UCRI is one of them, and is situated 30km south of Kyoto, a historical city of Japan. ## ABOUT THE POSITIONS - The positions are offered at a one-year basis, and are renewable until March 2021. - The salary will depend on qualifications and experience. - The successful candidates will have access to our software engines and large-scale corpora for spoken dialogue studies. ## HOW TO APPLY http://www.nict.go.jp/en/general_affairs/employment/index-e-top2016-10.html Closing date: Jan 12, 2017. ## POSITIONS (1) Reference: 2017R-30 * Research Topic: "Spoken Language Understanding and Motion Generation Using Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Information for Domestic Service Robots" * Abstract: The objective of this project is to investigate spoken language understanding methods using linguistic and non-linguistic information for domestic service robots. As a successful candidate, you will focus on applying machine learning methods to train probabilistic models with large-scale linguistic and non-linguistic data obtained from physical/cyber spaces, as well as on language understanding, dialogue, and motion generation that are dependent on the situations and users. * Minimum Qualifications - Ph.D. in computer science, informatics, robotics, or a related field - Strong publication record in the fields related to robot learning, machine learning, spoken language processing, computer vision, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence - Good communication skills in spoken and written English * Preferred Qualifications - Extensive programming skills in Python/JavaScript/MATLAB/C++ - Independent and persistent personality, as well as a team player * Details http://www2.nict.go.jp/employment/tempstaffinfo/exr-e/H29/2017R-30.pdf (2) Reference: 2017R-29 * Research topic: "Scene understanding and situated dialogues with robots" * Abstract: The objective of this project is to investigate scene understanding and situated dialogues as the fundamental spoken dialogue technologies for receptionist agents or service robots that can communicate in multiple languages. As a successful candidate, you will focus on scene understanding in multiparty conversations such as the estimation of speakers' positions and roles, as well as spoken dialogue systems with situated spoken language understanding and recommendation capabilities. * Minimum Qualifications - Ph.D. in computer science, signal processing, robotics, or a related field - Strong publication record in the fields related to robot audition, multimodal interaction, spoken language processing, dialogue systems, machine learning, computer vision, human-computer interaction, or artificial intelligence - Good communication skills in spoken and written English * Preferred Qualifications - Extensive programming skills in Python, C++, or others - Independent and persistent personality, as well as a team player * Details http://www2.nict.go.jp/employment/tempstaffinfo/exr-e/H29/2017R-29.pdf ***************************************************************** Komei Sugiura, Ph.D. Senior Researcher, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology 3-5 Hikaridai, Seika, Soraku, Kyoto 619-0289, Japan Email: komei.sugiura(a)nict.go.jp URL: http://komeisugiura.jp/index_en.html *****************************************************************

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LU4R now out!
by Danilo Croce 16 Dec '16

16 Dec '16

========================================== RELEASE OF LU4R *http://sag.art.uniroma2.it/lu4r.html <http://sag.art.uniroma2.it/lu4r.html>* ========================================== We are happy to announce the release of LU4R, an adaptive spoken Language Understanding system For(4) Robots, that is the result of the collaboration between the Semantic Analytics Group (*SAG*) at the University of Roma, Tor Vergata, and the Laboratory of Cognitive Cooperating Robots (*Lab.Ro.Co.Co <http://Lab.Ro.Co.Co>.*) at Sapienza, University of Rome. LU4R receives as input one or more transcriptions of a spoken command and produces a logical form made of one or more linguistic predicates reflecting the actions intended by the user. Predicates, as well as their arguments, are consistent with a linguistically motivated representation and coherent with the environment perceived by the robot. The interpretation process is sensitive to different configurations of the environment (possibly synthesized through a Semantic Map or different approaches) that represent the whole information about possible entities populating the operating context. LU4R consists of a cascade of morphological, syntactic and semantic processes relying on external libraries (e.g. Stanford NLP chain) and statistical semantic role labeling specific components. It is actually released for English ([1]) but a version for Italian is already available ([2]). The language understanding components have been trained using realistic robotic commands, which are also derived from the RoboCup@Home Corpus [3]. The chain is fully implemented in Java and released according to a Client/Server architecture, in order to decouple the chain from the specific robotic platform that will use it. The robot engineer just needs to initialize the LU4R server and communication is supported through standard HTTP requests. The current release contains additional facilities to use third-party state-of-the-art speech to text services. These make the integration of a ROS operated robot and a full operational chain very simple: LU4R can be also invoked from a smartphone! LU4R has been presented at IJCAI 2016 [1] and at the International Conference of the Italian Association on Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA), 2016. [2], i.e., [1] "*A Discriminative Approach to Grounded Spoken Language Understanding in Interactive Robotics*", *Emanuele Bastianelli, Danilo Croce, Andrea Vanzo, Roberto Basili, Daniele Nardi*, Proceedings of IJCAI '16, NY (USA), 2016. [2] "*Spoken Language Understanding for Service Robotics in Italian*", *Andrea Vanzo, Danilo Croce, Giuseppe Castellucci, Roberto Basili, Daniele Nardi*, Proceedings of AI*IA 2016: 477-489. [3] “RoboCup@Home Spoken Corpus: Using Robotic Competitions for Gathering Datasets <http://fei.edu.br/rcs/2014/SpecialTrackDev/robocupsymposium2014_submission_…>”, *Emanuele Bastianelli, Luca Iocchi, Daniele Nardi, Giuseppe Castellucci, Danilo Croce, Roberto Basili, *Proceedings of the RoboCup Symposium (2014). You can find more information about LU4R and download it at: *http://sag.art.uniroma2.it/lu4r.html <http://sag.art.uniroma2.it/lu4r.html>* For any question or support, please refer to: croce(a)info.uniroma2.it <croce(a)info.uniroma2.it?Subject=LU4R%20support> or vanzo(a)dis.uniroma1.it Enjoy! The LU4R team -- Danilo Croce Department of Enterprise Engineering AI Research Group University of Roma, Tor Vergata Via del Politecnico 1 00133 Roma, Italy Tel. +39-06-72597721

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CLAWAR 2017 - 20th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots
by Manuel Silva 14 Dec '16

14 Dec '16

======================================================================= *** 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *** ======================================================================= [Apologies for any cross-posting] CLAWAR 2017 20th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal 11-13 September 2017 (https://clawar.org/clawar2017/) Dear colleague, We are pleased to inform you that CLAWAR 2017 will be held within the premises of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal, during 11-13 September 2017. The conference will feature technical and social programs. The technical program will comprise plenary, regular, and special/invited sessions. All articles submitted for inclusion in the conference will be peer reviewed before acceptance. It is envisaged that all accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings, to be published by World Scientific Publishing Company and indexed in SCOPUS, as well as on CD/flash drive, subject to registration of at least one author for presenting the work. A selection of presented papers will also be recommended for possible publication in reputable ISI-indexed scientific journals. CLAWAR 2017 will also feature Robot Competition and Industrial Robot Exhibition. == Scope == Original contributions in the general area of mobile robotics, covering climbing, walking, flying robots with assistance and service provided to humans and machines are welcome. The conference will cover analysis (modelling and simulation) techniques, design approaches and developed robotic systems. Support technologies for realisation of such systems, associated economic, ethical and social considerations are integral part of the conference theme. == Key dates == 21 Dec 2016: Proposals for workshops/ special sessions 01 Feb 2017: Submission of full draft papers 15 Mar 2017: Notification of paper acceptance 12 Apr 2017: Submission of final (accepted) papers 03 May 2017: Early bird registration (reduced fee) 05 Jul 2017: Preliminary program 11-13 Sep 2017: Conference We would like to invite you to submit your contributions according to the key dates given above. == Submission of Papers == The technical program of the conference will feature Regular Papers, Special Session Papers, and Poster presentations. Authors are invited to submit their full draft papers in PDF format using the URL (https://www.softconf.com/g/clawar2017) or from the paper submission page of the conference web-site by the indicated deadline for consideration for nclusion in the relevant category (special/regular paper). Please note that you should first register to create an account on the system, if not done so yet, before submitting your contribution. All papers will be peer reviewed before acceptance, and all accepted papers (subject to registration) will be published in the conference proceedings. Final accepted papers will be limited to 8 pages in length in the prescribed style and format given in the paper submission web page. A selection of presented papers will also be recommended for possible publication in reputable international journals. == Workshop and Special Session Proposals== Proposals should be submitted to the Conference Secretariat and a copy sent to Professor Gurvinder S. Virk (gsvirk(a)clawar.org). Each proposal should be limited to one A4 page in length and must include title, aims/objectives, brief outline/scope, name and affiliation of the organizer(s). == Exhibition == Organisations and research groups can promote their robots and robotics research work by exhibiting these at the conference. Those wishing to participate in the exhibition programme of the conference are invited to seek relevant information via the conference web-site. == Robot competition == The conference will feature a "Climbing Robot Competition". Research groups wishing to take part in the competition are invited to seek relevant information via the conference web-site. == Sponsorship == Organisations wishing to sponsor the conference in any way and gain the corresponding benefits, by promoting themselves and their products to the robotics community through conference publications, conference web-site and conference publicity, are invited to view relevant information on the conference web-site and further to contact the conference secretariat to discuss the terms of sponsorship and necessary arrangements. Conference web-site: https://www.clawar.org/clawar2017 Secretariat: CLAWAR 2017 Secretariat Email: clawar2017(a)clawar.org Kind regards Manuel F. Silva and Gurvinder S. Virk, Conference Co-Chairs M. Osman Tokhi, International Scientific Committee Chair Benedita Malheiro, Local Organising Chair Manuel Silva Professor Adjunto Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica [http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/EMAIL_ISEP.png] ISEP | Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431 4249-015 Porto - PORTUGAL tel. +351 228 340 500 | fax +351 228 321 159 mail(a)isep.ipp.pt | www.isep.ipp.pt<http://www.isep.ipp.pt>

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[CFP] SIGNAL 2017 - Time-constrained Signal, Image and Video Processing in Robotics
by António J. R. Neves 12 Dec '16

12 Dec '16

* Time-constrained Signal, Image and Video Processing in Robotics * SIGNAL 2017, May 21 - 25, 2017 - Barcelona, Spain The Second International Conference on Advances in Signal, Image and Video Processing - from Sensing to Applications http://www.iaria.org/conferences2017/SIGNAL17.html ***************************************** [Apologies for any cross-posting] Dear Colleague, The Second International Conference on Advances in Signal, Image and Video Processing, SIGNAL 2017 (http://www.iaria.org/conferences2017/SIGNAL17.html) will take place next May in Barcelona, Spain and will include several special sessions, namely one on Time-constrained Signal, Image and Video Processing in Robotics. This thematic track will provide an opportunity to bring together researchers with interests in signal processing applied to robots and autonomous systems. This special session aims to receive contributions regarding innovative concepts, methodologies and techniques in the field of robotics, computer vision and signal processing, as well applications of these developments to solving practical problems. As chair of that special session, I would like to invite you to submit papers in the following and related areas: * human-robot interaction * localization, mapping and navigation * vision based control * object detection, segmentation and categorization * semantic scene understanding and categorization * robustness and generalization of algorithms to conditions and environments * multimodal sensor fusion * sensor calibration * Signal Processing Architectures * real-time and efficient solutions for applications *PRELIMINARY DATES* * Paper submission: 3rd January, 2017 * Notification of acceptance: 3rd March, 2017 * Camera ready: 9th April, 2017 * CONTRIBUTION TYPES * * Regular papers [in the proceedings, digital library] * Short papers (work in progress) [in the proceedings, digital library] * Posters: two pages [in the proceedings, digital library] * Posters: slide only [slide-deck posted on www.iaria.org] * Presentations: slide only [slide-deck posted on www.iaria.org] * Demos: two pages [posted on www.iaria.org] * REVIEW PROCESS * PAAMS welcomes the submission of application papers with preference to the topics listed in the call for papers. All submitted papers will undergo a thorough review process; each paper will be refereed by at least three experts in the field based on relevance, originality, significance, quality and clarity. The papers must consist of original, relevant and previously unpublished sound research results related to any of the topics of the conference * PUBLICATION * * See: http://www.iaria.org/format.html * Before submission, please check and comply with the editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html * Submission site: www.iariasubmit.org/conferences/submit/newcontribution.php?event=SIGNAL+201… * SPECIAL ISSUES * Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit extended versions to one of the IARIA Journals: http://www.iariajournals.org Print proceedings will be available via Curran Associates, Inc.: http://www.proceedings.com/9769.html Articles will be archived in the free access ThinkMind Digital Library: http://www.thinkmind.org Best Regards, Antonio Neves -- -- António J. R. Neves, Ph.D. Assistant Professor DETI / IEETA, University of Aveiro, Portugal http://sweet.ua.pt/an/

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RoboCup German Open 2017: Call for Participation (DEADLINE 15 DECEMBER)
by Sven Wachsmuth 12 Dec '16

12 Dec '16

-------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht -------- Betreff: RoboCup German Open 2017: Call for Participation (DEADLINE 15 DECEMBER) Datum: Sun, 11 Dec 2016 19:49:18 +0100 Von: Ansgar Bredenfeld <ansgar.bredenfeld(a)dr-bredenfeld.de> Organisation: Dr. Bredenfeld UG An: robocup-worldwide(a)cc.gatech.edu Dear RoboCuppers, just a reminder of the STRICT Major League registration deadline for the RoboCup German Open 2017. *** It is December 15th, 2016 *** The registration deadline for Junior was November 30. 500 RoboCup Junior teams registered for the six qualification tournaments. The best teams of these tournaments will take part in the German RoboCup Junior Final during the RoboCup German Open 2017. See you all there. Best regards, Ansgar --------------------------------------------------------------------- RoboCup German Open 2017 Call for Participation https://www.robocupgermanopen.de 5 - 7 May 2017 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2017 will be the 15th open RoboCup competition held in Germany. The event will take place in Magdeburg at MESSE MAGDEBURG. -- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ---------------------- Competitions are offered in the following leagues: - RoboCupSoccer Standard Platform League - RoboCupSoccer Humanoid League (Kid-Size) - RoboCupRescue Robot League - RoboCup@Home League - RoboCupIndustrial Logistics League - RoboCupIndustrial RoboCup@Work League The registration opens *** 15 October 2016 ***. The registration deadline is *** 15 December 2016 ***. Visit http://www.robocupgermanopen.de to register your RoboCup Major League team. Details on the registration (fee, accommodation, rules) are available on the web site. Booking of blocked accommodation with special rates is possible after your registration. The Major Leagues Organising Committee: - Thomas Röfer (Standard Platform League) - Reinhard Gerndt (Humanoid League) - Johannes Pellenz (Rescue Robot League) - Sven Wachsmuth (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) -- Important dates -------------------------------------------------- 15.09.2016 Publication of Call for Participation 15.10.2016 Registration opens 15.12.2016 Registration deadline RoboCup Major teams 15.02.2017 Registration deadline team members with names 15.04.2017 Registration fee due 03.05.2017 Set-up day Major League teams 04.05.2017 Set-up day Major League teams 05.05.2017 Competition day (open to public) 06.05.2017 Competition day (open to public) 07.05.2017 Competition day, finals (open to public) Please contact info(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions.

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ERL Service Robots - Call for Participation in Robot Competition - Peccioli Italy 30/1-3/2/2017
by Luca Iocchi 08 Dec '16

08 Dec '16

Dear RoboCup@Home teams, you probably have already received the call below. Please let me add some useful information about this event that we believe would be very useful for RoboCup@Home teams. 1) Teams are not required to participate to all the tests (although it is preferable) and the final ranks and prizes will be for each TBM/FBM. Two tests (TBM4 and TBM5) are shared with RoboCup@Home 2016 rules. 2) Since RoboCup 2016 also counted as part of the ERL-SR, some RoboCup@Home teams have a good position in the rank. However, to get the prizes, a team needs to attend to least two tournaments (see the current standings in https://sites.google.com/a/dis.uniroma1.it/erl-sr-peccioli/competition). 3) Prizes will be publicly awarded at the European Robotic Forum 2017 (http://www.erf2017.eu/) It is a great opportunity for the best teams in each TBM/FBM. 4) The local tournament includes also some Software Integration sessions where we provide teams with software components that are useful for @Home/Service robots. In Peccioli we are planning to help teams to install, configure and test on their robots the following software components: navigation and speech understanding More information will be updated soon in https://sites.google.com/a/dis.uniroma1.it/erl-sr-peccioli/resources 5) A limited number of teams will be accepted and travel support will be provided. Deadline for application: ***December 15, 2016*** If you have any question, do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Luca. ================================================================== Call for Participation European Robotics League (ERL) Service Robots 3rd Local Tournament 30.1 - 3.2.2017 Echord++ RIF in Peccioli Peccioli (Pisa), Italy ================================================================== The European Robotics League is an innovative concept for robot competitions which focuses on tasks that service robots execute in a real home environment and is composed of multiple "Local tournaments", held in different research labs across Europe. More information about this tournament:http://tinyurl.com/h6ngwoh Important dates: * 15 Dec 2016 - Deadline for application and request for travel support * 23 Dec 2016 - Qualification announcement Extended call for participation attached. Best regards, Luca Iocchi (on behalf of ERL-SR organizing committee)

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[Competitions] RoboCup IranOpen 2017
by Asad Norouzi 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

*Apologies for duplicate messages* *Call For Participation* *RoboCup IranOpen 2017* *April 03 - 07* The 12th RoboCup IranOpen competitions will be held in April 03-07, 2017. Having had the experience of 11 years successful organization of these competitions, we look forward to an even more glorious event with more teams competing in this major robotics event from all over the world. Last year, we had 272 teams from Afghanistan, Canada, China, Germany, Iran, South Korea, Peru, UK, and USA. RoboCup IranOpen is an attempt to further promote AI and Robotics research. These competitions will provide a chance for all researchers to present and share their experiences and achievements. The RoboCup IranOpen 2017 competitions leagues are as follows: - RoboCupSoccer - Humanoid (Kid Size, Teen Size, Adult Size) - Middle Size - Small Size - Standard Platform - Soccer 3D Simulation - Soccer 2D Simulation - RoboCupRescue - Rescue Robot - Rescue Simulation - Rescue Virtual Robot - RoboCup@Home - RoboCupIndustrial - RoboCup@Work - RoboCupJunior - Junior Soccer Open - Junior Soccer B Light Weight - Junior Rescue A Primary - Junior Rescue A Secondary - Junior Rescue B - Junior CoSpace Rescue The following leagues will be also be organized in conjunction with RoboCup IranOpen 2017: - Middle Size Intelligent Deminer Robots - Small Size Intelligent Deminer Robots - Tele-operated Deminer Robots - Deminer Technical Challenge - IranOpenROV (Radio Operated Vehicles - underwater robots) - IranOpenUAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Indoor and Outdoor) - Major Demo - Junior Demo Common Challenge - Junior Demo Open Challenge Participation: All teams are required to pre-register through the online form available in the website. The pre-registered teams should then submit the relevant qualification materials. Last year 316 teams were qualified from 624 pre-registered teams. Important dates: - Pre-Registration: November 21, 2016 - January 22, 2017 - Submission of qualification materials: refer to leagues pages in the website - Qualification: January 23 - February 19, 2017 - Early Registration: February 20 - March 12, 2017 - Late Registration: March 13 - 31, 2017 For further information please visit our official website at http://2017.iranopen.ir For inquiries please contact us via the below email addresses: - General Inquiries: info(a)iranopen.ir - Registration: registration(a)iranopen.ir - Visa & International Affairs: visa(a)iranopen.ir - Travel Support (for international teams): asadollah_norouzi(a)sp.edu.sg Regards On behalf of, Iranian RoboCup Regional Committee RoboCup IranOpen 2017 Organizing Committee

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RoboCup@Home mailing list moved to new server
by Luca Iocchi 04 Dec '16

04 Dec '16

Dear all, this mailing list has been moved to a new server and all the settings and users have been copied (except passwords). Since the e-mail address has not changed, you can continue using the list as before. To edit your settings (including password), go to http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome enter your e-mail address in the Subscribers section in the textfield close to the button 'Unsubscribe or edit options' click the button and follow the instructions in the next page. The old list (with old passwords) is reachable at http://oldlists.robocup.org/admin.cgi/robocup-athome-robocup.org You can read and backup old messages, but the list cannot be used anymore to send/receive e-mails. During navigation of the old lists, you may need to manually replace lists.robocup.org with oldlists.robocup.org in some URLs. If you have any question or problem, do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Luca.

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