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RoboCup German Open 2025, March 12-16 in Nuremberg
by Sven Wachsmuth 02 Dec '24

02 Dec '24

*RoboCup German Open 2025* Call for Participation - Major Leagues https://robocup.de/german-open <https://robocup.de/german-open> NürnbergMesse, Frankenhalle, Germany The 22nd RoboCup German Open 2025 will take place from March 12-16 in Nuremberg. Nuremberg, the second largest city in Bavaria, combines medieval charm with modern vitality. The city is known for its iconic castle, half-timbered houses and old city walls and has great historical significance. The city flourishes as a cultural and innovative centre where history and modern life coexist in a wonderful way. Every regional and international Major team is cordially invited to take part in the event. ---------------------------- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ---------------------- After the team setup on March 12th, the competitions will take place from 13 to 16 March 2025 in the following main leagues: * RoboCupSoccer Standard Platform League * RoboCupSoccer Humanoid League (KidSize and AdultSize) * RoboCupSoccer Small Size League * RoboCupRescue Robot League * RoboCupIndustrial Logistics League * RoboCupIndustrial @Work League * RoboCup@Home Open Platform League Registration opens *** December 15, 2024 *** Registration deadline *** January 31st, 2025 *** Late registration deadline (team members only) *** February 28th, 2025 *** When registration opens visit https://register.robocup.de <https://register.robocup.de/>to register your RoboCup Major League team. Details on the registration (fee, rules, travel) are available on the website. Teams are advised to make their own accommodation arrangements as early as possible, as places are limited before March 13. ---------------------------- RoboCup Junior (German teams) ----------------------------------- From March 13-16, 2025 the final event of the German RoboCupJunior Championship will be held at RoboCup German Open 2025 in Nuremberg. The best teams that have qualified in the eight previous German qualifying tournaments will take part. The best German Junior teams in the 2025 German Junior Final will qualify for RoboCup 2025 in Brazil and for the European RoboCupJunior Competition 2025 in Italy. ----------------------------- Organization Committee ---------------------------------- * Oskar von Stryk (General Chair) * Stefan May (Local Chair) * Alexander Ferrein (German RoboCup Committee, Spokesperson Major) The Major Leagues Organizing Committee: * Heinrich Mellmann (Standard Platform League) * Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann (Humanoid League) * Nicolai Ommer (Small Size League) * Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May, Thomas Sander (Rescue Robot League & RMRC) * Sven Wachsmuth (@Home League) * Alexander Ferrein (Logistics League) * Christoph Steup (@Work League) ---------------------------- Co-located Events ------------------------------------------------------ Parallel to the RoboCup German Open 2025 the first German Robotics Conference organized by the newly established Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) will take place. The conference will bring together the leading German researchers in AI-based robotics. Also in parallel, the FreizeitMesse will take place, which is one of Germany's largest leisure and lifestyle fairs. It attracts about 70.000 visitors each year. Many participants from both events are expected to visit RoboCup German Open 2025. ---------------------------- Important dates ---------------------------------- * 2024-12-15 Major teams early registration starts * 2025-01-31 Major teams registration deadline, team member registration deadline * 2025-02-28 Late registration deadline (team members only) * 2025-03-12 Set-up day Major League teams * 2025-03-13 to 16 Competition days * 2025-03-16 Major and Junior finals The event is open to the public during all days from 9 am to 5 pm ----------------------------- Contact ---------------------------------- Please contact _germanopen(a)robocup.de_ <mailto:germanopen@robocup.de>for any questions. See you all at the 22nd RoboCup German Open 2025! Best regards, German RoboCup Committee ---------------------------------- Acknowledgment ---------------------------------- The RoboCup German Open 2025 are supported by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) within the Robotics Institute Germany under grant number 16ME1001.

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[Meetings] IROS workshop on Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life
by Katarzyna Pasternak 09 Oct '24

09 Oct '24

=========================================================== Workshop on Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life =========================================================== 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems October 15th 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE https://sites.google.com/view/iros-2024-benchmarking-asr ______________________________________________________________ Dear RoboCup@Home Community, We are pleased to invite you to participate in the IROS workshop on *Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life* that will take place on *Tuesday, October 15th 2024 in ADNEC, Abu Dhabi, UAE. *The workshop will be located in conference *room 8 *from *8:00am till 12:00pm*. We will be hosting talks by invited speakers, break-out discussion sessions as well as a poster session. You can find more details in the abstract below as well as at our website <https://sites.google.com/view/iros-2024-benchmarking-asr>. We are looking forward to meeting you there! Best regards, The Organizers - Justin Hart, University of Texas - Austin, USA - Matteo Leonetti, King's College London, UK - Katarzyna Pasternak, University of Miami, USA - Komei Sugiura, Keio University, Japan - Ubbo Visser, University of Miami, USA - Sven Wachsmuth, University of Bielefeld, Germany ------------------------------------ Abstract: Autonomous service robots are increasingly prevalent in real-world settings, assuming various roles to supplement human capabilities. Mobile platforms such as Walker, H1, Cobiot, TIAGo, and Figure-01 have captured the interest of non-expert users, eager to integrate robots into everyday environments. With this growing presence, researchers must consider various aspects of integrating robots within inhabited spaces, including factors such as verbal and nonverbal communication, social behavior and navigation, or robot morphologies. The expansion of research in this domain poses the challenge of developing new benchmarks to assess performance realistically beyond the confines of research laboratories. This workshop aims to foster dialogue surrounding the future of research and its benchmarking in autonomous service robotics. Using keynotes, participants, and organizers’ experiences of real-world robotic competitions, we plan to steer the conversation to address core components of recent advancements and put forth a set of voluntary draft guidelines for autonomous service roboticists concerning test procedures and benchmarking. The sessions' results will be synthesized into a set of draft frameworks for setting realistic testing scenarios and utilizing them in testing and benchmarking. This workshop seeks to enhance the reporting standards within real-world autonomous robotics research and propel the field toward more structured research practices.

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[Meetings][Call for Participation] LACORO 2024: 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics
by LACORO committee 07 Oct '24

07 Oct '24

LACORO 2024 - 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics Rancagua (Chile) in-person, 9-13 December 2024 https://www.lacoro.org <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2H9V1n-SH2p3M-mGO0kGvQe8AhjNP…> The 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics is still accepting registrations. Due to some participant cancellations, we have a few slow-free spots again, which will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. We encourage you to apply or update your registration if you haven't already. If you weren't selected for a travel grant or didn't apply on time, don't worry! We're actively seeking additional sponsors to provide more travel grants so that as many participants as possible can join us. When submitting your application, please remember to include a poster or extended abstract, as this is an important grant requirement. If you need further support, such as a letter for your visa application, or have questions about the venue, please don't hesitate to contact us. You can find options for accommodation and travel information on the "venue" subpage of the LACORO webpage, which we recommend checking regularly for updates. We're looking forward to seeing you in Rancagua and can't wait for the contributions you will bring to the Robotics Community in Latin America! Best regards on behalf of the organising committee. [image: beacon]

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First Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2025 (DSPL OPL)
by Alina Hawkin 06 Oct '24

06 Oct '24

*First Call for Participation* *RoboCup@Home 2025 (DSPL · OPL)* July 15 to 21, 2025 (Salvador, Brazil) <https://2025.robocup.org/>https://athome.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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2025. *Important dates:* Oct. 02, 2024 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 18, 2024 Deadline for submission of participation intention. *Nov. 4, 2024* *Deadline for submission of qualification material.* *(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).* Dec. 20, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 31, 2025 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further Information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2025-cfp1-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Salvador, The 2025 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[Call for Participation][Last spots available] LACORO 2024: 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics
by LACORO committee 04 Sep '24

04 Sep '24

LACORO 2024 - 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics Rancagua (Chile) in person, 9-13 December 2024 https://www.lacoro.org <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2hgSuKaB8QIi37Yh08knBkBfe3VVY…> We are excited to announce the 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics. - to foster intercultural student collaboration within and outside the Americas - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. The Summer School will provide a clear overview of Robotics, while also providing an in-depth analysis of state-of-the-art research in the areas of Cognitive Robotics, Soft Robotics, and Robot Vision, and in the application areas of Agricultural Robotics, and Robotics for Mining. The Summer School will have presentations by renowned international speakers, including the following confirmed speakers: - Angelo Cangelosi, University of Manchester, UK - Josei Hughes, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland - Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Javier Ruíz-Del-Solar, Universidad de Chile, Chile - Miguel Torres Torriti, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile - Karon MacLean, University of British Columbia, Canada - Josh Pinskier, CSIRO Robotics, Australia - Javier Preciozzi, Universidad de la República & DigitalSense, Uruguay - J. Matias Di Martino, Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Uruguay and Duke University, USA Format: LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Moreover, we will host tutorial and mentoring sessions for both scientific topics and other aspects of the academic research world. Date and Location: LACORO will be held in-person from the 9th to 13th of December, 2024 at the Universidad de O’Higgins (UOH), Rancagua, Chile. We would like to highlight that there are limited spots for this event. They will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis as registrations are completed. Registration for students is free until 1st October 2024. Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, travel grants, and lodging, along with the registration form <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/20NoK362tybd69kgRyKxg-jmGobQl…> . If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, [image: beacon]

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Future of SSPL@Home Leaugue
by Katarzyna Pasternak 03 Sep '24

03 Sep '24

Dear @Home RoboCup Team, I hope this message finds you well. After careful consideration and thorough discussions, the RoboCup Federation Board of Trustees has decided to discontinue the SSPL @Home RoboCup League. Starting at RoboCup 2025 in Brazil, we will only host DSPL and OPL league competitions within the @Home. Over the past few years, we have observed a consistent decrease in the number of participating teams in the SSPL. Despite efforts to encourage participation and promote the league, the declining interest has made it challenging to maintain the level of competition and innovation that the RoboCup community expects. However, we want to reassure current SSPL teams that they are still welcome to apply for participation in the Open Platform League (OPL). The same rules and scoring criteria that apply to OPL teams will be applied to SSPL teams who transition. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity and continue to contribute to the @Home RoboCup League in this capacity. We understand that this may come as disappointing news to those who have dedicated time and effort to the SSPL. We deeply appreciate the contributions of all teams, mentors, and supporters who have been part of this journey. Your commitment has helped shape the SSPL into what it is today, and we recognize the impact it has had on the broader @Home RoboCup League. Moving forward, we encourage teams to explore the open platform opportunities that may align with their interests and expertise. We believe that this restructuring will allow us to focus resources on areas with stronger participation, ultimately fostering a more vibrant and competitive environment for all. Thank you for your understanding and continued support of the RoboCup community. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Best regards, RoboCup @Home Executive Committee

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[Meetings] Deadline extended: Call for Contributions for IROS 2024 Workshop: Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life
by Katarzyna Pasternak 30 Aug '24

30 Aug '24

Dear RoboCuppers, We have extended the submission deadline for the IROS Workshop on Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life till *September 7th, 2024*. Please, see the workshop and submission details below. Best regards, Workshop Organizers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================== Workshop on Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life =========================================================== 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems October 15th 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE https://sites.google.com/view/iros-2024-benchmarking-asr ______________________________________________________________ Autonomous service robots are increasingly prevalent in real-world settings, assuming various roles to supplement human capabilities. Mobile platforms such as Walker, H1, Cobiot, TIAGo, and Figure-01 have captured the interest of non-expert users, eager to integrate robots into everyday environments. With this growing presence, researchers must consider various aspects of integrating robots within inhabited spaces, including factors such as verbal and nonverbal communication, social behavior and navigation, or robot morphologies. The expansion of research in this domain poses the challenge of developing new benchmarks to assess performance realistically beyond the confines of research laboratories. This workshop aims to foster dialogue surrounding the future of research and its benchmarking in autonomous service robotics. Using keynotes, participants, and organizers’ experiences of real-world robotic competitions, we plan to steer the conversation to address core components of recent advancements and put forth a set of voluntary draft guidelines for autonomous service roboticists concerning test procedures and benchmarking. The sessions' results will be synthesized into a set of draft frameworks for setting realistic testing scenarios and utilizing them in testing and benchmarking. This workshop seeks to enhance the reporting standards within real-world autonomous robotics research and propel the field toward more structured research practices. Contributions are invited on all topics relevant to *real-life testing and benchmarking* advancements in autonomous service robots and topics that can help to inform this core idea, including (but not limited to) *testing and benchmarking in*: - Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation - Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments - Service Robots - Solving Service Robot Tasks - General-Purpose Service Robots - Foundation Models - Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions - Object Manipulation - Adaptive Behaviors - Behavior Integration - Ambient Intelligence - Standardization and System Integration *Submission deadline*: August 31st, 2024 *September 7th, 2024* Acceptance notification: October 1st, 2024 Final version due: October 8th, 2024 Workshop date: October 15th, 2024 The contributions should be in the IROS standard pdf format and include short work-in-progress and position papers (2-4 pages) or long-format papers (4-8 pages). All papers are to be considered for both oral presentations and posters. Posters will be presented during the scheduled poster session. Every paper will be reviewed in a single-blind process. The selection of accepted papers will be done by the organizing committee, based on the reviews. Based on the number and quality of submissions, selected papers may be published in a special section or issue of Advanced Robotics <https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tadr20>, the international journal of the Robotics Society of Japan. The submissions should be done here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=basr2024 The Organizers - Justin Hart, University of Texas - Austin, USA - Matteo Leonetti, King's College London, UK - Katarzyna Pasternak, University of Miami, USA - Komei Sugiura, Keio University, Japan - Ubbo Visser, University of Miami, USA - Sven Wachsmuth, University of Bielefeld, Germany

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[CFP] [meetings] AAAI 2024 Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD) *EXTENDED DEADLINES*
by DAVID PORFIRIO 01 Aug '24

01 Aug '24

*Apologies for cross-posting* EXTENDED DEADLINE & 3RD CALL FOR PAPERS What: AAAI 2024 Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD) When: November 7-9, 2024 Where: Arlington, VA Web: https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home IMPORTANT DATES: EXTENDED DEADLINES * Submission deadline: August 2nd August 9th * Decision notification: between August 16-23rd. (earlier submissions will be prioritized for earlier feedback!) * Archival Camera-ready deadline: August 30th (for authors who wish for their paper to be archived in the AAAI proceedings) Authors who do not wish for their papers to be archived can submit their camera-ready versions on September 6th. — Dear colleagues, We invite you to submit a paper and/or participate in the 2nd AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD). Accepted papers will be presented in-person at the symposium. Capturing a desired task or interaction as a computational artifact (i.e., a representation) has long played a pivotal role in robotics. Many robotic subfields have traditionally employed a variety of different representational techniques, such as LTL, planning languages, social representations, natural language, and many more. The problem is that there is a lack of cohesion in when and how these representations are applied. The 2nd symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD) thereby aims to increase representational cohesion between AI and robotics researchers, identify representational trends in robotics and opportunities for adopting new representations, foster cross-institutional collaborations, and make an impact beyond the symposium. Symposium Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home AAAI Fall Symposium Series Website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/fss24/ ========================= Submission Topics of Interest ========================= - Representational trends - Representations for robot learning - AI planning for robotics - Formal methods in robotics - Natural language as a representation - Novel representations & novel representation uses - Representations for user interfaces - Robot end-user development - Robot programming interfaces & paradigms - Robot runtime/control environments - Opportunities for standardization - Frameworks (e.g., ROS or middleware) - Open-source & collaboration initiatives - Identifying representation requirements ==================== Submission Information ==================== We invite the following contributions, formatted using the AAAI-24 author kit<https://aaai.org/authorkit24-2/>: * Research Papers (4-6 pages excluding references): describes work related to the topics above. * Position Papers (2-4 pages excluding references): discusses topics outlined above. * Artifact Papers (2-4 pages excluding references): describes artifacts (e.g., software tools or libraries) related to the topics above. Papers submitted by the above dates can be included in the AAAI Proceedings. (optional) If you intend to submit a paper, please email us at urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com<mailto:urrad.symposium@gmail.com>. Use the subject line, “[UR-RAD] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers. Note that at least one author from each paper will be expected to review 2-3 UR-RAD papers themselves. =================== Organizing Committee =================== David Porfirio (Chair, Naval Research Laboratory) Saad Elbeleidy (Peerbots) Ruchen Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Laura M. Hiatt (Naval Research Laboratory) Mark Roberts (Naval Research Laboratory) Willie Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) Ross Mead (Semio) Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Contact urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com<mailto:urrad.symposium@gmail.com> for any questions!

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[Meetings] Call for Contributions for IROS 2024 Workshop: Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life
by Katarzyna Pasternak 23 Jul '24

23 Jul '24

=========================================================== Workshop on Benchmarking Autonomous Service Robotics in Real Life =========================================================== 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems October 15th 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE https://sites.google.com/view/iros-2024-benchmarking-asr ______________________________________________________________ Autonomous service robots are increasingly prevalent in real-world settings, assuming various roles to supplement human capabilities. Mobile platforms such as Walker, H1, Cobiot, TIAGo, and Figure-01 have captured the interest of non-expert users, eager to integrate robots into everyday environments. With this growing presence, researchers must consider various aspects of integrating robots within inhabited spaces, including factors such as verbal and nonverbal communication, social behavior and navigation, or robot morphologies. The expansion of research in this domain poses the challenge of developing new benchmarks to assess performance realistically beyond the confines of research laboratories. This workshop aims to foster dialogue surrounding the future of research and its benchmarking in autonomous service robotics. Using keynotes, participants, and organizers’ experiences of real-world robotic competitions, we plan to steer the conversation to address core components of recent advancements and put forth a set of voluntary draft guidelines for autonomous service roboticists concerning test procedures and benchmarking. The sessions' results will be synthesized into a set of draft frameworks for setting realistic testing scenarios and utilizing them in testing and benchmarking. This workshop seeks to enhance the reporting standards within real-world autonomous robotics research and propel the field toward more structured research practices. Contributions are invited on all topics relevant to *real-life testing and benchmarking* advancements in autonomous service robots and topics that can help to inform this core idea, including (but not limited to) *testing and benchmarking in*: - Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation - Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments - Service Robots - Solving Service Robot Tasks - General-Purpose Service Robots - Foundation Models - Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions - Object Manipulation - Adaptive Behaviors - Behavior Integration - Ambient Intelligence - Standardization and System Integration *Submission deadline*: *August 31st, 2024* Acceptance notification: October 1st, 2024 Final version due: October 8th, 2024 Workshop date: October 15th, 2024 The contributions should be in the IROS standard pdf format and include short work-in-progress and position papers (2-4 pages) or long-format papers (4-8 pages). All papers are to be considered for both oral presentations and posters. Posters will be presented during the scheduled poster session. Every paper will be reviewed in a single-blind process. The selection of accepted papers will be done by the organizing committee, based on the reviews. Based on the number and quality of submissions, selected papers may be published in a special section or issue of Advanced Robotics <https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tadr20>, the international journal of the Robotics Society of Japan. The submissions should be done here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=basr2024 The Organizers - Justin Hart, University of Texas - Austin, USA - Matteo Leonetti, King's College London, UK - Katarzyna Pasternak, University of Miami, USA - Komei Sugiura, Keio University, Japan - Ubbo Visser, University of Miami, USA - Sven Wachsmuth, University of Bielefeld, Germany

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[meetings] [CFP] “ROS for Social Robots” *EXTENDED DEADLINES*
by Ross Mead 12 Jul '24

12 Jul '24

3RD CALL FOR PAPERS - What: ICSR 2024 Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” (ROS4SR) - When: October 24, 2024 (Thursday) - Where: Odense, Denmark - Web: https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr — IMPORTANT DATES: EXTENDED DEADLINES - Jul. 19, 2024: Full paper submission deadline - Aug. 5, 2024: Short paper submission deadline - Aug. 19, 2024: Notification of acceptance - Sep. 2, 2024: Camera-ready paper deadline - Oct. 21-23, 2024: ROSCon 2024 - Oct. 23-26, 2024: ICSR 2024 - Oct. 24, 2024: ROS4SR special session — Dear colleagues, The submission site is still open and submission deadlines have been extended for the Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” (ROS4SR) at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2024). This session aims to explore the burgeoning intersection between ROS and social robotics, bringing together a diverse array of researchers, developers, and practitioners from academia, industry, and the public sector. The special session will be held on Thursday, October 24th, 2024 in Odense, Denmark—one day after and co-located with ROSCon 2024—providing unique continuity and synergy for participants of both events. To support the intersection of these communities, we are pleased to offer all ICSR 2024 registered attendees a 15% discount code for registration at ROSCon 2024! Attendees will have the opportunity to share insights, foster collaborations, and discuss innovations that push the boundaries of what social robots can do using ROS. We invite contributions that address new research, developments, and applications in this dynamic field. TOPICS We encourage submissions on a variety of topics related to the use of ROS in social robotics, including, but not limited to: - Integration of ROS with social robot platforms - Novel ROS packages and tools designed for social robotics - Human-robot interaction models based on ROS - ROS support for multi-modal interaction (e.g., speech, gestures, and facial expressions) - Enhancements of ROS for real-time social interaction - Machine learning and AI techniques for social robots in ROS - Case studies of ROS in real-world social robotics applications - Development and deployment of socially assistive robots using ROS - Impact of ROS in therapeutic, educational, and entertainment social robotics settings - Security and privacy issues in ROS applications for social robots - Legal and ethical considerations and solutions in the design of ROS-powered social robots We look forward to receiving your contributions and advancing the state of the art in social robotics through innovative uses of ROS! PAPERS We invite paper submissions related to any of the special session topics: - Full research papers (8-10 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics research - Short artifact papers (4-6 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, or other tools) All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and all accepted papers will be published by Springer in the Proceedings of ICSR 2024. For more information about submissions, please visit the webpage <https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr>. LETTER OF INTENT (optional) If you intend to submit a paper, please email the special session organizers. Use the subject line, “[ROS4SR] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers specific to the special session. CONNECT For more information, please visit the webpage <https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr> or contact the special session organizers (ross(a)semio.ai and severin.lemaignan(a)pal-robotics.com). ORGANIZERS - Ross Mead (Semio) - Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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[jobs] One full-time PhD position in Learning Methods to Enable Dynamic Human-Robot Collaborations @Chalmers
by Karinne Ramirez-Amaro 05 Jul '24

05 Jul '24

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce one PhD research position at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The application deadline is July 22, 2024. We are looking for a highly motivated researcher who would like to pursue a PhD in the areas of Interpretable AI (IAI) and Autonomous Decision-Making to study and make significant contributions to the emerging field of Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). HRC studies the most effective algorithms to enable robots to work safely and efficiently alongside with humans in shared spaces. Join our multidisciplinary team to further investigate and propose innovative solutions to empower robots with the ability to make informed decisions in collaborative environments. If you are passionate about Interpretable AI, autonomous decision-making, and the future of human-robot collaboration, we strongly encourage you to apply! More information about the position: https://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/work-with-us/vacancies/?rmpage=jo… **Application deadline: July 22, 2024** Please, do not hesitate to contact me for further information. Best regards, Karinne --------------------- Karinne Ramirez Amaro Associate Professor Chalmers University of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering Systems and Control Division SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden Member of IEEE-RAS Administratite Committee (AdCom) IEEE-RAS Associate Vice Presidents of the Member Activity Board (MAB) E-mail:karinne@chalmers.se Website: https://sites.google.com/view/craft-laboratory/home Office Room: Edit, 5437 Office telephone: +46-31-772-1074 www.chalmers.se<http://www.chalmers.se>

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[meetings] [CFP] “ROS for Social Robots” Special Session @ ICSR 2024
by Ross Mead 04 Jul '24

04 Jul '24

2ND CALL FOR PAPERS - What: ICSR 2024 Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” (ROS4SR) - When: October 24, 2024 (Thursday) - Where: Odense, Denmark - Web: https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr — IMPORTANT DATES - Jul. 5, 2024: Letter of intent deadline (optional) - Jul. 12, 2024: Paper submission deadline - Aug. 12, 2024: Paper acceptance/rejection notification - Aug. 26, 2024: Camera-ready paper deadline - Oct. 21-23, 2024: ROSCon 2024 - Oct. 23-26, 2024: ICSR 2024 - Oct. 24, 2024: ROS4SR special session — Dear colleagues, The submission site is open for the Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” (ROS4SR) at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2024). This session aims to explore the burgeoning intersection between ROS and social robotics, bringing together a diverse array of researchers, developers, and practitioners from academia, industry, and the public sector. The special session will be held on Thursday, October 24th, 2024 in Odense, Denmark—one day after and co-located with ROSCon 2024—providing unique continuity and synergy for participants of both events. To support the intersection of these communities, we are pleased to offer all ICSR 2024 registered attendees a 15% discount code for registration at ROSCon 2024! Attendees will have the opportunity to share insights, foster collaborations, and discuss innovations that push the boundaries of what social robots can do using ROS. We invite contributions that address new research, developments, and applications in this dynamic field. TOPICS We encourage submissions on a variety of topics related to the use of ROS in social robotics, including, but not limited to: - Integration of ROS with social robot platforms - Novel ROS packages and tools designed for social robotics - Human-robot interaction models based on ROS - ROS support for multi-modal interaction (e.g., speech, gestures, and facial expressions) - Enhancements of ROS for real-time social interaction - Machine learning and AI techniques for social robots in ROS - Case studies of ROS in real-world social robotics applications - Development and deployment of socially assistive robots using ROS - Impact of ROS in therapeutic, educational, and entertainment social robotics settings - Security and privacy issues in ROS applications for social robots - Legal and ethical considerations and solutions in the design of ROS-powered social robots We look forward to receiving your contributions and advancing the state of the art in social robotics through innovative uses of ROS! PAPERS We invite paper submissions related to any of the special session topics: - Research papers (8-10 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics research - Artifact papers (4-6 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, or other tools) All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and all accepted papers will be published by Springer in the Proceedings of ICSR 2024. For more information about submission, please visit the webpage <https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr>. LETTER OF INTENT (optional) If you intend to submit a paper, please email the special session organizers. Use the subject line, “[ROS4SR] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers specific to the special session. CONNECT For more information, please visit the webpage <https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr> or contact the special session organizers (ross(a)semio.ai and severin.lemaignan(a)pal-robotics.com). ORGANIZERS - Ross Mead (Semio) - Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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[CFP] [meetings] AAAI 2024 Fall Symposium on “Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development” (UR-RAD)
by DAVID PORFIRIO 02 Jul '24

02 Jul '24

** Apologies for cross-posting ** Dear colleagues, We invite you to submit a paper to the 2nd AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD). The symposium will take place on November 7-9, 2024, in Arlington, VA, USA. Accepted papers will be presented in person only (though participants who are not presenting may attend remotely). ============= Key Information ============= Behind any robot task or interaction is a representation that should (a) enable sufficient contextualization; (b) support any existing predefined, learned, and/or reusable skills onboard the robot; (c) be verifiable and behave consistently; and (d) can be tested, executed, and modified for reuse on a variety of different robot morphologies. Capturing a desired task or interaction as a computational artifact (i.e., a representation) has long played a pivotal role in robotics. Many robotic subfields have traditionally employed a variety of different representational techniques, such as LTL, planning languages, social representations, natural language, and many more. The problem is that there is a lack of cohesion in when and how these representations are applied. The 2nd symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development (UR-RAD) thereby aims to increase representational cohesion between AI and robotics researchers, identify representational trends in robotics and opportunities for adopting new representations, foster cross-institutional collaborations, and make an impact beyond the symposium. Symposium Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home AAAI Fall Symposium Series Website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/fss24/ ========================= Submission Topics of Interest ========================= - Representational trends - Natural language as a representation - Novel representations & novel representation uses - AI planning for robotics - Formal methods in robotics - Representations for robot learning - Representations for user interfaces - Robot end-user development - Robot programming interfaces & paradigms - Robot runtime/control environments - Opportunities for standardization - Frameworks (e.g., ROS or middleware) - Open-source & collaboration initiatives - Identifying representation requirements ============= Important Dates ============= Submission deadline: August 2nd Decision Notification: August 16th Camera Ready Deadline: August 30th (this is a hard deadline for authors who wish to be included in the AAAI proceedings) ==================== Submission Information ==================== We invite the following contributions, formatted using the AAAI-24 author kit<https://aaai.org/authorkit24-2/>: * Research Papers (4-6 pages excluding references): describes work related to the topics above. * Position Papers (2-4 pages excluding references): discusses topics outlined above. * Artifact Papers (2-4 pages excluding references): describes artifacts (e.g., software tools or libraries) related to the topics above. Papers submitted by the above dates can be included in the AAAI Proceedings. (optional) If you intend to submit a paper, please email us at urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com<mailto:urrad.symposium@gmail.com>. Use the subject line, “[UR-RAD] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers. Note that at least one author from each paper will be expected to review 2-3 UR-RAD papers themselves. =================== Organizing Committee =================== David Porfirio (Chair, Naval Research Laboratory) Saad Elbeleidy (Peerbots) Ruchen Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Laura M. Hiatt (Naval Research Laboratory) Mark Roberts (Naval Research Laboratory) Willie Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) Ross Mead (Semio) Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Contact urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com<mailto:urrad.symposium@gmail.com> for any questions!

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[meetings] [CFP] “ROS for Social Robots” Special Session @ ICSR 2024
by Ross Mead 18 Jun '24

18 Jun '24

CALL FOR PAPERS - What: ICSR 2024 Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” (ROS4SR) - When: October 24, 2024 (Thursday) - Where: Odense, Denmark - Web: https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr — IMPORTANT DATES - Jul. 5, 2024: Letter of intent deadline (optional) - Jul. 12, 2024: Paper submission deadline - Aug. 12, 2024: Paper acceptance/rejection notification - Aug. 26, 2024: Camera-ready paper deadline - Oct. 21-23, 2024: ROSCon 2024 - Oct. 23-26, 2024: ICSR 2024 - Oct. 24, 2024: ROS4SR special session — Dear colleagues, We are thrilled to announce a Special Session on “ROS for Social Robots” ( ROS4SR) at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2024). This session aims to explore the burgeoning intersection between ROS and social robotics, bringing together a diverse array of researchers, developers, and practitioners from academia, industry, and the public sector. The special session will be held on Thursday, October 24th, 2024 in Odense, Denmark—one day after and co-located with ROSCon 2024—providing unique continuity and synergy for participants of both events. To support the intersection of these communities, we are pleased to offer all ICSR 2024 registered attendees a 15% discount code for registration at ROSCon 2024! Attendees will have the opportunity to share insights, foster collaborations, and discuss innovations that push the boundaries of what social robots can do using ROS. We invite contributions that address new research, developments, and applications in this dynamic field. TOPICS We encourage submissions on a variety of topics related to the use of ROS in social robotics, including, but not limited to: - Integration of ROS with social robot platforms - Novel ROS packages and tools designed for social robotics - Human-robot interaction models based on ROS - ROS support for multi-modal interaction (e.g., speech, gestures, and facial expressions) - Enhancements of ROS for real-time social interaction - Machine learning and AI techniques for social robots in ROS - Case studies of ROS in real-world social robotics applications - Development and deployment of socially assistive robots using ROS - Impact of ROS in therapeutic, educational, and entertainment social robotics settings - Security and privacy issues in ROS applications for social robots - Legal and ethical considerations and solutions in the design of ROS-powered social robots We look forward to receiving your contributions and advancing the state of the art in social robotics through innovative uses of ROS! PAPERS We invite paper submissions related to any of the special session topics: - Research papers (8-10 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics research - Artifact papers (4-6 pages) describing ROS-enabled social robotics artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, or other tools) All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and all accepted papers will be published by Springer in the Proceedings of ICSR 2024. LETTER OF INTENT (optional) If you intend to submit a paper, please email the special session organizers. Use the subject line, “[ROS4SR] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers specific to the special session. CONNECT For more information, please visit the webpage <https://icsr2024.dk/index.php/ros4sr> or contact the special session organizers (ross(a)semio.ai and severin.lemaignan(a)pal-robotics.com). ORGANIZERS - Ross Mead (Semio) - Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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Confirmation of GPT API Usage Approval instewad of TC Emails
by 厚誠久保 17 Jun '24

17 Jun '24

Dear robocup@home organizations I am Kosei from team TRAIL in the DSPL League. I have sent the mail for the permission to use the GPT API to the TC mailing lists, but I have not yet received a response. I am concerned that the email may not have been successfully delivered. Could you please confirm if the use of the GPT API has been approved? We look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Kosei Kubo

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[CFP] Third Call for Participation - Deadline Extended for DIS 2024 RoboCare Design Workshop
by Paluch, Richard 13 Jun '24

13 Jun '24

** Apologies for cross-postings ** CALL FOR PAPERS: What: DIS 2024 workshop on “RoboCare: Understanding, Translating, Operationalizing, and Scaling Design Knowledge in Systems for Care Assistance” When: July 2, 2024 Where: IT University, Copenhagen-DK (at the DIS 2024 conference) Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign Registration Code: W16-ROBOCARE Please note: We welcome participation regardless of paper submission. — IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE WORKSHOP: All dates are Mondays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. [EXTENDED] June 17, 2024: General submission paper deadline June 24, 2024: General submission notification deadline July 1, 2024: Camera-ready deadline July 2, 2024: (Tuesday) Workshop (full-day) — OVERVIEW: Robots and other autonomous agents are well-positioned in the research discourse to support the care of people with challenges such as physical and/or cognitive disabilities. However, designing these robots can be complex as it involves considering a wide range of factors (e.g., individual needs, physical environment, technology capabilities, digital literacy), stakeholders (e.g., care recipients, formal and informal caregivers, technology developers), and contexts (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient care facilities, private homes). The challenges are in gaining design insights for this unique use case and translating this knowledge into actionable, generalizable guidelines for other designers. This one-day workshop seeks to bring together researchers with diverse expertise and experience across academia, healthcare, and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple disciplines, including design, robotics, and human-computer interaction, with the primary goal being a consensus on best practices for generating and operationalizing design knowledge for robotic systems for care settings. The workshop structure will include keynote speakers, author presentations, a panel, and small/large group discussions. Our primary goal is to encourage interaction and discussion among interdisciplinary researchers. With our panel, we aim to capitalize on Denmark's many initiatives for robots in healthcare to bring a variety of experts from the industry to help enrich and guide our discussions and takeaways. The workshop will be in-person only, held at DIS’24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. — TARGET AUDIENCE: Our workshop welcomes participants from various sectors, with a primary focus on: * Core research community members surrounding robotic systems for care settings. * Members of related fields, e.g., the broader accessibility and aging research communities. * Members from the industry seeking to deploy/market robotic systems for care. * Researchers or community members who may have an active personal interest in the topic. — THEMES: Participation in our workshop is open to all, and while submissions are not required, they are highly encouraged. We invite contributions in the following areas: Design Outcomes: We invite contributions that scrutinize the multifaceted design aspects of robotic care systems. Discussions should revolve around the efficacy of various design outcomes, exploring the potential to standardize these for broader applicability. Submissions may address questions such as: What constitutes a meaningful outcome of a design study? How can we extend these findings to benefit the wider research and design community? Stakeholder Involvement: Care assistance is a collective effort, engaging numerous participants from care recipients to caregivers and beyond. We seek insights into effective stakeholder integration within the design process. Queries might include: How do we strategically involve stakeholders? What are the advantages of multi-stakeholder vs. single-stakeholder sessions in the design process? Design Methodologies: This theme encourages a critical examination of the methodologies employed in designing robotic care systems. We welcome debates on the merits and drawbacks of various approaches, such as surveys, participatory design, and lab studies. Contributions should consider: Which methodologies are suited for which contexts? How can we address common critiques of these methods? Reflections on Design Experiences: The practical experiences of researchers offer invaluable lessons. This theme is dedicated to sharing those lessons that fall outside the conventional academic narrative but are crucial for informing future design studies. We invite reflections on: What strategies have proven successful? Which aspects of the design process could be improved? — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing extended abstracts, work in progress, preliminary findings, position papers, methodology papers, blue skies papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the workshop website. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Richard Paluch (University of Siegen) Long-Jing Hsu (Indiana University Bloomington) Sawyer Collins (Indiana University Bloomington) Yaxin Hu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Marius Greuèl (Pflegewerk Managementgesellschaft mbH) Naonori Kodate (University College Dublin) Claudia Müller (University of Siegen) Bilge Mutlu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Selma Šabanović (Indiana University Bloomington) ---------------------------------------------------------------- All the best, Richard Paluch Research Associate Pronouns: he/him Information Systems, esp. IT for the Ageing Society University of Siegen Kohlbettstr. 15 57072 Siegen

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[Meetings][Call for Participation] LACORO 2024: 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics
by LACORO committee 07 Jun '24

07 Jun '24

LACORO 2024 - 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics Rancagua (Chile) in person, 9-13 December 2024 https://www.lacoro.org <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2vJzniFd0Mdwl2esPL7hpmQ5fU5fR…> We are excited to announce the 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics. - to foster intercultural student collaboration within and outside the Americas - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. The Summer School will provide a clear overview of Robotics, while also providing an in-depth analysis of state-of-the-art research in the areas of Cognitive Robotics, Soft Robotics, and Robot Vision, and in the application areas of Agricultural Robotics, and Robotics for Mining. The Summer School will have presentations by renowned international speakers, including the following confirmed speakers: - Angelo Cangelosi, University of Manchester, UK - Josei Hughes, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland - Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Javier Ruíz-Del-Solar, Universidad de Chile, Chile - Miguel Torres Torriti, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile Format: LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Moreover, we will host tutorial and mentoring sessions for both scientific topics and other aspects of the academic research world. Date and Location: LACORO will be held in-person from the 9th to 13th of December, 2024 at the Universidad de O’Higgins (UOH), Rancagua, Chile. Registration will open 1st July 2024 Registration for students is free until 1st October 2024 Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, travel grants, and lodging, along with the registration form <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2iezIbvbAFJkdqdd4TMXYJ_Swf-Zy…> . If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, [image: beacon]

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[meetings] [CFP] Second Call for Participation - Deadline Extended for DIS 2024 RoboCare Design Workshop
by Yaxin Hu 30 May '24

30 May '24

** Apologies for cross-postings ** CALL FOR PAPERS: * What: DIS 2024 workshop on “RoboCare: Understanding, Translating, Operationalizing, and Scaling Design Knowledge in Systems for Care Assistance” * When: July 2, 2024 * Where: IT University, Copenhagen-DK (at the DIS 2024 conference) * Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign — IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE WORKSHOP: All dates are Mondays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. * [EXTENDED] June 17, 2024: General submission paper deadline * June 24, 2024: General submission notification deadline * July 1, 2024: Camera-ready deadline * July 2, 2024: (Tuesday) Workshop (full-day) — OVERVIEW: Robots and other autonomous agents are well-positioned in the research discourse to support the care of people with challenges such as physical and/or cognitive disabilities. However, designing these robots can be complex as it involves considering a wide range of factors (e.g., individual needs, physical environment, technology capabilities, digital literacy), stakeholders (e.g., care recipients, formal and informal caregivers, technology developers), and contexts (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient care facilities, private homes). The challenges are in gaining design insights for this unique use case and translating this knowledge into actionable, generalizable guidelines for other designers. This one-day workshop seeks to bring together researchers with diverse expertise and experience across academia, healthcare, and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple disciplines, including design, robotics, and human-computer interaction, with the primary goal being a consensus on best practices for generating and operationalizing design knowledge for robotic systems for care settings. The workshop structure will include keynote speakers, author presentations, a panel, and small/large group discussions. Our primary goal is to encourage interaction and discussion among interdisciplinary researchers. With our panel, we aim to capitalize on Denmark's many initiatives for robots in healthcare to bring a variety of experts from the industry to help enrich and guide our discussions and takeaways. The workshop will be in-person only, held at DIS’24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. — TARGET AUDIENCE: Our workshop welcomes participants from various sectors, with a primary focus on: * Core research community members surrounding robotic systems for care settings. * Members of related fields, e.g., the broader accessibility and aging research communities. * Members from the industry seeking to deploy/market robotic systems for care. * Researchers or community members who may have an active personal interest in the topic. — THEMES: Participation in our workshop is open to all, and while submissions are not required, they are highly encouraged. We invite contributions in the following areas: * Design Outcomes: We invite contributions that scrutinize the multifaceted design aspects of robotic care systems. Discussions should revolve around the efficacy of various design outcomes, exploring the potential to standardize these for broader applicability. Submissions may address questions such as: What constitutes a meaningful outcome of a design study? How can we extend these findings to benefit the wider research and design community? * Stakeholder Involvement: Care assistance is a collective effort, engaging numerous participants from care recipients to caregivers and beyond. We seek insights into effective stakeholder integration within the design process. Queries might include: How do we strategically involve stakeholders? What are the advantages of multi-stakeholder vs. single-stakeholder sessions in the design process? * Design Methodologies: This theme encourages a critical examination of the methodologies employed in designing robotic care systems. We welcome debates on the merits and drawbacks of various approaches, such as surveys, participatory design, and lab studies. Contributions should consider: Which methodologies are suited for which contexts? How can we address common critiques of these methods? * Reflections on Design Experiences: The practical experiences of researchers offer invaluable lessons. This theme is dedicated to sharing those lessons that fall outside the conventional academic narrative but are crucial for informing future design studies. We invite reflections on: What strategies have proven successful? Which aspects of the design process could be improved? — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing extended abstracts, work in progress, preliminary findings, position papers, methodology papers, blue skies papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the workshop website. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: * Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Richard Paluch (University of Siegen) * Long-Jing Hsu (Indiana University Bloomington) * Sawyer Collins (Indiana University Bloomington) * Yaxin Hu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Marius Greuèl (Pflegewerk Managementgesellschaft mbH) * Naonori Kodate (University College Dublin) * Claudia Müller (University of Siegen) * Bilge Mutlu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Selma Šabanović (Indiana University Bloomington) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Yaxin Hu yaxin.hu(a)wisc.edu | edayaxin.com<https://www.edayaxin.com/about.html> PhD Student in Computer Sciences People and Robots Laboratory University of Wisconsin-Madison

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[Meetings][Call for Participation] LACORO 2024: 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics
by LACORO committee 13 May '24

13 May '24

LACORO 2024 - 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics Rancagua (Chile) in person, 9-13 December 2024 https://www.lacoro.org <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2V4Gf4GXBF_ydHoZM74KGjGTN2AtZ…> We are excited to announce the 3rd Latin American Summer School on Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics. - to foster intercultural student collaboration within and outside the Americas - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. The Summer School will provide a clear overview of Robotics, while also providing an in-depth analysis of state-of-the-art research in the areas of Cognitive Robotics, Soft Robotics, and Robot Vision, and in the application areas of Agricultural Robotics, and Robotics for Mining. The Summer School will have presentations by renowned international speakers, including the following confirmed speakers: - Angelo Cangelosi, University of Manchester, UK - Josei Hughes, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland - Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden - Javier Ruíz-Del-Solar, Universidad de Chile, Chile - Miguel Torres Torriti, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile Format: LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Moreover, we will host tutorial and mentoring sessions for both scientific topics and other aspects of the academic research world. Date and Location: LACORO will be held in-person from the 9th to 13th of December, 2024 at the Universidad de O’Higgins (UOH), Rancagua, Chile. Registration will open 1st July 2024 Registration for students is free until 1st October 2024 Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, travel grants, and lodging, along with the registration form <https://lmmartiner-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2nE6LBt0zBxIABrEgEizf9UP4CrgY…> . If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, [image: beacon]

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Updated Rulebook 2024 Release
by Johannes Kummert 03 May '24

03 May '24

Hello everybody, we just released an update to the Rulebook for Eindhoven with feedback collected at the German Open: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook/releases/tag/2024.2 These changes are mainly: - scoring item adjustments - penalty item adjustments to accurately match scoring items - clarifications on procedure for some tests - clarifications on how certain scores are achieved For details, reference the pull requests linked in the release. Kind Regards, Johannes

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[meetings] [CFP] First Call for Participation - DIS 2024 RoboCare Design Workshop
by LAURA STEGNER 23 Apr '24

23 Apr '24

** Apologies for cross-postings ** CALL FOR PAPERS: * What: RoboCare Design Workshop at DIS 2024 on “Understanding, Translating, Operationalizing, and Scaling Up Design Knowledge Regarding Robotic Systems for Care Assistance” * When: July 2, 2024 * Where: IT University, Copenhagen-DK (at the DIS 2024 conference) * Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Fridays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. * May 15, 2024: Submission site opens * May 24, 2024: Early-bird paper deadline * May 29, 2024: Early-bird notification deadline * Jun. 3, 2024: General submission paper deadline * Jun. 19, 2024: General submission notification deadline * Jun. 27, 2024: Camera-ready deadline * July 2, 2024: Workshop (full-day) — OVERVIEW: Robots and other autonomous agents are well-positioned in the research discourse to support the care of people with challenges such as physical and/or cognitive disabilities. However, designing these robots can be complex as it involves considering a wide range of factors (e.g., individual needs, physical environment, technology capabilities, digital literacy), stakeholders (e.g., care recipients, formal and informal caregivers, technology developers), and contexts (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient care facilities, private homes). The challenges are in gaining design insights for this unique use case and translating this knowledge into actionable, generalizable guidelines for other designers. This one-day workshop seeks to bring together researchers with diverse expertise and experience across academia, healthcare, and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple disciplines, including design, robotics, and human-computer interaction, with the primary goal being a consensus on best practices for generating and operationalizing design knowledge for robotic systems for care settings. The workshop structure will include keynote speakers, author presentations, a panel, and small/large group discussions. Our primary goal is to encourage interaction and discussion among interdisciplinary researchers. Keynote speakers will include Dr. Selma Šabanović, who will share expertise on design and evaluation of socially interactive and assistive robots, and Dr. Christopher Frauenberger, who will share expertise on working with a wide range of stakeholders for robot design. With our panel, we aim to capitalize on Denmark's many initiatives for robots in healthcare to bring a variety of experts from the industry to help enrich and guide our discussions and takeaways. The workshop will be in-person only, held at DIS’24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. — TARGET AUDIENCE: Our workshop welcomes participants from various sectors, with a primary focus on: * Core research community members surrounding robotic systems for care settings. * Members of related fields, e.g., the broader accessibility and aging research communities. * Members from the industry seeking to deploy/market robotic systems for care. * Researchers or community members who may have an active personal interest in the topic. — THEMES: Participation in our workshop is open to all, and while submissions are not required, they are highly encouraged. We invite contributions in the following areas: * Design Outcomes: We invite contributions that scrutinize the multifaceted design aspects of robotic care systems. Discussions should revolve around the efficacy of various design outcomes, exploring the potential to standardize these for broader applicability. Submissions may address questions such as: What constitutes a meaningful outcome of a design study? How can we extend these findings to benefit the wider research and design community? * Stakeholder Involvement: Care assistance is a collective effort, engaging numerous participants from care recipients to caregivers and beyond. We seek insights into effective stakeholder integration within the design process. Queries might include: How do we strategically involve stakeholders? What are the advantages of multi-stakeholder vs. single-stakeholder sessions in the design process? * Design Methodologies: This theme encourages a critical examination of the methodologies employed in designing robotic care systems. We welcome debates on the merits and drawbacks of various approaches, such as surveys, participatory design, and lab studies. Contributions should consider: Which methodologies are suited for which contexts? How can we address common critiques of these methods? * Reflections on Design Experiences: The practical experiences of researchers offer invaluable lessons. This theme is dedicated to sharing those lessons that fall outside the conventional academic narrative but are crucial for informing future design studies. We invite reflections on: What strategies have proven successful? Which aspects of the design process could be improved? — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing extended abstracts, work in progress, preliminary findings, position papers, methodology papers, blue skies papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the workshop website. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/robocaredesign) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: * Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Richard Paluch (University of Siegen) * Long-Jing Hsu (Indiana University Bloomington) * Sawyer Collins (Indiana University Bloomington) * Yaxin Hu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Marius Greuèl (Pflegewerk Managementgesellschaft mbH) * Naonori Kodate (University College Dublin) * Claudia Müller (University of Siegen) * Bilge Mutlu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) * Selma Šabanović (Indiana University Bloomington)

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ICRA 2024 Forum “Enhancing Service Robots for Future Homes”
by Katarzyna Pasternak 11 Apr '24

11 Apr '24

Dear RoboCuppers, We are pleased to extend our invitation for the Forum "Enhancing Service Robots for Future Homes: Insights and Learnings Forum" scheduled to take place at ICRA 2024 on May 16th, 2024. This forum will provide a venue to discuss the current state and future of research and advancement of domestic service robots, spanning from human-robot interaction and scene understanding to navigation and object manipulation. We believe that by exploring these areas, we can pave the way for the creation of at-home service robots that seamlessly integrate into human environments. Our distinguished panel of speakers, comprising six experts in the field of robotics, will offer invaluable insights into the topics such as explainable robots, safety, trustworthiness, perception, planning, and learning for service robots. Through their expertise, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of recent technological advancements and their implications for the development of service robots. Furthermore, we will provide context by discussing the role of RoboCup and other competition environments in shaping the future of robotics. We cordially invite you to join us for this forum, where you'll have the opportunity to engage with fellow experts, researchers, and enthusiasts in the field. Your presence and insights will contribute to the success of our discussions. Event Details: Date: May 16th, 2024 Time: 13:30 - 18:00 Location: Pacific Convention Plaza Yokohama(PACIFICO Yokohama), North G1 room Website: sites.google.com/view/fma-home-icra24 and 2024.ieee-icra.org/program/forums/ Should you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to reach out to the forum organizers at kwp(a)cs.miami.edu. We look forward to welcoming you to the "Enhancing Service Robots for Future Homes" forum and to the enriching discussions that lie ahead. Warm regards, Forum Organizers Justin Hart, Matteo Leonetti, Katarzyna Pasternak, Komei Sugiura, Ubbo Visser, Sven Wachsmuth

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Rulebook 2024 Release
by Johannes Kummert 08 Apr '24

08 Apr '24

Hi everybody, The final Rulebook version for the 2024 competitions is released now: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook/releases/tag/2024.1 Final version means no more major changes. However wording changes and clarifications might still be made. With Eindhoven fast approaching I'd like to, again, offer a session where teams can ask any questions regarding the new rulebook and competition. This is mainly aimed at newer teams but of course open to everybody. Note, that it is also not exclusively for qualified teams, but teams participating in one the opens or planning to participate next year are also invited to sit in and ask questions. Please keep in mind that we cannot answer questions or make any promises about the specific conditions in Eindhoven. The session will be held on Friday the 15th at 14:00 GMT+1. I will send a zoom link then. If demand is high I would be willing to do a second session. If you cannot make it on Friday at that time, please message me with your time zone and I try to find a more convenient 2nd time for hopefully everybody. Regards Johannes

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Rulebook 2024 Q&A
by Johannes Kummert 15 Mar '24

15 Mar '24

Hello everybody, Rulebook Q&A document (Zoom link for later inside): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y_MfWs0nnnhYtIzp5qAV9wxTDLQhbmKomlAL4ft… Regards Johannes

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ternational Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '24), 16-18 September 2024, Austin, Texas
by Justin W Hart 05 Mar '24

05 Mar '24

Call for Participation The Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems 2024 (TAS ‘24), 16-18 September 2024, Austin, Texas https://symposium.tas.ac.uk/2024/ We invite submissions on research focused on trustworthy autonomous systems (TAS), responsible and ethical artificial intelligence, and human-machine interaction. Important dates 3 May 2024: submission of poster abstracts, full papers, and workshop proposals July 2024: notifications 16 September 2024: workshops day 17-18 September 2024: conference days Autonomous systems involve software applications and machines that can take actions with little or no human supervision. We are particularly interested in socio-technical systems involving both humans and machines working together, and automated decision-making processes and the ways in which they are employed by and impacting people. Trustworthy autonomous systems (TAS) generate positive outcomes and mitigate potentially harmful outcomes for people, societies, economies, and the environment. We invite full-paper submissions, poster abstracts, and workshop proposals on research that addresses the challenges of designing, building, and deploying Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS). Contributions may consider technical, social, legal, and ethical issues and their impacts on individuals, society, and the economy. Submissions may come from disciplines including, but not limited to, engineering, computer science, psychology, social sciences, law, and arts & humanities. Submissions will be selected for publication following peer review. Submission information will be released soon. The proceedings, including full papers and abstracts, will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Liz Dowthwaite, TAS Hub, University of Nottingham, UK Justin Hart, Good Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, US TAS ‘24 General Chairs

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Call for Participation RoboCup German Open 2024
by Sven Wachsmuth 28 Feb '24

28 Feb '24

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS FEB 29 2024!* * * * * *RoboCup German Open 2024 - Major Leagues* Call for Participation https://robocup.de/german-open April 17th – 21th, 2024 Messe Kassel, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2024 will be the 21st open RoboCup competition held in Germany. The event will take place in Kassel at Messe Kassel. Every regional and international Major team is cordially invited to take part in the event. --------------------- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ------------------------- Competitions are from April 17 - 21 in the following Major leagues: RoboCup Soccer Standard Platform League RoboCup Soccer Humanoid League RoboCup Soccer Small Size League RoboCup Rescue Robot League RoboCup Logistics League RoboCup @Home League RoboCup @Work League The registration opens *** February 12th, 2024 ***. The registration deadline is *** February 29th, 2024 ***. Visit https://register.robocup.de to register your RoboCup Major League team. Details on the registration (fee, accommodation, rules) are available on the website. Booking of blocked accommodation with special rates is possible after your registration. The Major Leagues Organizing Committee: Patrick Göttsch (Standard Platform League) Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann (Humanoid League) Nicolai Ommer (Small Size League) Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) Sven Wachsmuth (@Home League) Alexander Ferrein (Logistics League) Christoph Steup (RoboCup @Work League) -------------------------- RoboCup Junior (regional teams) ------------------------------- From April 18-21 the final event of the German RoboCupJunior Championship will be held at RoboCup German Open 2024 in Kassel. The best teams that have qualified in the eight previous local tournaments will take part. The best German Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2024 in Eindhoven and for the European RoboCupJunior Competition 2024 in Hannover. -------------------------------- Important dates —————------------------------------------ 2024-02-12 Major teams registration starts 2024-02-29 Major teams registration deadline 2024-03-11 Invoices are sent to team leaders 2024-03-17 Registration deadline for team member updates 2024-03-31 Registration fee due 2024-04-17 Set-up day Major League teams (venue opens 9:00) 2024-04-18 Competition day (open to the public) 2024-04-19 Competition day (open to the public) 2024-04-20 Competition day, Major finals (open to the public) 2024-04-21 Competition day, Junior finals (open to the public) ----------------------------------- Contact --------------------------------------------- Please contact germanopen(a)robocup.de for any questions. See you all at the 21st RoboCup German Open 2024! Best regards, German RoboCup Committee ---------------------------------- Acknowledgement ———————————————————— The RoboCup German Open 2024 is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) under grant number 16ME0933. -- PD Dr.-Ing. Sven Wachsmuth CITEC CLF / COSY@Home-Lab Bielefeld University RoboCup German Open 2024 @Home LOC

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RoboCup@Home at RoboCup Portugal Open 2024 - Call for Participation
by Tiago Ribeiro 27 Feb '24

27 Feb '24

Dear RoboCup@Home Community, It is with great pleasure that we announce the 2nd edition of RoboCup@Home at RoboCup Portugal Open 2024. 🤖 The event will take place at Pavilhão Municipal in the city of Paredes de Coura, Portugal, from May 2nd to 5th, 2024. 🇵🇹 In this event we will only have OPL. However, robots from both DSPL and SSPL are welcome to participate in OPL. We will have one setup day (May 2nd) and three competition days (May 3rd -5th). For more information, visit the official event website: https://www.festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/2024-1/ . The link for registration can be accessed via website or here: https://forms.gle/fung9nuh1DtxpHMPA Important Dates: 12th of April – Registration (350€ for a team of five members + 25€ for every additional member – includes breakfast, lunch and dinner) 19th of April – Late Registration (400€ for a team of five members + 25€ for every additional member – includes breakfast, lunch and dinner) Parallel to the event, there is a scientific conference (ICARSC 2024) IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Systems and Competitions: https://www.icarsc.pt/2024/ Join the official Telegram group for participation guidelines and all information regarding to event: https://t.me/+Zb3x8rUmegBkNThk For any questions or help with the registration, feel free to send me an e-mail: tiagoribeiro80(a)gmail.com or send a message to the official Telegram group. Looking forward to seeing you in Portugal 🦾 Tiago Ribeiro PhD Student @ Laboratory of Automation and Robotics (LAR) <http://lar.dei.uminho.pt/> http://lar.dei.uminho.pt/ University of Minho

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 27 Feb '24

27 Feb '24

FINAL CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS AND PARTICIPATION - What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) - When: March 9–10, 2024 - Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA - Web: https://tahri.org — Want to present <https://www.tahri.org/program#community-and-career-fair>? It’s not too late to contribute to TAHRI! Pitch a paper, project, or position you wish to share, then discuss it with the community in our Community and Career Fair <https://www.tahri.org/program#community-and-career-fair>. Want to promote a previously published or soon-to-be published paper from a different venue (e.g. HRI conference or workshop)? Want to show off some software or hardware you’re developing? Want to find a job or collaborators? Apply in as little as five minutes by March 1st! Want to attend <https://www.tahri.org/attendees>? Discounts are available for students and 2024 HRI conference attendees, and complimentary registration is available to volunteers or upon special request! Want to connect <https://www.tahri.org/#connect>? Follow us on social media or email us (info(a)tahri.org)! Want to learn more <https://tahri.org/>? Keep reading! — TAHRI: BY THE NUMBERS 1 GOAL <https://www.tahri.org/about> To “build bridges between builders” by gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are developing the underlying technologies enabling interactions between robots and humans 2 KEYNOTES <https://www.tahri.org/people#speakers-and-panelists> - Andra Keay <https://www.tahri.org/people#andra-keay> (Silicon Valley Robotics) - Brian Scassellati <https://www.tahri.org/people#brian-scassellati> (Yale University) 20 PANELISTS <https://www.tahri.org/people#speakers-and-panelists> - Andra Keay <https://www.tahri.org/people#andra-keay> (Silicon Valley Robotics) - Andres Milioto <https://www.tahri.org/people#andres-milioto> (Embodied, Inc.) - Bahar Irfan <https://www.tahri.org/people#bahar-irfan> (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) - Brian Scassellati <https://www.tahri.org/people#brian-scassellati> (Yale University) - Carolina Parada <https://www.tahri.org/people#carolina-parada> (Google DeepMind Robotics) - Casey Kennington <https://www.tahri.org/people#casey-kennington> (Boise State University) - Cynthia Matuszek <https://www.tahri.org/people#cynthia-matuszek> (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Dan Grollman <https://www.tahri.org/people#dan-grollman> (Plus One Robotics) - Gabriel Skantze <https://www.tahri.org/people#gabriel-skantze> (KTH / Furhat Robotics) - Hae Won Park <https://www.tahri.org/people#hae-won-park> (MIT Media Lab / Amazon Lab126) - Ian Bernstein <https://www.tahri.org/people#ian-bernstein> (NewCo) - James Kennedy <https://www.tahri.org/people#james-kennedy> (Disney Research) - Katherine Tsui <https://www.tahri.org/people#katherine-tsui> (Toyota Research Institute) - Laura Hiatt <https://www.tahri.org/people#laura-hiatt> (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) - Mark Yim <https://www.tahri.org/people#mark-yim> (University of Pennsylvania) - Matthias Scheutz <https://www.tahri.org/people#matthias-scheutz> (Tufts University) - Sean Andrist <https://www.tahri.org/people#sean-andrist> (Microsoft Research) - Séverin Lemaignan <https://www.tahri.org/people#severin-lemaignan> (PAL Robotics) - Tesca Fitzgerald <https://www.tahri.org/people#tesca-fitzgerald> (Yale University) - Tony Belpaeme <https://www.tahri.org/people#tony-belpaeme> (Universiteit Gent) 21 PAPERS <https://www.tahri.org/authors> Novel, high-quality, peer-reviewed technological HRI research papers presented orally and in poster sessions, with full papers indexed in archived ACM proceedings! 13 PARTNERS <https://www.tahri.org/partners> - CU Robotics <https://www.tahri.org/partners#cu-robotics> (Community) - Disney Research <https://www.tahri.org/partners#disney-research> (Silver) - Embodied, Inc. <https://www.tahri.org/partners#embodied> (Platinum) - Furhat Robotics <https://www.tahri.org/partners#furhat-robotics> (Platinum) - Futronics <https://www.tahri.org/partners#futronics> (Platinum) - Hello Robot <https://www.tahri.org/partners#hello-robot> (Platinum) - KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR) <https://www.tahri.org/partners#kipr> (Community) - Microsoft Research <https://www.tahri.org/partners#microsoft-research> (Community) - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) <https://www.tahri.org/partners#nist> (Organizer) - Navel Robotics <https://www.tahri.org/partners#navel-robotics> (Platinum) - PAL Robotics <https://www.tahri.org/partners#pal-robotics> (Community) - Semio Community <https://www.tahri.org/partners#semio-community> (Organizer) - Toyota Research Institute <https://www.tahri.org/partners#toyota-research-institute> (Platinum) 8 ORGANIZERS <https://tahri.org/people#organizers> - Ross Mead <https://www.tahri.org/people#mead> (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi <https://www.tahri.org/people#bagchi> (NIST) - Willie Wilson <https://www.tahri.org/people#wilson> (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft <https://www.tahri.org/people#senft> (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky <https://www.tahri.org/people#mirsky> (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García <https://www.tahri.org/people#hernandez-garcia> (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel <https://www.tahri.org/people#marvel> (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman <https://www.tahri.org/people#zimmerman> (NIST) 1 PROGRAM <https://www.tahri.org/program> Coming soon! -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <https://tahri.org>*

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1st Call for Participation: WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge in CyberSpace (at ICRA2024)
by Tetsunari Inamura 20 Feb '24

20 Feb '24

######################################################## Call for Participation WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge in CyberSpace (ICRA 2024 Competition) May 13th - 15th, 2024 Yokohama, Japan ######################################################## The Future Convenience Store Challenge in CyberSpace, which is a new type of robot competition in cyberspace will be held at ICRA 2024, Yokohama Japan. Every regional and international Major team is cordially invited to take part in the event. Visit https://sites.google.com/view/fcsc-cyberspace/home for more detailed information. Details on the registration (rules, software systems) are available on the website. Organizers Tetsunari Inamura (Tamagawa University, Japan) Kazuyoshi Wada (Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan) Yukiyasu Domae (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) -------------- Future Convenience Store Challenge in Cyberspace ---------------- The aim of this competition is to enhance the quality of customer service provided by intelligent robots in environments such as retail stores and shopping malls, and to realize new forms of services. Specifically, the competition will assess the ability of robots to engage in natural and friendly communication in the context of customer service, as well as their capability for cooperative work with human staff. While conventional competitions have primarily evaluated physical functionalities such as object recognition, human behavior recognition, navigation, and object manipulation using real robots, there have been limitations in smoothly conducting competitions when focusing on intellectual interactions, such as intention recognition, natural language understanding, conversation control, and resolving ambiguity. Therefore, this competition aims to improve the quality of dialogue systems for service robots collaborating with humans in retail stores and to achieve new interactive service systems by focusing on tasks that emphasize dialogue intelligence rather than physical functionality. Furthermore, this competition features a unique structure where robots in cyber space engages in dialogue with humans in real-world environments. We also welcome proposals that contribute to the realization of new services through the integration of metaverses, digital twins, cyber-physical systems, and robotics. As such, the competition is designed based on the simulator "SIGVerse," which enables robots to engage in embodied and social interaction in virtual reality (VR) environments. Participants will benefit from focusing solely on software development without the need to develop physical robots. -------------------------------- Important dates ------------------------------------ 2024-02-15 Team registration starts 2024-02-29 1st Call: Participation declaration 2024-03-14 First on-line meeting (tentative schedule) 2024-03-31 2nd Call: Participation declaration deadline (detailed team information should be fixed) 2024-04-17 Second on-line meeting (tentative schedule) 2024-05-13 Set-up day 2024-05-14 Competition Day 1 2024-05-15 Competition Day 2 , Award Ceremony ------------------------------ Competition Tasks -------------------------------------- This competition focuses on realizing robots that provide customer service in a conversational format at convenience stores. The emphasis is on the interaction capabilities with customers. Task 1: Interactive Customer Service In this task, functionalities such as image recognition, human state recognition, and location identification, which involves recognizing the customer's location in the store, their gestures, and the placement of items, are not evaluated. Instead, the focus is on engaging in accurate dialogue with customers in response to ambiguous requests and delivering the desired products to them. Customers convey their desired purchases to the service robot and request them to be placed in the shopping basket, using both natural language expressions and image presentation. The participants should build software to realize such an intelligent dialogue system for customer service robots. The participants can use OpenAI API or related LLM tools; however, we cannot guarantee the Internet connection quality at the competition site. If you use such an external cloud calculator, you must manage the risk yourself. Please note that installing your own wireless router will not be allowed. Task 2: Future Convenience Store Visionary Design In this competition, instead of completing tasks according to predefined rules, participants will propose possibilities for customer service and intelligent human-robot collaboration systems in future convenience stores in a presentation format based on their own creative ideas. The novelty, feasibility, and technical challenges of their ideas will be evaluated. The evaluation will focus on intelligent systems, service systems, and other systems mainly involving human interaction, which are expected to be useful in future convenience stores. Tasks involving no interaction with humans, such as autonomously cleaning toilets, are not included. Teams are encouraged to demonstrate the latest research and development on new approaches and applications related to customer service and employee support systems in a cyber environment. Specific examples of systems/proposals subject to evaluation include but are not limited to: - Planning systems that dynamically change and optimize the roles of service robots and employees. - Interactive service robot systems that recognize customer intentions and provide accurate services. - Training systems that determine appropriate training menus based on the skill levels of new employees. - Algorithms that observe customer purchasing behavior/movement paths and determine the optimal display layout. - Planning systems that dynamically change tasks to be executed based on the congestion status inside the store. Participants can use various types of systems and devices, including actual robot systems, but the primary focus of the final demonstration is on utilizing virtual spaces or Cyber-Physical Systems for the realization of intelligent service robots. Examples include digital twin systems supporting customer service action planning by intelligent robots and information presentation systems using wearable devices for efficient employee tasks. ------------------------------ Awards --------------------------------------------- Based on the ranking, the top three teams will be awarded certificates and prize money as follows: 1st place: 100,000 JPY + certificate 2nd place: 50,000 JPY + certificate 3rd place: 30,000 JPY + certificate ------------------------------ How to apply -------------------------------------------- Please access the following form to input detailed information about your team and team leader. The first deadline is the end of February; however, a tentative declaration of participation is welcome. We would appreciate you deciding the details of the team members by the end of March. Required information - Team name - Name/Affiliation/Grade/Email address of the team leader - Optional information - Estimated number of team members - Past experience and achievements in AI/Robot competitions - Web page of the team Please input the above information in the Google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zkfZG-fcxOt_emXUkZRTylih8J45a70TcPnM2a7Amp… 1st participation declaration: 28th Feb. (Tentative application is welcome) 2nd participation declaration: 31st Mar. (Confirmation of detailed team information) ----------------------- Contact --------------------------------------- Please contact fcsc-info-ml(a)ml.tmu.ac.jp for any questions. See you all at ICRA 2024 in Yokohama! Best regards, ------------------------------------------------ Tetsunari Inamura Professor, Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, JAPAN TEL : +81-42-739-8679 URL : http://researchmap.jp/inamura/?lang=english Email : inamura(a)lab.tamagawa.ac.jp

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[jobs] One full-time PhD position in Interpretable AI and robotics @Chalmers
by Karinne Ramirez-Amaro 08 Feb '24

08 Feb '24

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce one PhD research position at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The application deadline is March 10, 2024. We are looking for a highly motivated researcher who would like to pursue a PhD in the areas of Interpretable AI (IAI) and Autonomous Decision-Making to study and make significant contributions to the emerging field of Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). HRC studies the most effective algorithms to enable robots to work safely and efficiently alongside with humans in shared spaces. Join our multidisciplinary team to further investigate and propose innovative solutions to empower robots with the ability to make informed decisions in collaborative environments. If you are passionate about Interpretable AI, autonomous decision-making, and the future of human-robot collaboration, we strongly encourage you to apply! More information about the position: https://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/work-with-us/vacancies/?rmpage=jo… **Application deadline: March 10, 2024** Please, do not hesitate to contact me for further information. Best regards, Karinne --------------------- Karinne Ramirez Amaro Associate Professor Chalmers University of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering Systems and Control Division SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden Member of IEEE-RAS Administratite Committee (AdCom) IEEE-RAS Associate Vice Presidents of the Member Activity Board (MAB) E-mail:karinne@chalmers.se Website: https://sites.google.com/view/craft-laboratory/home Office Room: Edit, 5437 Office telephone: +46-31-772-1074 www.chalmers.se<http://www.chalmers.se>

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[Meetings] Second Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Sven Wachsmuth 05 Feb '24

05 Feb '24

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ 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 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. Important dates: Jan. 09, 2024 Publication of the 2nd Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2024 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 29, 2024 Qualification announcement Mar. 12, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Call for Participation RoboCup German Open 2024
by Sven Wachsmuth 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

*RoboCup German Open 2024 - Major Leagues* Call for Participation https://robocup.de/german-open April 17th – 20th, 2024 Messe Kassel, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2024 will be the 21st open RoboCup competition held in Germany. The event will take place in Kassel at Messe Kassel. Every regional and international Major team is cordially invited to take part in the event. --------------------- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ------------------------- Competitions are from April 17 - 20 in the following Major leagues: RoboCup Soccer Standard Platform League RoboCup Soccer Humanoid League RoboCup Soccer Small Size League RoboCup Rescue Robot League RoboCup Logistics League RoboCup @Home League RoboCup @Work League The registration opens *** February 12th, 2024 ***. The registration deadline is *** February 29th, 2024 ***. Visit https://register.robocup.de to register your RoboCup Major League team. Details on the registration (fee, accommodation, rules) are available on the website. Booking of blocked accommodation with special rates is possible after your registration. The Major Leagues Organizing Committee: Patrick Göttsch (Standard Platform League) Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann (Humanoid League) Nicolai Ommer (Small Size League) Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) Sven Wachsmuth (@Home League) Alexander Ferrein (Logistics League) Christoph Steup (RoboCup @Work League) -------------------------- RoboCup Junior (regional teams) ------------------------------- From April 18-21 the final event of the German RoboCupJunior Championship will be held at RoboCup German Open 2024 in Kassel. The best teams that have qualified in the eight previous local tournaments will take part. The best German Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2024 in Eindhoven and for the European RoboCupJunior Competition 2024 in Hannover. -------------------------------- Important dates —————------------------------------------ 2024-02-12 Major teams registration starts 2024-02-29 Major teams registration deadline 2024-03-11 Invoices are sent to team leaders 2024-03-17 Registration deadline for team member updates 2024-03-31 Registration fee due 2024-04-17 Set-up day Major League teams (venue opens 9:00) 2024-04-18 Competition day (open to the public) 2024-04-19 Competition day (open to the public) 2024-04-20 Competition day, Major finals (open to the public) 2024-04-21 Competition day, Junior finals (open to the public) ----------------------------------- Contact --------------------------------------------- Please contact germanopen(a)robocup.de for any questions. See you all at the 21st RoboCup German Open 2024! Best regards, German RoboCup Committee ---------------------------------- Acknowledgement ———————————————————— The RoboCup German Open 2024 is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) under grant number 16ME0933. -- PD Dr.-Ing. Sven Wachsmuth CITEC CLF / COSY@Home-Lab Bielefeld University RoboCup German Open 2024 @Home LOC

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[meetings] [CFP] [EUD4HRI] Extended Deadline for HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction”
by DAVID PORFIRIO 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

** Apologies for cross-posting ** Dear colleagues, we have extended the deadline for the EUD4HRI workshop to Feb. 9, 2024. CALL FOR PAPERS: * What: HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) * When: March 15, 2024 * Where: Boulder, CO, USA (at the HRI 2024 conference) * Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Fridays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. * Jan. 15, 2024: Submission site opens * Feb. 09 2024: Paper deadline ***EXTENDED from Feb 2*** * Feb. 23, 2024: Notification deadline * Mar. 01, 2024: Camera-ready deadline * Mar. 15, 2024: Workshop (half-day) — OVERVIEW: End-User Development (EUD) is an exciting and growing field within Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and represents a key step towards making robotics accessible for novice robot users. Within academia, researchers investigate novel ways that EUD tools can capture, represent, visualize, analyze, and test developer intent. At the same time, industry researchers increasingly build and ship programming tools that enable customers to interface with their robots. Despite this increasing interest, the role of EUD within HRI is not well defined. EUD struggles to situate itself within a growing array of alternate approaches to application development, such as learning from demonstration (LfD), planning, teleoperation, and personalization. EUD further poses the question, “Who is the end-user?” Novice end-users might include consumers using a robot in their home, caregivers, factory employees, bystanders in public spaces, or even hobbyists, to name a few examples. Key questions remain, such as how EUD is justified over alternate approaches to application development, which contexts EUD is most suited for, who the target end-users of an EUD system are, and where does the interaction between a human and a robot take place, amongst many, many other questions. We seek to address these questions and challenges at the “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) half-day workshop at the 2024 International Conference of Human-Robot Interaction. The workshop aims to bring together researchers with a wide range of expertise across academia and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple subfields of robotics, with the primary goal being a more clearly defined scope for EUD and recommendations for the standardization of EUD use cases, target users, and terminology. The workshop will be hybrid format, including both in-person and remote attendees. — TOPICS: We invite submissions related, but not limited, to the following topics: * novel approaches the application development, including the integration of learning and planning * interfaces for robot programming, learning, and personalization * formal methods in HRI * programming languages, representations, and paradigms for HRI * programming libraries and toolkits for HRI * open source initiatives * standardization of terminology, use cases, target users, etc. * the role of industry and academia within HRI end-user development * the role of related subfields of HRI (e.g., LfD) within EUD — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing HRI work, blue-sky papers, position papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the symposium website. Optionally (but appreciated), if you intend to submit a paper, please email co-organizer Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>) with the subject line “[EUD4HRI] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: * Laura Stegner (UW Madison) * David Porfirio (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Ross Mead (Semio) * Severin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) * Laura M. Hiatt (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Bilge Mutlu (UW Madison)

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[meetings][CFP] HRI Workshop on Human - Large Language Model Interaction
by Hernandez Garcia, Daniel 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

Call for Submissions to the "Human – Large Language Model Interaction: The dawn of a new era or the end of it all?" Workshop at HRI 2024 The Human - Large Language Model Interaction workshop aims at bringing together researchers and industry experts across all disciplines in the fields of Human-Robot Interaction and Artificial Intelligence for an interactive and interdisciplinary discussion around the enormous opportunities and challenges that emerge from integrating Large Language Models (including multimodal Vision-and-Language models) in the interactive, conversational and reasoning abilities of robots. The workshop aims to provide an important venue to encourage debate around issues concerning the deployment of Large Language Model / Large Multimodal Model empowered solutions for human-robot interaction. This will be an opportunity to share and discuss ideas, methods, worries, strategies, insights, and findings around the application of LLMs in interaction scenarios. Website: https://human-llm-interaction.github.io/workshop/hri24/call-for-papers Date: March 11, 2024 (Half-day workshop) Location: Boulder, Colorado (USA) during the 19th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2024) Manuscript submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hllmi24 IMPORTANT DATES Submission deadline: February 2, 2024 Notification of acceptance: February 23, 2024 Camera-ready deadline: March 1, 2024 Workshop: March 11, 2024 All deadlines are at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth time. ===================================================================================== TOPICS OF INTEREST Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Applications of LLMs in HRI * Multimodal social interaction research with LLMs * Planning and decision making with LLMs for HRI * Reasoning and knowledge representation using LLMs * Situated interactions and grounding using LLMs * Multiparty interactions using LLMs * Explainability of LLM-powered interactive robots * Reliability and Safety of LLM-powered interactive robots * Trustworthiness of LLM-powered interactive robots SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Participants are invited to submit 2-pages extended abstracts on research related to the topics described above using EasyChair<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hllmi24>. We explicitly encourage the submission of position papers to discuss with the community or papers describing work in progress, novel ideas or new approaches related to the use of LLMs in HRI. All manuscripts must be submitted in PDF format and will be peer-reviewed based on relevance to the workshop. Authors are asked to adhere to the submission guidelines outlined by HRI2024. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The authors of the accepted papers will present their work in the format of lightning talks or posters during the workshop. The accepted papers will be published on the workshop website. ORGANISERS * Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Marta Romeo (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Christian Dondrup (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Nancie Gunson (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Angus Addlesee (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Weronika Sieińska (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Oliver Lemon (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Alessandro Suglia (Heriot-Watt University, UK) * Matthew Aylett (Heriot-Watt University, UK) CONTACT All questions about submissions should be emailed to d.hernandez_garcia(a)hw.ac.uk<mailto:d.hernandez_garcia@hw.ac.uk> or M.Romeo(a)hw.ac.uk<mailto:M.Romeo@hw.ac.uk> ________________________________ Founded in 1821, Heriot-Watt is a leader in ideas and solutions. With campuses and students across the entire globe we span the world, delivering innovation and educational excellence in business, engineering, design and the physical, social and life sciences. This email is generated from the Heriot-Watt University Group, which includes: 1. Heriot-Watt University, a Scottish charity registered under number SC000278 2. Heriot- Watt Services Limited (Oriam), Scotland's national performance centre for sport. Heriot-Watt Services Limited is a private limited company registered is Scotland with registered number SC271030 and registered office at Research & Enterprise Services Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS. The contents (including any attachments) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of its contents is strictly prohibited, and you should please notify the sender immediately and then delete it (including any attachments) from your system.

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[meetings] [CFP] [Extension] HRI 2024 Workshop on “Scarecrows in Oz: LLMs in HRI” Deadline extended!
by Nick DePalma 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

CALL FOR PAPER - What: HRI 2024 Workshop on “Scarecrows in Oz: LLMs in HRI” - When: March 11, 2024 - Where: Boulder, CO, USA (at the HRI 2024 conference) - Web: https://scarecrows-hri.github.io — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Mondays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. - Jan. 15, 2024: Submission site opens - Jan. 29, 2024: Paper deadline - Feb. 05, 2024: Paper deadline DEADLINE EXTENDED - Feb. 19, 2024: Notification deadline - Mar. 04, 2024: Camera-ready deadline - Mar. 11, 2024: Workshop (half-day) — OVERVIEW: In recent years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become the focus of intense interest in the AI community and their use in interactive robots for academic research and commercial products has had equal interest; however, there do not currently exist guidelines for or categorizations of their use in various application spaces in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). This workshop invites academic researchers and industry professionals who are actively using or are interested in using LLMs for HRI, and who can contribute to the development of high-level, community-wide guidelines for how LLMs can fit correctly and defensibly into the future of HRI research and development. Relevant topics to this workshop will include HRI studies that either directly or indirectly involve LLMs, as well as HRI studies that utilize the idea of “Scarecrows” [1] (i.e. using LLMs to provide placeholder functionality, similar to Wizard-of-Oz studies) within a larger HRI system; however, we also encourage broader questions and contributions regarding how these models should be conceptualized within frameworks for effective, responsible HRI. [1] Williams, T.; Matuszek, C; Mead, R.; & Depalma, N. (2023) “Scarecrows in Oz: The Use of Large Language Models in HRI”. To appear in ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 10.1145/3606261. — TOPICS: We invite research regarding contributions, commentary, and questions about (and combinations of) the following topics of interest: - the impact of “stubbing out” software modules as “Scarecrows” (traditionally done with humans in Wizard-of-Oz contexts) by using LLMs when building and testing HRI studies; - opportunities and applications of LLMs in HRI; - risks and perils of LLMs in interactive robots; - reporting guidelines, ethical considerations, or real-world implications of LLMs in HRI; - safety of LLM-driven interaction and fine-tuned LLMs during interactions with the world or users; and/or - position or framing papers on the general role of LLMs in HRI. — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages on the topic of the use of LLMs in HRI; submissions are due by February 05, 2024. Anonymized submissions should be made using the ACM template <https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template <https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. Submissions will be made through EasyChair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sohri24>. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website ( https://scarecrows-hri.github.io) or contact the organizers ( hri2024scarecrows(a)gmail.com). — ORGANIZERS: - Nick DePalma (Semio Community) - Cynthia Matuszek (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Ross Mead (Semio) - Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines) - Ruchen (Puck) Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: COMMUNITY AND CAREER FAIR - What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) - When: March 9–10, 2024 - Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA - Web: https://tahri.org — COMMUNITY AND CAREER FAIR: - Do you want to bring attention to a technological HRI paper you published at a different conference (e.g., HRI, ICRA, IROS, RO-MAN, RSS, etc.), journal (e.g., THRI), symposium (e.g., AAAI Fall/Spring Series), workshop, or other venue? - Would you like people to learn about some software, hardware, or other artifact you developed or use? - Do you want feedback on a thesis topic, experimental design, startup, or other project idea? - Are you searching for collaborators, co-founders, or other like-minded individuals? - Are you hiring or looking for a job? - Do you have a question or topic you’d like to discuss? The TAHRI Community and Career Fair provides new and exciting opportunities for community engagement and networking! In this interactive session, participants will be provided with a short time slot to pitch a project/topic they wish to share, and then the community will gather in a room for open discussions and mingling. Posters and/or other artifacts are encouraged but optional. If you’d like to participate, please fill out the short form (< 5 minutes!) by March 1, 2024 to reserve your spot! https://www.tahri.org/program#community-and-career-fair — ANNOUNCEMENTS: - Thanks to all authors who submitted papers! This inaugural year, only 25% of standard review papers were accepted without revisions; however, we offered for a select few papers to be revised and resubmitted for further consideration, so the acceptance rate might be higher for the final TAHRI 2024 proceedings (archived with ACM). https://www.tahri.org/authors - Want to hear from other technological HRI researchers and practitioners? We are finalizing an amazing lineup of ~20 speakers and panelists spanning academia, industry, government, and other research groups, including Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics), Andres Milioto (Embodied, Inc.), Carolina Parada (Google DeepMind Robotics), Casey Kennington (Boise State University), Cynthia Matuszek (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Dan Grollman (Plus One Robotics), Gabriel Skantze (KTH / Furhat Robotics), James Kennedy (Disney Research), Katherine Tsui (Toyota Research Institute), Laura Hiatt (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory), Mark Yim (University of Pennsylvania), Matthew Marge (DARPA), Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University), Sean Andrist (Microsoft Research), Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics), Tesca Fitzgerald (Yale University), and Tony Belpaeme (Universiteit Gent). More will be announced soon! https://www.tahri.org/people - Want to attend TAHRI? Our registration site is now open, and discounts are available for students and 2024 HRI conference attendees! https://tahri.org/attendees - Want to sponsor TAHRI? Review our partnership opportunities, including discounts for supported organizations and 2024 HRI conference sponsors! https://tahri.org/partners — Dear colleagues, Paper submissions are now closed for the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI)! Thanks to all authors who submitted papers! However, it’s not too late to contribute to the inaugural TAHRI! Apply for the TAHRI Community and Career Fair to discuss relevant topics of your choice: https://www.tahri.org/program#community-and-career-fair OVERVIEW: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024, in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! THEME: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. TOPICS: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. PAPERS: TAHRI is an inclusive, community-focused venue that invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived ACM proceedings. SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS: We are in the process of finalizing an amazing lineup of speakers and panelists spanning academia, industry, government, and other research groups. A list of confirmed speakers is below with more to be announced soon! - Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics) - Andres Milioto (Embodied, Inc.) - Carolina Parada (Google DeepMind Robotics) - Casey Kennington (Boise State University) - Cynthia Matuszek (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Dan Grollman (Plus One Robotics) - Gabriel Skantze (KTH / Furhat Robotics) - James Kennedy (Disney Research) - Katherine Tsui (Toyota Research Institute) - Laura Hiatt (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) - Mark Yim (University of Pennsylvania) - Matthew Marge (DARPA) - Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University) - Sean Andrist (Microsoft Research) - Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) - Tesca Fitzgerald (Yale University) - Tony Belpaeme (Universiteit Gent) CONNECT: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg ORGANIZERS: - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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RoboCup Early Visa Invitation Letters
by 2024＠robocup.org 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

Dear RoboCuppers, We are very much looking forward to inviting all of you to Eindhoven, The Netherlands for RoboCup 2024! To allow more teams to join RoboCup 2024, we offer early visa invitation letters. Participants that require a visa to join RoboCup in The Netherlands may apply for an early visa invitation letter. This letter allows for making an earlier appointment at an embassy to request a visa, rather than only after completing registration. There are some constraints on who can receive a visa invitation letter. You can find the details, as well as the request form, on the RoboCup 2024 website: https://2024.robocup.org/?page_id=2998 We hope to see you at RoboCup 2024! Best regards, RoboCup 2024 Organisation 2024(a)robocup.org <mailto:2024@robocup.org>

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[@Home2024-Qualification] Team Embelias
by PIYUSH KHANNA 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

Team Name: Team Embelias League: OPL Country: India Affiliation: KIET Group of Institutions Team Leader Name: Piyush Khanna Contact information (E-mail): piyushkhannavb(a)gmail.com Rank in local tournaments: 1 Link to a team video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr9J3uTD1_A Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: https://anushkathehumanoid.com/ Respected organising team, We have provided all the content as stated in the Rules and Regulations documentation.*Please provide an acknowledgement whether the content provided is enough *or is something missing which needs to be attached as well. Thanking you, Yours sincerely, Piyush Khanna

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[meetings] [CFP] [EUD4HRI] HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction”
by DAVID PORFIRIO 18 Jan '24

18 Jan '24

** Apologies for cross-postings ** (SECOND) CALL FOR PAPERS: * What: HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) * When: March 15, 2024 * Where: Boulder, CO, USA (at the HRI 2024 conference) * Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Fridays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. * Jan. 15, 2024: Submission site opens * Feb. 02, 2024: Paper deadline * Feb. 23, 2024: Notification deadline * Mar. 01, 2024: Camera-ready deadline * Mar. 15, 2024: Workshop (half-day) — OVERVIEW: End-User Development (EUD) is an exciting and growing field within Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and represents a key step towards making robotics accessible for novice robot users. Within academia, researchers investigate novel ways that EUD tools can capture, represent, visualize, analyze, and test developer intent. At the same time, industry researchers increasingly build and ship programming tools that enable customers to interface with their robots. Despite this increasing interest, the role of EUD within HRI is not well defined. EUD struggles to situate itself within a growing array of alternate approaches to application development, such as learning from demonstration (LfD), planning, teleoperation, and personalization. EUD further poses the question, “Who is the end-user?” Novice end-users might include consumers using a robot in their home, caregivers, factory employees, bystanders in public spaces, or even hobbyists, to name a few examples. Key questions remain, such as how EUD is justified over alternate approaches to application development, which contexts EUD is most suited for, who the target end-users of an EUD system are, and where does the interaction between a human and a robot take place, amongst many, many other questions. We seek to address these questions and challenges at the “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) half-day workshop at the 2024 International Conference of Human-Robot Interaction. The workshop aims to bring together researchers with a wide range of expertise across academia and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple subfields of robotics, with the primary goal being a more clearly defined scope for EUD and recommendations for the standardization of EUD use cases, target users, and terminology. The workshop will be hybrid format, including both in-person and remote attendees. — TOPICS: We invite submissions related, but not limited, to the following topics: * novel approaches the application development, including the integration of learning and planning * interfaces for robot programming, learning, and personalization * formal methods in HRI * programming languages, representations, and paradigms for HRI * programming libraries and toolkits for HRI * open source initiatives * standardization of terminology, use cases, target users, etc. * the role of industry and academia within HRI end-user development * the role of related subfields of HRI (e.g., LfD) within EUD — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing HRI work, blue-sky papers, position papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the symposium website. Optionally (but appreciated), if you intend to submit a paper, please email co-organizer Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>) with the subject line “[EUD4HRI] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: * Laura Stegner (UW Madison) * David Porfirio (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Ross Mead (Semio) * Severin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) * Laura M. Hiatt (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Bilge Mutlu (UW Madison)

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[Meetings] [CfP] HRI 2024 Workshop on “Scarecrows in Oz: LLMs in HRI”
by Nick DePalma 14 Jan '24

14 Jan '24

CALL FOR PAPERS - What: HRI 2024 Workshop on “Scarecrows in Oz: LLMs in HRI” - When: March 11, 2024 - Where: Boulder, CO, USA (at the HRI 2024 conference) - Web: https://scarecrows-hri.github.io — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Mondays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. - Jan. 15, 2024: Submission site opens - Jan. 29, 2024: Paper deadline - Feb. 19, 2024: Notification deadline - Mar. 04, 2024: Camera-ready deadline - Mar. 11, 2024: Workshop (half-day) — OVERVIEW: In recent years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become the focus of intense interest in the AI community and their use in interactive robots for academic research and commercial products has had equal interest; however, there do not currently exist guidelines for or categorizations of their use in various application spaces in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). This workshop invites academic researchers and industry professionals who are actively using or are interested in using LLMs for HRI, and who can contribute to the development of high-level, community-wide guidelines for how LLMs can fit correctly and defensibly into the future of HRI research and development. Relevant topics to this workshop will include HRI studies that either directly or indirectly involve LLMs, as well as HRI studies that utilize the idea of “Scarecrows” [1] (i.e. using LLMs to provide placeholder functionality, similar to Wizard-of-Oz studies) within a larger HRI system; however, we also encourage broader questions and contributions regarding how these models should be conceptualized within frameworks for effective, responsible HRI. [1] Williams, T.; Matuszek, C; Mead, R.; & Depalma, N. (2023) “Scarecrows in Oz: The Use of Large Language Models in HRI”. To appear in ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 10.1145/3606261. — TOPICS: We invite research regarding contributions, commentary, and questions about (and combinations of) the following topics of interest: - the impact of “stubbing out” software modules as “Scarecrows” (traditionally done with humans in Wizard-of-Oz contexts) by using LLMs when building and testing HRI studies; - opportunities and applications of LLMs in HRI; - risks and perils of LLMs in interactive robots; - reporting guidelines, ethical considerations, or real-world implications of LLMs in HRI; - safety of LLM-driven interaction and fine-tuned LLMs during interactions with the world or users; and/or - position or framing papers on the general role of LLMs in HRI. — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages on the topic of the use of LLMs in HRI; submissions are due by January 29, 2024. Submissions should be made using the ACM template <https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template <https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. Submissions will be made through EasyChair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sohri24>. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website ( https://scarecrows-hri.github.io) or contact the organizers ( hri2024scarecrows(a)gmail.com). — ORGANIZERS: - Nick DePalma (Semio Community) - Cynthia Matuszek (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Ross Mead (Semio) - Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines) - Ruchen (Puck) Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

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[Meetings] Second Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Sven Wachsmuth 09 Jan '24

09 Jan '24

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ 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 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. Important dates: Jan. 09, 2024 Publication of the 2nd Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2024 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 29, 2024 Qualification announcement Mar. 12, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Request for team qualification for Robocup '24
by PIYUSH KHANNA 05 Jan '24

05 Jan '24

Respected sir/mam, We, a team of 4, have successfully created a completely functional Social humanoid robot with NLP, CV as well as the support to be able to be controlled through BCI (Brain-control Interface), through thinking. This is to humbly inquire whether we can take part in the Robocup 24 now. We had our documents as well as video demonstrations ready, but couldn't get regular updates about the qualification process starting dates. We see that 7 slots are still empty in the RoboCup@Home league and we have prepared our robot accordingly. I would be really grateful if you could guide us with further details. Thanking you, Yours faithfully Piyush Khanna,

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 01 Jan '24

01 Jan '24

New Year, New News! Please carefully read the announcements below for important updates regarding TAHRI 2024! — CALL FOR PAPERS: - What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) - When: March 9–10, 2024 - Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA - Web: https://tahri.org — IMPORTANT DATES: - Nov. 6, 2023: Paper submission site opens - Dec. 1, 2023: Standard review paper deadline / Registration site opens - Jan. 12, 2024: Rapid review paper pre-submission deadline - Jan. 19, 2024: Rapid review paper deadline / Short paper deadline / Standard review paper notification - ~3 weeks after submission: Rapid review paper notification - Jan. 26, 2024: Standard review paper revise-and-resubmit deadline - Feb. 2, 2024: Standard review paper revise-and-resubmit notification / Short paper notification - Feb. 9, 2024: Hotel special group rate booking deadline — ANNOUNCEMENTS: - Want to give a second chance to a previously reviewed paper? Revise and resubmit it as a TAHRI rapid review paper by Jan. 19, 2024! Submissions are limited, are reviewed in the order in which they are submitted, and pre-submissions are required! Complete the pre-submission form (it takes less than 5 minutes!) by Jan. 12, 2024 to reserve your spot in the queue and ensure that your paper is reviewed! https://tahri.org/authors - Want to share promising technological HRI work or useful HRI artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, or other systems)? Submit a short paper by Jan. 19, 2024! https://tahri.org/authors - Want to hear from other technological HRI researchers and practitioners? We are finalizing an amazing lineup of ~20 speakers and panelists spanning academia, industry, government, and other research groups, including Andres Milioto (Embodied, Inc.), Gabriel Skantze (KTH / Furhat Robotics), Katherine Tsui (Toyota Research Institute), Mark Yim (University of Pennsylvania), Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University), Sean Andrist (Microsoft Research), Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics), Tesca Fitzgerald (Yale University), and Tony Belpaeme (Universiteit Gent, Belgium). More will be announced soon! https://www.tahri.org/people - Want to attend TAHRI? Our registration site is now open, and discounts are available for students and 2024 HRI conference attendees! https://tahri.org/attendees - Want to sponsor TAHRI? Review our partnership opportunities, including discounts for supported organizations and 2024 HRI conference sponsors! https://tahri.org/partners — Dear colleagues, The submission site is still open for the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI)! If you want to give a second chance to a paper previously reviewed at another venue, we invite you to revise and resubmit it as a TAHRI rapid review paper! Submissions are limited and are reviewed in the order in which they are submitted, so pre-submit your paper by Jan. 12th, 2024 to reserve your spot in the queue! Also, if you want to share promising technological HRI work or useful HRI artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, or other systems), submit a short paper! https://www.tahri.org/authors OVERVIEW: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024, in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! THEME: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. TOPICS: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. PAPERS: TAHRI is an inclusive, community-focused venue that invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived ACM proceedings. - [CLOSED] Standard review papers are for technological HRI work intended to go through a full peer-review process (including internal and external reviewers). - Rapid review papers are for technological HRI work that has been previously reviewed but was either not indexed or not published, that has been revised based on previous reviewer feedback, and for which a summary of reviews, rebuttals, and revisions can also be submitted. These papers are part of a new rolling review process (from Nov. 6th, 2023, to Jan. 19th, 2024), with a fast turnaround notification (~3 weeks) and a limited number of submissions! Pre-submissions are required by Jan. 12th, 2024, and take less than five (5) minutes to complete! See the website for important details. - Short papers are for recent, ongoing, or otherwise promising technological HRI work with preliminary results or details of accessible artifacts that are relevant to the HRI research community and show potential to promote discussions at TAHRI. These papers will not be indexed in archived proceedings. SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS: We are in the process of finalizing an amazing lineup of speakers and panelists spanning academia, industry, government, and other research groups. A list of confirmed speakers is below with more to be announced soon! - Andres Milioto (Embodied, Inc.) - Gabriel Skantze (KTH / Furhat Robotics) - Katherine Tsui (Toyota Research Institute) - Mark Yim (University of Pennsylvania) - Matthias Scheutz (Tufts University) - Sean Andrist (Microsoft Research) - Séverin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) - Tesca Fitzgerald (Yale University) - Tony Belpaeme (Universiteit Gent, Belgium) - … and more! CONNECT: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg ORGANIZERS: - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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[meetings] [CFP] [EUD4HRI] HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction”
by DAVID PORFIRIO 22 Dec '23

22 Dec '23

- Apologies for cross posting - CALL FOR PAPERS: * What: HRI 2024 Workshop on “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) * When: March 15, 2024 * Where: Boulder, CO, USA (at the HRI 2024 conference) * Web: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri — IMPORTANT DATES: All dates are Fridays and times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE) unless specified otherwise. * Jan. 15, 2024: Submission site opens * Feb. 02, 2024: Paper deadline * Feb. 23, 2024: Notification deadline * Mar. 01, 2024: Camera-ready deadline * Mar. 15, 2024: Workshop (half-day) — OVERVIEW: End-User Development (EUD) is an exciting and growing field within Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and represents a key step towards making robotics accessible for novice robot users. Within academia, researchers investigate novel ways that EUD tools can capture, represent, visualize, analyze, and test developer intent. At the same time, industry researchers increasingly build and ship programming tools that enable customers to interface with their robots. Despite this increasing interest, the role of EUD within HRI is not well defined. EUD struggles to situate itself within a growing array of alternate approaches to application development, such as learning from demonstration (LfD), planning, teleoperation, and personalization. EUD further poses the question, “Who is the end-user?” Novice end-users might include consumers using a robot in their home, caregivers, factory employees, bystanders in public spaces, or even hobbyists, to name a few examples. Key questions remain, such as how EUD is justified over alternate approaches to application development, which contexts EUD is most suited for, who the target end-users of an EUD system are, and where does the interaction between a human and a robot take place, amongst many, many other questions. We seek to address these questions and challenges at the “End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction” (EUD4HRI) half-day workshop at the 2024 International Conference of Human-Robot Interaction. The workshop aims to bring together researchers with a wide range of expertise across academia and industry, spanning perspectives from multiple subfields of robotics, with the primary goal being a more clearly defined scope for EUD and recommendations for the standardization of EUD use cases, target users, and terminology. The workshop will be hybrid format, including both in-person and remote attendees. — TOPICS: We invite submissions related, but not limited, to the following topics: * novel approaches the application development, including the integration of learning and planning * interfaces for robot programming, learning, and personalization * formal methods in HRI * programming languages, representations, and paradigms for HRI * programming libraries and toolkits for HRI * open source initiatives * standardization of terminology, use cases, target users, etc. * the role of industry and academia within HRI end-user development * the role of related subfields of HRI (e.g., LfD) within EUD — SUBMISSIONS: Authors are invited to submit short papers of 2-4 pages describing HRI work, blue-sky papers, position papers, etc. related to any of the topics above. Submissions should be made using the ACM template<https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template>; Overleaf provides an appropriate template<https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary…> that may be used. The submission link can be found on the symposium website. Optionally (but appreciated), if you intend to submit a paper, please email co-organizer Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>) with the subject line “[EUD4HRI] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. — MORE INFO: For more information, please visit our website (https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/eud4hri) or contact Laura Stegner (stegner(a)wisc.edu<mailto:stegner@wisc.edu>). — ORGANIZERS: * Laura Stegner (UW Madison) * David Porfirio (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Ross Mead (Semio) * Severin Lemaignan (PAL Robotics) * Laura M. Hiatt (US Naval Research Laboratory) * Bilge Mutlu (UW Madison)

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 04 Dec '23

04 Dec '23

REGISTRATION OPEN + CALL FOR RAPID REVIEW PAPERS - What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) - When: March 9–10, 2024 - Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA - Web: https://tahri.org — Announcements: - Want to give a second chance to a previously reviewed paper? Revise and resubmit it as a TAHRI rapid review paper! Submissions are limited, so pre-register your paper today! https://tahri.org/authors - Want to attend TAHRI? Our registration site is now open, and discounts are available for students and 2024 HRI conference attendees! https://tahri.org/attendees - Want to sponsor TAHRI? Review our partnership opportunities, including discounts for supported organizations and 2024 HRI conference sponsors! https://tahri.org/partners - Thanks to authors who submitted standard review papers! We look forward to reviewing your contributions! — Dear colleagues, The registration site is now open for the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI)! Thanks to authors who submitted standard review papers! If you want to give a second chance to a paper previously reviewed at another venue, we invite you to revise and resubmit it as a TAHRI rapid review paper! Submissions are limited, so pre-register your paper today! https://www.tahri.org/authors Overview: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024, in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! Theme: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. Topics: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. Papers: TAHRI is an inclusive, community-focused venue that invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived ACM proceedings. - [CLOSED] Standard review papers are for technological HRI work intended to go through a full peer-review process (including internal and external reviewers). - Rapid review papers are for technological HRI work that has been previously reviewed but was either not indexed or not published, that has been revised based on previous reviewer feedback, and for which a summary of reviews, rebuttals, and revisions can also be submitted. These papers are part of a new rolling review process (from Nov. 6th, 2023, to Jan. 19th, 2024), with a fast turnaround notification (~3 weeks) and a limited number of submissions! See the website for important details. - Short papers are for recent, ongoing, or otherwise promising technological HRI work with preliminary results or details of accessible artifacts that are relevant to the HRI research community and show potential to promote discussions at TAHRI. These papers will not be indexed in archived proceedings. Important Dates: - Nov. 6, 2023: Paper submission site opens - ~3 weeks after submission: Rapid review paper notification - Dec. 1, 2023: Standard review paper deadline / Registration site opens - Jan. 19, 2024: Standard review paper notification / Rapid review paper deadline / Short paper deadline - Feb. 2, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit deadline - Feb. 9, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit notification / Short paper notification Connect: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg Organizers - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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First Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Sven Wachsmuth 23 Nov '23

23 Nov '23

Please remind the on-coming deadline at Nov. 27 2023! First Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ <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 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. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention (optional). Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 20 Nov '23

20 Nov '23

CALL FOR PAPERS #2 — What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) When: March 9–10, 2024 Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA Web: https://tahri.org — Announcements: - Standard review papers are due on December 1st, 2023 AoE! https://www.tahri.org/authors - How does TAHRI relate to the Technical and Systems tracks at the HRI conference? How will the impact of TAHRI papers be measured (e.g., acceptance rate)? See the TAHRI FAQ! https://www.tahri.org/about#FAQ - Want to learn more? Watch our info session hosted by Talking Robotics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38nKtuMxGJc — Dear colleagues, The submission site is open for the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI), and standard review papers are due on December 1st, 2023 AoE! https://www.tahri.org/authors Overview: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024, in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! Theme: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. Topics: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. Papers: TAHRI is an inclusive, community-focused venue that invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived ACM proceedings. - Standard review papers are for technological HRI work intended to go through a full peer-review process (including internal and external reviewers). - Rapid review papers are for technological HRI work that has been previously reviewed but was either not indexed or not published, that has been revised based on previous reviewer feedback, and for which a summary of reviews, rebuttals, and revisions can also be submitted. These papers are part of a new rolling review process (from Nov. 6th, 2023, to Jan. 19th, 2024), with a fast turnaround notification (~3 weeks) and a limited number of submissions! See the website for important details. - Short papers are for recent, ongoing, or otherwise promising technological HRI work with preliminary results or details of accessible artifacts that are relevant to the HRI research community and show potential to promote discussions at TAHRI. These papers will not be indexed in archived proceedings. Important Dates: - Nov. 6, 2023: Paper submission site opens - ~3 weeks after submission: Rapid review paper notification - Dec. 1, 2023: Standard review paper deadline - Jan. 19, 2024: Standard review paper notification / Rapid review paper deadline / Short paper deadline - Feb. 2, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit deadline - Feb. 9, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit notification / Short paper notification Connect: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg Organizers - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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Submission Acknowledgement VOLUME 08 ISSUE 11 ETJ (November 2023)
by ETJ 14 Nov '23

14 Nov '23

*Dear Researcher,* ETJ* Journal* welcomes research scholars & scientists from different domains in its realm of Open Access Publication. All submitted papers will be *peer reviewed*, published in online and online print versions. *Important Dates for Current Issues:* * Submission last date* 25 *November* *2023* *Acknowledgement of submission* *Within 24 hrs.* *Acceptance notification* *5 to 7 days* *M**ail article to :* editoretj(a)everant.org / journaletj(a)gmail.com *Direct submission:* *https://everant.org/index.php/etj/about/submissions <https://researchsubmit95-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2z63jhlfq3GRrYdYWlRjfrY…>* Please Note: If you are receiving this email in your Spam/Bulk mail folder, please mark this email as Not SPAM and add to your Contacts / Address Book. So that you do not miss any important communication sent by us. *Best Regards,* *Engineering and Technology Journal* *Impact Factor: 7.136*, *Cross Ref DOI: 10.47191/etj*, *ASI Score: 2.0 (Advanced Sciences Index)* *International Journal Address (IJA): IJA.ZONE/2456* *International Category Code (ICC): ICC-02* Editorial Office ETJ *http://everant.org/index.php/etj <https://researchsubmit95-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/2LrpTnBE7fRVe0Lc4fEOXII…>* [image: beacon]

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[meetings] [CFP] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 07 Nov '23

07 Nov '23

CALL FOR PAPERS — What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) When: March 9–10, 2024 Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA Web: https://tahri.org — Updates: - The proceedings of TAHRI 2024 will be published in the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series (ICPS). - The paper submission site is now open! https://www.tahri.org/authors - Want to learn more? Watch our info session hosted by Talking Robotics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc5nle94LSk — Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI)! The submission site is now open: https://www.tahri.org/authors Overview: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024 in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! Theme: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. Topics: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. Papers: TAHRI is an inclusive, community-focused venue that invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived ACM proceedings. - Standard review papers are for technological HRI work intended to go through a full peer-review process (including internal and external reviewers). - Rapid review papers are for technological HRI work that has been previously reviewed, but was either not indexed or not published, that has been revised based on previous reviewer feedback, and for which a summary of reviews, rebuttals, and revisions can also be submitted. These papers are part of a new rolling review process (from Nov. 6th, 2023 to Jan. 19th, 2024), with a fast turnaround notification (~3 weeks) and a limited number of submissions! See the website for important details. - Short papers are for recent, ongoing, or otherwise promising technological HRI work with preliminary results or details of accessible artifacts that are relevant to the HRI research community and show potential to promote discussions at TAHRI. These papers will not be indexed in archived proceedings. Important Dates: - Nov. 6, 2023: Paper submission site opens - ~3 weeks after submission: Rapid review paper notification - Dec. 1, 2023: Standard review paper deadline - Jan. 19, 2024: Standard review paper notification / Rapid review paper deadline / Short paper deadline - Feb. 2, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit deadline - Feb. 9, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit notification / Short paper notification Connect: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg Organizers - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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First Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Sven Wachsmuth 27 Oct '23

27 Oct '23

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2024. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2024 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, October. 30, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 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:[@Home2024-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. /***** Deadline: Monday, Nov. 27, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2024 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:[@Home2024-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark:*Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP. /***** Deadline: Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material 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. *Remarks:* * The video should not exceed the average time for a test (max. 10min) * 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 as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Selected videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:*Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:*It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving complex tasks relevant for @Home that exceed the minimum requirements. This may be inspired by any of the Stage II tests of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 rulebooks. *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 o Group’s research focus and interests. o 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 o 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 o Maximum length is*8 pages*(including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is*****8 pages + annex*****(any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:*The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use theSpringer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> (http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0) used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You maydownload a template for the TDP from <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>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 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 * Links to the qualification materials (TDP, Video) for the oncoming RoboCup *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: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, completeness, 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/ <https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/>

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First Call for Participation | RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Sven Wachsmuth 12 Oct '23

12 Oct '23

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ <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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2024. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2024 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, October. 30, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 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:[@Home2024-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. /***** Deadline: Monday, Nov. 27, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2024 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:[@Home2024-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark:*Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP. /***** Deadline: Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material 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. *Remarks:* * The video should not exceed the average time for a test (max. 10min) * 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 as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Selected videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:*Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:*It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving complex tasks relevant for @Home that exceed the minimum requirements. This may be inspired by any of the Stage II tests of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 rulebooks. *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 o Group’s research focus and interests. o 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 o 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 o Maximum length is*8 pages*(including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is*****8 pages + annex*****(any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:*The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use theSpringer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0>(http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0) used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You maydownload a template for the TDP from https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate <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 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 * Links to the qualification materials (TDP, Video) for the oncoming RoboCup *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: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, completeness, 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees Call for Participation <https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/>,Domestic Standard Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/dspl/>,Leagues <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/>,Open Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/opl/>,Social Standard Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/sspl/>

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[meetings] [TAHRI] Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by TAHRI Organizers 03 Oct '23

03 Oct '23

What: International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI) When: March 9–10, 2024 Where: Boulder, Colorado, USA Web: https://tahri.org — Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the 2024 International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI)! Overview: TAHRI aims to be the premiere symposium for HRI research focused on the advancement of the underlying technology enabling the interaction between a robot and a human. The inaugural event will be held on March 9–10, 2024 in Boulder, Colorado, USA, two days before and co-located with the 2024 HRI conference! Theme: The theme for the inaugural TAHRI is “Building Bridges Between Builders”, gathering HRI researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government, and other research groups who are focused on the development of HRI technologies. Topics: TAHRI seeks technological HRI contributions from a broad range of perspectives, including, but not limited to, robots, platforms, hardware, software, sensors, actuators, perception, control, algorithms, models, mechanisms, methods, interfaces, architectures, frameworks, benchmarks, datasets, tools, techniques, or other technologies that, with reasonable effort, can be incorporated into the design, development, or deployment of an HRI system. Papers: TAHRI invites novel, high-quality technological HRI papers that will be peer-reviewed in a flexible process, presented live at the symposium, and indexed in archived proceedings. - Standard review papers are for technological HRI work that has not been previously submitted for review. - Rapid review papers are for technological HRI work that has been previously reviewed, but was either not indexed or not published. These papers are part of a new rolling review process (from Nov. 6th, 2023 to Jan. 19th, 2024), with a fast turnaround notification (~3 weeks) and a limited number of submissions! See the website for details. - Short papers are for recent, ongoing, or otherwise promising technological HRI work with some preliminary results. These papers will not be indexed in archived proceedings. Important Dates: - Nov. 6, 2023: Paper submission site opens - ~3 weeks after submission: Rapid review paper notification - Dec. 1, 2023: Standard review paper deadline - Jan. 19, 2024: Standard review paper notification / Rapid review paper deadline / Short paper deadline - Feb. 2, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit deadline - Feb. 9, 2024: Revise-and-resubmit notification / Short paper notification Connect: For more information or to stay up-to-date on TAHRI, please visit the website (https://tahri.org), email us (info(a)tahri.org), or follow us on social media: - Medium: https://medium.com/@TAHRIorg - X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAHRIorg - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/TAHRIorg - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TAHRIorg Organizers - Ross Mead (Semio) - Shelly Bagchi (NIST) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute) - Reuth Mirsky (Bar-Ilan University) - Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University) - Jeremy Marvel (NIST) - Megan Zimmerman (NIST) - Justin Hart (University of Texas Austin) -- TAHRI Organizers <https://www.tahri.org/people#organizers> *organizers(a)tahri.org <organizers(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>* * <ross.mead(a)tahri.org>*

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PhD scholarships @ Western Sydney Uni, Australia
by Oliver Obst 10 Aug '23

10 Aug '23

Dear all, We have a new round of PhD scholarships at Western Sydney, open for domestic and international candidates who can start next January. If you are interested to work with me in robotics, in particular around one of these areas: - robotic teams and learning of strategies, reinforcement learning, or real-time decision making - learning-based locomotion and whole body control for walking (biped or quadruped) robots - assistive robotics or have prior RoboCup experience please consider applying. Please check the criteria and apply on this page here: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/schools/grs/scholarships/main_round_schola… If you do apply, make sure to contact me in advance. Cheers Oliver -- Oliver Obst, Associate Professor Centre for Research in Mathematics and Data Science Western Sydney University http://oliver.obst.eu/

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[meetings][CFP] [AI-HRI 2023] 2023 AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI)
by Hernandez Garcia, Daniel 05 Aug '23

05 Aug '23

The 10th annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on October 25-27, 2023, at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA. We are planning a hybrid in-person and online format to reach more people who would not be able to attend in person. Paper submissions will be due on August 13, 2023 (Anywhere on Earth) and can be made through https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss230. For more information and updates, please see below or visit the symposium website at https://ai-hri.github.io If you intend to submit a paper, please email us at ai4hri(a)gmail.com by the 8th of August. Use the subject line, “[AI-HRI] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers. Important Dates - Submission: August 13th, 2023 (Anywhere on Earth) - Notification of Acceptance: September 1, 2023 - Registration Deadline: September 29, 2023 - Symposium: October 25-27, 2023 Overview Since 2014, the Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) symposium has been a successful venue for discussion and collaboration on the topic of AI applied to HRI. In celebration of the 10th anniversary this year, we are reflecting on the achievements of the community as we transition to a new venue and spiritual successor, the International Symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI). We invite all contributions related to any topic on the intersection of AI and HRI, and we welcome new researchers who wish to take part in this thriving and growing community. With the success of past symposia, AI-HRI explores diverse challenges that impact a variety of communities and problems spanning academia, industry, and government. It has pioneered the discussions in recent trends and interests, and this year's AI-HRI Fall Symposium will continue to bring together researchers and practitioners from around the globe. In doing so, we hope to accelerate research in the field, support technology transition and user adoption, and determine future directions for our group and our research. Topics - Future of AI-HRI and TAHRI via “Blue Sky” ideas - Emergent abilities of LLMs in AI for HRI - Ethics, fairness, trust, and explainability in AI for HRI - Architectures, software tools, and systems supporting autonomous HRI - Interactive task learning, dialog systems, and natural language - Field deployments, studies, experimental, and empirical HRI - Safety and ergonomics in HRI - Robot planning, abstraction, and decision-making - AI for social robots - Safety and human comfort in HRI - Software tools for autonomous HRI - AI for social robots - Physical HRI - Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI - AI for HRI in teams and groups - Replication studies and reproducibility in AI for HRI - Test methods and metrics for AI-HRI - ...and many other topics relevant to the application of Artificial Intelligence to Human-Robot Interaction! Format This year's symposium will focus on the accomplishments in the field of AI-HRI as well as look to its future challenges, ranging from research directions to establishing an ongoing collaborative community. We will invite symposium participants to present their own work as it contributes to understanding what matters towards these goals, though all research on AI-HRI will be considered. We will continue to include AI-HRI’s signature community-building efforts into the schedule, including paper presentations, poster sessions, and breakout group discussions. These are ideal within the symposium community, which is small enough that we can all learn each other's names and faces, but large enough to draw an audience of people who have a real impact in our field. These discussions give perfect opportunities for new researchers in the field to meet senior members in a more informal setting and become more involved in future interactions and collaborations within the community. This year, we have the opportunity to gather in-person; however, for inclusiveness, we are planning in advance to implement a hybrid in-person and online format to reach more people who would not be able to attend in person. The diversity chair will lead the efforts for creating an inclusive community and will work with AAAI to manage the logistics for hybrid participation. Submissions All submissions should be 2-4 pages (not including references). Tracks for submissions include: - *Research papers* highlighting state-of-the-art or ongoing HRI-oriented AI research, HRI research focusing on the Future of AI-HRI, the use of autonomous AI systems, an overview of an AI-HRI research topic, an outline of new or controversial views on AI-HRI research, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. - *Artifact papers* describing novel software, hardware, datasets, or other tools of interest to the AI-HRI community. - *Demo papers* introducing some portion of a tool, short, or full paper-level deliverable in the form of a public-facing experience. - *Blue Sky papers* fostering a forward-thinking discussion on the future at the intersection of AI and HRI. This year, we decided to encourage (but not enforce) double blind. If possible, the authors should try to anonymize their papers to support stronger fairness in the reviewing process. All accepted papers will be presented orally and published in their choice of the proceedings through ArXiv or AAAI’s symposium proceedings. All submissions will receive feedback to prepare a full follow-up submission for TAHRI, and accepted papers will have the opportunity for their follow-up submission for TAHRI to receive a fast-track evaluation. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a "full-length" or "lightning" presentation slot. Furthermore, accepted papers can be identified for fast-tracked review for TAHRI (https://tahri.org<https://tahri.org/>), the upcoming symposium on Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction, which will happen in March 2024. To ensure that your submission has the proper formatting, please see paper templates in the AAAI Author Kit: https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit23.zip Contributions may be submitted through EasyChair now: <https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=fss22> https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss230 For any extenuating circumstances that may result in a delayed submission, please contact us at ai4hri(a)gmail.com<mailto:ai4hri@gmail.com>. Diversity and Inclusion AI-HRI is committed to growing the diversity of our community and is actively pursuing ways to make our community more inclusive. Our efforts include diversifying the participation among our program committee, invited speakers, paper authors, and symposium attendees. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at ai4hri(a)gmail.com. Organizing Committee - Richard G. Freedman (SIFT, USA) - Ross Mead (Semio, USA) - Muneeb I. Ahmad (Swansea University, UK) - Zhao Han (Colorado School of Mines, USA) - Justin W. Hart (University of Texas at Austin, USA) - ‪Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University, UK) - Ifrah Idrees (Brown University, USA) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College, USA) ________________________________ Founded in 1821, Heriot-Watt is a leader in ideas and solutions. With campuses and students across the entire globe we span the world, delivering innovation and educational excellence in business, engineering, design and the physical, social and life sciences. This email is generated from the Heriot-Watt University Group, which includes: 1. Heriot-Watt University, a Scottish charity registered under number SC000278 2. Heriot- Watt Services Limited (Oriam), Scotland's national performance centre for sport. Heriot-Watt Services Limited is a private limited company registered is Scotland with registered number SC271030 and registered office at Research & Enterprise Services Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS. The contents (including any attachments) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of its contents is strictly prohibited, and you should please notify the sender immediately and then delete it (including any attachments) from your system.

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[CFP] [meetings] **Extended Deadline** AAAI 2023 Fall Symposium on “Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development” (UR-RAD)
by Ross Mead 28 Jul '23

28 Jul '23

Dear colleagues, We have extended the deadline for submissions for the 2023 AAAI Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development <https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home>(UR-RAD). The new deadline for submissions is August 14, 2023. The symposium will take place on October 25-27, 2023, in Arlington, VA, USA. Although we hope to see you in-person, the symposium will be in a hybrid format. ============= Key Information ============= Behind any robot task or interaction is a formal representation that should (a) enable sufficient contextualization; (b) support any existing predefined, learned, and/or reusable skills onboard the robot; (c) be verifiable at design time and behave consistently at run-time; and (d) can be tested, executed, and modified for reuse on a variety of different robot morphologies. Representations have long played a pivotal role in robot application development. Examples include behavior trees, finite state machines, hierarchical task networks, and many, many others. The problem is that there is a lack of consistency and uniformity in how these representations are selected and used by robotics researchers. The goals of the symposium will therefore be to (a) categorize current representational trends for robot application development, (b) discuss best practices for future adoption of languages, formal representations, development frameworks, etc. that integrate advances from the wider AI community, and (c) identify opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry. - Symposium Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-sympo…> - AAAI Fall Symposium Series Website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-2023-fall-symposium-series/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-…> ========================= Submission Topics of Interest ========================= We invite submissions related, but not limited, to the following topics: - Existing representations for robot applications - Proposals for standardizing representations for robotics - Robot end-user development - Robot programming paradigms - Robot programming interfaces - Robot control interfaces and runtime environments - Standardized application development for different robot morphologies - Application development frameworks for robotics (e.g., ROS) - Formal methods in robotics - Representations, frameworks, and models for robot learning - Robot architectures and models of reasoning - AI planning for robotics - Open-source initiatives in robotics - Interfaces for human-robot interaction ============= Important Dates ============= - Submissions: August 14, 2023 **EXTENDED** - Acceptance: September 1st, 2023 - Camera-Ready: October 9th, 2023 ==================== Submission Information ==================== The submission link can be found on the symposium website. The submission format can be any of the following: - Regular Research Papers: (4-6 pages, AAAI double-column format) describing robotics work related to any of the themes above. - Artifact Papers: (4-6 pages, AAAI double-column format) describing artifacts (e.g., software tools or libraries) related to any of the themes above. - Position Papers: (2-4 pages, AAAI double-column format), directly discussing themes outlined above. If you intend to submit a paper, please email us at urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com. Use the subject line, “[UR-RAD] Intent to Submit”, and include the following in the body of the message: (1) a tentative title, (2) a tentative author list, and (3) tentative keywords. This step is optional, but will aid in our planning for reviewers. Note that at least one author from each paper will be expected to review 2-3 UR-RAD papers themselves. =================== Organizing Committee =================== - David Porfirio (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Ross Mead (Semio) - Laura M. Hiatt (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Mark Roberts (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Amin Atrash (Amazon Lab 126) - Nick DePalma (Independent Researcher) - Ruchen Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Please send any questions about the workshop to urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com. -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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RoboCup Brazil Open 2023
by patricia.vergara＠robocup.org.br 27 Jul '23

27 Jul '23

The content of this message was lost. It was probably cross-posted to multiple lists and previously handled on another list.

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[CFP] [AI-HRI 2023] 2023 AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI)
by Hernandez Garcia, Daniel 13 Jul '23

13 Jul '23

The tenth annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on October 25-27, 2023, at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA. We are planning a hybrid in-person and online format to reach more people who would not be able to attend in person. Paper submissions will be due on August 6, 2023 (anywhere on Earth) and can be made through https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss230. For more information and updates, please see below or visit the symposium website at https://ai-hri.github.io/<https://ai-hri.github.io/>. Overview Since 2014, the Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) Symposium has been a successful venue for discussion and collaboration on the topic of AI applied to HRI. In celebration of the tenth anniversary this year, we are reflecting on the achievements of the community as we transition to a new venue and spiritual successor, Technological Advances in Human-Robot Interaction (TAHRI). We invite all contributions related to any topic on the intersection of AI and HRI, and we welcome new researchers who wish to take part in this thriving and growing community. With the success of past symposia, AI-HRI explores diverse challenges that impact a variety of communities and problems spanning academia, industry, and government. It has pioneered the discussions in recent trends and interests, and this year's AI-HRI Fall Symposium will continue to bring together researchers and practitioners from around the globe. In doing so, we hope to accelerate research in the field, support technology transition and user adoption, and determine future directions for our group and our research. Topics - Future of AI-HRI and TAHRI via “Blue Sky” ideas - Emergent abilities of LLMs in AI for HRI - Ethics, fairness, trust, and explainability in AI for HRI - Architectures, software tools, and systems supporting autonomous HRI - Interactive task learning, dialog systems, and natural language - Field deployments, studies, experimental, and empirical HRI - Safety and ergonomics in HRI - Robot planning, abstraction, and decision-making - AI for social robots - Safety and human comfort in HRI - Software tools for autonomous HRI - AI for social robots - Physical HRI - Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI - AI for HRI in teams and groups - Replication studies and reproducibility in AI for HRI - Test methods and metrics for AI-HRI - ...and many other topics relevant to the application of Artificial Intelligence to Human-Robot Interaction! Format This year's symposium will focus on the accomplishments in the field of AI-HRI as well as look to its future challenges, ranging from research directions to establishing an ongoing collaborative community. We will invite symposium participants to present their own work as it contributes to understanding what matters towards these goals, though all research on AI-HRI will be considered. We will continue to include AI-HRI’s signature community-building efforts into the schedule, including paper presentations, poster sessions, and breakout group discussions. These are ideal within the symposium community, which is small enough that we can all learn each other's names and faces, but large enough to draw an audience of people who have a real impact in our field. These discussions give perfect opportunities for new researchers in the field to meet senior members in a more informal setting and become more involved in future interactions and collaborations within the community. This year, we have the opportunity to gather in person. However, for inclusiveness, we are planning in advance to implement a hybrid in-person and online format to reach more people who would not be able to attend in person. The diversity chair will lead the efforts for creating an inclusive community and will work with AAAI to manage the logistics for hybrid participation. Submissions All submissions should be 2-4 pages (not including references), introducing work that will receive feedback to prepare a follow-up submission to TAHRI. Tracks for submissions include: - *Research papers* highlighting state-of-the-art or ongoing HRI-oriented AI research, HRI research focusing on the Future of AI-HRI, the use of autonomous AI systems, an overview of an AI-HRI research topic, an outline of new or controversial views on AI-HRI research, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. - *Tool papers* describing novel software, hardware, or datasets of interest to the AI-HRI community. - *Demo papers* introducing some portion of a tool, short, or full paper-level deliverable in the form of a public-facing experience. - *Blue Sky papers* fostering a forward-thinking discussion on the future at the intersection of AI and HRI. All accepted papers will be presented orally and published in their choice of the proceedings through ArXiv or AAAI’s symposium proceedings. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a "full-length" or "lightning" presentation slot. Please see the AAAI Author Kit (https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit23.zip) for paper templates to ensure that your submission has the proper formatting. Contributions may be submitted through EasyChair now: <https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=fss22> https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss230 . For any extenuating circumstances that may result in a delayed submission, please contact us at ai4hri(a)gmail.com. Important Dates - Submission: August 6, 2023 (anywhere on earth) - Notification of acceptance: September 1, 2023 - Registration deadline: September 29, 2023 - Symposium: October 25-27, 2023 Diversity & Inclusion at AI-HRI AI-HRI is committed to growing the diversity of our community and is actively pursuing ways to make our community more inclusive. Our efforts include diversifying the participation among our program committee, invited speakers, paper authors, and symposium attendees. If you are having difficulties, please contact us at ai4hri(a)gmail.com . Organizing Committee - Richard G. Freedman (SIFT, USA) - Ross Mead (Semio, USA) - Muneeb I. Ahmad (Swansea University, UK) - Zhao Han (Colorado School of Mines, USA) - Justin W. Hart (University of Texas at Austin, USA) - ‪Daniel Hernández García (Heriot-Watt University, UK) - Ifrah Idrees (Brown University, USA) - Emmanuel Senft (Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland) - Jason R. Wilson (Franklin & Marshall College, USA) ________________________________ Founded in 1821, Heriot-Watt is a leader in ideas and solutions. With campuses and students across the entire globe we span the world, delivering innovation and educational excellence in business, engineering, design and the physical, social and life sciences. This email is generated from the Heriot-Watt University Group, which includes: 1. Heriot-Watt University, a Scottish charity registered under number SC000278 2. Heriot- Watt Services Limited (Oriam), Scotland's national performance centre for sport. Heriot-Watt Services Limited is a private limited company registered is Scotland with registered number SC271030 and registered office at Research & Enterprise Services Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS. The contents (including any attachments) are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of its contents is strictly prohibited, and you should please notify the sender immediately and then delete it (including any attachments) from your system.

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Group photo
by Okada Hiroyuki 13 Jul '23

13 Jul '23

Hi, Did you all get home safely? please find photos of all the @Home league that I made here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nJrGeZNbzD4cWWCZ9 Group photo https://photos.app.goo.gl/uTdrxupwQo169Pqj9 May be used freely. Best!, Hiroyuki

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[CFP] [meetings] AAAI 2023 Fall Symposium on “Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development” (UR-RAD)
by Ross Mead 05 Jul '23

05 Jul '23

Dear colleagues, We are inviting submissions and participation in the 2023 AAAI Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-sympo…> (UR-RAD). The symposium will take place on October 25-27, 2023, in Arlington, VA, USA. ============= Key Information ============= Behind any robot task or interaction is a formal representation that should (a) enable sufficient contextualization; (b) support any existing predefined, learned, and/or reusable skills onboard the robot; (c) be verifiable at design time and behave consistently at run-time; and (d) can be tested, executed, and modified for reuse on a variety of different robot morphologies. Representations have long played a pivotal role in robot application development. Examples include behavior trees, finite state machines, hierarchical task networks, and many, many others. The problem is that there is a lack of consistency and uniformity in how these representations are selected and used by robotics researchers. The goals of the symposium will therefore be to (a) categorize current representational trends for robot application development, (b) discuss best practices for future adoption of languages, formal representations, development frameworks, etc. that integrate advances from the wider AI community, and (c) identify opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry. - Symposium Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-symposium/home <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/view/aaai-ur-rad-sympo…> - AAAI Fall Symposium Series Website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-2023-fall-symposium-series/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-…> ========================= Submission Topics of Interest ========================= We invite submissions related, but not limited, to the following topics: - Existing representations for robot applications - Proposals for standardizing representations for robotics - Robot end-user development - Robot programming paradigms - Robot programming interfaces - Robot control interfaces and runtime environments - Standardized application development for different robot morphologies - Application development frameworks for robotics (e.g., ROS) - Formal methods in robotics - Representations, frameworks, and models for robot learning - AI planning for robotics - Open-source initiatives in robotics - Interfaces for human-robot interaction ==================== Submission Information ==================== - Submissions: August 4th, 2023 - Acceptance: September 15th, 2023 - Camera Ready: October 9th, 2023 The submission link can be found on the symposium website. The submission format can be any of the following: - Regular Research Papers: (4-6 pages, AAAI double-column format) describing robotics work related to any of the themes above. - Artifact Papers: (4-6 pages, AAAI double-column format) describing artifacts (e.g., software tools or libraries) related to any of the themes above. - Position Papers: (2-4 pages, AAAI double-column format), directly discussing themes outlined above. =================== Organizing Committee =================== - David Porfirio (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Ross Mead (Semio) - Laura M. Hiatt (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Mark Roberts (US Naval Research Laboratory) - Amin Atrash (Amazon Lab 126) - Nick DePalma (Independent Researcher) - Ruchen Wen (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) - Laura Stegner (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Please send any questions about the workshop to urrad.symposium(a)gmail.com -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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Fwd: [rc-home-tc] [RoboCup Committee] Newsletter #3: Welcoming Booklet
by Mauricio Matamoros 02 Jul '23

02 Jul '23

Dear RoboCuper, We're only a few days away from the start of the competitions, in order to welcome you , we'd like to share with you this welcome booklet containing all the important information for this edition. Please find enclosed the Welcome booklet. This booklet contains information about on-site registration, the site map, the program, and much more. Best regards, The organizing committee

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Fwd: [rc-home-tc] [RoboCup Committee] Form of consent
by Mauricio Matamoros 02 Jul '23

02 Jul '23

Dear RoboCuper, We're delighted to welcome you in a few days to the 2023 edition of the RoboCup . The next few days will mark the start of competitions that we hope will suit you. However, before you can access the competitions, we *need* you to *read* and *sign* the *consent form attached to this mail*. This form is *to be handed in at the reception desk of the exhibition center* as soon as you arrive. We wish you a good day and a safe journey to Bordeaux, For *underage people*, we draw your attention to the fact that your *legal guardians must sign it *. Newsletter number 3 will be send shortly and will take the form of a welcome kit containing all the information you need to prepare for your arrival. Best regards, The 2023 Organizing Committee

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Fwd: [rc-home-tc] [RoboCup Committee] Urgent information: RoboCup 2023
by Mauricio Matamoros 02 Jul '23

02 Jul '23

Dear RoboCuper, We know that some of you are worried about the situation in France. We are in close connection with authorities, and we are monitoring the events in realtime. The competition will take place in compliance with safety standards and at the moment the schedule is maintained. We will keep you informed of the developments at least on a daily basis by email and via the discord platform. • Discord | #⌠🗣⌡random | RoboCup 2023 <https://discord.com/channels/1088577847326675054/1088577847918075978> Best regards, The 2023 organizing committee

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RoboCup Brazil Open 2023
by Patricia Vergara 29 Jun '23

29 Jun '23

Good morning! Registrations are now open for RoboCup Brazil Open 2023! The event will occur from October 7th to 12th at the* Salvador Convention Center in Salvador, Bahia*. Registrations can be made through the website: http://olimpo.robocup.org.br/. RoboCup Brazil Open is a large event that also includes the Brazilian Robotics Competition, the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, and the Brazilian Robotics Exhibition. In addition, the following meetings will be held during the event: XV Brazilian Robotics Symposium XIV Workshop on Educational Robotics Thesis and Dissertation Workshop in Robotics Thesis and Dissertation Contest in Robotics IEEE Latin American Robotics Symposium All rules and challenges for each category are available on our website, as well as the updated registration fees and deadlines for TDP submission. >> Some categories will be in a hybrid format, allowing teams to participate remotely when necessary. >> All information is available on our website: www.cbrobotica.org and www.robotica.org.br ________________________________ Best regards, Robocup Brazil Team -- Patrícia Vergara Comunicação RoboCup Brasil (11) 9.8686-4993 (apenas whatsapp) www.robocup.org.br

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National Robotics Festival - Portugal
by Patricia Vergara 29 Mar '23

29 Mar '23

Hello good morning: We are almost ready for the 23rd edition of the National Robotics Festival - Portugal - FNR’2023 event. We are pleased to address this invitation to invite you to participate in the 2023 Portuguese Robotics Open (FNR'2023) which is promoted by the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT) and the Portuguese Robotics Society (SPR) and which will take place at the Municipal Pavilion of Tomar, from April 28 to 30, 2023. Categories: Major: DRAGSTAR FREEBOTS MANIPULADORES ROBÓTICOS ROBOT@FACTORY LITE ROBOT@FACTORY 4.0 CONDUÇÃO AUTÓNOMA LIGA DE SIMULAÇÃO 3D @HOME Junior: RCJ RESCUE SIMULATION ROBOT@FACTORY LITE FIRST CHALLENGER FREEBOTS JÚNIOR ONSTAGE BUSCA E SALVAMENTO – LINHA BUSCA E SALVAMENTO – LABIRINTO ROBOCUP SOCCER (MSL) The registration form is now available on the event's website! If you register before April 2nd, in addition to guaranteeing your spot, you are entitled to a discount on your team's registration. Click the button below for more details and access to our website! https://www.festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/2023/ If you have any questions, you can contact the organization through the official email: info(a)festivalnacionalrobotica.pt We look forward to your participation and present our best regards, The Organizing Committee -- Patrícia Vergara

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Fw: Fall 2023 fully-funded Ph.D. positions in human-robot interaction (HRI) at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, FL, USA
by Zhao Han 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Joining the University of South Florida<https://www.usf.edu/> (USF) in August, Dr. Zhao Han<https://zhaohanphd.com/> invites applications for up to two fully funded Ph.D. positions (Research Assistants) starting as early as Fall 2023 in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. program<https://www.usf.edu/engineering/cse/graduate/phd-program.aspx> (catalog<https://catalog.usf.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=18&poid=7770>) at USF in Tampa, Florida, USA. The deadline for Fall 2023 admission is April 15. This posting is also available at https://zhaohanphd.com/phd-positions/. Strong candidates are highly motivated, comfortable with programming, eager to learn, hard-working, and demonstrate an interest in the emerging and interdisciplinary field of human-robot interaction (HRI), including robot explanation/transparency, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), collaborative mobile manipulation/robotics, robot platform and interaction design, AI, cognitive science/psychology, or an area related to Dr. Han’s expertise<https://zhaohanphd.com/expertise/>. Successful candidates will be mentored and trained as prolific and independent researchers, publishing at top-tier international conferences and journals. Dr. Han has a strong publication record<https://zhaohanphd.com/publications/> and extensive mentoring experience<https://zhaohanphd.com/cv/#mentoring> with an inclusive excellence and supportive approach. You will work on real robot platforms using popular robotics frameworks. Students from underrepresented and underserved groups that are traditionally disadvantaged are strongly encouraged to apply. This position includes tuition waivers and stipends. ________________________________ Dr. Zhao Han is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of South Florida, joining the faculty in August 2023. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Colorado School of Mines. His research lies broadly in human-robot interaction (HRI), robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR). He focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating novel robotic systems and interactions, for embodied robots to be more capable and understandable while interacting and collaborating with humans. He received the best long-paper award at INLG 2022 and the best late-breaking report third prize at HRI 2022. Previously, he had led teams to win multiple international and national robot competitions, including first place in the Panasonic Prototype 3D LiDAR Challenge and second place in the FetchIt Mobile Manipulation Challenge at ICRA 2019. In addition to research, he received a university-wide Mines Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (DI&A) Award in 2022. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMass Lowell, advised by AAAI Fellow Dr. Holly Yanco. He received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba in Canada. The University of South Florida (USF)<https://www.usf.edu/> is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success and has an annual budget of 2.34 billion (2022-2023). Ranked top 100 in U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings, no other public university in the US has risen faster than USF in the past decade. USF is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”, and according to the National Science Foundation, USF spent $568 million on research and development in 2019, ranking it 43rd in the US and 25th among public universities. Serving over 49,000 students, USF is designated as one of three Preeminent State Research Universities<https://admissions.usf.edu/blog/what-is-preeminence-and-why-it-matters-to-y…> by the Florida Board of Governors, receiving additional financial support from the state of Florida for student success and research. Learn more on USF’s about page<https://www.usf.edu/about-usf/index.aspx>. USF is located in the City of Tampa on the west coast of the Sunshine State of Florida. Full of opportunities and possibilities, the Tampa Bay area has around 3 million people and is one of the top places to live. Learn more about Florida Gulf Coast Living<https://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshmen/why-usf/our-campuses/gulf-coast-liv…> for why over 49,000 students have chosen USF as well as the US<https://www.visittheusa.com/destination/tampa-bay>, state<https://www.visitflorida.com/places-to-go/central-west/tampa/>, and local<https://www.visittampabay.com/> resources. ________________________________ A complete application package includes: * Unofficial Transcripts (including the grade sheet and diploma, if applicable) * If admitted, official transcripts and test scores will need to be submitted to Graduate Admissions but unofficial transcripts/scores can be used in reviewing the application. * PDF of GRE Scores * CV/Resume * Statement of Purpose * 3 Letters of Recommendation (Must be on official letterhead with recommender’s title and contact) * PDF of English Proficiency Scores, if applicable For consideration, please mention Dr. Zhao Han in your application materials and apply through the USF graduate student admission process<https://www.usf.edu/admissions/graduate/admission-information/>. The current admission cycle is Spring 2024. To be admitted to Fall 2023, you must also 1. Email your application package without the recommendation letters to zhaohan(a)mines.edu 2. Ask each of your three recommendation letter writers to email their letter to zhaohan(a)mines.edu By applying in the USF’s admissions portal, any other interested faculty member can also review your application. All applications and recommendation letters must be submitted to the USF admissions portal and emailed to Dr. Zhao Han by April 15. Applications will be considered starting immediately. International students should apply soon because visa applications require additional time. Once an admission offer is accepted, Research Assistantship offer decisions will be made once Dr. Zhao Han arrives at USF in August. --- Zhao Han, Ph.D.<https://zhaohanphd.com/> (he/him<https://pronouns.org/>) Post-Doctoral Fellow, Computer Science, Brown Hall, 280M Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA zhaohanphd.com<https://zhaohanphd.com/> | @hanzhao<https://twitter.com/hanzhao> <https://twitter.com/hanzhao>

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[meetings] [CFP] RO-MAN 2023 Special Session on “HRI in Academia and Industry: Bridging the Gap”
by Ross Mead 07 Mar '23

07 Mar '23

[CALL FOR PAPERS] SPECIAL SESSION on “HRI in Academia and Industry: Bridging the Gap” @ IEEE RO-MAN 2023 - Submission Website: http://ro-man2023.org/paperSubmission/papersubmission - Special Session Submission Code: an7c7 IMPORTANT DATES - *NEW* Paper Submission Deadline: March 31, 2023 (AoE) - Notification of Acceptance: May 26, 2023 - Final Paper Submission: June 30, 2023 AIM AND SCOPE The use of robots that operate in spaces where humans are present is growing at a dramatic rate. We are seeing more and more robots in warehouses, on streets, and even in our homes. All of these robots will, as part of their primary function, interact with humans in some way. In order to be successful, their interactions with humans will have to be carefully designed. The field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has been growing at the intersection of robotics, AI, psychology, and a number of other fields. However, until quite recently, it has been a largely academic area, with university researchers proposing, implementing, and reporting on experiments at a limited scale. With the current increase of commercially-available robots, HRI is starting to make its way into industry in a meaningful way. This special session is intended to bring together HRI researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry, to discuss how these areas are different in their needs and approaches, and to figure out how HRI researchers and practitioners in these areas can work together – How can we make academic HRI research and education more relevant to industrial needs? How can industry support and contribute to more science-focused HRI? The special session will attract contributions on four broad themes, outlined below, in an attempt to build a new community interested in how these two active areas of HRI research and practice can work more closely together, and support each other in practical terms. We welcome research and case study papers with at least one section devoted to addressing some of the questions outlined below in the discussion section. We also invite survey and position paper contributions that directly surveys or discusses some of the below questions. - The Constraints and Needs of HRI in Industry - What are the constraints of deploying HRI at scale in consumer robots? - What are the pressing HRI problems that the industry wants to solve? Why? - How do we measure the success of HRI in a consumer product? - What HRI research can we do in an industry setting that we can’t do in academia? - The Relevance and Innovation of Academic HRI - What are the constraints of HRI research in an academic environment? - What industrial or consumer applications drive interesting academic HRI research? - How do we measure the success of academic HRI beyond controlled experiments and p-values? - What HRI research can we do in an academic setting that we can’t do in industry? - Interaction between Academic and Industrial HRI: Publications, Conferences, Tools/Technology Resources, and Experiments - What are the constraints of publishing in industry, and how do we address them? - How can academic & industrial HRI researchers collaborate meaningfully across the IP boundary? - How can industry HRI research benefit more from science-driven approaches? - How can academic HRI research benefit more from real-world problems? - HRI Education and Training: What does Academia and Industry Need? - What does it mean to be an HRI researcher? What are required skill sets in industry & academia? - How should we be training future HRI researchers for industry and academic career paths? - Since HRI can touch on all aspects of a robot system, how much HRI should robot hardware and software developers know? - How can HRI researchers with interdisciplinary backgrounds integrate successfully with hardware and software development teams? How much technical background do they need to know? Contributions The special session contributions will go through the same peer review process as regular track papers, and the accepted manuscripts will appear in the Ro-Man23 proceedings. Please follow the directions as provided in the conference website: http://ro-man2023.org/paperSubmission/papersubmission In Steps 3 and 4, select "Special Session Paper" under the First Submission category, and enter the following code to submit to our session. - Special Session Submission Code: an7c7 Organizers - Hae Won Park (Amazon Lab126 and MIT) - Bill Smart (Amazon Lab126 and Oregon State University) - Ross Mead (Semio) - Chien-Ming Huang (Johns Hopkins University) - Anastasia K. Ostrowski (MIT) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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[meetings][CFP] RO-MAN 2023 - Special Session "To err is robotic: Understanding, preventing and resolving robots' failures in HRI"
by Alessandra Rossi 15 Feb '23

15 Feb '23

*Apologies for any cross-posting* Dear colleagues, We are very pleased to invite you to the Special Session called *To err is robotic: Understanding, preventing and resolving robots' failures in HRI *( code u3f1h)*.* This special session welcomes works: 1) focusing on how people from perceive robot's failures in short- and long-term interactions, and highlight how different failures influence their perceptions and emotions toward the robots, and 2) exploring different techniques (e.g. inner speech, predictability and transparency of robotic behaviours, Theory of Mind, robot etiquette, Verification Methods, explanations) can foster a natural human-robot communication to reduce the perception of failures and/or help people understand the implications, risks, and goals of robot behaviour. This Special Session is organised within the 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2023) will be held at Paradise Hotel in Busan, South Korea from August 28 to 31, 2023. Please find attached the full call for papers for the Special Session "*To err is robotic: Understanding, preventing and resolving robots' failures in HRI*". Kindest regards Alessandra Rossi, Kheng Lee Koay, Kerstin S. Haring ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL SESSION To err is robotic: Understanding, preventing and resolving robots' failures in HRI Code u3f1h Robots placed in human-oriented dynamic environments, such as private homes, shopping malls, healthcare facilities, are likely to exhibit occasional behaviours which are perceived by people as unexpected, failures, or actual errors. Robots' errors can negatively affect people's perception of the robotic behaviours, in terms of usefulness, functionalities and capabilities, trustworthiness and acceptability. Robotics errors and how these are perceived by people do not only depend on robot self, but they are also a consequence of other factors. For example, they may be a consequence of human errors, or an unclear and non-transparent communication, or they may depend on a misunderstanding and miscommunication of the social, psychological and cognitive conventions expected by people. Moreover, there are also some cases in which these behaviours may be perceived as if robots intentionally deceive or cheat people. As a consequence, these may result in people wrongly interpreting and predicting the robots’ intents and behaviours, and negatively affecting Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). This session will focus on examine how people from perceive robot's failures in short- and long-term interactions, and highlight how different failures influence their perceptions and emotions toward the robots. This will help with subject related to classifying of robot errors from the aspect of human (e.g. intentional, voluntarily, perceived vs. real errors -- recklessness, forgetfulness, poor motivation --) and robot dimensions (e.g. actual error - algorithms, sensors, actuators). Moreover, while dealing with robotic failures, it is fundamental to consider two different strategies. The first one is oriented to prevent robots from exhibiting unintended behaviours, which in some extreme cases may even endanger people’s, pets’ safety, or break objects. Some examples are meant to enable robots to adapt and recover from any erroneous behaviour, such as the use of Software Verification Methods, Theory of Mind, robot etiquette. Others are focused on mitigating the effects of robot errors with apologies, promises or creating transparent robotic behaviours. This session will explore how different techniques can be used to enhancing natural human-robot communication (such as inner speech, legibility, predictability and transparency of robotic behaviours, explicit and non-explicit strategies) to help people understand the implications, risks, and goals of robots' behaviours and to mitigate the perception of the failures. In this session, we also want to explore strategies both to prevent robots from exhibiting unintended behaviours, and to mitigate the effects of robot errors on human-robot interaction. The topics covered in this special session are in line with the main theme of the conference (i.e., “Design New Bridge for H-R-I”). In particular, we want to start by fostering the [R] Robotic Recovery and Reconnection to allow [I] Intelligent Interface and Interaction for the [H] Human Health, Happiness and Hope. Notably, accepted topics include, but are not limited to: - Explainable AI (XAI) in HRI - Multi-modal situation awareness and spatial cognition - Social intelligence for robots in interactive and non-interactive tasks - Verifications Methods for autonomous agents - Legibility, Predictability and Transparency in HRI - Cognitive robotics - Deception in HRI - Robot cheating in HRI - Theory of Mind, Mental models in HRI - Robot etiquette - Modelling Trust and Acceptance in HRI Important Dates All dates are in UTC Time Standard Initial Paper Submission Deadline: March 17, 2023 Notification of Acceptance: May 26, 2023 Final Paper Submission: June 30, 2023 How to submit Authors should submit their papers electronically in PDF format via the Papercept submission site. For the initial submission, a manuscript can be of 6-8 pages including references. For the final submission, a manuscript should be of 6 pages, With 2 additional pages allowed with an extra charge (TBA). All papers are reviewed using a single-blind review process. All papers are reviewed using a single-blind review process: authors declare their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers do not know each other's identities, nor do the authors receive information about who has reviewed their manuscript. Authors should use the templates provided by the electronic submission system. The templates for US Letter format paper should be used. Please use the following templates: Templates: LaTeX <https://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/tex.php> or MSWord <https://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/word.php> Papers should be submitted on http://ras.papercept.net/ under the "Submit a contribution to RO-MAN 2023", by selecting special session paper, and use the code: u3f1h Do not forget the code and to select the special session paper. Organisers Dr. Alessandra Rossi - University of Naples Federico II, Italy - alessandra.rossi(a)unina.it Kheng Lee Koay - University of Hertfordshire, UK - k.l.koay(a)herts.ac.uk Kerstin Sophie Haring - University of Denver, USA - b.d.researcher(a)ieee.org For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us!

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[call-for-participation] ICRA2023 Preparation and dish Up of an English Breakfast with Robots (PUB.R) competition
by Francesco Del Duchetto 14 Feb '23

14 Feb '23

======================================================= **** Call for Participation ***** ICRA2023 Preparation and dish Up of an English Breakfast with Robots (PUB.R) competition May 29 to June 2, 2023 (In-person: Excel London, UK) https://lcas.lincoln.ac.uk/wp/pubr ======================================================= Within the framework of the 2023 edition of the ICRA conference, we invite teams to test the design and control of their robots in the Preparation and dish Up of an English Breakfast with Robots (PUB.R) competition. The competition will showcase the last advancements in food handling and preparation by challenging traditional robotics domains, including navigation, manipulation, and scene understanding, but also proposing novel scientific challenges, such as robotic food tasting, communication, creativity, and art. Teams may comprise any combination of students, academic members, private partners, government institutions, etc., without restriction on the number of participants per team. One member of the team must be elected as Team Leader (TL) and will act as a contact point for the team. The PUB.R competition comprises three different scenarios: Shopping, Cooking, and Serving – each challenging different research aspects integrated into a single overarching goal. In the first scenario (Shopping), a subset of spices and sauces should be collected from a pantry area, and brought to the cooking station to prepare the desired recipe. In the second scenario (Cooking), the food has to be prepared, cooked and arranged on the plate by taking into consideration taste and appearance of the final dish. In the last scenario (Serving), a robot has to serve the meal to a table for judging preparation and plate arrangement, it has to explain the dish, and answer simple questions. For all scenarios, teams are invited to bring their own robot. However, a Tiago robot and a Baxter will be provided if requested. Each scenario is split down into tasks: points are awarded by executing partially or completely each task. The team earning the maximum number of points will be considered the winner of the PUB.R Competition 2023. *** Competition Website Additional information about the competition, rules and registration are available at https://lcas.lincoln.ac.uk/wp/pubr *** Important Dates April 14, 2023 Deadline for submitting application and qualification material April 15, 2023 Acceptance notification April 21, 2023 Deadline for accepted teams to confirm their participation May 30-June 2, 2023 Competition *** Organisers University of Lincoln: - Marcello Calisti, Associate Professor in Agri-Robotics, Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology - Francesco Del Duchetto, Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems - Marc Hanheide, Professor of Intelligent Robotics & Interactive Systems, Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems - Elizabeth Sklar, Professor in Agri-Robotics, Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology University of Cambridge: - Fulvio Forni, Associate Professor in Engineering, Department of Engineering - Fumiya Iida, Professor of Robotics, Department of Engineering *** Contacts For any additional request or information, please contact: Marcello Calisti mcalisti(a)lincoln.ac.uk or Francesco Del Duchetto fdelduchetto(a)lincoln.ac.uk. We look forward to your unique and exceptional solutions and seeing your robots showcase their skills at ICRA!

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[@Home2023-Qualification] (Tinker)
by 秦馨瑶 11 Feb '23

11 Feb '23

Dear Sir: Sorry that I have some trouble when sending our email to the committee through rc-home-oc(a)lists.robocup.org.I was always informed that my email was being held because I was not in the member list. I wonder if you could please help me submit our information to the committee. Team Name: Tinker League: OPL Country: China Affiliation: Tsinghua University Team Leader Name: Xinyao Qin Contact information (E-mail): qinxy20(a)mails.tsinghua.edu.cn Rank in local tournaments:9 Link to a team video: https://cloud.tsinghua.edu.cn/d/1ae2b3d968ac4fdea094/ Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: 2022.tinker.tsinghua-furoc.com Our TDP is attached to the email based on the official template. Because China has adjusted the policy of epidemics, we ensure that we can go to the offline competition this year. Looking forward to your reply! Thank you!

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[@Home] 2023 Rulebook Draft
by Mauricio Matamoros 21 Jan '23

21 Jan '23

Dear all, Please find attached the latest draft of the 2023 RoboCup@Home Rulebook. The rulebook is also available in the @Home website <https://athome.robocup.org/rules/> and here <https://athome.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023_rulebook_draft.pdf>. The format of the competition has changed from previous years. During Stage I competitors will test their robots in all 5 predefined tests. The top 50% will advance to Stage II and be challenged with 4 tests. The top performers will advance to the finals where the victor will be elected. Unlike former years, all tests have a fixed schedule and teams have a single try with a restart. With kind regards, and looking forward to see you give your best in the arena, Mauricio Matamoros In behalf of the RoboCup@Home TC

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[@Home] 2023 Rulebook Draft
by Mauricio Matamoros 21 Jan '23

21 Jan '23

Dear all, Please find attached the latest draft of the 2023 RoboCup@Home Rulebook. The rulebook is also available in the @Home website <https://athome.robocup.org/rules/> and here <https://athome.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2023_rulebook_draft.pdf>. The format of the competition has changed from previous years. During Stage I competitors will test their robots in all 5 predefined tests. The top 50% will advance to Stage II and be challenged with 4 tests. The top performers will advance to the finals where the victor will be elected. Unlike former years, all tests have a fixed schedule and teams have a single try with a restart. With kind regards, and looking forward to see you give your best in the arena, Mauricio Matamoros In behalf of the RoboCup@Home TC

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Rulebook changes 2023
by Dooren, Peter van 21 Jan '23

21 Jan '23

Dear Robocup teams, The TC has been in discussion for a few months now on the rulebook for Robocup 2023. We have decided to change the format of the competition. In previous years teams were allowed to choose which challenges they participated in in a given timeslot. This year we will revert to the format of 2017 where we have set challenges in each timeslot. This means some challenges will no longer be part of the league. We understand that this is a major change so below we will provide our reasoning. Having teams choose their own challenges meant that teams could focus on their own strengths. However over the past couple of years we noticed some drawbacks to this format as well. Teams would choose the challenges where it was easiest to score points and challenges that were difficult but very scientifically interesting would not be chosen as they were too risky. Furthermore it became hard to compare the performance of teams as extra emphasis had to be placed on making sure the points that could be scored had to be ‘balanced’ across challenges. This was already a difficult task but especially when teams can choose their challenges it makes the competition a game of ‘who can score the most points’ rather than ‘whose robot is the best’. With the new format we hope to see teams participate in the same challenges. This makes it easier to align “scoring points” and “the robot being the best”, allowing teams to focus on making the best robot rather than what scores the most points. The challenges that will be part of the Robocup 2023 tournament: 1. Carry my luggage 2. Receptionist 3. Storing groceries 4. Serve breakfast 5. GPSR 6. Clean the table 7. Restaurant 8. Stickler for the rules 9. EGPSR The TC may make some more minor changes to these challenges and the final rulebook will be published on March 31st. Kind regards, the Technical Commission

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[@Home2022] SECOND Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 14 Jan '23

14 Jan '23

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp2-all/ Apologies for duplicates ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Second Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023, second term. Important dates: Jan. 9, 2023 Publication of the Second Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 12, 2023 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: [@Home2023-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. * Emails with attachments over 8MB bounce automatically. *IMPORTANT:* Teams that didn't obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. /***** Deadline: Sunday, February 12, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams must 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 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: * TDP o Group's research focus and interests. o 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 o 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 o Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). 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 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: In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[@Home2022] SECOND Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 12 Jan '23

12 Jan '23

Online Version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp2-all/ Apologies for duplicates. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Second Call for Participation ============================== RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.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 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 condi- tions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integra- tion, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023, second term. Important dates: Jan. 9, 2023 Publication of the Second Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 12, 2023 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: The Team Description Paper (TDP) shall be attached to the email and be based on the official template. Please mind the 8MB limit of the mailing list. Teams are allowed to provide an alternate download link to their hi-quality TDP. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-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. — Emails with attachments over 8MB bounce automatically. IMPORTANT: Teams that didn’t obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. **** Deadline: Sunday, February 12, 2023 23:59 GMT ***** Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== 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 task executed 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. If any other languages are used, 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 robot in their Team Video. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicit- ly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia ma- terial 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. include MoveIt/YOLO) + 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**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). — 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. 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 8 pages automatically voids 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 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: -------------------------------------- In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league 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. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[jobs] Doctoral Network Researchers - Transparent Interpretable Neural Robots
by Stefan Wermter 03 Jan '23

03 Jan '23

At the University of Hamburg, Dept of Informatics, Knowledge Technology, we are looking for applications for 2 Doctoral Candidate Researchers (PhD students) in neural network technology, intelligent robotics and transparency/explainability in artificial intelligence. Project: TRAIL: TRAnsparent InterpretabLe robots (Doctoral Network, EU MSCA Project) Start date: 1 March 2023 or later as agreed, for 3 years Salary level: salary in accordance with the attractive EU MSCA Doctoral Network regulations for doctoral candidates Application deadline: 31 January 2023 The Doctoral Network TRAIL consists of 15 institutions including universities, research institutions and industry partners. The research area of TRAIL is neural network technology, intelligent robotics and transparency in artificial intelligence and is coordinated by Universität Hamburg. The focus of the research at Universität Hamburg is on neural networks and explainability for interactive social robotics. There are two Doctoral Candidate research positions at Universität Hamburg which will be filled in the context of transparency and interpretation of neural networks for interactive cognitive robots. The researchers will focus on the following topics: Researcher 1: Interpretable latent representations in deep learning architectures Researcher 2: Automated interpretation of neural class activation mapping The successful candidate will receive an attractive salary in accordance with the MSCA regulations for Early-Stage Researchers. The exact (net) salary will be confirmed upon appointment and is dependent on local tax regulations and on the country correction factor (to allow for the difference in cost of living in different EU Member States). The salary includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance and a family allowance (if applicable). Furthermore, TRAIL will offer to take advantage of joint scientific research trainings, transferable skills workshops, and international conferences. For more information about the project and consortium see https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en/inst/ab/wtm/research/trail.html Requirements: MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or Engineering with a focus on Intelligent Systems, Intelligent Robotics or Neural Networks is required. Excellent programming skills (Python, C++, PyTorch, Machine Learning Frameworks, ROS etc.) are needed and expertise in at least one of neural networks or intelligent robotics is needed for these positions. The posts involve substantial traveling within Europe. Each PhD student will be expected to spend secondments at other partner sites and travel to international conferences. According to EU mobility rules, the doctoral researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for longer than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Applicants who already have a doctoral degree are not eligible. Excellent English communication skills are an important requirement. Application: Upload your complete application documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae with details about where you resided or carried out your main activity [work, studies, etc.] in the three years immediately prior to the application deadline, copies of degree certificate[s], names and email contacts for two referees who would be willing to write a letter of support for your application, any English language certificates) via the online application form only. For more details on how to apply please go to: https://www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangebote/ausschreibung.html?jobID=6cdcc9a… *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: stefan dot wermter AT uni-hamburg.de https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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[@Home2023] First Call For Participation (Deadline Extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 27 Nov '22

27 Nov '22

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023. Important dates: Oct. 16, 2022 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2022 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2022 Deadline for submission of qualification material. *Dec. 11, 2022* *Deadline for submission of qualification material. EXTENDED.* *(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).* Jan. 9, 2023 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2023 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2023 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Please keep your team names short. - Only one league can be specified per team. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, October. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: [@Home2023-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. * **** Deadline: Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: [@Home2023-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Qualification Material 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. *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 as closed captions must be included. - We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. - 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 ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2022 rulebooks. *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. include MoveIt/YOLO) - 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***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). 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 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: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[@Home2023] First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 16 Oct '22

16 Oct '22

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp1-all/ *First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023. Important dates: Oct. 16, 2022 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2022 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2022 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 9, 2023 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2023 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2023 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Sunday, October. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: [@Home2023-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. /***** Deadline: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2023 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: [@Home2023-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP /***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material 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. *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 as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * 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 ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2022 rulebooks. *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 o Group's research focus and interests. o 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 o 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 o Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). 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 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: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Call for Papers: Intelligence and Safety for Humanoid Robots: Design, Control, and Applications (Frontiers in Neurorobotics, IF: 3.493)
by Keke Tang 01 Sep '22

01 Sep '22

Dear colleges, As a guest editor, it is my great honor to invite you to submit your high-quality work to our special issue: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/38532/intelligence-and-safety-f… If you are interested, please submit your paper to this special issue with selecting me (Keke Tang) as the handling editor. Best regards, Keke Tang Guangzhou University, China ======================================================================== Humanoid robots attract growing research interests from different communities, both as tools for artificial intelligence research and neurocognitive interaction assessment and, as enabling technology with high societal impacts as personal robots for health, education, and entertainment. These robots, modeled on the basis of the embodiment of neural systems in software and hardware devices, are characterized by a high number of degrees of freedom, complex end effectors and locomotion mechanisms on the hardware side. On the control side, they are characterized by the intrinsic and complex variety of their behavioral skills that are learned (imitation, reinforcement, statistical), for instance, learning-by-demonstration, data-driven approaches to humanoid arm programming, and the most recent AI-based approaches to manipulation and locomotion control. Targeting co-existence or physical interactions with humans, both intelligence and safety are of great importance for service-oriented humanoid robots. Intelligence and safety correspond to software and hardware levels of humanoid robots, respectively. There has been recent progress in both areas, such as the quick emergence of learning-based artificial intelligence and soft robotics, bringing paradigm changes to the brain-inspired humanoid design, control, and applications. This second volume focuses on the intelligence and safety of humanoid robots, and the interest extends to the interactions between the two areas: 1) Intelligence resulting from safety: mechanically programmable intelligence for soft humanoid robots that does not put heavy reliance on control; 2) Safety resulting from intelligence: cybersecurity challenges and solutions arising from intelligent humanoids with learning and adaptation capabilities. We welcome manuscript submissions addressing the design, control, and application of safe and intelligent humanoid parts and systems. Topics include but are not limited to the following: - Design of soft and compliant humanoid robots, for instance, robotic fingers, hands, arms, legs. - Decentralized control or high-level control of humanoid robotic fingers, hands, arms, legs with neural networks. - Intelligent interaction between human and humanoid robots for human-robot cooperative tasks, for instance, lifting the table. - Techniques to guarantee safety between human and humanoid robots, corresponding to the software and hardware levels.

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[Call for Participation] LACORO 2023 – Latin American Summer,School on Cognitive Robotics
by Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero 15 Aug '22

15 Aug '22

Dear All, We are excited to announce the 2nd Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, particularly Cognitive Inspired Aspects of AI. - to foster intercultural student collaboration within and outside the Americas. Format: LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and aspects of Human Cognition. Moreover, we will host tutorial and mentoring sessions for both scientific topics and other aspects of the academic research world. Date and Location: LACORO will be held in-person from the 3rd to 6th of January, 2023 at the Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Santiago, Chile. Applications: Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, lodging, along with an application form. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, -- Dr. rer. nat. Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/

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Call for participation in IROS2022 Workshop on “Evaluating Motion Planning Performance: Metrics, Tools, Datasets, and Experimental Design”
by Carlos Andres Quintero Peña 05 Aug '22

05 Aug '22

Dear RoboCup@home community, We are excited to announce the inaugural workshop on “Evaluating Motion Planning Performance: Metrics, Tools, Datasets, and Experimental Design” at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, (IROS) 2022. The workshop will focus on state of the art motion planning evaluations, trends, and problems. We are inviting researchers and practitioners in robotics and AI to contribute relevant submissions. The workshop will host leaders in academia and industry as invited speakers. We are pleased to welcome broader participation and engagement within the robotics and AI communities. The workshop will be hybrid wherein we will support participation for those who join us at IROS 2022 in Kyoto as well as virtual attendance. We are exploring options for streaming the event as well as archiving relevant resources. Please feel free to share our cordial invitation to your colleagues at the RoboCup community to submit contributions, participate, or attend the workshop. If you have questions, see our website (https://motion-planning-workshop.kavrakilab.org/) or contact us at motionplanningworkshop(a)gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you at the workshop! Carlos Quintero Peña On behalf of the organizers: Constantinos Chamzas, Rice University Dr. Zachary Kingston, Rice University Dr. Khen Elimelech, Rice University Dr. Wil Thomason, Rice University Carlos Quintero-Peña, Rice University Dr. Rahul Shome, Rice University Professor Lydia Kavraki, Rice University

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IROS2022 Interactive Service Robot Competition in Cyberspace
by Tetsunari Inamura 29 Jul '22

29 Jul '22

======================================================= **** Call for Participation ***** IROS2022 Interactive Service Robot Competition in Cyberspace October 24 to 25, 2022 (Hybrid: Kyoto, JAPAN / Online) https://sites.google.com/view/robocup-athome-sim/competition-at-iros2022 ======================================================= This competition evaluates how well intelligent robots can engage in natural and friendly communication with users and achieve various support behaviors in daily-life environments. The competition is designed based on the SIGVerse simulator, which enables robots to make embodied and social interactions in virtual reality (VR) environments. Competitors submit their software of service robots on AWS (Amazon Web Service). Human test subjects in the real space interact with a robot in the virtual space to evaluate the interactive support ability. One of the competition tasks is a Vision-Language Navigation task to be solved by a human. In other words, the robot needs to explain clearly to the human how to get to the destination, and the competition setting aims to connect the XAI and HRI research. Furthermore, by discussing and examining the fusion and interface between robotics and the metaverse, digital twin, and cyber-physical systems that have been attracting attention in recent years, we believe that this event will provide a valuable opportunity to explore the direction of further development in robotics research. *** Competition website: https://iros2022.org/program/competition/#toggle-id-2 https://sites.google.com/view/robocup-athome-sim/competition-at-iros2022 *** Important dates: Aug. 10, 2022 Deadline for submission of qualification material Aug. 24, 2022 Qualification announcement Oct. 24-25,2022 Competition *** Rulebook (tentaive): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jor8UZXW6xFtBZmMvmZmJlUWtryMW7rQ/view *** Qualification Material Submission (mandatory): The team MUST send an email to the organizers (robocup.at.home.simulation[at]gmail.com) to participate in the qualification process for the competition. Due to the space limitation of the competition venue, the organizers will select excellent teams that have enough skill and knowledge to develop interactive service robots. The number of team members may be limited depending on the available space. Please fill in the following information and attach a Team Description Paper (TDP): - Team Name: - Country: - Affiliation: - Participation style: on-site or virtual (remote) - Number of team members: - Team Leader Name: - Contact information (E-mail): - Link to a team website: - Rank in previous competitions: - Link to a team video (optional): Important notes: Only one team leader can be specified per team. Only one contact email can be specified per team. *** Instructions for TDP: Team Description Paper (TDP) is a scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while also including the following: - Group’s research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Brief, general description of the system when solving a task - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations). Please use a free format and limit yourself to 8 pages. The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *** Selection criteria Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, - re-usability by the HRI community, applicability in both virtual/real worlds) - 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 - Performance in previous related competitions (optional) - Team Video (optional) *** Registration: Participants who come to Kyoto/Japan need to register for the IROS conference. https://iros2022.org/registrationvisa/registration/ If you prefer to participate remotely, the registration fee will not be required. This competition will be held jointly with RoboCup Japan Open 2022. The qualified teams are recommended to register for the RoboCup Japan Open. The teams that have never participated in the RoboCup Japan Open before are FREE OF CHARGE. Registration for the RoboCup Japan Open will be announced on the competition website. *** SIGVerse - software platform for the virtual space: All the tasks in the competition will be performed based on the SIGVerse platform. Please check the details of the SIGVerse system at http://www.sigverse.org/wiki/en/. This is an open-source platform distributed at Github https://github.com/RoboCupatHomeSim including sample programs (template source codes) of each task. Tutorials and install documents are included in the above Rulebook. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in IROS2022, Organizers: Tetsunari Inamura, National Institute of Informatics, Japan Yoshiaki Mizuchi, Tamagawa University, Japan Please feel free to email to inamura(a)nii.ac.jp if you have any questions. ------------------------------------------------ Tetsunari Inamura (Associate Professor) National Institute of Informatics, JAPAN The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, JAPAN TEL : +81-3-4212-2518 FAX : +81-3-4212-2035 URL : http://researchmap.jp/inamura/?lang=english Email : inamura(a)nii.ac.jp

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Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open
by Comunicação RoboCup 27 Jul '22

27 Jul '22

Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open The event will be held in São Bernardo do Campo - São Paulo, Brazil, from october 17 to 22. Remote Participation is available in Simulation Leagues. Registrations are now open for teams all over the world.To participate, the teams must register until july 31, on the website: www.cbrobotica.org . The registration fee is US$ 170 per team or US$100 in simulation leagues. ============== Important Dates: ============== Pre-Registration Deadline: *July 31* TDP Submission: Check each league's schedule on the website or contact the league's chair by e-mail Early Registration:* September 1 to 23* Registration: *September 24 to October 9* If you have any doubt about the pre-registration or registration process, please contact organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org ======= Leagues ======= RoboCup Soccer Simulation 2D RoboCup Soccer Simulation 3D RoboCup Small Size Soccer (SSL) RoboCup Humanoid League RoboCup Standard Platform League RoboCup @Home RoboCupJunior RoboCup Brazil Flying Robots Trial League IEEE Humanoid Racing IEEE Open IEEE Standard Educational Kit IEEE Very Small Size Soccer 3x3 and 5x5 -- Patrícia Vergara Comunicação RoboCup Brasil (11) 9.8686-4993 www.robocup.org.br

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Robot Design Survey
by Eva Jahn 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Dear RoboCup community, I do research on robot design and sympathy for some years now. My interest arose from RoboCup, where I conducted several surveys in Magdeburg at German Open and at the RoboCup World Cup 2016 in Leipzig. Currently, I am starting a survey for my PhD, which aims to uncover likability trends in the design evaluation of robots. The survey is quadrilingual and includes a colorful selection of robots with linked background information. For the evaluation I need as much data as possible and would like to invite you to participate. As a result the taste of future users should be revealed and for this the comparison between experts and non-experts is also very important. You are welcome to forward the link below to the survey with the text outside the community as well. *_Can service robots support us in our everyday lives and what should they look like?_* This is the question addressed by the Robot Design and Sympathy study. Whether you have direct experience with service robots or not, you are invited to rate a colourful selection of robot models. Please take 15-20 minutes to participate in the online survey. https://www.soscisurvey.de/roboterdesign/?q=LXX&r=TG16 <https://www.soscisurvey.de/roboterdesign/?q=LXX&r=TG16> Thank you for your support! Eva Theresa Jahn, M.A.: Studied communication psychology at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, research assistant at TUM, MIRMI - Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence. You can also find more information at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eva-Jahn-2 <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eva-Jahn-2> Best regards, Eva Theresa Jahn

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RoboCup International Symposium 2022 - Call for Papers
by Nuno Lau 03 Mar '22

03 Mar '22

Dear RoboCuppers; Please consider submitting your paper to this year's symposium! Call for papers RoboCup International Symposium 2022 https://2022.robocup.org/symposium-call-for-papers/ 17 July 2022 Bangkok, Thailand (hybrid setting) The 25th RoboCup International Symposium will be held on 17 July 2022, in conjunction with RoboCup 2022 (11 July to 17 July 2022) in a hybrid setting. We call for submissions of papers reporting innovative, original research with relevance to areas of robotics and artificial intelligence as listed below. Within the described scope of topics, we also encourage submissions of high-quality overview articles, papers describing real-world research, and papers reporting theoretical results. Researchers are invited to submit their work independently of whether they participate in the RoboCup competitions or have a RoboCup team. The symposium is planned to be held in person in Bangkok, Thailand, with remote participation options for both presenters and attendees. In addition to the regular track with regular research papers, there is the development track encouraging reports on innovative hardware developments, software frameworks, and open-source releases of software components. A review of papers describing these contributions will be based on technical aspects and benefits to the practice of communities working in the above fields in general and RoboCup in particular. IMPORTANT DATES Submission of full papers: 17 April 2022 Notification to authors: 5 June 2022 Submission of camera-ready copies: 26 June 2022 RoboCup Symposium 2022: 17 July 2022 (RoboCup on 11-17 July 2022) SUBMISSION AND PROCEEDINGS All papers will be peer-reviewed and evaluated by members of the senior program committee. The proceedings of the RoboCup International Symposium will be published and archived within the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) series by Springer-Verlag after the conference. Papers should be formatted following the LNAI author guidelines (https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…) and must be electronically submitted through the EasyChair electronic submission system (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=robocupsymposium2022). Submissions are limited to 12 pages including references. Springer’s proceedings LaTeX templates are also available in Overleaf: https://de.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer-… TOPICS Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Robot Hardware and Software - mobile robotics - humanoid robotics - sensors and actuators - embedded and mobile devices - robot construction and new materials - robot system integration - robot software architectures - robot programming environments and languages - real-time and concurrent programming - robot simulators - sim2real learning * Perception and Action - 3D perception - distributed sensor integration - sensor noise filtering - real-time image processing and pattern recognition - motion and sensor models - sensory-motor control - robot kinematics and dynamics - high-dimensional motion control * Robot Cognition and Learning - world modelling and knowledge representation - learning from demonstration and imitation - localisation, navigation, and mapping - planning and reasoning - decision making under uncertainty - neural systems and deep learning - complex motor skill acquisition - reinforcement learning and optimisation - motion and sensor model learning * Human-Robot Interaction - robot social intelligence - fluency of interaction - speech synthesis and natural language generation - natural language recognition - explainable robot behaviours - emotion recognition and reaction - understanding human intent and behaviour - safety, security and dependability - enabling humans to predict robot behaviour * Multi-Robot Systems - team coordination methods - communication protocols - learning and adaptive systems - teamwork and heterogeneous agents - dynamic resource allocation - adjustable autonomy * Education and Edutainment - robotics and artificial intelligence education - educational robotics - robot kits and programming tools - robotic entertainment * Applications and Benchmarking - search and rescue robots - robot surveillance - service and social robots - robots at home, at work and in public spaces - robots in the real world - performance metrics - human-robot interaction DEVELOPMENT TRACK To encourage open-source release of hardware and software systems, the RoboCup International Symposium has included a development track in recent years. In 2021, we expand the scope of this track to include datasets and benchmarks. We encourage the submission of papers describing open-source hardware and software, tools and frameworks that facilitate development of robotics hardware and software, datasets that enable new robotic capabilities, as well as benchmarks that establish reproducible test beds and performance metrics to advance research. If applicable, contributions to the special track should include evidence of the released system or dataset, and highlight past, ongoing, and/or potential future impacts on the RoboCup community. A review of these contributions will be based on technical merit and benefits to the RoboCup community and the research topics listed above. PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann, University of Potsdam, Germany Nuno Lau, University of Aveiro, Portugal Thanapat Wanichanon, Mahidol University, Thailand Amy Eguchi, University of California San Diego CONTACT robocupsymposium2022(a)easychair.org<mailto:robocupsymposium2022@easychair.org>

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[CFP] IROS 2022 Special Session on Computational Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by Zhao Han 24 Feb '22

24 Feb '22

IROS 2022 Special Session on Computational Advances in Human-Robot Interaction https://ai-hri.github.io/2022-IROS-SS/ Note: All manuscripts will undergo the same peer review and decision process as all other IROS2022 regular papers and, if accepted, will be published in the proceedings. The goal of this special session is for the groups of researchers at the intersection of AI and HRI to have a dedicated session to meet and facilitate a collaborative forum for discussion of current efforts in robotic and AI systems, and especially conducting interdisciplinary research in this community. The overarching themes of the contributing papers are the technological advances that improve humans’ experience and interactions with robots. As robots increasingly enter our society and encounter humans, the human element is important to consider when developing robot technologies. Through this special session, we will focus on technical research being done in the field of interactive robotics. Topics including but not limited to Artificial intelligence, robot learning, collaborative manipulation, social navigation, human intent modeling, social robotics, shared autonomy, linguistic robotics, robot ethics, inclusive robotics, assistive robotics, explainable AI, trust in robotics Submission Process As is the case for regular papers, the submission deadline for special session papers is March 1, 2022. The submission can be either a RA-L with IROS option paper or an IROS only paper. After your special session paper is submitted, please send your submission ID to the principal special session organizers: Zhao Han <zhaohan(a)mines.edu>, Shelly Bagchi <shelly.bagchi(a)nist.gov>, Daniel Hernández García <d.hernandez_garcia(a)hw.ac.uk>. All manuscripts will undergo the same peer review and decision process as all other IROS2022 regular papers and, if accepted, will be published in the proceedings. The submission details are the same as the IROS 2022 submission process<https://iros2022.org/call-for-papers/>. Organizers * Zhao Han <zhaohan(a)mines.edu>, Colorado School of Mines, USA * Shelly Bagchi <shelly.bagchi(a)nist.gov>, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA * Daniel Hernández García <d.hernandez_garcia(a)hw.ac.uk>, Heriot-Watt University, UK * Jason R. Wilson <jrw(a)fandm.edu>, Franklin & Marshall College, USA * Reuth Mirsky <reuthde(a)gmail.com>, Bar-Ilan University, Israel * Megan Zimmerman <megan.zimmerman(a)nist.gov>, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA --- Zhao Han, Ph.D. (he/him) Post-Doctoral Fellow, Computer Science, Brown Hall, 280M Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA zhaohanphd.com<https://zhaohanphd.com/> | @hanzhao<https://twitter.com/hanzhao> | LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhaohan-robotics/>

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[CFP] IROS 2022 Special Session on Computational Advances in Human-Robot Interaction
by Zhao Han 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

IROS 2022 Special Session on Computational Advances in Human-Robot Interaction Note: All manuscripts will undergo the same peer review and decision process as all other IROS2022 regular papers and, if accepted, will be published in the proceedings. The goal of this special session is for the groups of researchers at the intersection of AI and HRI to have a dedicated session to meet and facilitate a collaborative forum for discussion of current efforts in robotic and AI systems, and especially conducting interdisciplinary research in this community. The overarching themes of the contributing papers are the technological advances that improve humans’ experience and interactions with robots. As robots increasingly enter our society and encounter humans, the human element is important to consider when developing robot technologies. Through this special session, we will focus on technical research being done in the field of interactive robotics. Topics including but not limited to Artificial intelligence, robot learning, collaborative manipulation, social navigation, human intent modeling, social robotics, shared autonomy, linguistic robotics, robot ethics, inclusive robotics, assistive robotics, explainable AI, trust in robotics Submission Process As is the case for regular papers, the submission deadline for special session papers is March 1, 2022. The submission can be either a RA-L with IROS option paper or an IROS only paper. After your special session paper is submitted, please send your submission ID to the principal special session organizers: Zhao Han <zhaohan(a)mines.edu>, Shelly Bagchi <shelly.bagchi(a)nist.gov>, Daniel Hernández García <d.hernandez_garcia(a)hw.ac.uk>. All manuscripts will undergo the same peer review and decision process as all other IROS2022 regular papers and, if accepted, will be published in the proceedings. The submission details are the same as the IROS 2022 submission process<https://iros2022.org/call-for-papers/>. Organizers * Zhao Han <zhaohan(a)mines.edu>, Colorado School of Mines, USA * Shelly Bagchi <shelly.bagchi(a)nist.gov>, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA * Daniel Hernández García <d.hernandez_garcia(a)hw.ac.uk>, Heriot-Watt University, UK * Jason R. Wilson <jrw(a)fandm.edu>, Franklin & Marshall College, USA * Reuth Mirsky <reuthde(a)gmail.com>, Bar-Ilan University, Israel * Megan Zimmerman <megan.zimmerman(a)nist.gov>, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA

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[CFP] 8th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cognition (AIC 2022), Joint with SweCog 2022
by Alessandro Saffiotti 21 Jan '22

21 Jan '22

CALL FOR PAPERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AIC 2022: 8th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cognition Joint with SweCog 2022: the conference of the Swedish Cognitive Science Society ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden 15-17 June 2022 Submission deadline: 18th March 2022 Workshop website: https://aic20.aass.oru.se About AIC 2022 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AIC 2022 is the 8th international appointment of the International Workshop Series AIC on "Artificial Intelligence and Cognition". The AIC series started in 2013, stemming from the need of creating an international scientific forum for the discussion and the presentation of the theoretical and applied research developments in the field of cognitively inspired Artificial Intelligence. In this spirit, the AIC 2022 workshop aims at putting together researchers coming from different domains (e.g., artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, philosophy, social sciences, etc.) working on the interdisciplinary field of cognitively inspired artificial systems. AIC 2022 will take place in the Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS) at Örebro University, Sweden, 15-17 June 2022, joint with SweCog 2022, the conference of the Swedish Cognitive Science Society. Submission Guidelines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All submissions must be written in English and must be formatted according to the information for LNCS Authors. All papers must present original work that is not currently under review. We welcome the following types of contributions: + Full research papers (8 to 14 pages) + Short research papers (4 to 7 pages) + Extended abstracts of recently published journal papers (1 to 2 pages) Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aic20200 Important Dates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Full research papers: ++ March 18th, 2022: Paper submission ++ April 25th, 2022: Notification of acceptance + Short papers or extended abstracts: ++ April 29th, 2022: Paper submission ++ May 9th, 2022: Notification of acceptance List of Topics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Knowledge Representation and Cognition (e.g. Neural Networks models, Conceptual Spaces, Ontologies and representation of common sense) + Cognitive Architectures (e.g. SOAR, ACT-R) and Cognitive modelling for Artificial Systems + B.I.C.A. (Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures) and systems + Cognitive Robotics + Human-Robot Interaction + Evaluation of cognitively driven AI systems compared with other AI approaches + Cognition and Semantic Web + Methodological open questions on AI and Cognition + Automated reasoning: deductive, probabilistic, diagnostic, causal and analogical inference + Historical and theoretical relation among Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence + Knowledge discovery and acquisition + Modelling of human learning and knowledge acquisition in complex domains + Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing & Understanding + Logic and Reasoning + Evolutionary Computation + Spatial Cognition and Computation + Cognitively inspired Machine Learning + Computational Theories of Learning + Computational Creativity + Cognitive and the Moving Imag + Computational Models of Narrative Understanding (Visuo-Auditory Narrativity, Perception, Cognitive Film Studies) + Decision Support Systems Venue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The conference is supposed to be held physically in Örebro University with the opportunity to attend online. However, this may change due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Organizing committee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Alessandro Saffiotti, Örebro University, Sweden + Amy Loutfi, Örebro University, Sweden + Antonio Lieto, University of Turin, Italy + Hadi Banaee, Örebro University, Sweden Contact ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More information can be found on the workshop website: https://aic20.aass.oru.se All questions about submissions should be emailed to: hadi.banaee(a)oru.se SweCog website: http://www.swecog.se Twitter: https://twitter.com/aic_swecog

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[RoboCup 2022 Thailand] RoboCup Participation Survey
by fengkpsc 11 Jan '22

11 Jan '22

[Sorry for multiple emails] Dear AT-Home-Community, As the RoboCup 2022 planning is underway, On the behalf of RoboCup 2022 Thailand Organizing Team, I would like to ask all teams to fill out the following participation survey. RoboCup Participation Survey https://forms.gle/FKJMMRaqWK6rSPLq9 Deadline for submission is January 30th. Thank you, KANJANAPAN LOC -- Asst.Prof.Dr. Kanjanapan Sukvichai Deputy Head of the integrated innovation and artificial intelligence center Dept. of Electrical Engineering Kasetsart University

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Participation Survey for RoboCup 2022, Bangkok, Thailand
by fengkpsc 03 Jan '22

03 Jan '22

Happy new year RoboCuppers! On the behalf of RoboCup 2022 Thailand Organizing Team, I would like to take a survey for preparing RoboCup. Please help us response to the questions and give us feedbacks for your concern about RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok. Here is the survey link: https://forms.gle/GGWps2aAKaEXT7289 Thank you, KANJANAPAN -- Asst.Prof.Dr. Kanjanapan Sukvichai Deputy Head of the integrated innovation and artificial intelligence center Dept. of Electrical Engineering Kasetsart University

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[@Home2022] First Call for Participation (Deadline extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 29 Nov '21

29 Nov '21

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2022-cfp1-all/ ========================================================================= *First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2022 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) Summer 2022 (Bangkok, Thailand) 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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2022. Important dates: Oct. 31, 2021 Publication of the Call for Participation *Dec. 12, 2021* *EXTENDED Deadline for submission of qualification material.* *(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).* Jan. 10, 2022 Qualification announcement Jan. 30, 2022 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc[at] robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2022 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: [@Home2022-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. ***** Deadline EXTENDED: Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc[at]robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2022 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: [@Home2022-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, Jan. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier’s instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. *Remark:* Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won’t not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material 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. *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 allowed to use any robot in their Team Video. However, the use of the standard robot is advised. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2020 rulebooks. *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. include MoveIt/YOLO) - 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***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). 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 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: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bangkok, The 2022 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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AtHome2022 - First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 31 Oct '21

31 Oct '21

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2022-cfp1-all/ ==================================================================== First Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2022 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) Summer 2022 (Bangkok, Thailand) 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2022. Important dates: Oct. 31, 2021 Publication of the Call for Participation Nov. 28, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 10, 2022 Qualification announcement Jan. 30, 2022 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: ****Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)**** The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc [at]robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2022 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: [@Home2022-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. **** Deadline: Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021 23:59 GMT ***** ****Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory)**** All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc[at]robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2022 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: [@Home2022-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, Jan. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ***** ****Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues):**** Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier’s instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. Remark: Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won’t not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. ****Instructions for the Qualification Material**** ***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. 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 are allowed to use any robot in their Team Video. However, the use of the standard robot is advised. HINT: It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2020 rulebooks. 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. include MoveIt/YOLO) · 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**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). · 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. 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 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 RoboCups · 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:*** In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bangkok, The 2022 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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KR 2021: Final Call for Participation (Online event, free registration until Friday, October 15)
by Thanh Dinh 13 Oct '21

13 Oct '21

FINAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 18th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2021) November 3-12, 2021 - Virtual https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/ *** Registration is free but mandatory (deadline: October 15, 2021) *** Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR) is a well-established and lively field of research. In KR, a fundamental assumption is that an agent's knowledge is explicitly represented in a declarative form, suitable for processing by dedicated reasoning engines. This assumption, that much of what an agent deals with is knowledge-based, is common in many modern intelligent systems. Consequently, KR has contributed to the theory and practice of various areas in AI, including automated planning and natural language understanding, and to fields beyond AI, including databases, verification, software engineering, and robotics. In recent years, KR has contributed also to new and emerging fields, including the semantic web, computational biology, cyber security, and the development of software agents. The KR conference series is the leading forum for timely in-depth presentation of progress in the theory and principles underlying the representation and computational management of knowledge. CONFERENCE FORMAT AND REGISTRATION KR 2021 will be organized as a virtual conference and welcomes all researchers interested in KR to participate! We are happy to announce that participation is *free*. The deadline for registering is October 15, 2021. Information about how to register for the main conference and associated events can be found at: https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/page/registration There will be also be a limited-capacity *live gathering* in Rome to watch the conference and exchange with other participants. For details, consult: https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/page/live_gathering_in_rome The list of papers accepted at the main conference and the Doctoral Consortium can also be found on the conference webpage. INVITED TALKS Martin Grohe (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) > The Logic of Graph Neural Networks Jochen Renz (Australian National University, Australia) > Spatial and Physical Reasoning: From Angry Birds to Open World AI Uli Sattler (University of Manchester, UK) > Description Logic and OWL: A Tale of Discoveries, Design Choices, Challenges, and Lessons Learnt (Great Moments in KR) Joshua Tenenbaum (MIT, USA) > Reverse Engineering Human Cognitive Development: What Do We Start With, and How Do We Learn The Rest? Francesca Toni (Imperial College, UK) > The Interactionist View of Reasoning for Explainable AI TRACKS & SPECIAL SESSIONS * Applications and Systems Track * Recent Published Research Track * Special Session: KR and Machine Learning * Special Session: KR and Robotics * Special Session: Diversity and Inclusion WORKSHOPS * Explainable Logic-Based Knowledge Representation (XLoKR) * Computational Machine Ethics (CME) * Knowledge Representation for Hybrid and Compositional AI (KRHCAI) * Ontology Uses and Contribution to Artificial Intelligence (OnUCAI) * Second-Order Quantifier Elimination and Related Topics (SOQE) * Semantics-Powered Health Data Analytics (SEPDA) TUTORIALS * Answer Set Programming: From Theory to Practice by Roland Kaminski, Javier Romero, Torsten Schaub & Philipp Wanko * Belief Revision and Judgment Aggregation in Ontologies by Jake Chandler and Richard Booth * Completeness, Recall, and Negation in Open-World Knowledge Bases by Simon Razniewski, Hiba Arnaout, Shrestha Ghosh & Fabian M. Suchanek * Complex Event Recognition and Forecasting by Elias Alevizos and Alexander Artikis * KR&R Meets Cyber-Physical Systems: Formalization, Behavior, Trustworthiness by Marcello Balduccini, Edward Griffor & Tran Cao Son * Planning with multi-agent, flexible, temporal, epistemic & contingent (MAFTEC) aspects by Aurélie Beynier, Frédéric Maris & Francois Schwarzentruber * Proof-Theoretic Approaches to Logical Argumentation by Ofer Arieli & Christian Strasser * Solving equations in modal and description logics by Philippe Balbiani CO-LOCATED EVENTS * NMR 2021 (20th International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning) CONFERENCE CHAIRS General: * Esra Erdem (Sabanci University, Turkey) Program: * Meghyn Bienvenu (CNRS & University of Bordeaux, France) * Gerhard Lakemeyer (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) Applications and Systems Track: * Martin Gebser (University of Klagenfurt, Austria) * Ulrike Sattler (University of Manchester, UK) Recently Published Research Track: * Vladimir Lifschitz (University of Texas at Austin, USA) * Pierre Marquis (Artois University & Institut Universitaire de France, France) Special Session on KR & Machine Learning: * Vaishak Belle (University of Edinburgh, UK) * Luc de Raedt (KU Leuven, Belgium) Special Session on KR & Robotics: * Alessandro Saffioti (University of Örebro, Sweden) * Mary-Anne Williams (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) Workshop and Tutorials: * Markus Kroetzsch (TU Dresden, Germany) * Yongmei Liu (Sun Yat-sen University, China) Doctoral Consortium: * Jens Classen (Simon Fraser University) * Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) Local Organization: * Giuseppe De Giacomo (Sapienza University, Italy) * Son Tran (New Mexico State University, USA) * Long Tran-Thanh (University of Warwick, UK) * Thanh Van Dinh (East Asia University of Technology, Vietnam) Virtual Conference Arrangements: * Stefan Borgwardt (TU Dresden, Germany) * Marco Console (Sapienza University Italy) * Long Tran-Thanh (University of Warwick, UK) Sponsorship: * Kuldeep S. Meel (NUS, Singapore) * Zeynep G. Saribatur (TU Wien, Austria) Publicity: * Thanh Van Dinh (East Asia University of Technology, Vietnam) * Paolo Felli (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) Diversity and Inclusion: * Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) * Maria Vanina Martinez (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) * Marco Maratea (University of Genova, Italy)

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KR 2021: Call for Participation (Deadline to register: October 15)
by Thanh Dinh 27 Sep '21

27 Sep '21

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 18th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2021) November 3-12, 2021 - Virtual https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/ *** Registration is free but mandatory (deadline: October 15, 2021) *** Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR) is a well-established and lively field of research. In KR, a fundamental assumption is that an agent's knowledge is explicitly represented in a declarative form, suitable for processing by dedicated reasoning engines. This assumption, that much of what an agent deals with is knowledge-based, is common in many modern intelligent systems. Consequently, KR has contributed to the theory and practice of various areas in AI, including automated planning and natural language understanding, and to fields beyond AI, including databases, verification, software engineering, and robotics. In recent years, KR has contributed also to new and emerging fields, including the semantic web, computational biology, cyber security, and the development of software agents. The KR conference series is the leading forum for timely in-depth presentation of progress in the theory and principles underlying the representation and computational management of knowledge. CONFERENCE FORMAT AND REGISTRATION KR 2021 will be organized as a virtual conference and welcomes all researchers interested in KR to participate! We are happy to announce that participation is *free*. The deadline for registering is October 15, 2021. Information about how to register for the main conference and associated events can be found at: https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/page/registration There will be also be a limited-capacity *live gathering* in Rome to watch the conference and exchange with other participants. For details, consult: https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de/page/live_gathering_in_rome The list of papers accepted at the main conference and the Doctoral Consortium can also be found on the conference webpage. INVITED SPEAKERS * Martin Grohe (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) * Jochen Renz (Australian National University, Australia) * Uli Sattler (University of Manchester, UK) * Joshua Tenenbaum (MIT, USA) * Francesca Toni (Imperial College, UK) TRACKS & SPECIAL SESSIONS * Applications and Systems Track * Recent Published Research Track * Special Session: KR and Machine Learning * Special Session: KR and Robotics * Special Session: Diversity and Inclusion WORKSHOPS * Explainable Logic-Based Knowledge Representation (XLoKR) * Computational Machine Ethics (CME) * Knowledge Representation for Hybrid and Compositional AI (KRHCAI) * Ontology Uses and Contribution to Artificial Intelligence (OnUCAI) * Second-Order Quantifier Elimination and Related Topics (SOQE) * Semantics-Powered Health Data Analytics (SEPDA) TUTORIALS * Answer Set Programming: From Theory to Practice by Roland Kaminski, Javier Romero, Torsten Schaub & Philipp Wanko * Belief Revision and Judgment Aggregation in Ontologies by Jake Chandler and Richard Booth * Completeness, Recall, and Negation in Open-World Knowledge Bases by Simon Razniewski, Hiba Arnaout, Shrestha Ghosh & Fabian M. Suchanek * Complex Event Recognition and Forecasting by Elias Alevizos and Alexander Artikis * KR&R Meets Cyber-Physical Systems: Formalization, Behavior, Trustworthiness by Marcello Balduccini, Edward Griffor & Tran Cao Son * Planning with multi-agent, flexible, temporal, epistemic & contingent (MAFTEC) aspects by Aurélie Beynier, Frédéric Maris & Francois Schwarzentruber * Proof-Theoretic Approaches to Logical Argumentation by Ofer Arieli & Christian Strasser * Solving equations in modal and description logics by Philippe Balbiani CO-LOCATED EVENTS * NMR 2021 (20th International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning) CONFERENCE CHAIRS General: * Esra Erdem (Sabanci University, Turkey) Program: * Meghyn Bienvenu (CNRS & University of Bordeaux, France) * Gerhard Lakemeyer (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) Applications and Systems Track: * Martin Gebser (University of Klagenfurt, Austria) * Ulrike Sattler (University of Manchester, UK) Recently Published Research Track: * Vladimir Lifschitz (University of Texas at Austin, USA) * Pierre Marquis (Artois University & Institut Universitaire de France, France) Special Session on KR & Machine Learning: * Vaishak Belle (University of Edinburgh, UK) * Luc de Raedt (KU Leuven, Belgium) Special Session on KR & Robotics: * Alessandro Saffioti (University of Örebro, Sweden) * Mary-Anne Williams (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) Workshop and Tutorials: * Markus Kroetzsch (TU Dresden, Germany) * Yongmei Liu (Sun Yat-sen University, China) Doctoral Consortium: * Jens Classen (Simon Fraser University) * Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) Local Organization: * Giuseppe De Giacomo (Sapienza University, Italy) * Son Tran (New Mexico State University, USA) * Long Tran-Thanh (University of Warwick, UK) * Thanh Van Dinh (East Asia University of Technology, Vietnam) Virtual Conference Arrangements: * Stefan Borgwardt (TU Dresden, Germany) * Marco Console (Sapienza University Italy) * Long Tran-Thanh (University of Warwick, UK) Sponsorship: * Kuldeep S. Meel (NUS, Singapore) * Zeynep G. Saribatur (TU Wien, Austria) Publicity: * Thanh Van Dinh (East Asia University of Technology, Vietnam) * Paolo Felli (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) Diversity and Inclusion: * Magdalena Ortiz (TU Vienna, Austria) * Maria Vanina Martinez (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) * Marco Maratea (University of Genova, Italy)

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[CFP] AI LA Panel on “HRI in Healthcare”
by Ross Mead 26 Sep '21

26 Sep '21

Call for Participation: AI LA Panel on “HRI in Healthcare” *********************************************************************** AI LA Special Interest Group: Human-Robot Interaction in Healthcare September 27, 2021 @ 7pm-8pm Pacific (Virtual) https://ailacommunity.notion.site/Special-Interest-Group-Public-24345a418ce… *********************************************************************** *** FREE REGISTRATION *** https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkfuigrjooGtc0MVCl7EWM5ogCPV8QjJ… *** OVERVIEW *** In this panel, we will discuss the AI-driven technological advances in human-robot interaction (HRI) and their applications in healthcare. Our panelists represent robotics companies paving the way for robots in our everyday lives. How will we unlock the potential of healthcare robots to improve our quality of life? *** PANELISTS *** * Mike Dooley, Co-founder and CEO at Labrador Systems * Jillian Greczek, Senior Software Engineer at Catalia Health * Dr. Stefan Scherer, CTO at Embodied * Moderator: Dr. Ross Mead, Founder and CEO at Semio, and Vice President at AI LA *** CONTACT *** For more information, contact the AI LA Executive Board: * Todd Terrazas, AI LA (todd(a)joinai.la) * Dr. Ross Mead, Semio (ross(a)semio.ai) *** ABOUT *** AI LA is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to catalyze innovation through education, conversation, and collaboration. Since 2016, we have facilitated community events related to AI and its applications to education, environmental sustainability, healthcare, life sciences, the ethical and fair use of technology, and more! Learn more at https://joinai.la! -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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International Semantic Intelligence Conference (ISIC 2022)
by SARIKA JAIN 16 Sep '21

16 Sep '21

Dear Sir/Madam International Semantic Intelligence Conference (ISIC 2022) May 17-19, 2022, Georgia Southern University (Armstrong Campus), Savannah, Georgia, United States Paper Submission: Oct 30, 2021 Web: https://www.ifis.uni-luebeck.de/~groppe/isic/ ********************************************************** ** Publication and Indexing ** All accepted and presented papers will be included in proceedings published in the Springer LNEE series (already approved). Selected papers (extended versions) will be reviewed for possible double publication in SCIE/SCOPUS/WoS indexed journals.. Indexing: ISIC Proceedings in Springer LNEE will be made available to the following indexing services: Scopus, Scimago Journal & Country Rank, and Google Scholar; and will also be submitted to dblp computer science bibliography for inclusion. ** Topics ** Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Semantic Web Engineering; Ontology-based Data Access; Explainability and Interpretability; Natural Language Understanding; Multimodal and Multilingual Access; Machine to Machine Communications and Interoperability; Knowledge Extraction and Ontology Learning from the Web; Multimodal and Multilingual Approach to Computing; Computational Paradigms and Computational Intelligence; Intelligent Computing and Applications, Case Studies and Tools; Contributions of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) to the Society; Cyber-Physical Systems; Knowledge representation and Engineering; Security Issues in Semantic Web; Applications, Opportunities, Challenges; Reasoning and Intelligent Processing (Semantic Search Paradigms, Semantic Web Mining, Semantic Sentiment Analysis, Semantic Web Services, Visualization, Query Answering, Semantic Information Access); Mapping Knowledge bases; Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Global Epidemics; Human-Computer Interaction; Data Analytics; Social Networks; Distributed and Mobile Systems; Computational Linguistics; Large Scale and Complex Information Management; Any other related topic... ** Tracks ** The submissions are divided into three tracks, namely the Research Track, the Trends and Perspectives Track, and the Applications and Deployment Track. The contributors are advised to choose the track that best suits their work. 1. The Research Track: The Research Track incorporates papers that present novel work contributing significantly to the advancement of Semantic Intelligence. The submissions should list the research gaps and research contributions filling the said gaps. A section comparing the results of the research with existing benchmarks is highly desirable. 2. The Trends and Perspectives Track: The Trends and Perspectives Track explores the state of the art in the mentioned disciplines. 3. The Applications and Deployment Track: The Applications and Deployment Track accepts papers showcasing the latest advancements and applications of semantic intelligence. Once any technology or methodology originates from the research community, its challenges and benefits are explored by its concrete usage in a practical setting. The application of any research in real-world use cases sets the stage for its visibility. The Applications and Deployment Track is exactly for this purpose. This track seeks submission for applied semantic intelligence. The submissions should list the benefits; the presented application reaps from SITs. In addition to the real-world, the Applications and Deployment Track also welcomes Resources such as the vocabularies, datasets, evaluation benchmarks, and software. ** Submission Guidelines ** Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isic2022. Submitted papers must follow the guidelines and templates provided by Springer: Springer LNEE Guidelines and Templates: https://www.springer.com/us/authors-editors/conference-proceedings/conferen…. Every paper will be assessed by the track chair and reviewed by at least three program committee members. The review process will be Single-Blind review. Submissions in all tracks must be in English with the following page length (pages of around 400 words each): * Full papers (12-16 pages including references) * Short papers (6-8 pages including references) ** Chairs ** General Chairs: - Sarika Jain, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India - Sven Groppe, University of Lübeck, Germany Organizing Chairs: - Atef Mohamed (Shalan), Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing, Georgia Southern University, United States - Hossain Shahriar, Associate Professor, Institute for Cybersecurity Workforce Development, Marietta, GA 30060, United States ** Important Dates ** Workshop Proposals: Oct 10, 2021 Workshop Proposals Notifications: Oct 20, 2021 Full length Papers in all tracks of main conference: Oct 30, 2021 Paper notifications in all tracks of main conference: Dec 15, 2021 Workshop papers submission: Dec 30, 2022 Workshop papers notifications: Jan 20, 2022 Main Conference: May 17-19, 2022 ** Previous Editions ** ISIC 2021 has been held successfully in Hybrid mode at Delhi, India during Feb 25-27, 2020. The proceedings of ISIC 2021 are already indexed by Scopus, DBLP, and Google Scholar. ** Contact * If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact any one of the following along with your contact details and the issue: Sarika Jain, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India, jasarika(a)nitkkr.ac.in. Sven Groppe, University of Lübeck, Germany, groppe(a)ifis.uni-luebeck.de. Atef Mohamed (Shalan), Georgia Southern University, United States, amohamed(a)georgiasouthern.edu. Best Regards Conference Committee - ISIC 2022

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LAST CALL - RoboCup Brazil Open
by Comunicação RoboCup 13 Sep '21

13 Sep '21

Hi teams, Last days to sign up for RoboCup Brazil Open! Do not leave to the last minute! The event will be online, streamed live on our youtube channels. Already registered? Did you check if everyone on the team is registered correctly? If you have any questions, please send it to us by email at organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org ! *Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open* *The event will be virtual, with the same categories of RoboCup Federation* RoboCup Brazil launches the RoboCup Brazil Open, a virtual event with the same categories of the Robocup WorldWide. Registrations are now open for teams from all over the world. All the categories have been adapted and will happen in a fully remote format, using simulators, challenges and submission of articles written by the teams. Our goal is to disseminate the studies and technologies developed by universities in the field of robotics and IA. The event will happen in October 11th-15th, and will be broadcast through lives on the RoboCup Brazil Youtube channel. *Categories:* RoboCup Open Flying Robot Trial League Small Size Soccer Humanoid League Standard Plataform League (SPL) Simulation 2D Simulation 3D RoboCup at@Home IEEE Humanoid Robot Racing (HRR) IEEE Open IEEE Standard Educational Kit (SEK) IEEE Very Small Size Soccer RoboCup Junior Soccer Open RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Open * Registration* To participate, you and your team must register by september 15th, on the website: www.cbrobotica.org . The registration fee is US$ 50 per team. *RoboCup Brasil is a non-profit civil association, organized by volunteer professors and researchers. The association holds the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, the Brazilian Robotics Competition and the National Robotics Show.-- Patrícia VergaraComunicação RoboCup Brasil(11) 9.8686-4993www.robocup.org.br <http://www.robocup.org.br>*

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CFP: RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 (RCAP 2021)
by Asad Norouzi 03 Sep '21

03 Sep '21

*Apologies for duplicate messages* ============== Call for Participation =============== *RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 (RCAP 2021)* 25-29 November 2021 https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/participation.html RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 Aichi Japan (RCAP 2021) will be held at Aichi Sky Expo (Aichi International Convention & Exhibition Center), November 25-29, 2021. RCAP 2021 will be held in a hybrid ON-SITE and VIRTUAL format. Due to the current uncertainties of Covid-19, ON-SITE competitions will only open to participants from Japan. - ON-SITE Competitions: Participants from Japan. - VIRTUAL Competitions: Participants from all over the world. *LEAGUES:* Virtual Competitions are open to participants from all over the world, with most of the leagues of RoboCup 2021 Worldwide. For details of leagues, please refer to: https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/leagues.html *REGISTRATION:* All teams are required to pre-register through the online form: https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/registration.html *IMPORTANT DATES:* - Deadline for pre-registration (both online and virtual competitions): 30 September 2021 - Announcement of qualified teams: 14 October 2021 - Deadline for registration: 4 November 2021 *REGISTRATION FEES:* The registration fee is waived for all Japanese teams/members. The registration fee for teams to participate in virtual competitions (except teams from Japan): - Major Team Registration Fee: Waived - Major Staff/Students: USD60/person - Junior Team Registration Fee: Waived - Junior Students/Mentors: USD40/person *SYMPOSIUM:* https://2021.robocupap.org/eng/symposium.html *CONTACT:* For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: - Aichi Local Organizing Committee (General Enquiries, On-site competitions): - rcap2021(a)intergroup.co.jp - RCAP Office (Registration fees and payments, Virtual competitions): - office(a)robocupap.org For more information please visit our official website at https://2021 .robocupap.org/eng/index.html We look forward to welcoming you to RCAP 2021 Aichi Japan! Best Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office, RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2021 (RCAP 2021) Organizing Committee ____________________________________

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Call for KR 2021 Student Scholarship Applications
by Đinh Văn Thành 20 Aug '21

20 Aug '21

****************************************** Call for KR 2021 Student Scholarship Applications ****************************************** We are delighted to announce funding for KR 2021 student support. The purpose is to enable students to participate in the conference. To be eligible, you must be registered as a full-time student at a higher education institution (e.g. university). *You can submit your application at the following link:* ************** https://www.isurvey.soton.ac.uk/41031 ************** ** *Please submit your application by 6^th September 2021 via this form. We will notify you of our decision by 8^th September 2021.* In allocating awards, we will prioritise students who are listed as authors of a long or short paper accepted for KR 2021. Please note that attending the conference is a requirement for being supported. In addition, by participating in the student scholarship program, students are expected to support the conference as student volunteers: You may be asked to support the conference in various ways, e.g., to help with running a particular session. Due to NSF requirements, successful US applicants are also asked to participate in the Doctoral Consortium (DC) either as a presenter or as an attendee, with no obligation to have a paper accepted at the DC. US applicants are also asked to write a short report on their attendance at KR. If your application is successful, you will receive a code that you can then use upon registration as a conference fee waiver. Please wait to register for the conference until our notification. We will not reimburse already made payments. For any question, feel free to contact us at KR21virtual+registration(a)gmail.com <mailto:KR21virtual+registration@gmail.com> or contact Long Tran-Thanh directly at long.tran-thanh(a)warwick.ac.uk <mailto:long.tran-thanh@warwick.ac.uk>. Thank you, Tran Cao Son, New Mexico State University, US Long Tran-Thanh,University of Warwick, UK On the behalf of the KR 2021 organising committee.

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RoboCup Brazil Open
by Comunicação RoboCup 23 Jul '21

23 Jul '21

Hi teams, *Registrations are open for RoboCup Brazil Open* *The event will be virtual, with the same categories of RoboCup Federation* RoboCup Brazil launches the RoboCup Brazil Open, a virtual event with the same categories of the Robocup WorldWide. Registrations are now open for teams from all over the world. All the categories have been adapted and will happen in a fully remote format, using simulators, challenges and submission of articles written by the teams. Our goal is to disseminate the studies and technologies developed by universities in the field of robotics and IA. The event will happen in October 11th-15th, and will be broadcast through lives on the RoboCup Brazil Youtube channel. In 2020, more than 700 students from Latin American attended the event. *Categories:* RoboCup Open Flying Robot Trial League Small Size Soccer Humanoid League Standard Plataform League (SPL) Simulation 2D Simulation 3D RoboCup at@Home IEEE Humanoid Robot Racing (HRR) IEEE Open IEEE Standard Educational Kit (SEK) IEEE Very Small Size Soccer RoboCup Junior Soccer Open RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Maze RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Primary RoboCup Junior Rescue Simulation Open * Registration* To participate, you and your team must register by August 30th, on the website: www.cbrobotica.org . The registration fee is US$ 50 per team. *RoboCup Brasil is a non-profit civil association, organized by volunteer professors and researchers. The association holds the Brazilian Robotics Olympiad, the Brazilian Robotics Competition and the National Robotics Show.* -- Patrícia Vergara Comunicação RoboCup Brasil +55 (11) 9.8686-4993 www.robocup.org.br

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[CFP] Call for Participation - RoboCup Brazil Open - @Home Virtual 2021
by Fagner Pimentel 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

*Call for Participation* RoboCup Brazil Open - @Home Virtual 2021 *October 11 – October 15, 2021* (Online) http://www.cbrobotica.org/ *Important dates:* - Jul. 30, 2021 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). - Aug. 15, 2021 Qualification announcement - Aug 30, 2021 Robot model reception *Committee members:* - Executive Committee: "Plinio Thomaz Aquino Jr." < plinio.aquino(a)fei.edu.br> - Technical Committee: "Fagner Pimentel <fpimentel(a)fei.edu.br>" - Organizing Committee: "Ana Patricia Magalhaes < anapatriciamagalhaes(a)gmail.com>" - Organizing Committee: "Rodrigo Techi <techicrodrigo(a)gmail.com>" RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions. The 2021 edition of the RoboCup Brazil Open will again be virtual. All categories will have new challenges, adapted so that you and your team can participate from anywhere in the world, broadcast live on our Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/competicaobrasileiraderobotica). The RoboCup Brazil Open @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 year we will have 4 slots (with the possibility of more) for teams outside Brazil to participate. * This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup Brazil Open @Home 2021. The qualification procedure consists of two simple steps: *Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)* The team *MUST* send an email to the @home committee (see above) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup Brazil Open @Home 2021 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): 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 (http://www.cbrobotica.org/index.php/papers-tdps/). 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. ***** *Deadline: Sunday, July 30, 2021 23:59 BRT* ****** *Step 2) Robot Model Submission:* Qualified teams ***MUST*** send the robot model to be used during the competition via email to the @home committee (see above). Please follow the template below: Team Name: 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. ***** *Deadline: Sunday, August 30, 2021 23:59 BRT* ****** *Instructions for the Qualification Material and 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. *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. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup Brazil Open @Home and the RoboCup Brasil 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 a 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). *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 Brazil Open @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup Brazil Open @Home and the RoboCup Brasil 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. *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. On behalf of RoboCup Brazil Open @Home Virtual Competition 2021 Organizing Committee. -- Fagner de Assis Moura Pimentel Ph.D. candidate at FEI University Center.

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ROBOTIS Giveaway Event Invitation + New Forum Site Announcement!
by ROBOTIS Support 13 Jul '21

13 Jul '21

Hello everyone, This is Andrew with the ROBOTIS Customer Support team, and ROBOTIS would like to invite you all to join our new *ROBOTIS community* forum page ( www.community.robotis.us <http://community.robotis.us/>). Based on your group's relevant interests, I thought it would be perfect to invite you all to join ROBOTIS for our first-ever “My Favorite Robot!” online giveaway and video sharing event <https://community.robotis.us/t/my-favorite-robot-video-sharing-contest-win-…> (Win Prizes). *Simple Rule to Participate:* *We just want to see your favorite robots (images or videos)*- from BattleBots, to Boston Dynamics, to your team's or personal project! 1. *Come and join* our online forum community.robotis.us 2. *Reply* to the giveaway thread with a video or/and image 3. *Short description* of your favorite robot to enter for a chance to win! 4. *Share* a link to your post with friends and family to get likes on the post the most likes will ultimately win! Grand prize includes $250 in Store Credit to our robotis.us online shop for state-of-the-art robot kits and hardware! Full details and rules for the competition event can be found here (Deadline: 7/31): https://community.robotis.us/t/my-favorite-robot-video-sharing-contest-win-… For any questions, feel free to contact us here or through the community page! PS If any researchers or professionals have a robot project and would like to showcase your work or applications, please reach out and we can consider interview opportunities with our team to promote you! Best regards, Andrew *ROBOTIS Technical Support / Customer Support* *(* *cs(a)robotis.com <cs(a)robotis.com>) * For general & technical support visit Community.Robotis.Us <http://community.robotis.us> *Leave us a Google Review here! <https://g.page/RobotisAmerica/review?rc> *Tell us how we're doing- what do you love, and what can we do better? Leave us a review or email our team! <http://www.robotis.us/> <https://twitter.com/ROBOTISAmerica> <https://www.facebook.com/RobotisAmerica/> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/3156709/> <https://www.youtube.com/robotisamerica> <https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/> <https://www.reddit.com/r/DYNAMIXEL/>

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[jobs] PhD position at King's College London on @Home
by Matteo Leonetti 02 Jul '21

02 Jul '21

[apologies for multiple posting, lots of emails, the usual] Hello, a PhD position is available at King's College London under my supervision, in the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) on Safe and Trusted AI. Deadline: 25 July 2021. The currently available project is this one: https://safeandtrustedai.org/project/service-robot-adaptation-to-users-with… but other topics can be discussed, as long as they align with my research in planning and learning for autonomous robots (https://sensiblerobots.leeds.ac.uk/research/) and the focus of the CDT https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-courses/safe-and-trusted-… . Please note that I just moved from Leeds to King's, so you'll still find references to Leeds (for instance in my web page above) here and there. The PhD is at King's. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to lead the migration of the LASR@Home team from Leeds to King's and the development towards RoboCup 2022. Feel free to contact me directly for any (related) inquiry. Best, -- Matteo Leonetti Lecturer (Assistant Prof.) King's College London

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Call for Applications: Doctoral Consortium of KR 2021 (deadline: June 30)
by Thanh Dinh 10 Jun '21

10 Jun '21

KR Doctoral Consortium Call for Applications November 3-12, 2021 Virtual (Originally: Hanoi, Vietnam) https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de The 18th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2021) invites PhD students to apply for the Doctoral Consortium program. 1) AIMS AND SCOPE The Doctoral Consortium (DC) is a student mentoring program bringing together PhD students and senior researchers from the area of KR. The aims of the consortium are: * to provide a forum for students to present their current research, and receive feedback from other students and senior researchers; * to promote contacts among PhD students working in similar areas; * to support students with information and advice on academic, research, and industrial careers. The DC is intended for PhD students who have a specific research proposal and some preliminary results, but who have sufficient time prior to completing their dissertation to benefit from the consortium experience. Preference will be given to students satisfying these criteria, but well-motivated applications from students who are at earlier or later stages of their doctoral studies will still be considered. Accepted students will participate in several dedicated DC events, which are planned to include a lightning talk session, a poster session, a mentoring event, and a DC invited talk. Details will be announced in due time. Each student will be given ample time to present their work and therefore be able to fully benefit from direct feedback from the assigned senior researcher mentor and the wider KR conference audience. Note that due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, KR 2021 and all of the DC events will take place online. 2) APPLICATION SUBMISSION Applications must be submitted through the EasyChair conference system (a link will be provided later). Each application must contain the following elements combined into a single PDF document: (1) Thesis summary. A description of the problem being addressed, your motivation for addressing the problem, proposed plan of research, the progress to date (what you have already achieved and what remains to be done), and related work. It must be four pages maximum and use the same style as for KR paper submissions. (2) Curriculum Vitae. A description of your background and relevant experience (research, education, employment), of two pages maximum. (3) Letter of recommendation. A letter from your thesis advisor that states that he/she supports your participation in the DC. (4) Optionally, a suggestion of up to 5 potential mentors with similar research interests, who could give good advice on technical aspects related to the work, and/or career opportunities. The selection process will consider the quality of the submitted proposal and the stage of the student's PhD project. Doctoral students who submit to the DC are permitted to have previously published their research, and are encouraged to submit papers to workshops associated to KR 2021. 3) IMPORTANT DATES Application deadline: June 30, 2021 Acceptance notification: July 21, 2021 Doctoral Consortium: November 3 - 12, 2021 For further information, please contact the DC chairs: Jens Classen, Simon Fraser University (jens_classen(a)sfu.ca) Magdalena Ortiz, TU Vienna (ortiz(a)kr.tuwien.ac.at)

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Call for Papers: Recently Published Research Track at KR 2021 (deadline: June 27)
by Thanh Dinh 10 Jun '21

10 Jun '21

Call for Papers *Recently Published Research Track* at the 18th Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2021) November 3-12, 2021, Virtual (originally: Hanoi, Vietnam) https://kr2021.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de ------------------ Important Dates ------------------ Submission deadline: June 27, 2021, Notification: July 30, 2021 Conference: November 3-12, 2021 ------------------ The 18th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, KR 2021, invites submissions of abstracts of papers previously published in journals and conference proceedings for the Recently Published Research Track. The track is designed to provide a forum to discuss recent research on topics related to KR that may not be immediately familiar or easily accessible to the KR community. The track seeks papers that fall into one or both of the following two categories: 1) Papers that -- bridge KR to other areas of AI, computer science, or to other disciplines for which an interface with KR exists (this includes database theory, game theory, social choice, logic and philosophy, etc.); -- bridge KR to areas that make use of KR, such as multi-agent systems, planning, natural language understanding, machine learning, explainable AI; or -- go beyond the commonly-understood boundaries of KR. 2) Papers that are tightly related to KR and -- have been published in journals but have not been presented at workshops or conferences; -- have been presented at conferences that are not typically attended by the KR community; or -- have been accepted at general high-profile AI conferences such as IJCAI, ECAI, or AAAI, where the time allotted has not allowed for full discussion of all key aspects of the paper. Submitted papers need only be of interest to a subcommunity in KR (like DL, argumentation, NMR, etc.). However, they need to be made friendly to a KR audience. Submission materials: — A cover page (single page) listing the title, the authors, a complete reference to the original paper, and a public or privately accessible url from which the paper can be downloaded. A list of keywords is also expected. Finally, the cover page must contain a statement that the work the submission is based on has not been already presented to a KR audience in a major forum. — A one-page (preferred) and no more than two-page extended abstract of the paper following the format for regular paper KR 2021 submissions. The abstract should present the main contributions of the paper, discuss the relevance of the paper to KR, and explain the significance of the results. — A single pdf file with the materials should be submitted to the KR submission site at EasyChair. The authors should mark the submission as Recently Published Research. Submissions must meet the following criteria: a. Candidate papers must have been published in a journal or a conference proceedings in 2019 or later. b. Papers that are in press may be submitted as long as the final camera-ready version is available. c. Extensions of papers that have been previously presented at a KR conference are not eligible for this track. Extended abstracts of the accepted papers will be linked from the conference website. Authors of accepted papers will present their work at the KR conference, focussing on its significance and relevance to KR. Significant time will be allocated for discussion of the interdisciplinary aspects of the work and its potential impact on future research opportunities for KR. Note that due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, KR 2021 will take place as a fully online event. For any questions regarding suitability of a submission or any other aspect of the track, please email the special track program co-chairs: Vladimir Lifschitz, vl(a)cs.utexas.edu Pierre Marquis, marquis(a)cril.univ-artois.fr

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Fwd: SCIROC 2021: Call for interest now open!
by Luca Iocchi 16 Apr '21

16 Apr '21

Dear @Home teams, please consider participation to the SciRoc Challenge (Bologna, Italy, September 2021) that includes tests certainly in-line with @Home research interests. Do not hesitate to contact us for any information. Best regards, Luca. ---- *SMART CITIES ROBOTICS CHALLENGE (SCIROC) 2021 : Call for interest now open! Deadline: Friday 30^th April 2021. * After the outstanding success of our first Smart Cities Robotics Challenge in Milton Keynes, UK, in which we estimate we may have shown the state of the art in European robotics to around 650,000 people, we’re now promoting our second event in Bologna, Italy, 6 - 11 September 2021. Teams will bring their robots from all over Europe to compete in an environment that embeds the newest technologies in an ancient location. We’re aiming for a safe physical event (but have plans for teams that can’t travel if lockdown restrictions come back again). The last year has been hard, and across Europe it is time for people to start to re-emerge from their hibernation, and embrace life again. Our second SCIROC event will be an opportunity for robotics teams to get together and celebrate. It is also the perfect platform to show that robotics in Europe will play a role in supporting our happy safe future by showcasing research, and engaging with industry and the public. We all know how hard life has been with Covid-19, people will be full of questions about how robotics could help in the future. *Want to be involved?* For anyone that is interested in taking part in this year’s Smart City Challenge, our call for interested teams is now open! Register your interest via the SCIROC website by 30th April 2021: https://sciroc.org/2021-challenge-description/ We hope to see you in Bologna! Sarah Carter Project Manager SCIROC EU-H2020 / The European Robotics League Bristol Robotics Laboratory University of the West of England, Bristol, UK Tel. +44 (0) 117 32 83082 page1image2896128 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unsubscribe: HRI-ANNOUNCEMENT-signoff-request(a)LISTSERV.ACM.ORG If you don't already have a password for the LISTSERV.ACM.ORG server, we recommend that you create one now. A LISTSERV password is linked to your email address and can be used to access the web interface and all the lists to which you are subscribed on the LISTSERV.ACM.ORG server. To create a password, visit: https://LISTSERV.ACM.ORG/SCRIPTS/WA-ACMLPX.CGI?GETPW1 Once you have created a password, you can log in and view or change your subscription settings at: https://LISTSERV.ACM.ORG/SCRIPTS/WA-ACMLPX.CGI?SUBED1=HRI-ANNOUNCEMENT

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BRAHUR/BRASERO 2021: Call for Papers - DEADLINE EXTENDED
by Marco Simões 09 Mar '21

09 Mar '21

Sorry for any duplication. ===================== Call For Papers The *IV Brazilian Humanoid Robot Workshop (BRAHUR)* and the *V Brazilian Workshop on Service Robotics (BRASERO)* will be a virtual edition. It will run from *May 19th to 21th, 2021*. These workshops will cover the most exciting new developments in the humanoid and service robotics field and related technologies. See further information on the Workshops web site: http://www.acso.uneb.br/brahurbrasero2021 ################### Important Dates ## ################### *Abstract registration deadline: March 15, 2021Submission deadline: March 22, 2021Notification: April 16, 2021Camera-ready: April 26, 2021* ########################### Submission Guidelines ## ########################### Considering that the primary goal of the joint workshops is the dissemination and sharing of work developed in robotics areas, focusing on humanoid robots and service robots, the works do not need to be original, but they must be relevant to the community (works published previously will NOT be accepted). Papers will be reviewed based on relevance, technical soundness, and clarity of presentation. All papers must not simultaneously be submitted to another journal or conference. Papers may be written in Portuguese or English. Articles written in Portuguese should also include the title and abstract in English. Papers must not exceed 6 (six) pages including all figures, references, and appendices, and must be submitted in one PDF file. Please, rely on good quality figures. The IEEE format for article submission should be followed: http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/files/ieeeconf_A4.dot http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/tex.php#latexclass (A4) <http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/tex.php#latexclass> At least *one author must be registered to BRAHUR/BRASERO 2021 for each accepted paper*. Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=brahurbrasero2021 ##################### List of Topics ## ##################### The Research Track publishes solid contribution focused on the theme of humanoid and service robotics or related technologies, which include (but is not limited to) the following topics: * Machine learning, intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, cognitive development, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, reinforcement learning, fuzzy logic applied to humanoid or service robots; * Computer vision, image processing, object segmentation and recognition, face recognition, camera calibration; * Multi-robot systems; * Multi-agent learning; * Multi-agent planning; * Feedback control, digital control, control theory; * Embedded systems; * Real-time systems; * Digital signal processing; * Object manipulation and action planning; * Innovations in mechanical design and materials; * Mobile robotics, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), sensor fusion; * Legged locomotion, biped walking and running; * Unmanned aerial vehicles; * Unmanned underwater vehicles; * Humanoids robots; * Ethics and the social implications of the advance of service robotics; * Robotics applications and case studies; * Assistive robotics. ############## Committees ## ############## *Organizing committee* - Ana Patricia Fontes Magalhães Mascarenhas (UNEB/ACSO and UNIFACS) - Adailton de Jesus Cerqueira Junior (UNEB/ACSO) - Jorge Alberto Prado Campos (UNEB/ACSO and UNIFACS) - Josemar Rodrigues de Souza (UNEB/ACSO) - Marco A C Simões (UNEB/ACSO) - Paulo Drews (FURG) - Robson Marinho da Silva (UNEB/ACSO) - Rodrigo Guerra (UFSM) - Tiago Nascimento (UFPB) ############## Publication ## ############## The BRAHUR/BRASERO 2021 proceedings will be published on BRAHUR/BRASERO 2021 website with DOI and ISBN ######## Venue ## ######## The conference will be held in Salvador, BA, Brazil (virtual). ########## Contact ## ########## All questions about submissions should be emailed to apmagalhaes(a)uneb.br *Take this opportunity and send your work!* *-- Marco Antonio Costa SimõesNucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br <http://www.acso.uneb.br>Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart <http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart>Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEBDepartamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus IMestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE* * <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Livre de vírus. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>. <#m_-9209586057992870033_m_8241794896325470754_m_5100748289025288629_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>*

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[news] [@Home2021] First Call for Participation: EXTENDED
by Mauricio Matamoros 27 Feb '21

27 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 15 Feb '21

15 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 07 Feb '21

07 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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Call for Papers - 9th ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob 2021)
by Iman Awaad 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

[apologies for multiple copies] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ** CALL FOR PAPERS ** 9th ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob‚ 2021) https://icaps21.icaps-conference.org/workshops/PlanRob/ International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling ICAPS 2021  Guangzhou, China  June 7-8, 2021 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Topics and Objectives ********************* AI Planning & Scheduling (P&S) methods are key to enabling intelligent robots to perform autonomous, flexible, and interactive behaviors. Researchers in the P&S community have continued to develop approaches and produce planners, representations, as well as heuristics that robotics researchers can make use of. However, there remain numerous challenges complicating the uptake, use and successful integration of P&S technology in robotics, many of which have been addressed by robotics researchers with novel solutions. Strong collaboration and synergy between researchers in both communities is vital to the continued growth of the fields in a way that provide mutual benefits to the two communities. To foster this, the PlanRob workshop aims to provide a stable, long-term forum (having been held annually at ICAPS since 2013) where researchers from both the P&S and Robotics communities can openly discuss relevant issues, research and development progress, future directions and open challenges related to P&S when applied to Robotics. In addition to the usual paper submissions, the workshop’s format naturally lends itself to preliminary results, position papers as well as to work focused on challenges in using and integrating planners in robotics systems. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following: - real-world planning applications for autonomous and intelligent robots; - optimizing behavior in large scale automated or semi-automated systems; - integrated planning and execution in robotic architectures; - planning domain representations for robotics applications; - P&S methods for optimization and adaptation in robotics; - mission, path, and motion planning for robots; - planning and coordination methods for multi-robot teams; - mixed-initiative planning and sliding autonomy for robotic systems; - human-aware planning and execution in human-robot interaction; - adversarial action planning in competitive robotic domains; - formal methods for robot planning and control; - challenges and solutions in using P&S technology in robotics; - open problems for P&S in robotics, - benchmark planning domains for robots. Important Dates **************** Paper submission: March 7, 2021 Notification of acceptance: April 1, 2021 Camera-ready version due: May 1, 2021 Workshop Date: June 7-8, 2021 The reference time-zone for all deadlines is UTC-12: Your submissions will be on time so long as there is still some place in the world where the deadline has not yet passed. Submissions *********** There are two types of submissions: short position papers and regular papers. Position papers are a maximum of four pages long while regular papers may be up to ten pages long. Papers may have an additional page containing references. Regular papers may be scheduled with more time in the final program. A poster session may be considered to provide a further presentation opportunity. The guidelines for formatting are the same as is used for ICAPS 2021 papers (typeset in the AAAI style as described at: http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php), but with the AAAI copyright removed. The papers must be submitted in PDF format via the EasyChair system (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=planrob2021). Please note that papers under review (e.g. which have been submitted to IJCAI-2021) are also welcome, however, in order to avoid potential conflicts, these manuscripts should be prepared as anonymous submissions for a double blind reviewing process. Accepted papers will be published on the workshop’s website. The organizers are investigating the availability of journal editors in order to invite a selection of accepted papers from the workshop to a special issue or post-proceedings volume. Organizers ********** Iman Awaad, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany iman.awaad(a)h-brs.de Alberto Finzi, Università di Napoli "Federico II", Italy alberto.finzi(a)unina.it AndreA Orlandini  Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Italy andrea.orlandini(a)istc.cnr.it The ICAPS PlanRob Workshop is partially supported by TAILOR "Foundations of Trustworthy AI - Integrating Reasoning, Learning and Optimization", a project funded by the European Commissione (EU H2020 ICT-48 G.A. 952215). -- Iman Awaad Researcher, Autonomous Systems Group Assistant director & Study advisor, Master's Programme in Autonomous Systems Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it) Friedrich Hirzebruch-Allee 5, 53115 Bonn, Germany www.b-it-center.de Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences | Department of Computer Science Grantham Allee 20, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany Phone +49 (0) 2241 865-295 iman.awaad(a)h-brs.de mas-group.inf.h-brs.de www.facebook.com/AutonomousSystemsProgram

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RoboCup@Home 2021 Edition
by Maxime St-Pierre 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

Dear RoboCup@Home Community, After discussion with the RoboCup Federation and the Executive Committee, this year RoboCup@Home (2021) will be held in a simulated environment. All teams that were qualified last year (2020), will be automatically qualified for this year's competition (2021). The Technical Committee is currently writing a special version of the Rulebook to accommodate this new requirement. The discussion for these new change is going to happen on the discussions tab on the RoboCup@Home Rulebook GitHub Repository ( https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook/discussions). I highly suggest that everyone follow the development and contribute to the discussion since they will impact your team. If you have any suggestions or comments please submit them on the Rulebook GitHub repository. We will send out more information as they become available. Maxime St-Pierre OC Chair RoboCup@Home

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Call for Papers: Special Session on KR & Machine Learning (KR2021)
by Thanh Dinh 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '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 Authors Guidelines for KR2021. 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. ------------------ Chairs ------------------ Alessandro Saffiotti (University of Orebro, Sweden) Mary-Anne Williams (University of New South Wales, Australia) ------------------

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[CFP] AI LA Life Summit 2020
by Ross Mead 12 Oct '20

12 Oct '20

Call for Participation: AI LA Life Summit 2020 *********************************************************************** AI LA Life Summit 2020 October 13-15, 2020 (Virtual) https://lifesummit.la *********************************************************************** *** REGISTRATION *** https://hopin.to/events/life-summit-2020 * $5 student tickets * $25 industry tickets *** OVERVIEW *** Whether you are science-focused or science-curious, AI LA’s three-day summit will inspire and interconnect you through scientific storytelling. Learn from academic and industry researchers at the core of today’s innovations, especially if you are interested in pursuing a career at the intersection of biotechnology and healthcare. The Life Summit is a forum for coming together as a community, a platform for exchanging ideas, and a catalyst for the scientists of the next generation. *** SCHEDULE *** (All times in Pacific Time, UTC-7) DAY 1: REFLECT (Tue, Oct 13) * 8:00am - Keynote by Claire Bonaci, Microsoft Sr. Director, US Health & Life Sciences * 8:15am - Hackers without Borders * 9:15am - The Global Pivot * 10:15am - Challenges and Opportunities in Digital Delivery of Behavioral Health * 11:00am - Networking * 12:00pm - Break * 4:00pm - Keynote by Amanda Daflos , Chief Innovation Officer of City of Los Angeles * 4:15pm - LA's COVID-19 Response * 5:15pm - Equity in Telehealth * 6:00pm - Health Systems Stressed * 7:00pm - Networking DAY 2: RECENTER (Wed, Oct 14) * 8:00am - Keynote by George Tolomiczenko, Director of Medical Innovations at UC Irvine * 8:15am - Temporal Scene Understanding in Robot-assisted Surgery Using Deep Learning * 8:30am - Deep learning-enabled cellular image analysis at scale * 8:45am - Physics-Guided Deep Learning for COVID-19 Forecasting * 9:00am - Using Reinforcement Learning to Imitate Drug Discovery Experts and Accelerate Discovery * 9:15am - Better Storytelling Through Data: Lessons from the Frontlines and Backends of a Pandemic * 10:00am - Investor Roundtable * 11:00am - Networking * 12:00pm - Break * 4:00pm - Welcome * 4:15pm - AI Applications in Ophthalmology * 4:30pm - The Entrepreneurial Scientist * 5:15pm - AI Talk (UCLA) * 5:30pm - AI Talk (USC) * 5:45pm - Developing tools for collaborating around 3D+ biomedical imaging data * 6:00pm - AI in Healthcare * 7:00pm - Networking DAY 3: REIMAGINE (Thu, Oct 15) * 8:00am - Keynote by Stephanie Hsieh, Executive Director at Biocom LA * 8:15am - Reimagining Cancer Treatment * 9:15am - Reimagining R&D in Labs * 10:00am - Quantified Self & AI * 11:00am - Networking * 12:00pm - Break * 4:00pm - Keynote by Vivienne Ming, Professional Mad Scientist * 4:15pm - The Future of Synthetic Biology * 5:15pm - Living Robots * 6:05pm - Sustainable Living Systems * 7:00pm - Networking *** CONTACT *** For more information, contact the AI LA Executive Board: * Todd Terrazas, AI LA (todd(a)joinai.la) * Dr. Ross Mead, Semio (ross(a)semio.ai) *** ABOUT *** AI LA is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to catalyze innovation through education, conversation, and collaboration. Since 2016, we have facilitated community events related to AI and its applications to education, environmental sustainability, healthcare, life sciences, the ethical and fair use of technology, and more! Learn more at https://joinai.la! -- -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600 <https://semio.ai>

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ISIC 2021 in Hybrid mode with Scopus Proceedings
by SARIKA JAIN 04 Oct '20

04 Oct '20

Dear Colleague, Hope and pray that you stay safe in this COVID-19 situation. International Semantic Intelligence Conference (ISIC-2021) <https://www.ifis.uni-luebeck.de/~groppe/isic/> *Conference Dates: *Feb 25-27, 2021 Hard Deadline: *[October 10, 2020]* ISIC 2021 will allow remote participation and the organizing committee has started working toward putting together the technical infrastructure for both types of presentations (Face-to-face and remote). We understand that some workplaces are forfeiting the travel allowance, but need not worry as we make the remote participation available via online platforms. The registration amount for remote participation will be decreased by 30% in every category. You are hereby invited to submit full-length papers as the deadline of October 10, 2020, is approaching. The topics majorly include "Artificial Intelligence", "Machine Learning", and "Semantic Computing", but not limited to these. ISIC 2021 accepts submissions of all the three types - the comprehensive overview of the topic, - the review/survey of the topic, or - the research results/findings. *Star features of the conference:*Though it is its first edition, ISIC 2021 has attracted already - 4 top-shot researchers as advisory - 6 keynotes/invited talks - 2 tutorials - 11 special sessions with 31 chairs - Springer to publish the ISIC 2021 proceedings in the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) series, which is indexed in major indices - 11 special issues in journals (indexed in major indices) from 8 publishers for extended papers of ISIC 2021 - 21 members being chairs in main conference organization (coming from all around the world) - 200 Program Committee Members from various countries all around the world - high geographic diversity with members from 40 different countries - high gender diversity with 32% women The conference aims to establish itself as one of the best venues to publish the research findings with a publishing possibility in journals with major indices. Publication: Conference proceedings will be published by **CCIS Springer (Scopus Indexed) and available online. Few selected outstanding papers will be invited to submit the extended work in *Scopus / Web of Science (WoS) <https://nitkkr-ac-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=15AS1o6TPo8z6KbT…>* indexed journals. *Submission link: *https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isic2021 <https://nitkkr-ac-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=15AS1o6TPo8z6KbT…> . *Important Dates:* Last date of Paper Submission: *[October 10, 2020]* Notification of acceptance: *[November 10, 2020]* Camera-ready submission of accepted papers: *[December 10, 2020]* If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at < jasarika(a)nitkkr.ac.in> Best Regards *On behalf of the Conference Committee* Dr. Sarika Jain Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Applications National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, India https://sites.google.com/view/nitkkrsarikajain/home <https://nitkkr-ac-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=15AS1o6TPo8z6KbT…> ######################################## Consider contributing to the International Semantic Intelligence Conference ISIC2021 <https://nitkkr-ac-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=15AS1o6TPo8z6KbT…> Delhi India Feb 25-27, 2021

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Elsevier Book Chapter
by SARIKA JAIN 29 Sep '20

29 Sep '20

Dear Colleague, This is a call for book chapter proposals for the book *"Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Global Epidemics*" to be published by *Elsevier.* Deadline for submitting the Extended Summary: Sep 30, 2020 The individual chapters should provide a comprehensive overview of the chosen topic covering advances in the area and should be tutorial in nature and presentation, to appeal to a broad range of readers who may NOT be researchers on the topic. Hence, they shouldn't be like a research paper. You are hereby invited to submit first, a 2-3 page extended summary including (a) an abstract, (b) an outline / TOC / list of headings and sub-headings along with a summary of each heading, (c) short biographies of the authors, and (d) a statement why you are experts for the proposed chapter. Following a review of your summary, we'll offer our feedback and suggestions for improvement and better synergy with the rest of the chapters and cohesive coverage. *Chapter Submission Link*: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aige2021 *Structure of the Book:* The book is planned to have 11-12 chapters divided into two sections. Part I consists of 3 chapters providing a holistic overview of global epidemics, a motivation for the book and challenges. Part II consists of emerging technologies that help fight against epidemics. Part II has 6 chapters as listed below. This makes 9 chapters. The rest 2-3 chapters are to be added dynamically based on the availability of authors (These chapters may be on The Use of Social Media for Tracking Public Behavior, Does AI help in Genome Sequencing, AI-assisted Testing, Computational Drug Repurposing, or any other trending and suitable topic in line with the title and the theme of the book). *Part I: Controlling Epidemics: A Perspective* This part provides an overview and study of Global Epidemic situations. It starts with assessing the countries' readiness for coping with epidemics, goes through the challenges in battling with epidemic, and then closes with a survey of existing approaches, techniques and tools available or developed by academicians or industry professionals for controlling the epidemics. 1 Setting the Scene (A Chapter by the Editors) This chapter provides an overview and summary of the complete book as a whole. It acts as glue between the chapters written by different authors and brings in synergy to all the chapters in both the parts of the book. In effect, it sets the scene for the reader and acts as an introductory and a must read before proceeding for the further chapters. 2 An Overview of Global Epidemics and the Challenges Faced (a) Assessing Countries' Readiness for Coping with Epidemics: There is a need of retrospective evaluation of each country's readiness for coping with epidemics. An automated data collection followed by evaluation will help in knowing if the human kind is well-equipped to deal with it. (b) A Study related to Ebola, Corona viruses, Zika, influenza, Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria like infectious diseases will be presented in this chapter. A discussion on the most fatal pandemics recorded in the history (like the Plague, Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19) and their economic consequences. What is common in these? All these have jumped to humans after being originated in animals somehow. (c) Challenges in Battling with Epidemics (d) ... 3 A Survey of Existing Approaches and Tools to fight against epidemic and the lessons learnt (a) Survey of tools/techniques/methodologies/software already available at the time of writing of this book to predict/detect/recommend actions during an epidemic situation. (b) Lessons learnt by every epidemic that has struck this world (including COVID-19) *Part II: Emerging Technologies Fight Against Epidemics* Having gone through the background of controlling global epidemic situation, this part of the book covers the emerging techniques to fight against epidemic. At the time of writing this book, COVID-19 pandemic was caused by coronavirus and was widespread with deadly results. The case study of COVID-19 has been presented to better exploit the study presented in each chapter. 4 AI Technologies specialized to the need in the fight against epidemic All current technologies under the umbrella of AI or surrounding AI should be covered like Data Science, Big Data, Machine Learning, Semantic Technologies, Data Analytics, cyber security. 5 Does AI help in Forecasting? This chapter will speak about WHO statistics on pathogens. AI can help predicting everything about spillovers, hence allowing the governments to plan ahead. AI can predict what, when, why, and where of the epidemic. We define AI and discuss the various machine learning models to predict the same. Case Study of Covid-19 for Predictions will be presented. 6 AI and Detection / Improved Diagnosis In case of outbreak of a disease; after detection, we need to publicize the threat. AI makes possible quick detection in order to enable possible vaccination and treatment; and alerts for the public. Diagnosis and Monitoring of cases is of paramount importance. Case Study of Covid-19 for Early Detection will be presented. 7 Generating Recommendations A global, AI-enabled data system can provide advices and issue warnings in real time. Help manage socio-economic impacts. 8 Role of AI in Contact Tracing The architecture of so called "Corona apps" and their backends is described in this chapter. The role of AI is clarified for these approaches and also other aspects like privacy and security. Furthermore, other approaches to contact tracing are introduced in this chapter. 9 Situation Awareness In any disaster, it is essential that the citizens get the correct information and organizations get the correct data. This chapter describes AI approaches to detect fake news or scams. 10-12 Open Topics dynamically picked by the authors Any other trending and suitable topic in line with the title and the theme of the book can be incorporated. Editors: - Le Gruenwald, The University of Oklahoma, USA, ggruenwald(a)ou.edu - Sarika Jain, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India, jasarika(a)nitkkr.ac.in. - Sven Groppe, University of Lübeck, Germany, groppe(a)ifis.uni-luebeck.de *Deadlines:* Extended Summary: Sep 30, 2020 Notification of Proposal Approval: Oct 20, 2020 Full Chapter Submission: Jan 10, 2020 Best Regards Dr. Sarika Jain Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Applications National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, India https://sites.google.com/view/nitkkrsarikajain/ ######################################## Consider contributing to the International Semantic Intelligence Conference ISIC2021 <https://www.ifis.uni-luebeck.de/~groppe/isic/> Delhi India Feb 25-27, 2021

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LAST Call for Participation - The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020
by Marco Simões 28 Sep '20

28 Sep '20

Sorry for any duplication.=============The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition *10 – 14 November 2020 – ONLINE* http://www.cbrobotica.org *e-mail: organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org <organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org>* The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition will be held online, 10-14 November 2020. *General Chair*: João Alberto Fabro (fabro(a)utfpr.edu.br) *Important Dates: - Pre-registration and TDP submission: September 28- Regular Registration: November 3- Late Registration: November 14**Leagues* The rules and particularities of each category are defined by their chairs. Contact them for any questions. The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCup Soccer Simulation 2D* Chair: Haroldo Dornelas (gm.haroldo(a)gmail.com) *RoboCup Soccer Simulation 3D* Chair: Adailton Cerqueira Jr. (adailton.junior(a)gmail.com) *RoboCup Brazil Open Flying Robot Trial League* Chair: Tiago Nascimento (tiagopn(a)ci.ufpb.br) *RoboCup Small Size Soccer (F180)* Chair: Rafael Guedes Lang (rglang(a)hotmail.com) *RoboCup Soccer Humanoid League / Standard Platform League (SPL)* Chair: Danilo Hernani Perico (danilo.perico(a)gmail.com) *RoboCup@Home* Chair: Plinio Thomaz Aquino Junior (plinio.aquino(a)fei.edu.br) *RoboCupJunior* General Chair: Andrique F. Amorim (andrique(a)gmail.com) *On Stage* Chair: Rosângela Matias (rosartematias(a)gmail.com) *Soccer* Chair: Alan Teixeira de Oliveira (alan.oliveira(a)ifnmg.edu.br *Rescue Maze* Chair: Diogo Novais (diogopereira(a)ifba.edu.br) *Rescue Simulation (CO-SPACE)* Chair: Tiago Hártur de Oliveira Feu (tiago.hartur(a)gmail.com) *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to register following the instructions here: http://www.cbrobotica.org/index.php/inscricao-2/ *Participation Fees* - Regular Registration from October 3, 2020 until November 3, 2020 - Team (includes 1 free student): US$ 50.00 - Additional student: US$ 5.00 - Additional professor: US$ 10.00 - Late Registration from November 4, 2020 until November 14, 2020 - Additional student: US$ 10.00 - Additional professor: US$ 20.00 In the Late Registration phase, only professors and students from teams already registered and paid until November 3 can make new registrations. For more information please visit our official website at http://www.cbrobotica.org For inquiries please contact us via the following email addresses: *General Enquiries/ Registration: organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org <organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org>* -- Marco Antonio Costa Simões Nucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus I Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Mestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE

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Second CFP: 10th World Congress on Information and Communication Technologies (WICT 2020) - Scopus - Springer - Online
by Dr. Umang Singh 26 Sep '20

26 Sep '20

** Second Call for Papers  - The 10th World Congress on Information and Communication Technologies (WICT'20) --http://www.mirlabs.org/wict20http://www.mirlabs.net/wict20On the World Wide Web* December 16-18, 2020 *Proceedings of WICT'2019: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030493387Indexed by: SCOPUS, Thomson ISI Web of Science, DBLP, etc.History of WICT series: http://www.mirlabs.net/wict20/previous.phpWICT 2020: Scopus ProceedingsAll accepted and registered papers will be published in AISC Series of Springer, indexed in ISI Proceedings, EI-Compendex, DBLP, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink. **Important Dates**---------------------Paper submission due: October 15, 2020Notification of paper acceptance: November 15, 2020Registration and Final manuscript due: November 25, 2020Conference: December 16-18, 2020**About WICT 2020**------------------After the success of the 9th World Congress on Information and Communication Technologies (WICT 2019), we are organizing WICT 2020 to provide an opportunity for the researchers from academia and industry to meet and discuss the latest solutions, scientific results and methods in the usage and applications of ICT in the real world. The conference programme will include workshops, special sessions, and tutorials, along with prominent keynote speakers and regular paper presentations in parallel tracks.In the past century, our society has been through several periods of dramatic changes, driven by innovations such as transportation systems, telephone etc. Last few decades have experienced technologies that are evolving so rapidly, altering the constraints of space and time, and reshaping the way we communicate, learn and think. Rapid advances in information technologies and other digital systems are reshaping our ecosystem. Innovations in ICT allow us to transmit information quickly and widely, propelling the growth of new urban communities, linking distant places and diverse areas of endeavor in productive new ways, which a decade ago was unimaginable. Thus, the theme of this World Congress is "Innovating ICT For Social Revolutions".**Submission Guidelines**-------------------------Submission of a paper should be made through the submission page from the conference web page. Please refer to the conference website for guidelines to prepare your manuscript.Paper format templates:http://www.springer.com/series/11156WICT’20 Submission Link:https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wict2020**WICT 2020 Organization**-------------------------General ChairsAjith Abraham, Machine Intelligence Research Labs, USAPatrick Hung, Ontario Tech University, CanadaThinakaran Perumal, Universiti Putra Malaysia, MalaysiaProgram ChairsLeszek Sliwko, Axis Applications Ltd., UKUmang Singh, Institute of Technology & Science, India**Technical Contact**---------------------Dr. Ajith AbrahamEmail: ajith.abraham@ieee.orgNote: We sincerely hope that this conference announcement is interesting for you. If you are not interested or wish to unsubscribe then please reply to this email and we will remove your name from our future emails. Our apologies for any inconvenience.   Best Regards  Dr. Umang Singh PC Chair WICT 2020 Sr. Member IEEE, LMCSI Associate Professor, Department of IT Institute of Technology & Science, Ghaziabad - 201007(India) Contact Editor - SSNASC 2020 (Springer) for more details (https://easychair.org/cfp/SSNASC-2020) Editorial Board Member IJFSE(InderScience) Board of Refrees, BJIT(Springer) https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=x5H32lMAAAAJ&hl=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-umang-singh-23237214/ Alternative Email Id: dr.umang.singh@ieee.org,singh.umang@rediffmail.com

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Call for Participation - The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020
by Marco Simões 21 Sep '20

21 Sep '20

Sorry for any duplicates ================= ======================================================= The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition 10 – 14 November 2020 – ONLINE http://www.cbrobotica.org e-mail: organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org ======================================================= The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition will be held online, November 10-14, 2020. General Chair: João Alberto Fabro (fabro(a)utfpr.edu.br) =============== Important Dates =============== • Pre-registration and TDP submission: September 28 • Regular Registration: November 3 • Late Registration: November 14 ======== Leagues ======== The rules and particularities of each category are defined by their chairs. Contact them for any questions. The Virtual RoboCup Brazil Open 2020 Competition leagues are as follows: - RoboCup Soccer Simulation 2D Chair: Haroldo Dornelas (gm.haroldo(a)gmail.com) - RoboCup Soccer Simulation 3D Chair: Adailton Cerqueira Jr. (adailton.junior(a)gmail.com) - RoboCup Brazil Open Flying Robot Trial League Chair: Tiago Nascimento (tiagopn(a)ci.ufpb.br) - RoboCup Small Size Soccer (F180) Chair: Rafael Guedes Lang (rglang(a)hotmail.com) - RoboCup Soccer Humanoid League / Standard Platform League (SPL) Chair: Danilo Hernani Perico (danilo.perico(a)gmail.com) - RoboCup@Home Chair: Plinio Thomaz Aquino Junior (plinio.aquino(a)fei.edu.br) - RoboCupJunior General Chair: Andrique F. Amorim (andrique(a)gmail.com) * On Stage Chair: Rosângela Matias (rosartematias(a)gmail.com) * Soccer Chair: Alan Teixeira de Oliveira (alan.oliveira(a)ifnmg.edu.br * Rescue Maze Chair: Diogo Novais (diogopereira(a)ifba.edu.br) * Rescue Simulation (COSPACE) Chair: Tiago Hártur de Oliveira Feu (tiago.hartur(a)gmail.com) ============= Participation ============= All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to register following the instructions here: http://www.cbrobotica.org/index.php/inscricao-2/ ================== Participation Fees ================== • Regular Registration from October 3, 2020 until November 3, 2020 • Team (includes 1 free student): US$ 50.00 • Additional student: US$ 5.00 • Additional professor: US$ 10.00 • Late Registration from November 4, 2020 until November 14, 2020 • Additional student: US$ 10.00 • Additional professor: US$ 20.00 In the Late Registration phase, only professors and students from teams already registered and paid until November 3 can make new registrations. For more information please visit our official website at http://www.cbrobotica.org For inquiries please contact us via the following email addresses: General Enquiries/ Registration: organizacao(a)cbrobotica.org -- Marco Antonio Costa Simões Nucleo de Arquitetura de Computadores e Sistemas Operacionais - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra - Campus I Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Mestre em Ciência da Computação - UFPE

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[meetings] Call for Participation: New Foundations for Human-Centered AI
by Alessandro Saffiotti 24 Aug '20

24 Aug '20

====================================================================== = 1st International Workshop on New Foundations for Human-Centered AI = September 4, part of ECAI-2020, free registration ====================================================================== SYNOPSIS -------- In June 2018, the European Commission has appointed a "AI High Level Expert Group" (AI-HLEG) to support the implementation of the European Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. One of the first results of the AI-HLEG has been to deliver ethics guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines). These guidelines put forward a human-centered approach to AI, and list seven key requirements that human-centered, trustworthy AI systems should meet. Many of today's most popular AI methods, however, fail to meet these guidelines: making them compliant is a scientific endeavor that is as crucial as it is challenging and stimulating. This full day workshop will collectively address the fundamental questions of what are the scientific and technological gaps that we have to fill in order to make AI systems "human-centered" in terms of the above guidelines. PROGRAM ------- See the full program at the workshop web site: http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ REGISTRATION ------------ The workshop is part of ECAI-2020, the European Conference on AI. To attend the workshop, you must register at https://digital.ecai2020.eu (free registration). ORGANIZERS ---------- Alessandro Saffiotti (Orebro University, Sweden) Luciano Serafini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy) Paul Lukowicz (DFKI, Kaiserslautern, Germany) SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS ------------------------ This worskhop is jointly organized by AI4EU (ai4eu.eu), the EU landmark project to develop a European AI on-demand platform and ecosystem; and by Humane-AI (humane-ai.eu), the EU FET preparatory action devoted to designing a European research agenda for Human Centered AI. ======================================================================

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Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020): 2nd Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

##################### 2nd Call for Participation ################### The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific (VRCAP 2020) Competition 8 – 12 October 2020 ONLINE 2020.robocupap.org ################ Virtual RoboCup Asia Pacific 2020 ################ The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific (VRCAP) Competition will be held online, 8-12 October 2020. *Leagues* The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Soccer 2D Simulation *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Simulation (TBC) *RoboCupRescue:* - Rescue Simulation (TBC) *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The VRCAP 2020 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to register through the online registration form here: http://2020.robocupap.org/registration *Important dates* - Regular Registration: 01 - 21 August 2020 - Late Registration: 22 - 28 August 2020 For more information please visit our official website at http://2020.robocupap.org/ For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries: office(a)robocupap.org Registration: registration(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020) Organizing Committee

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[Call for Participation] Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics
by Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

https://www.lacoro.org We are excited to announce that our first Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO) is taking place on 2 weeks from now. This event aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible to everyone, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. We are mindful of uncertainty prompted by the outbreak of COVID-19 and we cannot forecast what impact it may have in the coming weeks and months. Despite this, we are still organizing LACORO, albeit as a webinar. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, particularly Cognitive Inspired Aspects of AI. - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. - to overcome the complexity of a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary learning context. *Format:* We will organize the Summer School in Latin America biennially. LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics but also aspects of Human Cognition. Moreover, we will host a hackathon where attendees can acquire hands-on experience on some of the topics of the Summer School. *Date and Location*: September 1st to September 4th, 2020 through Zoom application. *Registration:* Please visit our website (www.lacoro.org), where you can find more information about invited speakers and corresponding schedule. We extended the registration deadline until the 23rd August 2020 . This Webinar will be free of charge. If you have any questions about the school or the registration process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee,

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Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020): Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 30 Jul '20

30 Jul '20

####################### Call for Participation ##################### The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific (VRCAP 2020) Competition 8 – 12 October 2020 ONLINE 2020.robocupap.org ################ Virtual RoboCup Asia Pacific 2020 ################ The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific (VRCAP) Competition will be held online, 8-12 October 2020. *Leagues* The Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Soccer 2D Simulation *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Simulation (TBC) *RoboCupRescue:* - Rescue Simulation (TBC) *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The VRCAP 2020 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to register through the online registration form here: http://2020.robocupap.org/registration *Important dates* - Regular Registration: 01 - 21 August 2020 - Late Registration: 22 - 28 August 2020 For more information please visit our official website at http://2020.robocupap.org/ For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries: office(a)robocupap.org Registration: registration(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office Virtual RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2020 (VRCAP 2020) Organizing Committee

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[jobs] 3 years Assistant Professor (RTD-A) Position at DIAG, Sapienza Univrsity of Rome, Italy
by Luca Iocchi 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

A call for a 3-years Assistant Professor (RTD-A) is now open https://web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/bando-2/2020-rtd-tempo-pieno-ssd-ing-in… Deadline to submit applications is on July 16, 2020. The position has been open by the Cognitive Cooperating Robots Lab, located at DIAG (Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale) of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (http://labrococo.dis.uniroma1.it/) It is for a 3 years contract, renewable, expected to start in Fall 2020, The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Computer Science with focus on artificial intelligence and robotics, has a very good publication record in top conferences/journals in the field, and has a strong background in software development for artificial intelligence and robotics applications. The main research area is the design and implementation of autonomous and social robotic systems and their performance evaluation in the context of the robotic competitions planned in the context of the SciRoc EU project. In addition, the projects BEAST and MADROB (EuroBench) aim at the design and implementation of simulation environments for humanoid robots in the tasks of door opening and cart pushing. The research activities of the researcher are expected to address also research challenges that go beyond the above mentioned projects, that will be jointly defined based on the background and previous research activity of the awarded candidate. For any further information, do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Luca

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Control, Modelling , Simulation, Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Applications (IJSCAI)-Volume 09 Publication CFP.
by Fredrick Johnson 15 Jun '20

15 Jun '20

International Journal on Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Applications (IJSCAI) ISSN : 2319 - 1015 [Online]; 2319 - 4081 [Print] Volume 9 Call for papers International Journal on Soft Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Applications (IJSCAI) is an open access peer-reviewed journal that provides an excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing. The Journal looks for significant contributions to all major fields of the Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing in theoretical and practical aspects. The aim of the Journal is to provide a platform to the researchers and practitioners from both academia as well as industry to meet and share cutting-edge development in the field. Authors are solicited to contribute to the journal by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the areas of Database management systems. Topics of interest include but are not limited to, the following Artificial Intelligence * AI Algorithms * Artificial Intelligence tools & Applications * Automatic Control * Bioinformatics * Natural Language Processing * CAD Design & Testing * Computer Vision and Speech Understanding * Data Mining and Machine Learning Tools * Fuzzy Logic * Heuristic and AI Planning Strategies and Tools * Computational Theories of Learning * Hybrid Intelligent Systems * Information Retrieval * Intelligent System Architectures * Knowledge Representation * Knowledge-based Systems * Mechatronics * Multimedia & Cognitive Informatics * Neural Networks * Parallel Processing * Pattern Recognition * Pervasive computing and ambient intelligence * Programming Languages * Reasoning and Evolution * Recent Trends and Developments * Robotics * Semantic Web Techniques and Technologies * Soft computing theory and applications * Software & Hardware Architectures * Web Intelligence Applications & Search Soft Computing * Fuzzy Systems * Neural Networks * Machine learning * Probabilistic Reasoning * Evolutionary Computing * Pattern recognition * Hybrid intelligent systems * Software agents * Morphic Computing * Image processing * E-commerce, e-medicine * Rough Sets * Symbolic machine learning * Wavelet * Signal or Image Processing * Vision Recognition * Biomedical Engineering * Telecommunications * Reactive Distributed AI * Nano & Micro-systems * Data Visualization * Linear and nonlinear programming Control * Linear control theory * Mathematical control theory * Mathematical modelling and applications * Measurement systems * Modelling and control * Nonlinear control theory * Numerical methods in control systems * Optimization and optimal control * Parallel computing * Process control and automation * Real-time systems * Real and complex analysis * Robust control * Soft computing techniques Paper Submission Authors are invited to submit papers for this journal through submission system. Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this Journal. Editor in Chief Tad Gonsalves, Sophia University, Japan Publication Charges 150 USD (maximum 20 pages): From January 2020 No Article Submission Charges Publication Frequency- Quarterly Important Dates * Submission Deadline : June 27,2020 * Notification : July 27,2020 * Final Manuscript Due : August 06,2020 Publication Date : Determined by the Editor-in-Chief --------November 2019, Volume 8, Number 4--------Sample Issue. Quality Identification of Endemic Pagaralam Salak Fruit using Expert System Buhori Muslim, Desi Puspita and Kasih Lestari, Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Pagaralam, Indonesia The Effects of the LDA Topic Model on Sentiment Classification DU Jing Wei, Jinan University, China Thanks! Fred.

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Open Research Scientist Position available in KIWI-biolabs: Machine Learning / AI in LifeScience and Biotechnology robotics
by mark doerr 11 Jun '20

11 Jun '20

Dear Robotics groups, very recently the TU Berlin, Universities of Hildesheim and Greifswald won a BMBF research grant (KIWI) for closing the loop between Machine Learning and Robotics in Biotechnology to realise autonomous controlled experimentation between robotics labs. KIWI is a highly interdisciplinary project uniting over 20 international scientist from different Machine Learning, Robotics, Labautomation and Biotechnology Institutes, located in Berlin, Hildesheim and Greifswald. The Greifswald BioTech Robotic Plattform LARA (lara.uni-greifswald.de <http://lara.uni-greifswald.de>) is offering an open position for Research Assistant / PhD student. If you know a possible candidate who is passionate about applying machine-learning strategies to Biotechnology robotics in a highly interdisciplinary project, likes to develop data communication standards and knowledge database architectures, please do not hesitate to forward this job announcement - and please do not worry about the deadline (it is flexible): https://www.uni-greifswald.de/en/university/information/jobs/job/n/wissensc… https://www.uni-greifswald.de/universitaet/information/stellenausschreibung… This project will offer a unique opportunity to dive into the rapidly developing field of MachineLearning,Robotics and BioTechnology. With kind regards, mark doerr -- -- Dr. mark doerr Working group: Prof. Uwe T. Bornscheuer Institute of Biochemistry Dept. of Biotechnology & Enzyme Catalysis University of Greifswald Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 4 D-17487 Greifswald germany Phone: +49 (0)3834-420-4411 +49 (0)3834-420-4391 (Secr.) Fax: +49 (0)3834-420-794367 Room: B021 and B047 LARA-Web (BioTech Robotic platform) : http://lara.uni-greifswald.de/

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CFP Deadline Extension – 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), Valparaiso Chile
by Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero 03 Jun '20

03 Jun '20

We hope that this message finds you healthy and that you and your families are safe and well during these difficult times! Since many countries are still under heavy pressure from COVID-19 together with the fact the Southern Hemisphere is just entering winter, we have decided to reschedule the conference to the 28th to the 30th of October. The conference will be hybrid, hosting both onsite and online participants. Online participants will have a reduced fee. We have also extended the submission deadline, and already submitted papers can be modified. CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE EXTENDED: 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) (This is the follow-up of the previous ICDL-EpiRob conference series) 28th-30th October 2020, Valparaiso, Chile https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ An IEEE Computational Society-sponsored conference ==== Important Dates ==== Paper Submission Deadline: 21th June 2020 (Final Extension) Paper Author Notification: 13th July 2020 Final Paper Version Due: 16th August 2020 Conference: 28th-30th October 2020 Also, we are receiving extended abstracts, and we are hosting a Journal Track, Follow up Special Issue, Workshops and Tutorials. For more information on these and all the activities of the conference, please visit our website: https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Overview ==== The IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), previously referred to as ICDL-EpiRob, is the premier gathering of professionals dedicated to the advancement of cognitive and developmental learning. As such, ICDL is a unique conference gathering researchers from computer science, robotics, psychology and developmental studies. ICDL is a highly selective annual international conference that aims to showcase and share the very best interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research on how humans and animals develop sensing, reasoning and actions. ICDL community focusses on the understanding of how biological agents take advantage of interaction with social and physical environments to develop their cognitive capabilities. Moreover, how this knowledge can be used to improve future computing and robotic systems. We invite submissions for the conference to explore, extend, and consolidate the interdisciplinary boundaries of this exciting research field. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The primary list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modelling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Submissions ==== Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished papers of six pages with the possibility of two-extra pages at a fee. Submissions are in the IEEE conference template. Submission will be selected for either oral or poster presentation based on the reviews. Accepted and presented regular six-page paper submissions will be included in the conference proceedings published by IEEE Xplore after the conference. For more information about submissions, travel grants, social events, etc. visit the conference webpage under https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Best regards from the organizing committee,, Nicolás -- Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/

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ICLD-EpiRob 2020 Journal Track - Extended Deadline and COVID-19 Update
by Francisco Cruz 27 May '20

27 May '20

ICLD-EpiRob 2020 Journal Track - Call for Journal Articles for Oral or Poster Presentation The program committee of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) invites published journal articles to be presented in the Journal Track of ICDL. 28th-30th October 2020, Valparaiso, Chile https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== COVID-19 Update ==== We have been monitoring the situation evolving around COVID-19 closely and after considering multiple options, together with our partners, we have made the following changes: - The conference will be rescheduled to the 28th to 30th of October of 2020. This will be almost two months later than initially planned. - Additionally, ICDL 2020 will be a hybrid event with on-site and online participants. Online/Virtual attendees will have a reduced registration fee. - Moreover, we have extended all our deadlines. Already submitted articles can be modified. - Finally, we will record and make as many of the talks available to the community. We hope that with these changes, we can still make exiting state-of-the-art research on cognitive and developmental systems to as many of you as possible. Stay safe and we hope to welcome you in Valparaiso. ==== Important Dates ==== Submission deadline: 29th June 2020 Author notification: 20th of July 2020 Conference: 28th-30th October 2020 ==== Overview ==== The Journal Track is designed to provide a forum to discuss important results related to cognitive and developmental systems recently published as journal articles, but have not been previously presented as conference papers. Thus, the journal track offers an opportunity to present outstanding results that might otherwise not be submitted to a conference due to their length and complexity. All accepted journal presentations will be selected for either oral or poster presentation during the conference based on the reviews - at least one author is expected to register to ICDL 2020 and to present the paper in person. ==== Submissions ==== Candidate papers must be original research articles published in a journal relevant to the research area during 2019 or 2020. Papers that are in press may be submitted as long as the final camera-ready version is available online. Extensions of papers that have been previously presented as conference papers may NOT be submitted to this track. All submissions must be made by email to Francisco Cruz, including (in a single PDF): - Title of the original journal paper. - Abstract of the paper. - A complete reference to the original paper in APA format. - URL where the paper can be downloaded from the publisher if available, or proof of the final acceptance. - A copy of the paper with its final camera-ready contents. Submissions will go through an expedited selection process led by the conference chairs. Selection criteria include the significance of the results and relevance to the ICDL community. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The primary list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modeling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Journal Track Chair: Francisco Cruz Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Best regards from the organizing committee, Francisco Cruz Research Fellow in Reinforcement Learning School of Information Technology Deakin University Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, VIC 3220 francisco.cruz(a)deakin.edu.au

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ICLD-EpiRob 2020 Journal Track - Call for Articles
by Francisco Cruz 17 Mar '20

17 Mar '20

ICLD-EpiRob 2020 Journal Track - Call for Journal Articles for Oral or Poster Presentation The program committee of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) invites published journal articles to be presented in the Journal Track of ICDL. 7th-10th September 2020, Valparaiso, Chile https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Important Dates ==== Submission deadline: 25th May 2020 Author notification: 8th of June 2020 Conference: 7th-10th September 2020 ==== Overview ==== The Journal Track is designed to provide a forum to discuss important results related to cognitive and developmental systems recently published as journal articles, but have not been previously presented as conference papers. Thus, the journal track offers an opportunity to present outstanding results that might otherwise not be submitted to a conference due to their length and complexity. All accepted journal presentations will be selected for either oral or poster presentation during the conference based on the reviews - at least one author is expected to register to ICDL 2020 and to present the paper in person. ==== Submissions ==== Candidate papers must be original research articles published in a journal relevant to the research area during 2019 or 2020. Papers that are in press may be submitted as long as the final camera-ready version is available online. Extensions of papers that have been previously presented as conference papers may NOT be submitted to this track. All submissions must be made by email to Francisco Cruz, including (in a single PDF): - Title of the original journal paper. - Abstract of the paper. - A complete reference to the original paper in APA format. - URL where the paper can be downloaded from the publisher if available, or proof of the final acceptance. - A copy of the paper with its final camera-ready contents. Submissions will go through an expedited selection process led by the conference chairs. Selection criteria include the significance of the results and relevance to the ICDL community. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The primary list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modeling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Best regards from the organizing committee, Francisco Cruz Research Fellow in Reinforcement Learning School of Information Technology Deakin University Locked Bag 20000, Geelong, VIC 3220 francisco.cruz(a)deakin.edu.au

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CFP Deadline Extension - 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), Valparaiso Chile
by Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero 10 Mar '20

10 Mar '20

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has directly or indirectly affected countries how typically are well represented at the conference, we are extending the deadline submission. The health and safety of our conference participants is our top priority. Therefore, we are closely monitoring any travel advisories and governmental recommendations. Please check our website where we will post any relevant information as quickly as possible. CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE EXTENDED: 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) An IEEE Computational Society-sponsored conference (This is the follow-up of the previous ICDL-EpiRob conference series) 7th-10th September 2020, Valparaiso, Chile https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Important Dates ==== Submission deadline: 15th March 2020 -> New deadline: 12th April 2020 Author notification: 15th May 2020 -> moved to 31st of May 2020 Camera ready due: 1st July 2020 Conference: 7th-10th September 2020 ==== Overview ==== The IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), previously referred to as ICDL-EpiRob, is the premier gathering of professionals dedicated to the advancement of cognitive and developmental learning. As such, ICDL is a unique conference gathering researchers from computer science, robotics, psychology and developmental studies. ICDL is a highly selective annual international conference that aims to showcase and share the very best interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research on how humans and animals develop sensing, reasoning and actions. ICDL community focusses on the understanding of how biological agents take advantage of interaction with social and physical environments to develop their cognitive capabilities. Moreover, how this knowledge can be used to improve future computing and robotic systems. We invite submissions for the conference to explore, extend, and consolidate the interdisciplinary boundaries of this exciting research field. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The primary list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modelling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Submissions ==== Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished papers of six pages with the possibility of two-extra pages at a fee. Submissions are in the IEEE conference template. Submission will be selected for either oral or poster presentation based on the reviews. Accepted and presented regular six-page paper submissions will be included in the conference proceedings published by IEEE Xplore after the conference. For more information about submissions, travel grants, social events, etc. visit the conference webpage under https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Kind regards on behalf of the Organizing Committee, -- Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero Assistant Professor Department of Engineering, and School of Culture and Society Aarhus University, Denmark E-mail: nng(a)eng.au.dk https://au.dk/en/nng@eng.au.dk https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/ Aarhus University Finlandsgade 22, building 5125 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Tel.: +45 8715 0000 eng(a)au.dk www.eng.au.dk/en/ -- Best regards, Nicolás -- Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/

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[jobs] 3 years Assistant Professor Position at DIAG, Sapienza Univrsity of Rome, Italy
by iocchi 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

Cognitive Cooperating Robots, located at DIAG (Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale) of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (http://labrococo.dis.uniroma1.it/) is planning to issue a call for assistant professor (3 years contract, renewable, expected to start in Fall 2020), to do research in the area of Human Robot Interaction, with focus on machine learning, perception, spoken language interaction. The ideal candidate holds a PhD in Computer Science with focus on artificial intelligence and robotics and in particular on the above research topics, has a very good publication record in top conferences/journals in the field, and has a strong background in software development for artificial intelligence and robotics applications. Interested candidates should send an expression of interest to Luca Iocchi <iocchi(a)diag.uniroma1.it> by March 20, 2020.

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Last CFP: New Foundations for Human-Centered AI (extended deadline)
by Alessandro Saffiotti 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

====================================================================== = NeHuAI-2020 = 1st International Workshop on New Foundations for Human-Centered AI = June 9, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Part of ECAI-2020) ====================================================================== * Submission deadline extended to March 10 (strict) * SYNOPSIS -------- In June 2018, the European Commission has appointed a "AI High Level Expert Group" (AI-HLEG) to support the implementation of the European Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. One of the first results of the AI-HLEG has been to deliver ethics guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines). These guidelines put forward a human-centered approach to AI, and list seven key requirements that human-centered, trustworthy AI systems should meet, summarized by the following headers: 1. Human agency and oversight 2. Technical robustness and safety 3. Privacy and data governance 4. Transparency 5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness 6. Societal and environmental wellbeing 7. Accountability Many of today's most popular AI methods, however, fail to meet these guidelines: making them compliant is a scientific endeavor that is as crucial as it is challenging and stimulating. Systems based on deep learning are a case in point: while these systems often provide impressive results, their ability to _explain_ these results to the user is very limited, challenging requirements 4 and 7; in most cases we lack ways to formally _verify_ their correctness and assess their boundary conditions, challenging requirement 2; and we don't yet have methods to allow humans to _collaboratively_ influence or question their decisions, challenging requirement 1. Similar criticalities are present in many other popular AI methods. This full day workshop will collectively address the fundamental questions of what are the scientific and technological gaps that we have to fill in order to make AI systems _human-centered_ in terms of the above guidelines. PAPER SUBMISSION ---------------- Contributions are seeked on new foundations for building Human-Centered AI systems, able to comply with AI-HLEG recommendations. Contributions are seeked in the form of full papers (max 7 pages plus references) presenting mature results, or position papers and reports of relevant ongoing work (max 4 pages including references). More specific topics include, but are not limited to: - Explainable AI - Verifiable AI - Technical robustness and safety of AI systems - Collaboration between humans and AI systems - Integrating model-based and data-driven AI - Integrating symbolic- and sub-symbolic AI - Mixed initiative AI-Human systems - Proactive AI systems in human environments - Understanding and naturally interacting with humans - Understanding and interaction in complex social settings - Reflexivity and expectation managament - Integrating Learning, Reasoning and Acting in AI systems - Integrating human and robot cognition Papers should be formatted according to the ECAI2020 formatting style, available at the ECAI2020 website (ecai2020.eu). Submissions are not anonymous. Accepted papers will be made available on the workshop site, and must be presented at the workshop. There will be no official proceedings, but we will consider editing a special issue including extended versions of the presented papers. Submit your paper by March 10 (extended deadline, strict) via Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nehuai2020 ORGANIZERS ---------- Alessandro Saffiotti (Orebro University, Sweden) Luciano Serafini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy) Paul Lukowicz (DFKI, Kaiserslautern, Germany) SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS ------------------------ This worskhop is jointly organized by AI4EU (ai4eu.eu), the EU landmark project to develop a European AI on-demand platform and ecosystem; and by Humane-AI (humane-ai.eu), the EU FET preparatory action devoted to designing a European research agenda for Human Centered AI. MORE INFORMATION ---------------- http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ======================================================================

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[ICDL-2020] Call for Tutorials
by Miguel Solís 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this call due to cross-posting, please help to distribute among possible interested contributors. CALL FOR TUTORIALS: 10th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) 7th-10th September 2020, Valparaiso, Chile Web page: https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ An IEEE Computational Society-sponsored conference ==== Important Dates ==== Tutorial Proposals Open: 15th February 2020 Tutorial Proposals Deadline: 30h April 2020 Tutorial Proposals Notification: 15th May 2020 ==== Overview ==== We invite experts in different areas to organize a tutorial. The goal of tutorials is to provide insights into specific topics through hands-on training and interactive experiences or in-depth state of the art review. Tutorial organizers have several responsibilities, including activities scheduling, publicizing and providing the content on time. ICDL will support the organization with rooms, audio-visual equipment and coffee breaks. ==== Scope and Topics ==== The main list of topics of interest includes, but not limited to: - principles and theories of development and learning; - development of skills in biological systems and robots; - nature vs nurture, developmental stages; - models on the contributions of interaction to learning; - verbal, non-verbal and multi-modal interaction; - models on active learning; - architectures for lifelong learning; - emergence of body and affordance perception; - analysis and modelling of human motion and state; - models for prediction, planning and problem solving; - models of human-human and human-robot interaction; - emergence of verbal and non-verbal communication; - epistemological foundations and philosophical issues; - robot prototyping of human and animal skills; - ethics and trust in computational intelligence and robotics; - social learning in humans, animals, and robots. ==== Submission format ==== Proposals should be maximum of two pages long following the standard IEEE conference style. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format by email to icdl2020(a)ac3e.cl with subject “[Tutorials]”. Proposals should specify the following: Title Organizers Duration (half-day or full-day) A brief description of the topics to be covered Tentative program Target audience and interested groups Website Any logistic requirements such as poster stands, computers, projector, etc. For more information about the conference, travel grants, social events, etc. visit the conference webpage under https://cdstc.gitlab.io/icdl-2020/ ==== Organizing committee ==== General Chairs: Giulio Sandini, and Javier Ruiz-del-Solar Program and Finance Chairs: Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero, and María-José Escobar Bridge Chairs: Minoru Asada, Frédéric Alexandre, and Linda Smith Publicity Chairs: Carmelo Bastos, Maya Cakmak, Angelo Cangelosi, Yukie Nagai, and Emre Ugur Publication Chairs: Pablo Barros, and Haian Wu Tutorials and Workshops Chair: Miguel Solis Travel and Registration Awards Chair: Francisco Cruz Local chairs: Mauricio Araya Webpage Chairs: Cristóbal Nettle, and Patricio Castillo Graphics: Camila Angel Alfaro Best regards from the organizing committee,

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2nd CFP: New Foundations for Human-Centered AI (an ECAI workshop)
by Alessandro Saffiotti 12 Feb '20

12 Feb '20

====================================================================== = NeHuAI-2020 = 1st International Workshop on New Foundations for Human-Centered AI = June 9, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (Part of ECAI-2020) = http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ====================================================================== SYNOPSIS -------- In June 2018, the European Commission has appointed a "AI High Level Expert Group" (AI-HLEG) to support the implementation of the European Strategy on Artificial Intelligence. One of the first results of the AI-HLEG has been to deliver ethics guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines). These guidelines put forward a human-centered approach to AI, and list seven key requirements that human-centered, trustworthy AI systems should meet, summarized by the following headers: 1. Human agency and oversight 2. Technical robustness and safety 3. Privacy and data governance 4. Transparency 5. Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness 6. Societal and environmental wellbeing 7. Accountability Many of today's most popular AI methods, however, fail to meet these guidelines: making them compliant is a scientific endeavor that is as crucial as it is challenging and stimulating. Systems based on deep learning are a case in point: while these systems often provide impressive results, their ability to _explain_ these results to the user is very limited, challenging requirements 4 and 7; in most cases we lack ways to formally _verify_ their correctness and assess their boundary conditions, challenging requirement 2; and we don't yet have methods to allow humans to _collaboratively_ influence or question their decisions, challenging requirement 1. Similar criticalities are present in many other popular AI methods. This full day workshop will collectively address the fundamental questions of what are the scientific and technological gaps that we have to fill in order to make AI systems _human-centered_ in terms of the above guidelines. PAPER SUBMISSION ---------------- Contributions are seeked on new foundations for building Human-Centered AI systems, able to comply with AI-HLEG recommendations. Contributions are seeked in the form of full papers (max 7 pages plus references) presenting mature results, or position papers and reports of relevant ongoing work (max 4 pages including references). More specific topics include, but are not limited to: - Explainable AI - Verifiable AI - Technical robustness and safety of AI systems - Collaboration between humans and AI systems - Integrating model-based and data-driven AI - Integrating symbolic- and sub-symbolic AI - Mixed initiative AI-Human systems - Proactive AI systems in human environments - Understanding and naturally interacting with humans - Understanding and interaction in complex social settings - Reflexivity and expectation managament - Integrating Learning, Reasoning and Acting in AI systems Papers should be formatted according to the ECAI2020 formatting style, available at the ECAI2020 website (ecai2020.eu). Submissions are not anonymous. Submit your paper by February 25 via Easychair here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nehuai2020 ORGANIZERS ---------- - Alessandro Saffiotti (Orebro University, Sweden) - Luciano Serafini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy) - Paul Lukowicz (DFKI, Kaiserslautern, Germany) This worskhop is jointly organized by AI4EU (ai4eu.eu), the EU landmark project to develop a European AI on-demand platform and ecosystem; and by Humane-AI (humane-ai.eu), the EU FET preparatory action devoted to designing a European research agenda for Human Centered AI. MORE INFORMATION ---------------- http://nehuai2020.aass.oru.se/ ======================================================================

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Call for Participation, #ACDL2020, 3rd Advanced Course on Data Science & Machine Learning - Early Registration: February 20
by Ludovico Montalcini 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

ACDL 2020, 3rd Advanced Course on Data Science & Machine Learning An Interdisciplinary Course: Big Data, Deep Learning & Artificial Intelligence without Borders ACDL 2020 – A Unique Experience: Data Science, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence with the World’s Leaders in the fascinating atmosphere of the ancient Certosa di Pontignano Certosa di Pontignano, Siena - Tuscany, Italy July 13-17, 2020 https://acdl2020.icas.xyz acdl(a)icas.xyz The past 2 editions have attracted more than 150 students per year and world-renowned experts in ML, AI, DP and DS including Yoshua Bengio, Leslie Kaelbling, Peter Norvig, Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, Marc'Aurelio Ranzato, Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Josh Tenenbaum, Naftali Tishby and Oriol Vinyals. More info about our current and past editions can be found here: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/past-editions/ ACDL 2018 & ACDL 2019 Sold-out! Probably also ACDL 2020 ;-) Early registration deadline: February 20, 2020 https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, POSTER & ORAL PRESENTATIONS: During the Registration Process we accept abstract submissions for posters and oral presentations to be presented during the poster sessions and the talk sessions. https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ Early registration deadline: February 20, 2020 Deadlines: Oral/Poster Presentation Submission: February 20, 2020. Notification of Decision for Oral/Poster Presentation: by March 12, 2020. Early Registration: Until February 20, 2020. Late Registration: After February 20, 2020. LECTURERS: Each Lecturer will hold three/four lessons on a specific topic. * Igor Babuschkin, DeepMind - Google, London, UK * Pierre Baldi, University of California Irvine, USA * Michael Bronstein, Twitter & Imperial College London, UK * Marco Gori, University of Siena, Italy * Victor Lempitsky, Samsung AI Center, Moscow Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Russia * Diederik P. Kingma, Google Brain, San Francisco, CA, USA * Panos Pardalos, University of Florida, USA * Daniela Rus, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, USA * Mihaela van der Schaar, University of Cambridge, UK More speakers coming soon! Tutorial Speakers * Chip Huyen, Stanford University, USA 4-hour tutorial on "TensorFlow 2.0 for Deep Learning Research" * Adam Paszke, University of Warsaw, Poland 4-hour tutorial on "PyTorch: A Modern Library for Machine Learning" More tutorial speakers coming soon! SCOPE: The Advanced Course is not a summer school suited only for younger scholars. Rather, a significant proportion of seasoned investigators are regularly present among the attendees, often senior faculty at their own institutions. The balanced audience that we strive to maintain in each Advanced Course greatly contributes to the development of intense cross-disciplinary debates among faculty and participants that typically address the most advanced and emerging areas of each topic. Each faculty member presents lectures and discusses with the participants for one entire day. Such long interaction together with the small, exclusive Course size provides the uncommon opportunity to fully explore the expertise of each faculty, often through one-to-one mentoring. This is unparalleled and priceless. The Certosa di Pontignano provides the perfect setting to a relaxed yet intense learning atmosphere, with the stunning backdrop of the Tuscan landscapes. World-class wines and traditional foods will make the Advanced Course on Data Science and Machine Learning the experience of a lifetime. 8 ECTS POINTS: Participants will be delivered a certificate of attendance indicating the number of hours of lectures (36-40 hours of lectures). In according to the academic system all PhD and master students attending to the summer school will may get 8 ECTS points. A formal certificate of successful participation in the event will be delivered indicating the number of hours of lectures. VENUE & ACCOMMODATION: The venue of ACDL 2020 will be The Certosa di Pontignano — Siena Dr. Lorenzo Pasquinuzzi The Certosa di Pontignano Località Pontignano, 5 – 53019, Castelnuovo Berardenga (Siena) – Tuscany – Italy phone: +39-0577-1521104 fax: +39-0577-1521098 info(a)lacertosadipontignano.com https://www.lacertosadipontignano.com/en/index.php A few Kilometres from Siena, on a hill dominating the town stands the ancient Certosa di Pontignano, a unique place where nature, history and hospitality blend together in memorable harmony. Built in the 1300, its medieval structure remains intact with additions of the following centuries. The Certosa is centred on its historic cloisters and gardens. https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/venue/ ACCOMMODATION: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/accommodation/ REGISTRATION: https://acdl2020.icas.xyz/registration/ We remind you that ACDL 2018 and ACDL 2019 sold out a long time before the registration deadline! Anyone interested in participating in ACDL 2020 should register as soon as possible! Similarly for accommodation at the Certosa di Pontignano (the School Venue), book your full board accommodation at the Certosa as soon as possible! All course participants should/must stay at the Certosa di Pontignano. See you in Tuscany next July! ACDL 2020 Organizing Committee. acdl(a)icas.xyz https://acdl2020.icas.xyz https://www.facebook.com/groups/204310640474650/ https://twitter.com/TaoSciences * Apologies for multiple copies. Please forward to anybody who might be interested *

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[Call for Participation] First Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics
by Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

https://www.lacoro.org We are excited to announce our first Latin American Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (LACORO), which aims at making cutting-edge knowledge on Artificial Intelligence for Robotics Applications accessible to everyone, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Our aims are: - to build a sustainable community of students and researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, particularly Cognitive Inspired Aspects of AI. - to make cutting-edge scientific topics accessible to everyone. - to overcome the complexity of a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary learning context. **Applications period is now open** Format: We will organize the Summer School in Latin America biennially. LACORO will include cutting-edge lectures and tutorials on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics but also aspects of Human Cognition. Moreover, we will host a hackathon where attendees can acquire hands-on experience on some of the topics of the Summer School. Date and Location: September 3rd to September 5th, 2020 at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile. Applications: Please visit our website, where you can find more information regarding costs, travel, lodging, along with an application form. Pre-registration is required because there will be a limited number of participants. If you have any questions about the school or the application process, please contact the organizing committee: lacoro(a)innovacionyrobotica.com Best regards from the organizing committee, -- Nicolás Navarro-Guerrero Assistant Professor Department of Engineering, and School of Culture and Society Aarhus University, Denmark E-mail: nng(a)eng.au.dk https://nicolas-navarro-guerrero.github.io/ Aarhus University Finlandsgade 22, building 5125 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Tel.: +45 8715 0000 eng(a)au.dk www.eng.au.dk/en/

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[jobs] Knowledge Technology for Intelligent Neural Systems
by Wermter, Stefan 05 Feb '20

05 Feb '20

The Department of Informatics, Knowledge Technology Institute invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Knowledge Technology for Intelligent Systems - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - As a University of Excellence, the University of Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on 1 March 2020 or as soon as possible. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 100% of standard work hours per week. Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate´s own academic work. Specific Duties: The successful candidate will contribute to teaching related to the Knowledge Technology Institute (4hrs/teaching week), in particular to Data-driven Intelligent Systems, but also to Research Methods or Bio-inspired Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to conduct research in the area of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems, in particular Neural Networks and Human-Robot Interaction. PhD candidates have the opportunity to advance their academic education through the completion of a doctoral dissertation. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Academic degree in computer science qualifying the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. In particular, an MSc or equivalent in the area of Intelligent Systems is desired. Your demonstrated research interests should be in the areas of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Intelligent Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Vision, or Hybrid Knowledge Representation etc). Publication experience is desirable. We are looking for very good communication skills and evidence for teamwork. A very good command of both German and English is a requirement for teaching and research. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg promotes equal opportunity. As women are currently underrepresented in this job category at Universit„t Hamburg according to the evaluation conducted under the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HambGleiG), we encourage women to apply for this position. Equally qualified and suitable female applicants will receive preference. Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter (wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website at https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, language certificates German and English, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15 February 2020 or before the position gets filled to: Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document . Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. Any documents sub-mitted will be destroyed after the application process has concluded. *********************************************** 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 https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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[@Home2020] Second Call for Participation (Extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 22 Jan '20

22 Jan '20

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2020-cfp2-all/ Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) ====================================== June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) 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 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 page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2020, second term. Important dates: Dec. 20, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Jan. 26, 2020 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. EXTENDED (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 02, 2020 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: 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 2020 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: [@Home2020-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 that didn't obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. **** Deadline: Sunday, January 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Participation confirmation Teams qualified during the Second Call for Participation do not require to confirm attendance. Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): No new teams will be elegible for standard robot acquisition in the Second Call for Participation. Instructions for the Qualification Material 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 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 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. include MoveIt/YOLO) - 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**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - 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. 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 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: In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league 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. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Robotica 2020 - 20th Portuguese Robotics Open - 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
by Manuel Silva 16 Dec '19

16 Dec '19

======================================================================= (Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement) ======================================================================= ======================================================================= *** 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *** *** Registrations are already open! *** ======================================================================= Robotica 2020 - 20th Portuguese Robotics Open http://robotica2020.uac.pt/ April 15-19, 2016 Ponta Delgada, Portugal The Portuguese Robotics Open is a RoboCup Event that aims at promoting Science and Technology among students from the 1st grade to university studies, as well among the general public, through robotic competitions. We would like to invite you to participate in the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open which will take place during April 15-19, 2020, at Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal. If you are interested in participating, please pre-register your team and follow the procedure as outlined below. == Competitions == The following competitions are offered for the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open: Major Competitions -- RoboCup Middle Size League -- RoboCup 2D Simulation League -- RoboCup 3D Simulation League -- Autonomous Driving Competition -- RoboCup@Factory -- Robot@Factory Lite -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Competition Junior Competitions -- RoboCup Junior OnStage -- RoboCup Junior Soccer -- RoboCup Junior Rescue (Line, Maze, Simulation) -- Robot@Factory Lite -- First Challenger -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Junior Competition The rules of RoboCup competitions will be based on the RoboCup 2019 rules for each League. All competition rules are available selecting competitions from the menu at http://robotica2020.uac.pt. == Schedule == Early Registration deadline: March 10th, 2020 Late registration deadline: March 17th, 2020 Portuguese Robotics Open: April 15-19th, 2020 All deadlines are 23:59 GMT. == Registration == Registration is performed through the online form, available at: http://robotica2020.uac.pt/?page_id=50&lang=en (click at 'Access to register form' at the top of the page) Registration Fees: - Major Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 5 team members - 260 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 5 team members - 300 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 50 Euros (no limit of extra members) - Junior Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 1 tutor + 4 members - 120 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 1 tutor + 4 members - 130 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 40 Euros‚ (limited to 2 extra members) Scientific meeting - SPR / IEEE members -- Until March 16th - 300 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 350 Euros‚ - Non-Member -- Until March 16th - 350 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 400 Euros‚ - Student -- Until March 16th - 250 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 300 Euros‚ == Description and History == The Portuguese Robotics Open (also known as Festival Nacional de Robótica) had its 1st edition in 2001. The event has had enormous growth since the 1st edition, both in the number of teams, participants and visitors and also includes an international IEEE conference where national an international researchers present their latest work in the field of Robotics (http://icarsc2020.uac.pt/). The 20th edition of the Portuguese Robotics Open will be held in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal, on April 15-19, 2020. Ponta Delgada is situated on the beautiful island of S. Miguel, Azores. It is the largest municipality and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The Azores is an archipelago of nine islands on the northeast, at the Atlantic Ocean. The main touristic attractions are the whale watching and the different lakes in the large volcanic craters of Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas. The airport of Ponta Delgada is very close to the city (10 minutes by car). Daily regular flights from Lisbon are from TAP - Air Portugal, SATA - Air Azores and Ryanair. There are also direct connections to some other cities of Europe (more or less, once a week). == Hoping to see you visiting Azores == The Portuguese Robotics Open is currently an initiative of Portuguese Society of Robotics. Hoping to see you at the Portuguese Robotics Open! Kind Regards, The Portuguese Robotics Open Organizing Committee Manuel Silva Professor Adjunto Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica [http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/EMAIL_ISEP.png]<http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/> 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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[jobs] Neural Network models for language and interactive robots
by Wermter, Stefan 10 Dec '19

10 Dec '19

The Department of Informatics, Institute of Knowledge Technology, invites applications for multiple positions as RESEARCH ASSOCIATES (Postdocs and PhD Students) in the context of the project CROSSMODAL LEARNING: Neural network models for language and interactive robots. Positions commence from January 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter and are in accordance with Section 28 subsection 3 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) on SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L. These are fixed-term contracts in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The term is fixed for up to 4 years until 31st of December 2023. The full-time positions call for 39 hours per week. Responsibilities: Duties include academic services in the project named above. Research associates may also pursue independent research and further academic qualifications. Specific Duties: Duties in the project include the design, development and evaluation of neurocognitive models of crossmodal language learning as well as neurorobotic models for crossmodal joint attention and social interaction. The overall project aims to deepen interdisciplinary research between computer science, neuroscience, and psychology in order to set up collaborative research with a focus on human-robot-collaboration, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and psychology while focusing on the topic of cross-modal learning. The long-term challenge is to understand the neural, cognitive and computational evidence of cross-modal learning and to use this understanding for (1) better analyzing human performance with cross-modal correspondence and (2) building effective cross-modal computational and robot systems. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant subject. For doctoral positions, academic degree of MSc in computer science, computer engineering or similar. For post-doctoral positions, a doctorate, or equivalently the experience of more than three years of doctoral studies plus publications in the area of Intelligent Systems are required. The degree must qualify the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. Programming skills in some of Python, C, ROS, Tensorflow or PyTorch are required. Your demonstrated research interests should be in some of the areas of Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Robotics, Machine Learning, Speech, Vision, or Affective Processing). International publication experience is expected. Very good communication skills in English are expected. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. As a University of Excellence, Universität Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter or consult our website at: https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/ Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, pdf of best publications, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15.01.2020 or until the post gets filled to Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document. *********************************************** 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 https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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[jobs] Web Software Engineers: shape the future of personal robotics with Semio!
by Ross Mead 08 Dec '19

08 Dec '19

Web Software Engineers: shape the future of personal robotics with Semio! Are you proficient with JavaScript, Node.js, React, and other web technologies? Do you want to work on bleeding-edge technologies that push the web to its limits? Do you want to be part of the robotics revolution? Apply today to join us at Semio! https://semio.ai/jobs THE COMPANY Semio is a Los Angeles-based software startup defining the way in which people will live, work, and play with robots in their everyday lives. Our software enables robot developers to rapidly create and deploy robot apps, and allows robot end-users to easily access and use those robot apps via natural communication, including both speech and body language. We’ve been developing and deploying our software for over three years, we’ve received tons of feedback from paying customers, and we’re now onboarding our first full-time employees to join us in our mission of enabling personal robots in every home and workplace. Join us! - We’re building kick-ass technology — from browser-based voice and animation design tools to natural language processing and computer vision infrastructure, we are at the forefront of some of the coolest and most innovative tech in the world - We’re 100% software-focused — we provide the AI software mind for robot hardware bodies - We’re working with large, enterprise customers — our customers are the biggest tech leaders of today developing the personal robots of tomorrow - We’re supported by sales revenue from customers — utilizing Lean startup methods and a strong go-to-market strategy, we bootstrapped the company from the ground up and have secured additional growth funding to expand our team and bring you onboard THE POSITION We’re hiring full stack, front-end, and back-end software engineers in full-time capacities to help expand our browser-based design tools for writing, animating, simulating, and deploying socially interactive apps for personal robots. Our design tools are already in the hands of satisfied customers — with your help, we’ll make their experience even better! - You’ll be one of the first employees — help shape the culture of the company and the industry as a whole - You’ll work on software that already has users — your contributions will immediately influence the direction of robot app development with industry leaders - You’ll work closely with users to identify and implement new features — human-centered design is at our core to deliver the best user experience - You’ll boldly go where no one has gone before — the personal robotics industry is a new and untrod frontier, so we promote a work environment in which to rapidly explore brave new ideas and test experimental hypotheses to pave an evidence-based path to success THE LOCATION Semio is based in sunny Los Angeles, California, USA! We explored other cities to find the best fit for the business, and ultimately arrived at LA based on opportunities and costs. Do you want a Bay Area or NYC work/life experience, but don’t want to pay their prices? Then LA is right for you! - LA is a hub of technology — as part of Silicon Beach, LA is one of the largest tech centers in the world, rivaling both Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley - LA is a hub of diversity — our community is a melting pot of people, culture, and ideas, and this rich immersion helps us build a more equitable and sustainable future for robotics and AI - LA is a hub of fun and sun — from the beautiful beaches of Venice and Santa Monica to the entertainment of Hollywood and Disneyland to the art, fashion, and nightlife of Downtown, there are plenty of ways to unwind… and the weather is perfect year-round! WHY SHOULD YOU APPLY? - Get in early with a company that already has amazing technology and market traction - Influence the culture of the company and the robotics industry as a whole - Live in a cost-effective metropolis with bleeding-edge tech, a diverse community, fun and sun! INTERESTED? APPLY NOW! Visit https://semio.ai/jobs and join the robotics revolution! We look forward to working with you! — Ross & Braden, Founders

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Fwd: REMINDER: Call for Participation RoboCup German Open 2020 (DL November 30)
by Sven Wachsmuth 29 Nov '19

29 Nov '19

Dear @Home-teams, Please note the approaching deadline is TOMORROW (Nov. 30). Best regards Sven -------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht -------- Betreff: REMINDER: Call for Participation RoboCup German Open 2020 (DL November 30) Datum: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 08:10:59 +0100 Von: Ansgar Bredenfeld <ansgar.bredenfeld(a)dr-bredenfeld.de> Organisation: Dr. Bredenfeld UG An: robocup-worldwide(a)cc.gatech.edu Dear RoboCup team leaders, we would like to remind you of the approaching deadline for the RoboCup German Open 2020. Best regards, Ansgar --------------------------------------------------------------------- RoboCup German Open 2020 Call for Participation https://robocupgermanopen.de 24 - 26 April 2020 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2020 will be the 18th 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 Open Humanoid League - RoboCupRescue Robot League - RoboCup@Home League - RoboCupIndustrial Logistics League - RoboCupIndustrial RoboCup@Work League The registration opens *** 15 October 2019 ***. The registration deadline is *** 30 November 2019 ***. Visit https://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 Organizing Committee: - Patrick Göttsch, Thomas Röfer (Standard Platform League) - Reinhard Gerndt (Open Humanoid League) - Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) - Sven Wachsmuth, Raphael Memmesheimer (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) -- RoboCup Junior ---------------------------------------------------- The German RoboCup Junior qualification for RoboCup 2020 is performed in two steps. German teams qualify in eight local tournaments in Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Kassel, Mannheim, Oldenburg, Sankt Augustin and Vöhringen for the final of the 20th German RoboCup Junior Championship which is held within the RoboCup German Open 2020. The best Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2020 in France and the 3rd European RoboCup Junior Competition in Portugal. -- Important dates -------------------------------------------------- 15.10.2019 Registration opens 30.11.2019 Registration deadline RoboCup Major teams 15.02.2020 Invoices are sent to team leaders 15.03.2020 Registration deadline names of team members 15.04.2020 Registration fee due 23.04.2020 Set-up day Major League teams 24.04.2020 Competition day (open to the public) 25.04.2020 Competition day (open to the public) 26.04.2020 Competition day, finals (open to the public) Please contact info(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions. See you all again at the 18th RoboCup German Open 2020! Best regards, Ansgar Bredenfeld (Chair RoboCup German Open) RoboCup German Open is organized on behalf of the German RoboCup Committee by Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg and Dr. Bredenfeld UG.

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RoboCup German Open 2020: Call for Participation
by Sven Wachsmuth 18 Nov '19

18 Nov '19

Dear teams, please note that the deadline for the registration of major teams is *Nov 30, 2019*! There is no qualification procedure, but you should propose a web-link where we can find information about your team. Best regards Sven Wachsmuth -- RoboCup German Open 2020 Call for Participation https://robocupgermanopen.de 24 - 26 April 2020 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2020 will be the 18th open RoboCup competition held in Germany. The event will take place in Magdeburg at MESSE MAGDEBURG, Tessenowstraße 9a, 39114 Magdeburg, Germany -- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ---------------------- Competitions are offered in the following leagues: - RoboCupSoccer Standard Platform League - RoboCupSoccer Open Humanoid League - RoboCupRescue Robot League - RoboCup@Home League - RoboCupIndustrial Logistics League - RoboCupIndustrial RoboCup@Work League The registration opens *** 15 October 2019 ***. The registration deadline is *** 30 November 2019 ***. Visit https://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 Organizing Committee: - Thomas Röfer, Pattrick Göttsch (Standard Platform League) - Reinhard Gerndt (Humanoid League) - Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) - Sven Wachsmuth, Raphael Memmesheimer (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) Please contact info(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions. See you all again at the 18th RoboCup German Open 2020! Best regards, Ansgar Bredenfeld (Chair RoboCup German Open) RoboCup German Open is organized on behalf of the German RoboCup Committee by Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg and Dr. Bredenfeld UG.

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[meetings] Invitation to attend IROS 2019 Workshop: Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)
by Karinne Ramirez-Amaro 31 Oct '19

31 Oct '19

*4th Workshop on Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)* _*November 8*_, 2019 -*Room: LG-R10* - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - *Macau, China* *----Workshop URL* https://sites.google.com/view/spar2019/home Contact email: spar.workshop(a)gmail.com *----Workshop objectives* It has been a long-standing question whether robots can reach human level of intelligence that understands the essence of observed actions and imitates them even under different circumstances. Contemporary research in robotics and machine learning has attempted to solve this question from two different perspectives: One in a bottom-up manner by, for instance, solely relying on perceived continuous sensory data, whereas the other by approaching rather from the symbolic level in a top-down fashion. Although there have been shown encouraging results in both flows, understanding and imitation of actions have yet to be fully solved. Action semantics stands as a potential glue for bridging the gap between a symbolic action representation and its corresponding continuous signal level description. Semantic representation provides a tool for capturing the essence of action by revealing the inherent characteristics. Thus, semantic features help robots to understand, learn, and generate policies to imitate actions even in various styles with different objects. Thus, more descriptive semantics yields robots with greater capability and autonomy. This workshop focuses on new technologies that allow robots to learn generic semantic models for different tasks. In this workshop, we will bring together researchers from diverse fields, including robotics, computer vision, and machine learning in order to overview the most recent scientific achievements and the next break-through topics, and also to propose new directions in the field. **** We have a very exciting program for the SPAR workshop* Time Speaker 09:00 – 09:15 Welcome and introduction. Karinne Ramirez-Amaro & Yezhou Yang 09:20 – 09:55 Kei Okada, The University of Tokyo. "Task Instantiation from Life-long Episodic Memories of Service Robots" 10:00 – 10:35 Tanja Schultz, University of Bremen. "Biosignal Processing for Modeling Human Everyday Activities" 10:45 – 11:15 Coffee Break 11:20 – 11:55 Stefanos Nikolaidis, University of Southern California. "Learning Collaborative Action Plans from YouTube Videos" 12:00 – 12:35 Darius Burschka, Technical University of Munich. "Understanding the Static and Dynamic Scene Context for Human-Robot Collaboration in Households" 12:40 - 13:05 Joseph Lim, University of Southern California. TDB 13:05 – 14:00 Lunch 14:00 – 14:35 Georg von Wichert, Siemens. TBD 14:40 - 15:15 Chris Paxton, Nvidia Robotics lab. "From Pixels to Task Planning and Execution" 15:20 - 15:40 Spotlight talks 15:45 – 16:15 Coffee Break and poster presentations 16:20 – 16:40 Poster presentations 16:45 - 17:20 Jesse Thomason, University of Washington. "Action Learning from Realistic Environments with Directives" 17:25 - 17:40 Final remarks and end of the Workshop *----Invited Speakers (all confirmed)* * Kei Okada, The University of Tokyo. Japan. http://www.jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~k-okada/index-e.html * Tanja Schultz, University of Bremen. https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/csl/team/staff/prof-dr-ing-tanja-schultz/ * Georg von Wichert, Siemens. Germany. https://www.linkedin.com/in/georg-von-wichert-7a74796/ * Stefanos Nikolaidis, University of Southern California. USA https://stefanosnikolaidis.net/ * Joseph Lim, University of Southern California. https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~limjj/ * Darius Burschka, Technical University of Munich. http://robvis01.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/ * Chris Paxton, Nvidia Robotics lab. https://research.nvidia.com/person/chris-paxton * Jesse Thomason, University of Washington https://jessethomason.com/ *----Organizers* * Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden * Eren Erdal Aksoy, Halmstad University, Sweden * Yezhou Yang, Arizona State University, USA * Shiqi Zhang, SUNY Binghamton, USA *----Advisory Board* * Michael Beetz, University Bremen, Germany * Yiannis Aloimonos, University of Maryland, USA * Tamim Asfour, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany * Florentin Wörgötter, University of Göttinngen, Germany -- Asst. Prof. Karinne Ramirez Amaro Chalmers University of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering Systems and Control Division SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden IEEE Associate Vice President - Conference Operations E-mail:karinne@chalmers.se Office telephone: +46-31-772-1074 www.chalmers.se

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[@Home2020] First Call for Participation deadline extension
by Maxime St-Pierre 25 Oct '19

25 Oct '19

The @Home committee has decided to extend the deadline for the First Call for Participation from the 27th of October 2019 at 23:59 GMT to the 3rd of November 2019 at 23:59 GMT. Maxime St-Pierre OC Chair RoboCup@Home

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[meetings] Second Call For Papers ICAPS 2020 - Special Track on Human and Robotics
by Luca Iocchi 23 Oct '19

23 Oct '19

*Second Call for Papers: ICAPS 2020 <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/>* ICAPS 2020, the 30th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, will take place in /Nancy, France, June 14-19, 2020/. ICAPS 2020 is part of the ICAPS conference series, the premier forum for exchanging news and research results on theory and applications of intelligent planning and scheduling technology. ICAPS 2020 will feature 5 different tracks: *** *Main Track* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/call-for-papers/>) *** *Novel Applications Track* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/novel-applications-track/>) *** *Special Track on Human and Robotics* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-human-and-robot…>) *** *Special Track on Knowledge Engineering, Integrated Execution, and System Architectures* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-knowledge-engin…>) *** *Special Track on Planning and Learning* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-learning-and-pl…>) *Important Dates* November 15, 2019 Abstracts due (electronic submission) *November 20, 2019 Papers due* (electronic submission, PDF) January 6-8, 2020 Author feedback period January 20, 2020 Notification of acceptance or rejection The reference timezone for all deadlines is UTC-12. That is, as long as there is still some place anywhere in the world where the deadline has not yet passed, you are on time! *Author Guidelines* Authors may submit *long papers* (8 pages AAAI style plus up to one page of references) or *short papers* (4 pages plus up to one page of references). The type of paper must be indicated at submission time. All papers, regardless of length, will be reviewed against the standard criteria of relevance, originality, significance, clarity, soundness, and are expected to meet the same high standards set by ICAPS. Short papers may be of narrower scope, for example by addressing a highly specific issue, or proposing or evaluating a small, yet important, extension of previous work or new idea. Overlength papers will be rejected without review. Authors making multiple submissions must ensure that each submission has significant unique content. Papers submitted to ICAPS 2020 may not be submitted to other conferences or journals during the ICAPS 2020 review period nor may they be already under review or published in other conferences or journals. We will have an arrangement with ECAI 2020, through which selected papers reviewed by the ICAPS 2020 program committee, instead of being simply rejected, will be transferred (together with their reviews) to the ECAI 2020 program committee for consideration as ECAI2020 submissions, and vice versa. Author’s permission for this transfer will be asked in the submission form. As the ICAPS 2020 notification date falls between the IJCAI 2020 abstract and full paper submission dates, ICAPS allows abstract submission to IJCAI with the expectation that papers accepted to ICAPS will be withdrawn from IJCAI. [Authors are responsible for knowing and following the appropriate IJCAI rules.] *Submission Instructions* All submissions will be made electronically, through the EasyChair conference system: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icaps2020 Submitted PDF papers should be anonymous for double-blind reviewing, adhere to the page limits of the relevant track CFP/submission type (long or short), and follow the AAAI author kit instructions for formatting: https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit20.zip In addition to the submitted PDF paper, authors can submit supplementary material (videos, technical proofs, additional experimental results) for their paper. Please make sure that the supporting material is also anonymized. Papers should be self-contained; reviewers are encouraged, but not obligated, to consider supporting material in their decision. *Contact *For inquiries contact: ICAPS2020(a)easychair.org /Shirin Sohrabi// //Erez Karpas// //Chris Beck/ ICAPS 2020 Program Chairs -- This mailing list is about the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Messages that pertain to AI alone or to Robotics alone should be posted on other lists. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ai-robotics" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ai-robotics+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com <mailto:ai-robotics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ai-robotics/be280a8b-c14e-9c9b-63db-b7801… <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ai-robotics/be280a8b-c14e-9c9b-63db-b7801…>.

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Call For Papers ICAPS 2020 - Special Track on Human and Robotics
by Luca Iocchi 08 Oct '19

08 Oct '19

Dear @Home teams, please notice the Special Track on Human and Robotics at ICAPS 2020 that would be a perfect venue for submitting your best research results in decision making for HRI tasks. Although the deadline is quite short, we hope to receive several contributions from RoboCup@Home community. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any question. Best regards, Luca. *Call for Papers: ICAPS 2020 <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/>* ICAPS 2020, the 30th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, will take place in /Nancy, France, June 14-19, 2020/. ICAPS 2020 is part of the ICAPS conference series, the premier forum for exchanging news and research results on theory and applications of intelligent planning and scheduling technology. ICAPS 2020 will feature 5 different tracks: *** *Main Track* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/call-for-papers/>) *** *Novel Applications Track* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/novel-applications-track/>) *** *Special Track on Human and Robotics* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-human-and-robot…>) *** *Special Track on Knowledge Engineering, Integrated Execution, and System Architectures* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-knowledge-engin…>) *** *Special Track on Planning and Learning* (link <https://icaps20.icaps-conference.org/calls/special-track-on-learning-and-pl…>) *Important Dates* November 15, 2019 Abstracts due (electronic submission) *November 20, 2019 Papers due* (electronic submission, PDF) January 6-8, 2020 Author feedback period January 20, 2020 Notification of acceptance or rejection The reference timezone for all deadlines is UTC-12. That is, as long as there is still some place anywhere in the world where the deadline has not yet passed, you are on time! *Author Guidelines* Authors may submit *long papers* (8 pages AAAI style plus up to one page of references) or *short papers* (4 pages plus up to one page of references). The type of paper must be indicated at submission time. All papers, regardless of length, will be reviewed against the standard criteria of relevance, originality, significance, clarity, soundness, and are expected to meet the same high standards set by ICAPS. Short papers may be of narrower scope, for example by addressing a highly specific issue, or proposing or evaluating a small, yet important, extension of previous work or new idea. Overlength papers will be rejected without review. Authors making multiple submissions must ensure that each submission has significant unique content. Papers submitted to ICAPS 2020 may not be submitted to other conferences or journals during the ICAPS 2020 review period nor may they be already under review or published in other conferences or journals. We will have an arrangement with ECAI 2020, through which selected papers reviewed by the ICAPS 2020 program committee, instead of being simply rejected, will be transferred (together with their reviews) to the ECAI 2020 program committee for consideration as ECAI2020 submissions, and vice versa. Author’s permission for this transfer will be asked in the submission form. As the ICAPS 2020 notification date falls between the IJCAI 2020 abstract and full paper submission dates, ICAPS allows abstract submission to IJCAI with the expectation that papers accepted to ICAPS will be withdrawn from IJCAI. [Authors are responsible for knowing and following the appropriate IJCAI rules.] *Submission Instructions* All submissions will be made electronically, through the EasyChair conference system: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icaps2020 Submitted PDF papers should be anonymous for double-blind reviewing, adhere to the page limits of the relevant track CFP/submission type (long or short), and follow the AAAI author kit instructions for formatting: https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit20.zip In addition to the submitted PDF paper, authors can submit supplementary material (videos, technical proofs, additional experimental results) for their paper. Please make sure that the supporting material is also anonymized. Papers should be self-contained; reviewers are encouraged, but not obligated, to consider supporting material in their decision. *Contact *For inquiries contact: ICAPS2020(a)easychair.org /Shirin Sohrabi// //Erez Karpas// //Chris Beck/ ICAPS 2020 Program Chairs -- This mailing list is about the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Messages that pertain to AI alone or to Robotics alone should be posted on other lists. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ai-robotics" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ai-robotics+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com <mailto:ai-robotics+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ai-robotics/41567fc3-25bd-0034-01bc-0495c… <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ai-robotics/41567fc3-25bd-0034-01bc-0495c…>.

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[@Home2020] Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Maxime St-Pierre 04 Oct '19

04 Oct '19

First Call for Participation RoboCup at Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) 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 at Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup at Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup at 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. Note for experienced participants: Included in the Rulebook is a standard object list. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup at Home League 2020. Important dates: Oct. 4, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 27, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2019 Qualification announcement Jan. 19, 2020 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc atrobocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org> <http://robocupathome.org>) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup at Home 2020 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 email subject should be: [@Home2020-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. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) ============================================== All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org> <http://robocupathome.org>) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup at Home 2020 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 [League]. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-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, Jan. 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ====================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. Remark: Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== Instructions for the Team Video ------------------------------- In order to prove 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. It is Highly Recommend 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 will only accept Youtube Video or a direct download link that has no country protection - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists - *Standard Platforms Only:* New teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. 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**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - 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<http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP fromhttps://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 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: -------------------------------------- In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criteria will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (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 the 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 seeing your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees _______________________________________________ robocup-athome mailing listrobocup-athome@lists.robocup.orghttp://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome

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[@Home2019] Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Maxime St-Pierre 04 Oct '19

04 Oct '19

First Call for Participation RoboCup at Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) 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 at Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup at Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup at 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. Note for experienced participants: Included in the Rulebook is a standard object list. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup at Home League 2020. Important dates: Oct. 4, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 27, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2019 Qualification announcement Jan. 19, 2020 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup at Home 2020 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 email subject should be: [@Home2020-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. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) ============================================== All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup at Home 2020 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 [League]. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-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, Jan. 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ====================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. Remark: Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== Instructions for the Team Video ------------------------------- In order to prove 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. It is Highly Recommend 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 will only accept Youtube Video or a direct download link that has no country protection - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists - *Standard Platforms Only:* New teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. 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**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - 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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from 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 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: -------------------------------------- In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criteria will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (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 the 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 seeing your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[meetings] CALL for posters to IROS 2019 Workshop: Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)
by Karinne Ramirez-Amaro 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

*4th Workshop on Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)* November 8, 2019 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - Macau, China ----*Call for Papers* We are calling for contributions to our IROS 2019 workshop. We would like to invite the attendees of this workshop to submit an extended abstract explaining their current work or developed systems on the areas of reasoning, perception, control, planning, and learning applied to robotic systems. This workshop is intended for roboticists interested in improving the reliability and autonomy of robots. We hope to bring together outstanding researchers and graduate students to discuss current trends, problems, and opportunities in semantic action (policy) representations, encouraging communication and common practices such as sharing data-sets among scientists in this field. We encourage 1-2 pages extended abstract of relevant work that has been previously published, or is to be presented at the main conference. The accepted abstracts will be posted on the workshop website in a compiled yearbook and will not appear in the official IEEE proceedings. We encourage researchers as well as companies (both hardware and software companies) to contribute to the workshop. The reviewing is single blind, and will be carried out by the workshop chairs. Please submit your abstract to the workshop official email address spar.workshop(a)gmail.com before *September 27*, 2019. The accepted papers will have the opportunity to present their work/ideas in a poster session. Two selective submissions will give a 15 min talk at the workshop. Please indicate in your email if you want to present as a poster or oral presentation. ----*Important Dates* Paper submission deadline: September 27, 2019 Notification of acceptance: October 20, 2019 Camera ready submission: October 31, 2019 Workshop day: November 08, 2019 ----*Workshop URL* https://sites.google.com/view/spar2019/home Contact email: spar.workshop(a)gmail.com ----*Workshop objectives* It has been a long-standing question whether robots can reach human level of intelligence that understands the essence of observed actions and imitates them even under different circumstances. Contemporary research in robotics and machine learning has attempted to solve this question from two different perspectives: One in a bottom-up manner by, for instance, solely relying on perceived continuous sensory data, whereas the other by approaching rather from the symbolic level in a top-down fashion. Although there have been shown encouraging results in both flows, understanding and imitation of actions have yet to be fully solved. Action semantics stands as a potential glue for bridging the gap between a symbolic action representation and its corresponding continuous signal level description. Semantic representation provides a tool for capturing the essence of action by revealing the inherent characteristics. Thus, semantic features help robots to understand, learn, and generate policies to imitate actions even in various styles with different objects. Thus, more descriptive semantics yields robots with greater capability and autonomy. In this full-day workshop, we aim at answering two major questions. 1. What have we learned from action semantics? In recent years, there has been a substantial contribution in semantic policy and action representation in the fields of robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. In this respect, we would like to invite experts in academia and motivate them to comment on the recent advances in semantic reasoning by addressing the problem of linking continuous sensory experiences and symbolic constructions to couple perception and execution of actions. This is of fundamental importance to ease the symbol grounding problem in robotics. 2. How much of semantic policy and action representation have been transferred from controlled lab setups to industrial environments? We would like to invite researchers from industry and initiate a discussion between academic and industrial communities. Such a provocative discussion catalyzes the interaction between the two communities by addressing the scalability and generalization problems which still remain unsolved. In this respect, we would like to discuss how to transfer our current knowledge and experience about semantic policies to new domains, for instance, industrial assembly tasks, with very little human intervention. This workshop focuses on new technologies that allow robots to learn generic semantic models for different tasks. In this workshop, we will bring together researchers from diverse fields, including robotics, computer vision, and machine learning in order to overview the most recent scientific achievements and the next break-through topics, and also to propose new directions in the field. ----The topics that are indicative but by no means exhaustive are as follows: ● AI-Based Methods o Learning and adaptive systems o Probability and statistical methods o Action grammars/libraries o Machine learning techniques for semantic representations o Spatiotemporal event encoding ● Reasoning Methods in Robotics and Automation o Signal to symbol transition (Symbol grounding/Object anchoring) o Different levels of abstraction o Semantics of manipulation actions o Semantic policy representation o Context modeling methods o Concept formulation ● Human Behavior Recognition o Learning from demonstration o Object-action relations o Bottom-up and top-down perception ● Task, Geometric, and Dynamic Level Plans and Policies o PDDL high-level planning o Task and motion planning methods ● Human-Robot Interaction o Prediction of human intentions o Linking linguistic and visual data ----*Invited Speakers (all confirmed)* * Kei Okada, The University of Tokyo. Japan. http://www.jsk.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~k-okada/index-e.html * Tanja Schultz, University of Bremen. https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/csl/team/staff/prof-dr-ing-tanja-schultz/ * Georg von Wichert, Siemens. Germany. https://www.linkedin.com/in/georg-von-wichert-7a74796/ * Stefanos Nikolaidis, University of Southern California. USA https://stefanosnikolaidis.net/ * Xiaoping Chen, University of Science and Technology of China. http://ai.ustc.edu.cn/en/people/xpchen.php * Joseph Lim, University of Southern California. https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~limjj/ * Darius Burschka, Technical University of Munich. http://robvis01.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/ * Chris Paxton, Nvidia Robotics lab. https://research.nvidia.com/person/chris-paxton * Jesse Thomason, University of Washington https://jessethomason.com/ ----*Organizers* * Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden * Eren Erdal Aksoy, Halmstad University, Sweden * Yezhou Yang, Arizona State University, USA * Shiqi Zhang, SUNY Binghamton, USA ----*Advisory Board* * Michael Beetz, University Bremen, Germany * Yiannis Aloimonos, University of Maryland, USA * Tamim Asfour, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany * Florentin Wörgötter, University of Göttinngen, Germany -- Asst. Prof. Karinne Ramirez Amaro Chalmers University of Technology Department of Electrical Engineering Systems and Control Division Mechatronics Group IEEE Associate Vice President - Conference Operations E-mail:karinne@chalmers.se Office telephone: +46-31-772-1074 Address: SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden www.chalmers.se

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2019: Pre-registration Extended!
by Asad Norouzi 02 Sep '19

02 Sep '19

######################## 2nd Call for Participation ##################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2019) Competition and Symposium 6 – 10 November 2019, Competition 11 November 2019, Symposium Moscow, Russia http://www.robocupap2019.org ###################### RoboCup Asia Pacific 2019 ###################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Moscow, Russia, 6-11 November 2019. This is the third official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia-Pacific region. *The pre-registration deadline has been extended to the 8th of September.* *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Small Size League - Standard Platform League *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Education *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2019 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid - RCAP RoboCup@Home Education - RCAP Junior @Home Education - RTC Cup *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form here: https://forms.gle/ENjvpQnFH7Gqbwmt8 The pre-registered teams are required to submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 12 August – 08 September, 2019 - Announcement of qualified teams: 15 September, 2019 - Regular Registration: 16 September – 06 October, 2019 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2019.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries and Travel Support: rusrcap(a)gmail.com Registration, Competition, Leagues: moscow2019(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) Organizing Committee

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Call for Participation – Join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE | USD $10 million robotics competition
by Colin Peartree 24 Aug '19

24 Aug '19

Dear RoboCup @Home league, This message is to encourage you to join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE<http://avatar.xprize.org/>, a four-year USD $10 million competition focused on the development of a robotic avatar system that will transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. The winning team will integrate multiple emerging technologies such as robotics, haptics, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and more to enable a human operator to see, hear, and interact within a remote environment in a manner that feels as if he or she is truly present there. This is a highly challenging competition that we believe can change the way we interact with each other across the world. The ANA Avatar XPRIZE is currently in the Team Recruitment phase of the competition, which is open through September 30, 2019. We are seeking highly skilled teams to join the 69 other teams from 17 countries who are currently registered to compete. XPRIZE competitors come from a diversity of backgrounds, with teams forming out of universities, start-ups, major companies and individuals alike. Joining an XPRIZE is an excellent opportunity to become involved in an international cross-disciplinary project to develop cutting-edge technology, and your work in the RoboCup @Home League is a clear path toward developing Avatar technology. If you want to be part of this challenge, check out the links below for more information, and remember to register by September 30, 2019. TO REGISTER, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: VISIT OUR WEBSITE<http://avatar.xprize.org/> + VIEW OUR FACT SHEET<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlqiTSMnKVdcF4MRP4pImr20T8y-8lvq/view?usp=…> + EMAIL US<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE> FIND A WINNER: Not interested in competing, but know someone who has what it takes to win? Through our Find a Winner Program, you can refer competitors to take on this challenge. If the team you refer goes on to win the competition, you’ll be awarded with USD $25,000! Refer a competitor by clicking here<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar/findawinner>. If you want to talk more about participating in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, we would be glad to continue the conversation with you. Please send us a message at Avatar(a)XPRIZE.org<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE>. We look forward to hearing from you! Best regards, Colin Peartree, ANA Avatar XPRIZE Team Liaison

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[jobs] Neural Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots
by Stefan Wermter 22 Aug '19

22 Aug '19

The Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences / Department of Informatics invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on the earliest possible date. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 75% of standard work hours per week. (Full-time positions currently comprise 39 hours per week.) Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate’s own academic work. Specific Duties: The candidate will work in the Signal Processing and the Knowledge Technology groups and will do research on modern methods for single and multichannel speech enhancement for human-robot interfaces. The particular task is to take the specific ego-noise of an interactive robot into account, such as the sound of the motors and the cooling systems of specific robotic platforms. Teaching duties are expected to be 3 hours/week at the BSc Informatics level. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Examples are Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics or Electrical Engineering. We require the candidate to have excellent knowledge in signal processing and neural network learning as well as good programming skills in Python and neural network frameworks. Experience in speech processing is helpful. Fluent English, spoken and written, and good communications skills are mandatory. Knowledge of German is desired; we expect the willingness to learn German for non-native German speakers. 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 act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Stefan Wermter (stefan.wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or Timo Gerkmann (timo.gerkmann(a)uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website athttp://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ orhttp://uhh.de/inf-sp. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 25.08.2019 to:sp-office@informatik.uni-hamburg.de in a single PDF document. Please start the subject of your Email with [Application Kooperationspromotion]. Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. *********************************************** 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/WTM/ ***********************************************

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2019: Call For Participation
by Asad Norouzi 15 Aug '19

15 Aug '19

######################## Call for Participation ######################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2019) Competition and Symposium 6 – 10 November 2019, Competition 11 November 2019, Symposium Moscow, Russia http://www.robocupap2019.org ###################### RoboCup Asia Pacific 2019 ###################### The 3rd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Moscow, Russia, 6-11 November 2019. This is the third official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia-Pacific region. *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Small Size League - Standard Platform League *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Education *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line Primary - Rescue Line Secondary - Rescue Maze Primary - Rescue Maze Secondary - Rescue Simulation Primary - Rescue Simulation Secondary - OnStage - Preliminary Primary - Preliminary Secondary - Advanced Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2019 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - RCAP Junior Humanoid - RCAP RoboCup@Home Education - RCAP Junior @Home Education - RTC Cup *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form here: https://forms.gle/ENjvpQnFH7Gqbwmt8 The pre-registered teams are required to submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 12 August – 01 September, 2019 - Announcement of qualified teams: 15 September, 2019 - Regular Registration: 16 September – 06 October, 2019 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2019.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries and Travel Support: rusrcap(a)gmail.com Registration, Competition, Leagues: moscow2019(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2019 (RCAP 2019) Organizing Committee

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Past year's publications relating to RoboCup, or other big activities
by Justin W Hart 09 Aug '19

09 Aug '19

Teams! Did you publish a paper in the past year based on your work for RoboCup@Home? Did you do a big demo or make another big scientific achievement? Please drop me an email (hart(a)cs.utexas.edu) explaining what it is that you did. This is for reporting up the chain in the RoboCup organization and showing off the accomplishments of our league. Thanks! Justin

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Call for Participation – Join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE | USD $10 million robotics competition
by Colin Peartree 02 Aug '19

02 Aug '19

Dear RoboCup @Home league, This message is to encourage you to join the ANA Avatar XPRIZE<http://avatar.xprize.org/>, a four-year USD $10 million competition focused on the development of a robotic avatar system that will transport a human’s senses, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. The winning team will integrate multiple emerging technologies such as robotics, haptics, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and more to enable a human operator to see, hear, and interact within a remote environment in a manner that feels as if he or she is truly present there. This is a highly challenging competition that we believe can change the way we interact with each other across the world. The ANA Avatar XPRIZE is currently in the Team Recruitment phase of the competition, which is open through September 30, 2019. We are seeking highly skilled teams to join the 69 other teams from 17 countries who are currently registered to compete. XPRIZE competitors come from a diversity of backgrounds, with teams forming out of universities, start-ups, major companies and individuals alike. Joining an XPRIZE is an excellent opportunity to become involved in an international cross-disciplinary project to develop cutting-edge technology, and your work in the RoboCup @Home League is a clear path toward developing Avatar technology. If you want to be part of this challenge, check out the links below for more information, and remember to register by September 30, 2019. TO REGISTER, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: VISIT OUR WEBSITE<http://avatar.xprize.org/> + VIEW OUR FACT SHEET<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlqiTSMnKVdcF4MRP4pImr20T8y-8lvq/view?usp=…> + EMAIL US<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE> FIND A WINNER: Not interested in competing, but know someone who has what it takes to win? Through our Find a Winner Program, you can refer competitors to take on this challenge. If the team you refer goes on to win the competition, you’ll be awarded with USD $25,000! Refer a competitor by clicking here<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/avatar/findawinner>. If you want to talk more about participating in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, we would be glad to continue the conversation with you. Please send us a message at Avatar(a)XPRIZE.org<mailto:avatar@xprize.org?subject=Partcipating%20in%20the%20ANA%20Avatar%20XPRIZE>. We look forward to hearing from you! Best regards, Colin Peartree, ANA Avatar XPRIZE Team Liaison [X] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message by error, please delete it from your records.

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[CFP] AI-HRI 2019: Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
by Ross Mead 19 Jul '19

19 Jul '19

UPDATES: Please note the following updates for this 2nd call for papers: • Submission deadline extended to July 31, 2019 • Changed link to the paper template material (AAAI 2019 author kit) 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 31, 2019 (EXTENDED) • 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 ( https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit19.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) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO Semio <http://semio.ai> ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600

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[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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Call for Participation: RoboCup German Open (May 3-5, 2019), Registration Deadline Nov 30, 2018!
by Sven Wachsmuth 22 Nov '18

22 Nov '18

Dear teams, please note that the deadline for the registration of major teams is *Nov 30, 2018*! There is no qualification procedure, but you should propose a web-link where we can find information about your team. RoboCup German Open 2019 Call for Participation https://robocupgermanopen.de 3 - 5 May 2019 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2019 will be the 17th 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 2018 ***. The registration deadline is *** 30 November 2018 ***. Visithttps://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 Organizing Committee: - Thomas Röfer (Standard Platform League) - Reinhard Gerndt (Humanoid League) - Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) - Sven Wachsmuth, Raphael Memmesheimer (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) -- RoboCup Junior ---------------------------------------------------- The German RoboCup Junior qualification for RoboCup 2019 is performed in two steps. German teams qualify in eight local tournaments in Bad Zwischenahn, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Kassel, Mannheim, Sankt Augustin and Vöhringen for the final of the 19th German RoboCup Junior Championship which is held within the RoboCup German Open 2019. The best Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2019 in Australia. -- Important dates -------------------------------------------------- 15.10.2018 Registration start 30.11.2018 Registration deadline RoboCup Major teams 15.02.2019 Invoices are sent to team leaders 15.03.2019 Registration deadline names of team members 15.04.2019 Registration fee due 01.05.2019 Set-up day Major League teams (venue opens 12:00) 02.05.2019 Set-up day Major League teams 03.05.2019 Competition day (open to the public) 04.05.2019 Competition day (open to the public) 05.05.2019 Competition day, finals (open to the public) Please contactinfo(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions. See you all again at the 17th RoboCup German Open 2019! Best regards, Ansgar Bredenfeld (Chair RoboCup German Open) RoboCup German Open is organized on behalf of the German RoboCup Committee by Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg and Dr. Bredenfeld UG.

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Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Mauricio Matamoros 16 Oct '18

16 Oct '18

First 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 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 League 2019. Important dates: Sept. 15, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Sept. 30, 2018 Deadline for Intention of Participation Oct. 28, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2018 Qualification announcement Jan. 20, 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. Please provide only one e-mail for contact purposes and double-check you can receive emails there. 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, 30th Sept. 2018 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 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. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 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, Jan. 20, 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *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: ================================ In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (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. Step 4) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly ( spl-sc(a)robocupathome.org). *Remark: *Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[journal][CFP] Special Issue of Interaction Studies - Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems Journal
by Alessandra Rossi 01 Oct '18

01 Oct '18

A Special Issue of *Interaction Studies - Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems Journal* https://benjamins.com/catalog/is/main <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__benjamins.com_catalog_…> based on the *Social Cues in Robot Interaction, Trust and Acceptance* - SCRITA Workshop @ IEEE RO-MAN 2018 *http://scrita.herts.ac.uk <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__scrita.herts.ac.uk_&d=D…>* *DESCRIPTION* This Special Issue will focus on human users trust in robots. We aim to explore difference aspects of Human-Robot Interaction that can affect, enhance, undermine and recovery of humans’ trust in robots, such as the use of social cues, behaviour transparency (goals and actions), etc.. In particular, this session will bring together leading researchers in the fields to share ideas and findings to guide the design and development of robots that human users would accept and trust. *INTENDED AUDIENCE* Authors of the accepted papers to the workshop will be invited to submit an extended/revised version. We also strongly encourage submissions from leading researchers in the fields including, but are not limiting to, the following topics of interest: - Impact of Social Cues on Trust in Human-Robot Interaction; - Measuring Trust in Human-Robot Interaction; - Trust Violation and Recovery Mechanism in HRI; - Effects of Humans’ Acceptance on Trust of Robots; - Humans Sense of Control and Trust in Robots; - Trust and Assistive Robotics; - Overtrust in Robots; - Antecedent of Trust and Robot Trust; - Enhancing Humans Trust in Robots; - Enhancing Trust in a Robot Companion; - User Profiling and Trust in Human-Robot Interaction *HOW TO SUBMIT & TO HAVE MORE INFO* Interested authors should please contact the guest editors at *scrita(a)herts.ac.uk <scrita(a)herts.ac.uk>* or Alessandra Rossi at *a.rossi(a)herts.ac.uk <a.rossi(a)herts.ac.uk>*. For more information, please visit the website *http://scrita.herts.ac.uk <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__scrita.herts.ac.uk_&d=D…>* or contact the guest editors at the above emails. Each paper will receive three reviews, including one by the guest editors. *GUEST EDITORS* *Name *Alessandra Rossi *Affiliation *University of Hertfordshire *Email address *a.rossi(a)herts.ac.uk *Name *Kheng Lee Koay *Affiliation *University of Hertfordshire *Email address *k.l.koay(a)herts.ac.uk *Name *Sílvia Moros *Affiliation *University of Hertfordshire *Email address *s.moros(a)herts.ac.uk *Name *Patrick Holthaus *Affiliation *University of Hertfordshire *Email address *p.holthaus(a)herts.ac.uk *Name *Marcus Scheunemann *Affiliation *University of Hertfordshire *Email address *m.scheunemann(a)herts.ac.uk

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[@Home2019] Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Mauricio Matamoros 17 Sep '18

17 Sep '18

First 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 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 League 2019. Important dates: Sept. 15, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Sept. 30, 2018 Deadline for Intention of Participation Oct. 28, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2018 Qualification announcement Jan. 20, 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. Please provide only one e-mail for contact purposes and double-check you can receive emails there. 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, 30th Sept. 2018 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 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. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 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, Jan. 20, 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. *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 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *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: ================================ In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (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. Step 4) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly ( spl-sc(a)robocupathome.org). *Remark: *Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2018: 2nd Call For Participation
by Asad Norouzi 07 Sep '18

07 Sep '18

######################## Call for Participation ######################### The 2nd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2018) Competition and Symposium 5 – 9 December 2018, Competition 10 December 2018, Symposium Kish, Iran http://www.robocupap2018.org ###################### RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2018 ###################### The 2nd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Kish, Iran, 5-10 December 2018. This is the second official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia Pacific region. *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2018 (RCAP 2018) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Teen Size - Adult Size - Middle Size League - Small Size League - Standard Platform League - Simulation League 2D - Simulation League 3D *RoboCupRescue:* - Rescue Robot League - Rescue Simulation League - Rescue Simulation Agent - Rescue Simulation Virtual Robot *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Open Platform - RoboCup@Home Social Standard Platform - RoboCup@Home Domestic Standard Platform *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work - RoboCup Logistics *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line - Rescue Maze - CoSpace - Primary - Secondary - OnStage - Primary - Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2018 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - Primary - Secondary - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - Primary - Secondary - University - RCAP CoSpace Logistics Challenge - Primary - Secondary - University - RCAP SSL Challenge - Secondary - University - RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Trial Leagues - UAV - ROV *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form available in the website ( https://robocupap2018.org/?page_id=10). The pre-registered teams should then submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). More details can be found in the website soon. *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 21 August – 21 September, 2018 - Announcement of qualified teams: 01 October, 2018 - Early Registration: 01 October – 15 October, 2018 (not available for RC Junior teams) - Regular Registration: 16 October – 16 November, 2018 - Late Registration: 17 November – 30 November, 2018 NOTE: No team registration will be accepted after 16 November 2018 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2018.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries: info(a)robocupap2018.org Registration, Competition, Leagues, Travel Support: registration(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2018 (RCAP 2018) Organizing Committee

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SciRoc: 1st Smart CIties RObotics Challenge
by Luca Iocchi 05 Sep '18

05 Sep '18

Dear @Home teams, I am sure this new competition within the framework of European Robotics League has challenges that are very close to your research focus and is a good opportunity to improve participations in robot competitions and maximize the investment of setting up a team. We hope to receive many potentially interested teams from the RoboCup community as well. Best regards, Luca ====================================================== Call for Expression of Interest The 1st Smart CIties RObotics Challenge (The 1st SciRoc challenge) as part of the European Robotics League (ERL) Smart Cities Sept 16th to Sept 22nd 2019 The Centre:MK, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Web: http://sciroc.eu/the-sciroc-challenge/ ====================================================== Smart cities are an innovative urban paradigm aiming at improving the city’s services and the citizens’ quality of life using a variety of technological infrastructures. The ERL Smart Cities introduces a new robotics challenge, focusing on showing how robots will integrate in the cities of the future as physical agents living in them. Leveraging the functionalities developed within the other challenges of the European Robotics League (ERL Consumer, ERL Professional and ERL Emergency), robots will cooperate with the smart city infrastructure and interact with its citizens -- assisting customers, providing professional services and supporting during emergency situations. The 1st Smart CIties RObotics Challenge (The SciRoc challenge) will be held in Milton Keynes (UK) from Sept 16th to Sept 22nd 2019. The challenge will be divided into *several episodes*, each consisting in a task to be performed through addressing specific research challenges. Teams are expected to participate in one or more episodes according to their research interests. We solicit teams interested in taking part to the 1st SciRoc challenge to provide*their input on the design and format of the competition. *A preliminary set of episodes has been identified by the SciRoc’s consortium, as listed below. In order to maximise attendance, we invite all interested teams to express their preferences on the episodes they would be willing to compete in, through submitting their EoI via the online form at *http://sciroc.eu/expression-of-interest/***. *List of episodes* E01 - Attract a customer : https://sciroc.eu/e01-attract-a-customer/ E02 - Shopping guide : http://sciroc.eu/e02-shopping-guide/ E03 - Delivering of coffee shop orders : http://sciroc.eu/e03-delivering-coffee-shop-orders/ E04 - Take the elevator : http://sciroc.eu/e04-take-the-elevator/ E05 - Unattended item : http://sciroc.eu/e05-unattended-item/ E06 - Wiping a poured drink : http://sciroc.eu/e06-wiping-a-poured-drink/ E07 - Serving goodies : https://sciroc.eu/e07-serving-goodies/ E08 - At the checkout desk : https://sciroc.eu/e08-at-the-checkout-desk/ E09 - Cart push : https://sciroc.eu/e09-cart-push/ E10 - Open the door : https://sciroc.eu/e10-open-the-door/ E11 - Finding a lost dog with a drone : https://sciroc.eu/e11-finding-a-lost-dog-with-a-drone/ E12 - Fast delivery of emergency pills : https://sciroc.eu/e12-fast-delivery-of-emergency-pills/ *Important dates * Expression of interest: Sep 01 - Oct 10, 2018 Rulebook publication: Dec 15, 2018 Qualification process: Dec 15, 2018 - Jan 31, 2019 Notification to teams: Feb 15, 2019 Registration: Mar 01 - Mar 31, 2019 For any further enquiries: info(a)sciroc.eu

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[Meetings] [ICSR 2018] Robot Design Competition 2018 - Second Call for Entries and deadline extension
by Amit Kumar PANDEY 05 Sep '18

05 Sep '18

Dear Colleagues, Apologies for any cross-postings. Based on various requests, the deadline for ICSR 2018 Robot Design Competition has been extended to *15th September 2018* (firm deadline). The authors of already submitted entries, if they wish, can refine and update their submissions by the revised deadline with the subject line [ICSR 2018 Competition] Submission update <Submission ID>. Please refer below for the details of the call for entries. 10th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2018) ( http://uconf.org/ICSR2018) invites entries for its flagship Robot Design Competition (http://uconf.org/ICSR2018/competition.html). The International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR) brings together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and robots and on the integration of robots into our society. This year the conference will be held on November 28th-30th, 2018, Qingdao, China The ICSR Robot Design Competition 2018 (http://uconf.org/ICSR2018/com petition.html) ================================== How can the robots be part of our life to assist, serve, accompany, educate or entertain us? What is the next “Big Thing” and the next “Killer App” for robots? Where is the new generation of social robots heading and what could be the innovative societal applications? Have a solid idea/working prototype, send your entries to ICSR 2018 Robot Design Competition. Whatever your background or experience, this competition is a great way to present your work to an international multidisciplinary R&D community as well as representatives from robotics and AI industries, and get their valuable feedback, and above all get recognized. Submission ========= The ICSR 2018 robot design competition welcomes applicants from any background. Each submission should have a (maximum) 2 page summary including a concise abstract/synopsis of a maximum of 50 words. Additionally a single link of related video be included (maximum duration of the video is 3 minutes). Competition chairs, with the help from experts and reviewers, will select the finalists. Each finalists is supposed to present their entry at a dedicated event in the conference, which will be evaluated by the Jury of peers. Finalists will also get opportunity to exhibit during the conference (optional). Email your submission to Amit Kumar Pandey, akpandey(a)softbankrobotics.com and Ali Meghdari meghdari(a)sharif.edu with the subject line starting with: [ICSR 2018 Competition] The authors of already submitted entries, if they wish, can refine and update their submissions by the revised deadline with the subject line starting with [ICSR 2018 Competition] Submission update <Submission ID>. Submission ID can be found in the acknowledgement of the original submission. Dates ===== Submission deadline (revised): September 15, 2018 (firm) Notification: September 30, 2018 Categories & Prizes =============== The winners certificates will be awarded in two categories: - Innovation in software, applications and interaction modalities - Innovation in hardware, design and interfaces All the submissions will be considered for both the categories. ============= Thanks & Regards, Amit Kumar Pandey and Ali Meghdari ICSR 2018 Competition chairs ---- ========================= Amit Kumar Pandey (Ph.D.) Head Principal Scientist (Chief Scientist) (R&D) Scientific Coordinator- Collaborative Projects (Human Robot Interaction, Socially Intelligent Robots, AI) SoftBank Robotics (formerly Aldebaran Robotics) Paris, France Founding coordinator of euRobotics Topic Group on- Socially Intelligent Robots and Societal Applications (SIRo-SA) http://fr.linkedin.com/in/amitkrpandey http://amitkpandey.com https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en https://www.eu-robotics.net/sparc/topic-groups/index.html ========================== -- *This email and any attachment thereto are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, please be advised that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this email is strictly prohibited. In such case, please immediately advise the sender, and delete all copies and attachment from your system. This email shall not be construed and is not tantamount to an offer, an acceptance of offer, or an agreement by SoftBank Robotics Europe on any discussion or contractual document whatsoever. No employee or agent is authorized to represent or bind SoftBank Robotics Europe to third parties by email, or act on behalf of SoftBank Robotics Europe by email, without express written confirmation by SoftBank Robotics Europe’ duly authorized representatives. * *Ce message électronique et éventuelles pièces jointes sont confidentiels, et exclusivement destinés à la personne ou l'entité à qui ils sont adressés. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire visé, vous êtes prié de ne pas divulguer, copier, distribuer ou prendre toute décision sur la foi de ce message électronique. Merci d'en aviser immédiatement l'expéditeur et de supprimer toutes les copies et éventuelles pièces jointes de votre système. Ce message électronique n'équivaut pas à une offre, à une acceptation d’offre, ou à un accord de SoftBank Robotics Europe sur toute discussion ou document contractuel quel qu’il soit, et ne peut être interprété comme tel. Aucun employé ou agent de SoftBank Robotics Europe n'est autorisé à représenter ou à engager la société par email, ou à agir au nom et pour le compte de la société par email, sans qu’une confirmation écrite soit donnée par le représentant légal de SoftBank Robotics Europe ou par toute autre personne ayant reçu délégation de pouvoir appropriée. * **

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RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) 2018: Call For Participation
by Asad Norouzi 28 Aug '18

28 Aug '18

######################## Call for Participation ######################### The 2nd RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP 2018) Competition and Symposium 5 – 9 December 2018, Competition 10 December 2018, Symposium Kish, Iran http://www.robocupap2018.org ###################### RoboCup Asia Pacific 2018 ###################### The 2nd RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Competition and Symposium will be held in Kish, Iran, 5-10 December 2018. This is the second official RoboCup Super Regional event in the Asia Pacific region. *Leagues* The RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2018 (RCAP 2018) competition leagues are as follows: *RoboCupSoccer:* - Humanoid Leagues - Kid Size - Teen Size - Adult Size - Middle Size League - Small Size League - Standard Platform League - Simulation League 2D - Simulation League 3D *RoboCupRescue:* - Rescue Robot League - Rescue Simulation League - Rescue Simulation Agent - Rescue Simulation Virtual Robot *RoboCup@Home:* - RoboCup@Home Open Platform - RoboCup@Home Social Standard Platform - RoboCup@Home Domestic Standard Platform *RoboCupIndustrial:* - RoboCup@Work - RoboCup Logistics *RoboCupJunior:* - Soccer - Lightweight Primary - Lightweight Secondary - Open - Rescue - Rescue Line - Rescue Maze - CoSpace - Primary - Secondary - OnStage - Primary - Secondary *RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Challenges* The RCAP 2018 Organizing Committee will be organizing RCAP Industry Sponsored Leagues and RCAP Challenges. The RCAP Challenges will be as follows: - RCAP CoSpace Grand Prix Challenge - Primary - Secondary - RCAP CoSpace Rescue Challenge - Primary - Secondary - University - RCAP CoSpace Logistics Challenge - Primary - Secondary - University - RCAP SSL Challenge - Secondary - University - RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Demonstrations - UAV - ROV *Participation* All teams (including RC Junior teams) are required to pre-register through the online form available in the website ( https://robocupap2018.org/?page_id=10). The pre-registered teams should then submit the relevant qualification materials as per the leagues requirements. Teams are requested to contact their league’s technical committee for more information about submission of qualification materials. Junior teams must take note that they should also submit a Team Description Paper (TDP). More details can be found in the website soon. *Important dates* - Pre-Registration: 21 August – 7 September, 2018 - Announcement of qualified teams: 15 September, 2018 - Early Registration: 15 September – 15 October, 2018 (not available for RC Junior teams) - Regular Registration: 16 October – 16 November, 2018 - Late Registration: 17 November – 30 November, 2018 NOTE: No team registration will be accepted after 16 November 2018 For further information please visit our official website at http://www.robocupap2018.org For inquiries please contact us via the hereunder email addresses: General Enquiries: info(a)robocupap2018.org Registration, Competition, Leagues, Travel Support: registration(a)robocupap.org Regards, RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) Office RoboCup Asia Pacific 2018 (RCAP 2018) Organizing Committee

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Please help our RoboCup@Home research - RSVP by Tuesday
by Justin W Hart 24 Aug '18

24 Aug '18

Dear RoboCup@Home teams, One of the advantages of working in the RoboCup@Home domain is that so many of us around the world are motivated by, and working on, the same challenging problem. With this message, we're asking for a small amount of your time (but with some urgency) to help our research and to magnify our community as a whole. In particular, we're writing a paper that we plan to submit to AAAI on our knowledge representation system, and as part of our discussion we would like to explore the differences between how systems in RoboCup@Home model EEGPSR tasks. We're including the survey below, and we hope that you can take 5-10 minutes to let us know how your system would handle a particular utterance. If possible, we would like you to run a query through the top of your EEGPSR system, however this isn't necessary. If your system does not handle the command, please also respond saying so. ================================================================= EEGPSR Command: Could you navigate to the kitchen, spot the apple, and give it to Patricia at the couch. At a high level, please summarize the steps your system takes to resolve the query... 1. ... in the case that the apple is on the counter. 2. ... in the case that there is not an apple on the counter. In your responses, please describe how you model the problem, what your plan looks like (if your system generates a plan), and how the robot would behave while executing it (assuming that perception, navigation, and manipulation work perfectly). Please send your response to jiangyuqian(a)utexas.edu ================================================================= If you're able to do this, we'll acknowledge your support in the paper. Please let us know if you would like your system named specifically, or identified anonymously as "Participant X". Regardless, of course we'll be more than happy to help you with any similar requests about our system. Thanks in advance! Justin Hart, Yuqian Jiang, Nick Walker, & Peter Stone

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[meetings] AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) - Last CFP
by Luca Iocchi 17 Jul '18

17 Jul '18

[Apologies for cross-posting] *********************************************************************** AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) Arlington, Virginia USA, October 18-20, 2018 https://ai-hri.github.io/ *********************************************************************** The goal of this year's Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) symposium is to bring together the large community of researchers working on interactive learning scenarios for interactive robotics. While current HRI research involves investigating ways for robots to effectively interact with people, HRI's overarching goal is to develop robots that are autonomous while intelligently modeling and learning from humans. These goals greatly overlap with some central goals of AI and interactive machine learning such that HRI is an extremely challenging problem domain for interactive learning and will elicit fresh problem areas for robotics research. Our symposium will focus on one common area of interest within the broader scope of HRI is an AI problem and AI is an HRI problem: interactive machine learning for interactive robotics. We believe that the fusion of HRI and interactive learning may provide new insights and discussions that could benefit both fields. The symposium will include research talks and discussions both to share work in this intersectional area, guidance for how to best frame AI-centric HRI work within AI venues, and a great deal of community building through discussion and tutorials. ***PAPER CATEGORY*** Authors may submit under one of three paper categories: * Full papers (6–8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interactive 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 (3–4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. * Tool papers (1–2 pages) describing novel software, hardware, or datasets of interest to the AI-HRI community. 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. ***SUBMISSION WEBSITE*** Information about submission are available in the symposium web site https://ai-hri.github.io/ Submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss18 *** IMPORTANT DATES *** SUBMISSION: July, 20, 2018, 11:59 PM PT (UTC-7) NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2018 SYMPOSIUM: October 18-20, 2018 in Arlington, VA For more information, visit https://ai-hri.github.io or contact the AI-HRI submissions chair: Emmanuel Senft, Plymouth University: emmanuel.senft(a)plymouth.ac.uk *** ORGANIZING COMMITTEE *** Kalesha Bullard (Georgia Institute of Technology) Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) Richard G. Freedman (University of Massachusetts Amherst/SIFT) Bradley Hayes (University of Colorado Boulder) Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) Ross Mead (Semio) Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines)

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[KR 18 workshop] Call for participants and contributions, 27th October 2018 - Tempe, Arizona
by Yezhou Yang 13 Jul '18

13 Jul '18

Call For Papers and Participants We invite research papers, including but not limited, to the following topics. * Integration of reasoning and Learning * Probabilistic Logical Reasoning * Reasoning in Computer Vision, Natural Language, Robotics * Integrating knowledge using Deep Learning (Knowledge Distillation, Relational Reasoning) * Commonsense knowledge and Reasoning * Inference in Knowledge Bases If the papers are under review elsewhere, please indicate that during submission. In case of doubt, please contact the workshop chairs. Papers must be submitted in AAAI style and PDF format. We allow only one kind of submissions: * short papers describing applications, systems or demos, of up to 4 pages including abstract, figures, and appendices (if any) but excluding references and acknowledgments, which may take up to one additional page. Please note that the page limit will be strictly enforced. Submissions should be e-mailed to IAD18Workshop(a)gmail.com<mailto:IAD18Workshop@gmail.com>. For more information, please see the attached flyer or https://sites.google.com/view/r2k2018/home Yezhou Yang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering (CIDSE) Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Arizona State University Office: Brickyard 562, Phone:(480) 7270741<tel:%28480%29%20965-4182> Web:http://yezhouyang.engineering.asu.edu<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__yezhouyang.engineering.…>

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[meetings] AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) - Reminder
by Luca Iocchi 04 Jul '18

04 Jul '18

*********************************************************************** AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) Arlington, Virginia USA, October 18-20, 2018 https://ai-hri.github.io/ *********************************************************************** The goal of this year's Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) symposium is to bring together the large community of researchers working on interactive learning scenarios for interactive robotics. While current HRI research involves investigating ways for robots to effectively interact with people, HRI's overarching goal is to develop robots that are autonomous while intelligently modeling and learning from humans. These goals greatly overlap with some central goals of AI and interactive machine learning such that HRI is an extremely challenging problem domain for interactive learning and will elicit fresh problem areas for robotics research. Our symposium will focus on one common area of interest within the broader scope of HRI is an AI problem and AI is an HRI problem: interactive machine learning for interactive robotics. We believe that the fusion of HRI and interactive learning may provide new insights and discussions that could benefit both fields. The symposium will include research talks and discussions both to share work in this intersectional area, guidance for how to best frame AI-centric HRI work within AI venues, and a great deal of community building through discussion and tutorials. ***PAPER CATEGORY*** Authors may submit under one of three paper categories: * Full papers (6–8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interactive 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 (3–4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. * Tool papers (1–2 pages) describing novel software, hardware, or datasets of interest to the AI-HRI community. 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. ***SUBMISSION WEBSITE*** Information about submission are available in the symposium web site https://ai-hri.github.io/ Submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fss18 *** IMPORTANT DATES *** SUBMISSION: July, 20, 2018, 11:59 PM PT (UTC-7) NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2018 SYMPOSIUM: October 18-20, 2018 in Arlington, VA For more information, visit https://ai-hri.github.io or contact the AI-HRI submissions chair: Emmanuel Senft, Plymouth University: emmanuel.senft(a)plymouth.ac.uk *** ORGANIZING COMMITTEE *** Kalesha Bullard (Georgia Institute of Technology) Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) Richard G. Freedman (University of Massachusetts Amherst/SIFT) Bradley Hayes (University of Colorado Boulder) Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) Ross Mead (Semio) Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines)

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Pepper leasing
by Cristopher Andrés Gómez 16 Jun '18

16 Jun '18

Hello everybody, Is there any new information about when the Peppers will arrive? Thanks in advance. Regards, Cristopher.

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[CFP] AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI)
by Luca Iocchi 08 Jun '18

08 Jun '18

*********************************************************************** AAAI Fall Symposium: Interactive learning in Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) Arlington, Virginia USA, October 18-20, 2018 https://ai-hri.github.io/ *********************************************************************** The goal of this year's Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) symposium is to bring together the large community of researchers working on interactive learning scenarios for interactive robotics. While current HRI research involves investigating ways for robots to effectively interact with people, HRI's overarching goal is to develop robots that are autonomous while intelligently modeling and learning from humans. These goals greatly overlap with some central goals of AI and interactive machine learning such that HRI is an extremely challenging problem domain for interactive learning and will elicit fresh problem areas for robotics research. Our symposium will focus on one common area of interest within the broader scope of HRI is an AI problem and AI is an HRI problem: interactive machine learning for interactive robotics. We believe that the fusion of HRI and interactive learning may provide new insights and discussions that could benefit both fields. The symposium will include research talks and discussions both to share work in this intersectional area, guidance for how to best frame AI-centric HRI work within AI venues, and a great deal of community building through discussion and tutorials. ***PAPER CATEGORY*** Authors may submit under one of three paper categories: * Full papers (6–8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interactive 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 (3–4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. * Tool papers (1–2 pages) describing novel software, hardware, or datasets of interest to the AI-HRI community. 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. ***SUBMISSION WEBSITE*** Information about submission will be available in the symposium web site https://ai-hri.github.io/ *** IMPORTANT DATES *** SUBMISSION: July, 20, 2018, 11:59 PM PT (UTC-7) NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2018 SYMPOSIUM: October 18-20, 2018 in Arlington, VA For more information, visit https://ai-hri.github.io or contact the AI-HRI submissions chair: Emmanuel Senft, Plymouth University: emmanuel.senft(a)plymouth.ac.uk *** ORGANIZING COMMITTEE *** Kalesha Bullard (Georgia Institute of Technology) Nick DePalma (FutureWei Technologies) Richard G. Freedman (University of Massachusetts Amherst/SIFT) Bradley Hayes (University of Colorado Boulder) Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) Ross Mead (Semio) Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines)

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Fwd: [robocup-worldwide] Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Challenge @ European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) 2018
by Luca Iocchi 04 May '18

04 May '18

Dear @Home teams, there are still a couple of slots available for @Home Education challenge during the European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) 2018 http://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-home-education-challenge… If you have a junior team (either high-school under 19, or undergraduate under 22) willing to participate, let us know and fill the pre-registration in the web page above. The challenge is in the format workshop+competition, not requiring specific experience on robot programming (just basic knowledge of Python and Matlab) and we'll provide robots to teams, so there's no need to bring one. Tasks are taken from RoboCup@Home rulebook, so these activities will also boost RoboCup@Home major teams. All the teams are recruited in these last weeks before the competition, and they will all be at the same level in terms or preparation. The winner will be "European RoboCup@Home Education Champion" and the prize will be given by President of RoboCup Federation Daniel Polani. There will be also other prizes. Extended deadlines: Intention of Participation due: May 10, 2018 Registration due: May 15, 2018 For any question, do not hesitate to contact us. Best regards, Luca and Jeffrey. -------- Messaggio Inoltrato -------- Oggetto: [robocup-worldwide] Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Challenge @ European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) 2018 Data: Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:48:42 +0800 Mittente: Jeffrey Tan <i(a)jeffreytan.org> A: robocup-worldwide(a)cc.gatech.edu, euron-dist(a)iais.fraunhofer.de, robocup-junior(a)cc.gatech.edu === RoboCup@Home Education Challenge @ European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) 2018 === May 29 ~ June 1, 2018 Centro Congressi, Montesilvano, Italy http://www.robocupjunior.eu/ <<Introduction>> The European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) is a new super-regional RoboCup event that has the objective of organizing RoboCupJunior competition at European level. EURCJ 2018 is the first edition of EURCJ and is organized by the Italian RoboCupJunior Regional Committee and by the Italian RoboCup Regional Committee, in collaboration with other European RoboCupJunior regional committees. RoboCup@Home Education is an educational initiative that promotes educational efforts to boost RoboCup@Home participation and service robot development. RoboCup@Home Education takes inspiration from @Home tasks and aims at forming teams that may become @Home teams in the future. This education initiative plays the role to bridge between Major @Home league and RoboCupJunior, providing an educational platform to let Junior teams to participate and gain experience, in order to prepare themselves for the step up @Home league. With this inspiring motivation, we are honored to host the RoboCup@Home Education Challenge in the European RoboCupJunior Championship (EURCJ) 2018 on this coming May 2018 for the participation from European community. The Education Challenge will be conducted in a Workshop+Competition format to encourage totally inexperienced but interested participants to learn how to build the robot in the workshop and take part in the competition. http://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-home-education-challenge… <<Schedule>> 5/29 (Tue) - AM Workshop 1 Navigation - PM Competition Task: Help-me-carry 5/30 (Wed) - AM Workshop 2 Speech, Vision - PM Competition Task: Speech and Person Recognition 5/31 (Thu) - AM Workshop 3 Arm, System Integration - PM Competition Task: Restaurant 6/1 (Fri) - AM Finals <<How to Participate>> Step 1 - Intention of Participation Fill in and submit the online Intention of Participation form below (each per team). If you have any difficulty to submit online, please contact oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Intention of Participation form: https://goo.gl/forms/oPmjpmZnYri4Pxsj1 Step 2 - Registration The OC will review your entry and response by email after you have submitted the online form in Step 1. Complete the registration procedure according to the instruction in the email. <<Important Dates>> Intention of Participation due: April 30, 2018 Registration due: May 10, 2018 Please visit the official website for more information. You can contact us via oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Best Regards, RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2018 Organizing Committee _______________________________________________ robocup-worldwide mailing list robocup-worldwide(a)cc.gatech.edu https://mailman.cc.gatech.edu/mailman/listinfo/robocup-worldwide

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Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2018 @ RoboCup 2018 Montreal
by Jeffrey Tan 04 Apr '18

04 Apr '18

=== RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2018 @ RoboCup 2018 Montreal === June 16 ~ 21, 2018 Montreal, Canada http://www.robocupathomeedu.org <<Introduction>> RoboCup@Home Education is an educational initiative that promotes educational efforts to boost RoboCup@Home participation and service robot development. We have started @Home Education activities since 2015, organized various competitions in Japan Open 2015, 2016, 2017, and RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2017, which generated more than 10 new teams with more than 50 participants in @Home participation. As an educational effort, since 2016 we have also conducted more than 8 workshops in domestic Japan and overseas. The workshop audiences were ranging from 20~70 participants, not limited to technical university students, but also inexperienced high school students and general public. Last December, in collaboration with MathWorks, we had organized the Education Challenge at RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2017 Bangkok, in a combined workshop and competition event. It was a great success in transforming totally inexperienced participants to be able to build robot and ace the competition. With this inspiring motivation, we are honored to host the RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2018 Workshop & Competition in the Innovation Summit of RoboCup 2018 Montreal on this coming June 2018 for the participation from worldwide RoboCup community. http://www.robocup2018.org/?page=innovationsummit&lang=en <<Schedule & Rules>> - Workshop and Setup: June 16 ~ 18, 2018 - Competition: June 19 ~ 21, 2018 For more details and competition rules, please visit http://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-home-education-challenge… <<How to Participate>> Step 1 - Entry Application Fill in and submit the online entry form below (each per team). If you have any difficulty to submit online, please contact oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Online Entry Form: https://goo.gl/forms/pcquv54mYbbWIprf2 Step 2 - Registration Get the registration code from the OC. Usually, it will take a couple of days for the OC to review your entry and to response by email after you have submitted the online form in Step 1. Complete the registration procedure with the registration code according to the instruction in the email. <<Important Dates>> Entry Application: March 26 ~ April 30, 2018 Registration: March 26 ~ May 18, 2018 * Due to the availability of the robot hardware provided to the teams during the event, there are limited amount of team slots available for registration. The registration will be closed once the team slots are filled up even before the above due date. Please visit the official website for more information. You can contact us via oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Best Regards, RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2018 Organizing Committee

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RoboCup Iran Open 2018: Call for participation in @Home league (April 03-07).
by Reza Javanmard 02 Feb '18

02 Feb '18

Call for participation in RoboCup Iran Open 2018- @Home league (April 03-07). *>> Introduction * The 13th RoboCup IranOpen competitions will be held in April 03-07, 2018. Having had the experience of 12 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, 392 teams were qualified from 630 pre-registered teams from China, Germany, Japan, Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, 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. *>> How to Participate:* Interested teams are required to register in the website ( http://2018.iranopen.ir) 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. *>> Important dates:* - Pre-Registration: December 20, 2017 - January 30, 2018 - Submission of qualification materials: refer to your league's page in the website - Qualification: January 31 - February 15, 2018 - Early Registration: February 16 - 28, 2018 - Late Registration: March 01 - 11, 2018 *>> General links:* For further information please visit our official website at http://2018.iranopen.ir For inquiries please contact us via the below email addresses: - General Inquiries & Travel Support: info(a)iranopen.ir - Registration: registration(a)iranopen.ir - Visa & International Affairs: visa(a)iranopen.ir Reza Javanmard, TC member- @Home league RoboCup Iranopen 2018

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Call For Participation - RoboCup IranOpen 2018
by Asad Norouzi 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

*Apologies for duplicate messages* *Call For Participation* *RoboCup IranOpen 2018* *April 03 - 07* The 13th RoboCup IranOpen competitions will be held in April 03-07, 2018. Having had the experience of 12 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 320 teams from China, Germany, Japan, Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, 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 2018 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 Lightweight - Junior Rescue Line Primary - Junior Rescue Line Secondary - Junior Rescue Maze - Junior CoSpace Rescue Primary - Junior CoSpace Rescue Secondary The following leagues will be also be organized in conjunction with RoboCup IranOpen 2018: - Middle Size Intelligent Deminer Robots - Small Size Intelligent Deminer Robots - Tele-operated Deminer Robots - Deminer Technical Challenge - IranOpenUAV - 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 392 teams were qualified from 630 pre-registered teams. Important dates: - Pre-Registration: December 20, 2017 - January 30, 2018 - Submission of qualification materials: refer to your league's page in the website - Qualification: January 31 - February 15, 2018 - Early Registration: February 16 - 28, 2018 - Late Registration: March 01 - 11, 2018 For further information please visit our official website at http://2018.iranopen.ir For inquiries please contact us via the below email addresses: - General Inquiries & Travel Support: info(a)iranopen.ir - Registration: registration(a)iranopen.ir - Visa & International Affairs: visa(a)iranopen.ir Regards On behalf of, Iranian RoboCup Regional Committee RoboCup IranOpen 2018 Organizing Committee

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[Meetings] Call for participation: Hackathon 2018 with Pepper robot at SoftBank Robotics Europe, Paris
by Amit Kumar PANDEY 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

Dear Colleagues, Apologies for cross-postings. SoftBank Robotics Europe is organizing it’s first Hackathon on the Pepper robot [23-25 March 2018, Paris, France] What is your vision about making a difference in people's life through humanoid robots? How would you like the robot to help you or your loved ones? Hackathon 2018 is a unique event and opportunity to showcase your creative skills on Humanoid robot, Pepper, and to interact with experts in the company. Centered on the theme, "Pepper: a robot for well-being?", it is the first opportunity for developers to bring their ideas to life and to contribute in designing a new world with us. Hackathon 2018 invites talents of all sorts to express themselves, where developers and UX/Marketing teams work hand in hand to create the most inspiring and useful well-being application using Pepper's new SDK for Android and loT. Each team will be composed of 5 persons maximum. The applications must use the new Pepper SDK for Android <http://android.ald.softbankrobotics.com/> to interact and communicate with the robot. IoT will be provided but you can bring your own. You're also welcome to use third-party SDKs and tools. Registration fees will be 100% reimbursed after the event for the participants who will have taken part in the hackathon. The winning team will earn great loT material. For more information and registration visit the website: https://www.ald. softbankrobotics.com/en/hackathon2018 For any query, contact hackathon(a)softbankrobotics.com Happy Hackathon!!! Regards, Amit Kumar Pandey with Marie Bouthors-Rolland -- Marie BOUTHORS-ROLLAND Happiness Manager and your contact for this Hackathon! ---- ========================= Amit Kumar Pandey (Ph.D.) Head Principal Scientist (Chief Scientist) (R&D) Scientific Coordinator- Collaborative Projects (Human Robot Interaction, Socially Intelligent Robots, AI) SoftBank Robotics (formerly Aldebaran Robotics) Paris, France Founding coordinator of euRobotics Topic Group on- Socially Intelligent Robots and Societal Applications (SIRo-SA) http://fr.linkedin.com/in/amitkrpandey http://amitkpandey.com https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en https://www.eu-robotics.net/sparc/topic-groups/index.html ========================== SoftBank Robotics Europe 43, rue du Colonel Pierre Avia - 75015 Paris <https://maps.google.com/?q=43,+rue+du+Colonel+Pierre+Avia+-%C2%A075015+Pari…> -- *This email and any attachment thereto are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.If you are not the intended recipient, please be advised that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this email is strictly prohibited. In such case, please immediately advise the sender, and delete all copies and attachment from your system.This email shall not be construed and is not tantamount to an offer, an acceptance of offer, or an agreement by SoftBank Robotics Europe on any discussion or contractual document whatsoever. No employee or agent is authorized to represent or bind SoftBank Robotics Europe to third parties by email, or act on behalf of SoftBank Robotics Europe by email, without express written confirmation by SoftBank Robotics Europe’ duly authorized representatives.* ------------------------------ *Ce message électronique et éventuelles pièces jointes sont confidentiels, et exclusivement destinés à la personne ou l'entité à qui ils sont adressés.Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire visé, vous êtes prié de ne pas divulguer, copier, distribuer ou prendre toute décision sur la foi de ce message électronique. Merci d'en aviser immédiatement l'expéditeur et de supprimer toutes les copies et éventuelles pièces jointes de votre système.Ce message électronique n'équivaut pas à une offre, à une acceptation d’offre, ou à un accord de SoftBank Robotics Europe sur toute discussion ou document contractuel quel qu’il soit, et ne peut être interprété comme tel. Aucun employé ou agent de SoftBank Robotics Europe n'est autorisé à représenter ou à engager la société par email, ou à agir au nom et pour le compte de la société par email, sans qu’une confirmation écrite soit donnée par le représentant légal de SoftBank Robotics Europe ou par toute autre personne ayant reçu délégation de pouvoir appropriée.*

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2017 SSPL Team AUPAIR Opensource
by 이범진 11 Jan '18

11 Jan '18

Dear all, This is Beom-Jin Lee, and I was the team leader for AUPAIR at RoboCup@Home SSPL held in Nagoya 2017. I am emailing to inform RoboCup@Home researchers that we have finally open- sourced our AUPAIR package for everyone’s use. The AUPAIR package is a Perception-Action-Learning System (PALs) which is a multi-modular system incorporated with state-of-the-art deep learning techniques. By using the PALs for pepper, you can demonstrate all the functions we used for the RoboCup@Home SSPL competition. I hope this contribution may ease some difficulties for research groups intending to participate in the future Social Standard Platform Leagues. We tried to add detail descriptions for any beginners to understand the code, however, if anyone has questions, feel free to contact me. Link: <https://github.com/soseazi/pal_pepper> https://github.com/soseazi/pal_pepper Best regards, Beom-Jin Lee

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IEEE WCCI Workshop on Intelligent Assistive Computing
by Francisco Javier Cruz Naranjo 09 Jan '18

09 Jan '18

Workshop on Intelligent Assistive Computing at IEEE WCCI - July 8th, 2018 http://www.wac2018.ecomp.poli.br/ *First call for paper* We kindly invite you to submit your contributions to the workshop to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Assistive technologies have the goal to provide greater quality of life and independence in domestic environments by enhancing or changing the way people perform activities of daily living (ADLs), tailoring specific functionalities to the needs of the users. Significant advances have been made in intelligent adaptive technologies that adopt state-of-the-art learning systems applied to assistive and health-care-related domains. Prominent examples are fall detection systems that can detect domestic fall events through the use of wearable physiological sensors or non-invasive vision-based approaches, and body gait assessment for physical rehabilitation and the detection of abnormal body motion patterns, e.g., linked to age-related cognitive declines. In addition to an adequate sensor technology, such approaches require methods able to process rich streams of (often noisy) information with real-time performance. Assistive technology has been the focus of research in the past decades. However, it flourished in the past years with the fast development of personal robots, smart homes, and embedded systems. The focus of this workshop is to gather neural network researchers, both with application and development focus, working on or being interested in building and deploying such systems. Despite the high impact and application potential of assistive systems for the society, there is still a significant gap between what is developed by researchers and the applicability of such solutions in real-world scenarios. This workshop will discuss how to alleviate this gap with help of the latest neural network research such as deep, self-organizing, generative and recurrent neural models for adaptable lifelong learning applications. In this workshop, we aim at collecting novel methods, computational models, and experimental strategies for intelligent assistive systems such as body motion and behavior assessment, rehabilitation and assisted living technologies, multisensory frameworks, navigation assistance, affective computing, and more accessible human-computer interaction. The primary list of topics covers the following topics (but not limited to): - Machine learning and neural networks for assistive computing - Behavioral studies on assistive computing - Models of behavior processing and learning - New theories and findings on assistive computing - human-machine, human-agent and human-robot interaction focused on assistive computing - Brain-machine interfaces for assistive computing - Crossmodal models for assistive computing *Invited speakers* - Igor Farkas, Comenius University - Giulio Sandini, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) - Stefan Wermter, University of Hamburg *Call for contributions* Participants are required to submit a contribution as: - Extended abstract (maximum 2 pages) - Short paper (maximum 4 pages) Selected contributions will be presented during the workshop as spotlight talks and in a poster session. *Important dates* April 6, 2018 - Paper submission deadline May 4, 2018 - Notification of acceptance May 25, 2018 - Camera-ready version July 8, 2018 - Workshop *Organizers* Pablo Barros, University of Hamburg Francisco Cruz, Universidad Central de Chile German I. Parisi, University of Hamburg Bruno Fernandes, Universidade de Pernambuco See more details in: http://www.wac2018.ecomp.poli.br/ -- Dr. Francisco Cruz Research and Teaching Associate Universidad Central de Chile Santa Isabel 1186 8330601, Santiago Phone: +562 2582 6938 http://www.franciscocruz.cl

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Second Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Mauricio Matamoros 08 Jan '18

08 Jan '18

*Important Notice: *This second Call for Participation is open to all teams targeting all leagues, including those teams who missed the previous calls or didn't attain qualification. Teams that already submitted qualification material and were not accepted can resubmit an improved version of it. ------------------------------ Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2018 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 16 - June 22, 2018 (Montreal, Canada) http://www.robocup2018.org http://www.robocupathome.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 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 League 2018. Important dates: Nov. 22, 2017 Publication of the Call for Participation Dec. 31, 2017 Deadline for Intention of Participation Jan. 15, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 31, 2018 Qualification announcement Feb. 25, 2018 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 2018 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: [@Home2018-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 31th Dec. 2017 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 2018 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: [@Home2018-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. - 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: Monday, Jan. 15, 2018 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 2018 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/revokes its attendance to the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2018-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and may be banned from the 2019 event. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in their Team Video, but the use of the standard robot is advised. *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: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - TDP length is 8 pages + annex. - Photo(s) of the robot (in annex). - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV. In annex). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any (in annex). - *OPL Only:* Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (in annex). - *DSPL and SSPL:* When the robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video is different from the league's standard one, the TDP must clearly state how the addressed approach and described software will be adapted to the standard platform robot. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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: *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. Evaluation criteria: ================= Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. *Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Montreal, The 2018 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[CFP] ICAS 2018: Intelligent Autonomous Systems for the Future of Retail
by António J. R. Neves 08 Jan '18

08 Jan '18

Special track: *IASFR: Intelligent Autonomous Systems for the Future of Retail* ICAS 2018, 20--24 May, 2018 - Nice, France Fourteenth International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems http://www.iaria.org/conferences2018/ICAS18.html ************************************************************* [Apologies for any cross-posting] Dear Colleague, The Fourteenth International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems ICAS 2018, will take place next May in Nice, France and will include several special sessions, namely one on "Intelligent Autonomous Systems for the Future of Retail". The retail industry is experiencing what might be called a digital revolution, in which intelligent autonomous systems are reshaping traditional retail practices. Ubiquitous devices, either built as robots or, widely put, intelligent systems, are helping retailers realize the digitization potential of Internet of Things, by reducing labor costs, improving efficiency or delivering the most diverse customer experiences. As these systems become more autonomous, capable and cost effective, we are increasingly seeing them having a significant impact on almost every aspect of the retail chain, from internal operations to customer-facing service. Whether it is automating processes, improving shelf conditions and inventory accuracy, helping customers find what they are looking for or simply providing a fun experience, intelligent systems are on the rise and are playing an important role in current retail. Prospective authors are invited to submit original papers on topics including, but not limited to: - Warehouses and Distribution Centers - Store Surveillance - Customer Service - Smart Advertising - Customer Experience Enhancement *Important Deadlines* - Inform the Chairs: As soon as you decided to contribute - Submission: February 7, 2018 - Notification: March 7, 2018 - Registration: March 21, 2018 - Camera ready: April 2, 2018 Note: These deadlines are somewhat flexible, providing arrangements are made ahead of time with the chair. *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] *Paper Format* - See: http://www.iaria.org/format.html - Before submission, please check and comply with the editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html *Publications* - Extended versions of selected papers will be published in 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 *Paper Submission* - https://www.iariasubmit.org/conferences/submit/newcontributi on.php?event=ICAS+2018+Special - Please select Track Preference as IASFR *Registration* - Each accepted paper needs at least one full registration, before the camera-ready manuscript can be included in the proceedings. - Registration fees are available at http://www.iaria.org/registration.html *Contacts Chairs:* - Alina Trifan, alina.trifan(a)ua.pt - Antonio José Ribeiro Neves, an(a)ua.pt - SIGNAL logistics, steve(a)iaria.org Best regards, Alina Trifan Antonio Neves

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[CFP] SIGNAL 2018 - Body Language Estimation through Computer Vision
by António J. R. Neves 08 Jan '18

08 Jan '18

Special track: *BLECV: Body Language Estimation through Computer Vision* SIGNAL 2018, 20--24 May, 2018 - Nice, France Third International Conference on Advances in Signal, Image and Video Processing http://www.iaria.org/conferences2018/SIGNAL18.html ************************************************************* [Apologies for any cross-posting] Dear Colleague, The Third International Conference on Advances in Signal, Image and Video Processing , SIGNAL 2018, will take place next May in Nice, France and will include several special sessions, namely one on "Body Language Estimation through Computer Vision". As humans, we can often understand a lot about a person by just looking at him/her. Their facial expression, posture, eye focus and gestures can say a lot without any words being employed. In the recent years lots of effort is being conducted towards implementing this capability through machine vision. The problem that computer vision for body language is trying to tackle is a very complex one, but progress is being made. We aim at empowering machines with this “sense” of understanding the mood, intention and eventually future actions of a person through visual cues. This capability could ease human-machine interactions and pave the way for more interactive virtual reality or intuitive user interfaces, as well as human robot interaction, among others. For this special track, we expect contributions on Computer Vision approaches for the following related topics, but not limited to: - Pose Estimation - Emotion Detection - Face Recognition and Tracking - Human Robot Interaction - Virtual and Augmented Reality Based on Body Detection *Important Deadlines* - Inform the Chairs: As soon as you decided to contribute - Submission: February 7, 2018 - Notification: March 7, 2018 - Registration: March 21, 2018 - Camera ready: April 2, 2018 Note: These deadlines are somewhat flexible, providing arrangements are made ahead of time with the chair. *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] *Paper Format* - See: http://www.iaria.org/format.html - Before submission, please check and comply with the editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html *Publications* - Extended versions of selected papers will be published in 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 *Paper Submission* - https://www.iariasubmit.org/conferences/submit/newcontribu tion.php?event=SIGNAL+2018+Special - Please select Track Preference as BLECV *Registration* - Each accepted paper needs at least one full registration, before the camera-ready manuscript can be included in the proceedings. - Registration fees are available at http://www.iaria.org/registration.html *Contacts Chairs:* - Antonio José Ribeiro Neves, an(a)ua.pt - Alina Trifan, alina.trifan(a)ua.pt - SIGNAL logistics, steve(a)iaria.org Best regards, Antonio Neves Alina Trifan

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Fwd: RoboCup German Open 2018: Registration is open
by Sven Wachsmuth 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

-------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht -------- Betreff: RoboCup German Open 2018: Registration is open Datum: Mon, 16 Oct 2017 11:30:43 +0200 Von: RoboCup German Open 2018 <info(a)robocupgermanopen.de> Antwort an: RoboCup German Open 2018 <info(a)robocupgermanopen.de> An: RoboCup German Open 2018 <info(a)robocupgermanopen.de> Dear team leader, we are happy to announce, that the registration for the 16th RoboCup German Open 2018 has been opened at https://robocupgermanopen.de/en/major/teaminfos. Please see the call for participation below. The registration deadline is December 15, 2017. We hope to meet all of you and new teams in Magdeburg. Best regards, Ansgar (on behalf of the Major OC) --------------------------------------------------------------------- RoboCup German Open 2018 Call for Participation https://robocupgermanopen.de 27 - 29 April 2018 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2018 will be the 16th 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 2017 ***. The registration deadline is *** 15 December 2017 ***. Visit https://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, Raphael Memmetsheimer (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) -- RoboCup Junior ---------------------------------------------------- The German RoboCup Junior qualification for RoboCup 2018 is performed in two steps. German teams qualify in seven local tournaments in Bad Zwischenahn, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Mannheim, Sankt Augustin and Vöhringen for the final of the 18th German RoboCup Junior Championship which is held within the RoboCup German Open 2018. The best Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2018 in Canada. -- Important dates -------------------------------------------------- 15.09.2017 Publication of Call for Participation 15.10.2017 Registration opens 15.12.2017 Registration deadline RoboCup Major teams 15.02.2018 Registration deadline team members with names 15.04.2018 Registration fee due 25.04.2018 Set-up day Major League teams 26.04.2018 Set-up day Major League teams 27.04.2018 Competition day (open to public) 28.04.2018 Competition day (open to public) 29.04.2018 Competition day, finals (open to public) Please contact info(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions. See you all again at the 16th RoboCup German Open 2018! Best regards, Ansgar Bredenfeld (Chair RoboCup German Open) RoboCup German Open is organized on behalf of the German RoboCup Committee by Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg and Dr. Bredenfeld UG. -- Besten Gruß Das RoboCup German Open Orga-Team 2018

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[@Home-CFP] Second Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
by Mauricio Matamoros 23 Nov '17

23 Nov '17

[Source: http://www.robocupathome.org/call-for-participation/cfp-all-2018] *Important Notice: *This second Call for Participation is open to all teams targeting all leagues, including those teams who missed the previous calls or didn't attain qualification. Teams that already submitted qualification material and were not accepted can resubmit an improved version of it. ------------------------------ Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2018 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 16 - June 22, 2018 (Montreal, Canada) http://www.robocup2018.org http://www.robocupathome.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 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 League 2018. Important dates: Nov. 22, 2017 Publication of the Call for Participation Dec. 31, 2017 Deadline for Intention of Participation Jan. 15, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 31, 2018 Qualification announcement Feb. 25, 2018 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 2018 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: [@Home2018-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 31th Dec. 2017 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 2018 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: [@Home2018-Participation] (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. - 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: Monday, Jan. 15, 2018 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 2018 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/revokes its attendance to the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2018-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and may be banned from the 2019 event. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in their Team Video, but the use of the standard robot is advised. *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: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - TDP length is 8 pages + annex. - Photo(s) of the robot (in annex). - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV. In annex). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any (in annex). - *OPL Only:* Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (in annex). - *DSPL and SSPL:* When the robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video is different from the league's standard one, the TDP must clearly state how the addressed approach and described software will be adapted to the standard platform robot. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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: *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. Evaluation criteria: ================= Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. *Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Montreal, The 2018 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[journals] RAS special issue: Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR)
by Karinne Ramirez Amaro 15 Nov '17

15 Nov '17

********************************************************************************************** **** Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Issue on Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots*** ********************************************************************************************** ----Call for Papers--- It is our pleasure to announce the Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) special issue on Semantic Policy and Action Representations for Autonomous Robots (SPAR). This special issue is a follow-up outcome of two successful IROS workshops held in 2015 and 2017. We would like to invite all interested researchers to submit their papers in the areas of reasoning, perception, control, planning, and learning applied to robotic systems. ***RAS-SPAR Special issue URL*** http://www.ics.ei.tum.de/en/www.ics.ei.tum.de/workshopiros/ras-special-issu… Contact email: spar.workshop(a)gmail.com *** Important Dates ***: Paper submission deadline: 25th March 2018 Notification of acceptance: 15th June 2018 Final Submission: 3rd August 2018 Publication date: September 2018 *** Special issue objectives *** Service and industrial robots are expected to be more autonomous and work effectively around/ alongside humans. This implies that robots should have special capabilities, such as interpreting and understanding human intentions in different domains. The major challenge is to find appropriate mechanisms to explain the observed raw sensor signals such as poses, velocities, distances, forces, etc., in a way that robots are able to make informative and high-level descriptive models out of that. These models will, for instance, permit the understanding of, what is the meaning of the observations/demonstrations, infer how they could generate/produce a similar behavior in other conditions/domains?, and more importantly, allow robots to communicate with the user/operator about why they infer that behavior. One promising way to achieve that is using high-level semantic representations. Several methods have been proposed, for example, linguistic approaches, syntactic approaches, graphical models, etc. This special issue is focused on highlighting the recent developments in semantic reasoning representations and semantic policy generation from low level (sensory signal) to high level (planning and execution). More importantly, this special issue will gather information about various bottom-up and top-down approaches for semantic action perception and executions in different domains. Furthermore, we are aiming to compare various state-of-the-art approaches for generic action and reasoning representations in both computer vision and robotic communities, looking for a common ground to combine assumable different approaches for autonomous capability and reliability. Overall, this special issue aims to present the main benefits of this new emerging type of methods such as allowing robots to learn generalized semantic models for different domains as well as the next breakthrough topics in this area, e.g. the scalability of the learned models that can adapt to new scenarios/domains in a way that the robot can transfer all the acquired knowledge and experience from existing data to new domains with very little human intervention. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: *AI-Based Methods --Learning and adaptive systems & Probability and statistical methods --Action grammars/libraries & Spatiotemporal event encoding --Machine learning techniques for semantic representations *Reasoning Methods in Robotics and Automation --Signal to symbol transition (Symbol grounding) & Different levels of abstraction --Semantics of manipulation actions & Semantic policy representation --Context modeling methods *Human Behavior Recognition --Learning from demonstration & Object-action relations --Bottom-up and top-down perception *Task, Geometric, and Dynamic Level Plans and Policies --PDDL high-level planning & Task and motion planning methods *Human-Robot interaction --Prediction of human intentions & Linking linguistic and visual data *** Guest editors *** Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Technical University of Munich, https://www.ics.ei.tum.de/people/ramirez Yezhou Yang, Arizona State University, USA, https://yezhouyang.engineering.asu.edu Neil T. Dantam, Colorado School of Mines, USA, http://www.neil.dantam.name/ Eren Erdal Aksoy, Lund University, Sweden, http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lucat/user/er0201ak Gordon Cheng, Technical University of Munich, https://www.ics.ei.tum.de/en/people/cheng -- Dr.-Ing. Karinne Ramirez Amaro Institute for Cognitive Systems Technische Universitaet Muenchen Address: Karlstr. 45, 2.OG. 80333 Munich, Germany Room: 2008 Web page: http://web.ics.ei.tum.de/~karinne/Ramirez/index.html email: karinne.ramirez(a)tum.de Telephone: +49-89-289-26791

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Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2017 @ RCAP 2017
by Jeffrey Tan 17 Oct '17

17 Oct '17

=== RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2017 @ RCAP 2017 === December 12 ~ 18, 2017 Bangkok, Thailand http://www.robocupathomeedu.org <<Introduction>> RoboCup@Home Education is a special education program providing support for new teams in the context of a simplified RoboCup@Home competition oriented on forming new teams and preparing them to the main competitions. After running successfully for 3 years in RoboCup Japan Open 2015, 2016, 2017, the RoboCup@Home Education Challenge will be hosted in RoboCup Asia-Pacific 2017 [http://www.robocup-ap2017.org]. With the educational purpose and to promote new team participation, robot building workshop sessions will be conducted before the competition to facilitate inexperienced teams. - Workshop and Setup: December 12 ~ 14, 2017 - Competition: December 15 ~ 17, 2017 For more details and competition rules, please visit http://www.robocupathomeedu.org/challenges/robocup-home-education-challenge… <<How to Participate>> 1. Interested teams are required to apply by sending an email with the following information to the Organizing Committee oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org - Team Name: - Country/Region: - Affiliation: - Team Leader Name: - E-mail: The e-mail subject should be: [@HomeEDU2017] (Your Team Name) 2. A registration code will be sent to the e-mail above to proceed the registration at http://www.robocup-ap2017.org/en/registration.php <<Important Dates>> Application: October 10 - November 10, 2017 Registration: October 10 - December 8, 2017 Please visit the official website for more information. You can contact us via oc(a)robocupathomeedu.org Best Regards, RoboCup@Home Education Challenge 2017 Organizing Committee

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[@Home2018] Call for Participation: Open Platform League
by Mauricio Matamoros 12 Oct '17

12 Oct '17

Call for Participation RoboCup@Home Open Platform League 2018 June 16 - June 22, 2018 (Montreal, Canada) http://www.robocup2018.org http://www.robocupathome.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook *Note:* The qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2018 will be differentiated for the three sub-leagues (OPL, DSPL, SSPL) to better accommodate different organization needs. For each call please visit http://www.robocupathome.org/. --------------------------------------------- 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 League 2018. Important dates: Sept. 22, 2017 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 15, 2017 Deadline for Intention of Participation Nov. 5, 2017 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 26, 2017 Qualification announcement Feb. 25, 2018 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 2018 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: League: Open Platform League 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: [@Home2018-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 15th Oct. 2017 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 2018 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: Open Platform League 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: [@Home2018-Participation] (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. - 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, Nov. 5, 2017 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 2018 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: Open Platform League Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] confirms/revokes its attendance to the RoboCup@Home Open Platform League. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2018-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark:* Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018 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" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> *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 as we find convenient. Instructions for the TDP ======================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - Photo(s) of the robot (in annex). - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV. In annex). - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (in annex). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any (in annex). For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. 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 Evaluation criteria: ================= Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. *Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/ RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Montreal, The 2018 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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RCAP2017 @HOME League Qualified team announcement
by Dr. KANJANAPAN SUKVICHAI 12 Oct '17

12 Oct '17

Dear @Home Teams, As the LOC of RCAP2017, I am glad to announce the qualified team who qualified for participating in the RoboCup Asia Pacific 2017 RoboCup@Home League. Here is the list of qualified teams: @Home Open Platform & EDU * DONGYANG Thailand * KameRider OPL China * Machinilog Pakistan * MRL@home Iran * Skuba JR Thailand * Sun@Home China @Home Social Standard Platform * Center for Robolution India * KameRider SSPL China Our general qualifying process is based on the team qualification materials (Videos & TDP). Qualified Team Videos show robots solving complex tasks that require full integration of most abilities used in @Home Teams the registration code, visa info., invitation letter and etc, will be provided by RCAP 2017 office (info(a)robocup-ap2017.org [1] ) See you in Bangkok Thank you, -- Dr. KANJANAPAN SUKVICHAI RoboCitizen Laboratory. Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Kasetsart University. Links: ------ [1] mailto:info@robocup-ap2017.org

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Call for Participation: RoboCup@Home Social Standard Platform League 2018 - Deadline October 15, 2017
by Luca Iocchi 09 Oct '17

09 Oct '17

Dear @Home teams, if you are interested in participating in RoboCup@Home 2018 Social Standard Platform League (with SoftBank Pepper robot) in Montreal, please remind that the deadline to submit the qualification material is ***October 15, 2017*** More details are available in http://www.robocupathome.org/cfp-sspl-2018 Best regards, Luca Iocchi (on behalf of RoboCup@Home OC)

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Announcement of Qualified teams for the RoboCup Asia Pacific 2017 (RCAP2017) @Home Open Platform League.
by Dr. KANJANAPAN SUKVICHAI 03 Oct '17

03 Oct '17

Dear @Home Teams, As the LOC of RCAP2017, I glad to announce the qualified team who qualified for participating in the RoboCup Asia Pacific 2017 @Home Open Platform League. Here is the list of qualified teams: * DONGYANG Thailand * KameRider OPL China * Machinilog Pakistan * MRL@home Iran * Skuba JR Thailand * Sun@Home China Our general qualifying process is based on the team qualification materials (Videos & TDP). Qualified Team Videos show robots solving complex tasks that require full integration of most abilities used in @Home -- Dr. KANJANAPAN SUKVICHAI RoboCitizen Laboratory. Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Kasetsart University.

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