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

20 Feb '24

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

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

08 Feb '24

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

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

05 Feb '24

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. Important dates: Jan. 09, 2024 Publication of the 2nd Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2024 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 29, 2024 Qualification announcement Mar. 12, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

02 Feb '24

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

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

01 Feb '24

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

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[meetings][CFP] HRI Workshop on Human - Large Language Model Interaction
by Hernandez Garcia, Daniel 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

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

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

31 Jan '24

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

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

23 Jan '24

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

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RoboCup Early Visa Invitation Letters
by 2024＠robocup.org 22 Jan '24

22 Jan '24

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

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

21 Jan '24

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

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

18 Jan '24

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

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[Meetings] [CfP] HRI 2024 Workshop on “Scarecrows in Oz: LLMs in HRI”
by Nick DePalma 15 Jan '24

15 Jan '24

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

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

09 Jan '24

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. Important dates: Jan. 09, 2024 Publication of the 2nd Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2024 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 29, 2024 Qualification announcement Mar. 12, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp2-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

05 Jan '24

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

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

01 Jan '24

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

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

22 Dec '23

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

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

04 Dec '23

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

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

23 Nov '23

Please remind the on-coming deadline at Nov. 27 2023! First Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ <https://athome.robocup.org/> https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention (optional). Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation Further information is published in the Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

20 Nov '23

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

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

14 Nov '23

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

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

07 Nov '23

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

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

27 Oct '23

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2024. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2024 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, October. 30, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Only one platform can be specified per team. * Only one team leader can be specified per team. * Only one team video url can be specified per team. * Only one contact email can be specified per team. * All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, Nov. 27, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark:*Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP. /***** Deadline: Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. *Remarks:* * The video should not exceed the average time for a test (max. 10min) * The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. * When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. * The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Selected videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:*Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:*It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving complex tasks relevant for @Home that exceed the minimum requirements. This may be inspired by any of the Stage II tests of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 rulebooks. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: * TDP o Group’s research focus and interests. o Innovative technology and scientific contribution + Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups + Please specify when you are using software from other teams o Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) + The impact of your research must be clearly visible o Maximum length is*8 pages*(including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is*****8 pages + annex*****(any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:*The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use theSpringer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> (http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0) used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You maydownload a template for the TDP from <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate *Remark:*The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: * Photos of the robot(s) * Videos of the robot(s) * Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements * Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) * Link to repositories with software for the community * Team members * Previous participation in RoboCup * Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments * Links to the qualification materials (TDP, Video) for the oncoming RoboCup *Remark:*No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark:*Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, completeness, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) * Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. * Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) * Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) * Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) * Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers, focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees Call for Participation: https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/ <https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/>

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

12 Oct '23

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2024 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 15 to 21, 2024 (Eindhoven, Netherlands) https://2024.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://athome.robocup.org/2024-cfp1-all/ <https://athome.robocup.org/> https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2024. Important dates: Oct. 12, 2023 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2023 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 08, 2024 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2024 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2024 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, October. 30, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Only one platform can be specified per team. * Only one team leader can be specified per team. * Only one team video url can be specified per team. * Only one contact email can be specified per team. * All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Monday, Nov. 27, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2024 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be:[@Home2024-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark:*Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP. /***** Deadline: Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. *Remarks:* * The video should not exceed the average time for a test (max. 10min) * The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. * When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. * The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Selected videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:*Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:*It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving complex tasks relevant for @Home that exceed the minimum requirements. This may be inspired by any of the Stage II tests of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 rulebooks. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: * TDP o Group’s research focus and interests. o Innovative technology and scientific contribution + Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups + Please specify when you are using software from other teams o Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) + The impact of your research must be clearly visible o Maximum length is*8 pages*(including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is*****8 pages + annex*****(any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:*The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use theSpringer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0>(http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0) used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You maydownload a template for the TDP from https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark:*The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: * Photos of the robot(s) * Videos of the robot(s) * Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements * Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) * Link to repositories with software for the community * Team members * Previous participation in RoboCup * Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments * Links to the qualification materials (TDP, Video) for the oncoming RoboCup *Remark:*No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark:*Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, completeness, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) * Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. * Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) * Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) * Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) * Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers, focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Eindhoven, The 2024 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees Call for Participation <https://athome.robocup.org/category/cfp/>,Domestic Standard Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/dspl/>,Leagues <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/>,Open Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/opl/>,Social Standard Platform League <https://athome.robocup.org/category/leagues/sspl/>

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

03 Oct '23

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

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

10 Aug '23

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

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

05 Aug '23

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

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

28 Jul '23

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

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

27 Jul '23

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

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

13 Jul '23

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

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Group photo
by Okada Hiroyuki 13 Jul '23

13 Jul '23

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

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

05 Jul '23

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

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

02 Jul '23

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

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

02 Jul '23

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

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

02 Jul '23

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

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RoboCup Brazil Open 2023
by Patricia Vergara 29 Jun '23

29 Jun '23

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

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

29 Mar '23

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

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

21 Mar '23

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

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[meetings] [CFP] RO-MAN 2023 Special Session on “HRI in Academia and Industry: Bridging the Gap”
by Ross Mead 08 Mar '23

08 Mar '23

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

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

15 Feb '23

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

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

14 Feb '23

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

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

11 Feb '23

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

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

21 Jan '23

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

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

21 Jan '23

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

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

21 Jan '23

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

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

14 Jan '23

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp2-all/ Apologies for duplicates ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Second Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023, second term. Important dates: Jan. 9, 2023 Publication of the Second Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 12, 2023 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Only one platform can be specified per team. * Only one team leader can be specified per team. * Only one team video url can be specified per team. * Only one contact email can be specified per team. * All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. * Emails with attachments over 8MB bounce automatically. *IMPORTANT:* Teams that didn't obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. /***** Deadline: Sunday, February 12, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. *Remarks:* * The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. * When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. * The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams must use the standard robot in their Team Video. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: * TDP o Group's research focus and interests. o Innovative technology and scientific contribution + Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups + Please specify when you are using software from other teams o Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) + The impact of your research must be clearly visible o Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: * Photos of the robot(s) * Videos of the robot(s) * Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements * Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) * Link to repositories with software for the community * Team members * Previous participation in RoboCup * Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) * Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. * Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) * Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) * Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) * Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

12 Jan '23

Online Version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp2-all/ Apologies for duplicates. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Second Call for Participation ============================== RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light condi- tions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integra- tion, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023, second term. Important dates: Jan. 9, 2023 Publication of the Second Call for Participation Feb. 12, 2023 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 12, 2023 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: The Team Description Paper (TDP) shall be attached to the email and be based on the official template. Please mind the 8MB limit of the mailing list. Teams are allowed to provide an alternate download link to their hi-quality TDP. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Qualification](YourTeamName) Considerations: — Only one platform can be specified per team. — Only one team leader can be specified per team. — Only one team video url can be specified per team. — Only one contact email can be specified per team. — All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website. — The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. — Emails with attachments over 8MB bounce automatically. IMPORTANT: Teams that didn’t obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. **** Deadline: Sunday, February 12, 2023 23:59 GMT ***** Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== Instructions for the Team Video: -------------------------------- In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year’s rulebook. Remarks: — The task executed must look continuous, smooth, and robust. — When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. — The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. If any other languages are used, translations must be included. — We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. — Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” — Standard Platforms Only: Teams must use the standard robot in their Team Video. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicit- ly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia ma- terial to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ------------------------ The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: — TDP + Group’s research focus and interests. + Innovative technology and scientific contribution § Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups § Please specify when you are using software from other teams + Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) The impact of your research must be clearly visible + Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations) — Annex + Photo(s) of the robot + Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) + Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any + Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) + Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions + Annex should be appended after the References + There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged — TDP length is ****8 pages + annex**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). — DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding 8 pages automatically voids your application ***** Instructions for the Web site ----------------------------- While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: — Photos of the robot(s) — Videos of the robot(s) — Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements — Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) — Link to repositories with software for the community — Team members — Previous participation in RoboCup — Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: -------------------------------------- In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: — Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) — Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. — Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) — Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) — Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) — Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

03 Jan '23

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

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

27 Nov '22

*First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023. Important dates: Oct. 16, 2022 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2022 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2022 Deadline for submission of qualification material. *Dec. 11, 2022* *Deadline for submission of qualification material. EXTENDED.* *(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).* Jan. 9, 2023 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2023 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2023 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Please keep your team names short. - Only one league can be specified per team. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, October. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. * **** Deadline: Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. *Remarks:* - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations as closed captions must be included. - We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2022 rulebooks. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group’s research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups - Please specify when you are using software from other teams - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any - Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions - Annex should be appended after the References - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged - TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

16 Oct '22

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2023-cfp1-all/ *First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2023 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 6th–11th 2023 (Bordeaux, France) https://2023.robocup.org https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2023. Important dates: Oct. 16, 2022 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 30, 2022 Deadline for submission of participation intention. Nov. 27, 2022 Deadline for submission of qualification material. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Jan. 9, 2023 Qualification announcement Jan. 29, 2023 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Participation Intention Submission (advised) Teams are invited to send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) stating their intention to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Hereby team [Your Team Name] expresses its intention of taking part in the 2023 RoboCup@Home. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Participation] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Please keep your team names short. * Only one league can be specified per team. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Sunday, October. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Only one platform can be specified per team. * Only one team leader can be specified per team. * Only one team video url can be specified per team. * Only one contact email can be specified per team. * All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. * The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. /***** Deadline: Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022 23:59 GMT ******/ Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (rc-home-oc[at]lists.robocup.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2023 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2023-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation automatically waiver participation, freeing their for the Second Call for Participation. Teams can resubmit materials during the Second CFP /***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 23:59 GMT ******/ Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. *Remarks:* * The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. * When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. * The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations as closed captions must be included. * We strongly suggest captioning the videos, particularly for the robot speech and participants with strong accents. * We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. * Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> * *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams ***MUST*** use the standard robot in their Team Video. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2022 rulebooks. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: * TDP o Group's research focus and interests. o Innovative technology and scientific contribution + Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups + Please specify when you are using software from other teams o Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) + The impact of your research must be clearly visible o Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) * Annex o Photo(s) of the robot o Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) o Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any o Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) o Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions o Annex should be appended after the References o There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged * TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). * *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: * Photos of the robot(s) * Videos of the robot(s) * Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements * Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) * Link to repositories with software for the community * Team members * Previous participation in RoboCup * Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) * Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. * Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) * Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) * Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) * Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2023 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

01 Sep '22

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

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