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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 26 Oct '19

26 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 10 Aug '19

10 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 26 Apr '19

26 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 12 Jan '19

12 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 11 Jan '19

11 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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