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

27 May '20

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

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

17 Mar '20

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

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

10 Mar '20

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

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

05 Mar '20

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

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

21 Feb '20

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

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

15 Feb '20

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

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

12 Feb '20

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

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

11 Feb '20

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

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

11 Feb '20

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

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

05 Feb '20

The Department of Informatics, Knowledge Technology Institute invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Knowledge Technology for Intelligent Systems - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - As a University of Excellence, the University of Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on 1 March 2020 or as soon as possible. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 100% of standard work hours per week. Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate´s own academic work. Specific Duties: The successful candidate will contribute to teaching related to the Knowledge Technology Institute (4hrs/teaching week), in particular to Data-driven Intelligent Systems, but also to Research Methods or Bio-inspired Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to conduct research in the area of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems, in particular Neural Networks and Human-Robot Interaction. PhD candidates have the opportunity to advance their academic education through the completion of a doctoral dissertation. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Academic degree in computer science qualifying the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. In particular, an MSc or equivalent in the area of Intelligent Systems is desired. Your demonstrated research interests should be in the areas of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Intelligent Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Vision, or Hybrid Knowledge Representation etc). Publication experience is desirable. We are looking for very good communication skills and evidence for teamwork. A very good command of both German and English is a requirement for teaching and research. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg promotes equal opportunity. As women are currently underrepresented in this job category at Universit„t Hamburg according to the evaluation conducted under the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HambGleiG), we encourage women to apply for this position. Equally qualified and suitable female applicants will receive preference. Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter (wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website at https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, language certificates German and English, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15 February 2020 or before the position gets filled to: Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document . Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. Any documents sub-mitted will be destroyed after the application process has concluded. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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

22 Jan '20

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2020-cfp2-all/ Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) ====================================== June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2020, second term. Important dates: Dec. 20, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Jan. 26, 2020 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. EXTENDED (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Feb. 02, 2020 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of a single step: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2020 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2020-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. IMPORTANT: Teams that didn't obtain qualification during the first CFP are allowed to submit their improved materials, addressing the comments from the reviewers. **** Deadline: Sunday, January 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Participation confirmation Teams qualified during the Second Call for Participation do not require to confirm attendance. Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): No new teams will be elegible for standard robot acquisition in the Second Call for Participation. Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" - Standard Platforms Only: Teams must use the standard robot in their Team Video. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups - Please specify when you are using software from other teams - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations) - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions - Annex should be appended after the References - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged - TDP length is ****8 pages + annex**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this Second Call for Participation, all open participation slots will be assigned. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. The number of open participation slots varies per league with a saturation number of 12 teams per league Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

16 Dec '19

======================================================================= (Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement) ======================================================================= ======================================================================= *** 1st CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *** *** Registrations are already open! *** ======================================================================= Robotica 2020 - 20th Portuguese Robotics Open http://robotica2020.uac.pt/ April 15-19, 2016 Ponta Delgada, Portugal The Portuguese Robotics Open is a RoboCup Event that aims at promoting Science and Technology among students from the 1st grade to university studies, as well among the general public, through robotic competitions. We would like to invite you to participate in the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open which will take place during April 15-19, 2020, at Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal. If you are interested in participating, please pre-register your team and follow the procedure as outlined below. == Competitions == The following competitions are offered for the 20th Portuguese Robotics Open: Major Competitions -- RoboCup Middle Size League -- RoboCup 2D Simulation League -- RoboCup 3D Simulation League -- Autonomous Driving Competition -- RoboCup@Factory -- Robot@Factory Lite -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Competition Junior Competitions -- RoboCup Junior OnStage -- RoboCup Junior Soccer -- RoboCup Junior Rescue (Line, Maze, Simulation) -- Robot@Factory Lite -- First Challenger -- FreeBots & Ocean Freebots Junior Competition The rules of RoboCup competitions will be based on the RoboCup 2019 rules for each League. All competition rules are available selecting competitions from the menu at http://robotica2020.uac.pt. == Schedule == Early Registration deadline: March 10th, 2020 Late registration deadline: March 17th, 2020 Portuguese Robotics Open: April 15-19th, 2020 All deadlines are 23:59 GMT. == Registration == Registration is performed through the online form, available at: http://robotica2020.uac.pt/?page_id=50&lang=en (click at 'Access to register form' at the top of the page) Registration Fees: - Major Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 5 team members - 260 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 5 team members - 300 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 50 Euros (no limit of extra members) - Junior Leagues fee per team: -- Until March 10th (early) - 1 tutor + 4 members - 120 Euros‚ -- After March 10th - 1 tutor + 4 members - 130 Euros‚ -- Additional team member: 40 Euros‚ (limited to 2 extra members) Scientific meeting - SPR / IEEE members -- Until March 16th - 300 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 350 Euros‚ - Non-Member -- Until March 16th - 350 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 400 Euros‚ - Student -- Until March 16th - 250 Euros‚ -- After March 16th - 300 Euros‚ == Description and History == The Portuguese Robotics Open (also known as Festival Nacional de Robótica) had its 1st edition in 2001. The event has had enormous growth since the 1st edition, both in the number of teams, participants and visitors and also includes an international IEEE conference where national an international researchers present their latest work in the field of Robotics (http://icarsc2020.uac.pt/). The 20th edition of the Portuguese Robotics Open will be held in Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel - Azores, Portugal, on April 15-19, 2020. Ponta Delgada is situated on the beautiful island of S. Miguel, Azores. It is the largest municipality and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The Azores is an archipelago of nine islands on the northeast, at the Atlantic Ocean. The main touristic attractions are the whale watching and the different lakes in the large volcanic craters of Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas. The airport of Ponta Delgada is very close to the city (10 minutes by car). Daily regular flights from Lisbon are from TAP - Air Portugal, SATA - Air Azores and Ryanair. There are also direct connections to some other cities of Europe (more or less, once a week). == Hoping to see you visiting Azores == The Portuguese Robotics Open is currently an initiative of Portuguese Society of Robotics. Hoping to see you at the Portuguese Robotics Open! Kind Regards, The Portuguese Robotics Open Organizing Committee Manuel Silva Professor Adjunto Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica [http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/EMAIL_ISEP.png]<http://www2.isep.ipp.pt/assinatura_email/> ISEP | Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431 4249-015 Porto - PORTUGAL tel. +351 228 340 500 | fax +351 228 321 159 mail(a)isep.ipp.pt | www.isep.ipp.pt<http://www.isep.ipp.pt>

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[jobs] Neural Network models for language and interactive robots
by Wermter, Stefan 10 Dec '19

10 Dec '19

The Department of Informatics, Institute of Knowledge Technology, invites applications for multiple positions as RESEARCH ASSOCIATES (Postdocs and PhD Students) in the context of the project CROSSMODAL LEARNING: Neural network models for language and interactive robots. Positions commence from January 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter and are in accordance with Section 28 subsection 3 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) on SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L. These are fixed-term contracts in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The term is fixed for up to 4 years until 31st of December 2023. The full-time positions call for 39 hours per week. Responsibilities: Duties include academic services in the project named above. Research associates may also pursue independent research and further academic qualifications. Specific Duties: Duties in the project include the design, development and evaluation of neurocognitive models of crossmodal language learning as well as neurorobotic models for crossmodal joint attention and social interaction. The overall project aims to deepen interdisciplinary research between computer science, neuroscience, and psychology in order to set up collaborative research with a focus on human-robot-collaboration, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and psychology while focusing on the topic of cross-modal learning. The long-term challenge is to understand the neural, cognitive and computational evidence of cross-modal learning and to use this understanding for (1) better analyzing human performance with cross-modal correspondence and (2) building effective cross-modal computational and robot systems. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant subject. For doctoral positions, academic degree of MSc in computer science, computer engineering or similar. For post-doctoral positions, a doctorate, or equivalently the experience of more than three years of doctoral studies plus publications in the area of Intelligent Systems are required. The degree must qualify the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned duties. Programming skills in some of Python, C, ROS, Tensorflow or PyTorch are required. Your demonstrated research interests should be in some of the areas of Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Robotics, Machine Learning, Speech, Vision, or Affective Processing). International publication experience is expected. Very good communication skills in English are expected. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. As a University of Excellence, Universität Hamburg is one of the strongest research universities in Germany. As a flagship university in the greater Hamburg region, it nurtures innovative, cooperative contacts to partners within and outside academia. It also provides and promotes sustainable education, knowledge, and knowledge exchange locally, nationally, and internationally. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter or consult our website at: https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/ Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, pdf of best publications, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 15.01.2020 or until the post gets filled to Ms Katja Koesters (katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) in a single pdf document. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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

08 Dec '19

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

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

29 Nov '19

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

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

18 Nov '19

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

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

31 Oct '19

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

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

25 Oct '19

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

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

23 Oct '19

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

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

08 Oct '19

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

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

04 Oct '19

First Call for Participation RoboCup at Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup at Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup at Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup at Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. Note for experienced participants: Included in the Rulebook is a standard object list. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup at Home League 2020. Important dates: Oct. 4, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 27, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2019 Qualification announcement Jan. 19, 2020 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc atrobocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org> <http://robocupathome.org>) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup at Home 2020 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) ============================================== All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org> <http://robocupathome.org>) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup at Home 2020 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup at Home [League]. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) Remark: Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ====================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. Remark: Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== Instructions for the Team Video ------------------------------- In order to prove a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. It is Highly Recommend to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We will only accept Youtube Video or a direct download link that has no country protection - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists - *Standard Platforms Only:* New teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. Copyright note: When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ------------------------ The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups. - Please specify when you are using software from other teams. - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations). - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV.). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any. - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only). - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions. - Annex should be appended after the References. - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged. - TDP length is ****8 pages + annex**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format<http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP fromhttps://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note: All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application ***** Instructions for the Web site ----------------------------- While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: -------------------------------------- In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criteria will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (scientific contributions), re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from the last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to seeing your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees _______________________________________________ robocup-athome mailing listrobocup-athome@lists.robocup.orghttp://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome

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

04 Oct '19

First Call for Participation RoboCup at Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France) https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup at Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup at Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup at Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. Note for experienced participants: Included in the Rulebook is a standard object list. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup at Home League 2020. Important dates: Oct. 4, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation Oct. 27, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2019 Qualification announcement Jan. 19, 2020 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) ===================================================== The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup at Home 2020 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) ============================================== All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup at Home 2020 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup at Home [League]. The email subject should be: [@Home2020-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) Remark: Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ====================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. Remark: Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material =========================================== Instructions for the Team Video ------------------------------- In order to prove a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. It is Highly Recommend to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We will only accept Youtube Video or a direct download link that has no country protection - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists - *Standard Platforms Only:* New teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. Copyright note: When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ------------------------ The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups. - Please specify when you are using software from other teams. - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations). - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV.). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any. - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only). - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions. - Annex should be appended after the References. - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged. - TDP length is ****8 pages + annex**** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note: All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application ***** Instructions for the Web site ----------------------------- While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: -------------------------------------- In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criteria will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (scientific contributions), re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from the last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to seeing your team in Bordeaux, The 2020 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

16 Sep '19

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

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

02 Sep '19

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

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

24 Aug '19

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

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

22 Aug '19

The Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences / Department of Informatics invites applications for a RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Ego-Noise Reduction for Interactive Robots - SALARY LEVEL 13 TV-L - The position in accordance with Section 28 subsection 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) commences on the earliest possible date. This is a fixed term contract in accordance with Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The position calls for 75% of standard work hours per week. (Full-time positions currently comprise 39 hours per week.) Responsibilities: Research associates will be expected primarily to teach and conduct research. The research associate will also have the opportunity to pursue further academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation. At least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the research associate’s own academic work. Specific Duties: The candidate will work in the Signal Processing and the Knowledge Technology groups and will do research on modern methods for single and multichannel speech enhancement for human-robot interfaces. The particular task is to take the specific ego-noise of an interactive robot into account, such as the sound of the motors and the cooling systems of specific robotic platforms. Teaching duties are expected to be 3 hours/week at the BSc Informatics level. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant field. Examples are Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics or Electrical Engineering. We require the candidate to have excellent knowledge in signal processing and neural network learning as well as good programming skills in Python and neural network frameworks. Experience in speech processing is helpful. Fluent English, spoken and written, and good communications skills are mandatory. Knowledge of German is desired; we expect the willingness to learn German for non-native German speakers. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Qualified disabled candidates or applicants with equivalent status receive preference in the application process. For further information, please contact Stefan Wermter (stefan.wermter(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) or Timo Gerkmann (timo.gerkmann(a)uni-hamburg.de) or consult our website athttp://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ orhttp://uhh.de/inf-sp. Applications should include a cover letter, a tabular curriculum vitae, and copies of degree certificate(s). Please send applications by 25.08.2019 to:sp-office@informatik.uni-hamburg.de in a single PDF document. Please start the subject of your Email with [Application Kooperationspromotion]. Please do not submit original documents as we are not able to return them. *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt-Koelln-Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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

15 Aug '19

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

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

09 Aug '19

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

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

02 Aug '19

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

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

19 Jul '19

UPDATES: Please note the following updates for this 2nd call for papers: • Submission deadline extended to July 31, 2019 • Changed link to the paper template material (AAAI 2019 author kit) CALL FOR PAPERS: The sixth annual AAAI Fall Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction (AI-HRI) will take place on November 7-9 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA, USA, and is now open for paper submissions as indicated below. For more information, please visit the symposium website (https://ai-hri.github.io). IMPORTANT DATES: • SUBMISSION: July 31, 2019 (EXTENDED) • NOTIFICATION: August 10, 2019 • SYMPOSIUM: November 7-9, 2019 OVERVIEW: The past few years have seen rapid progress in the development of service robots. Universities and companies alike have launched major research efforts toward the deployment of ambitious systems designed to aid human operators performing a variety of tasks. These robots are intended to make those who may otherwise need to live in assisted care facilities more independent, to help workers perform their jobs, or simply to make life more convenient. Service robots provide a powerful platform on which to study Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) in the real world. Research sitting at the intersection of AI and HRI is crucial to the success of service robots if they are to fulfill their mission. This symposium seeks to highlight research enabling robots to effectively interact with people autonomously while modeling, planning, and reasoning about the environment that the robot operates in and the tasks that it must perform. AI-HRI deals with the challenge of interacting with humans in environments that are relatively unstructured or which are structured around people rather than machines, as well as the possibility that the robot may need to interact naturally with people rather than through teach pendants, programming, or similar interfaces. TOPICS: • Architectures and systems supporting autonomous HRI • Interactive learning • Interactive dialog systems and natural language • Field studies, experimental, and empirical HRI • Tools for autonomous HRI • Design ethnography for service robots • Development, fielding, and experimentation for service robots • Physical human-robot interaction • Knowledge representation and reasoning to support HRI and robot tasking • Applications of autonomous service robots FORMAT: In addition to oral and poster presentations of accepted papers, the symposium will include panel discussions, position talks, keynote presentations, and a hack session with ample time for networking. • SPEAKERS: Keynote talks will give different perspectives on AI-HRI and showcase recent advances towards humans interacting with robots on everyday tasks. Moderated discussions and debates will allow participants to engage in collaborative public discussion on controversial topics and issues of interest to the AI-HRI community. • NETWORKING: A large part of this effort is to bring together a community of researchers, strengthen old connections, and build new ones. Ample time will be provided for networking and informal discussions. PRESENTATION AND PUBLICATION: All accepted full and short papers will be presented orally and published in the proceedings through Arxiv. Authors will be notified as to whether they have been assigned a “full-length” or “lightning” presentation slot. Authors assigned to full-length talks will be invited to participate in a panel discussion. Authors assigned to lightning talks will be invited to participate in a poster session. SUBMISSIONS: Authors may submit under one of these paper categories: • FULL PAPERS (6-8 pages) highlighting state-of-the-art HRI-oriented interacting learning research, HRI research focusing on the use of autonomous AI systems, or the implementation of AI systems in commercial HRI products. • SHORT POSITION PAPERS (2-4 pages) outlining new or controversial views on AI-HRI research or describing ongoing AI-oriented HRI research. In addition, philosophy and social science researchers are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the design, implementation, or analysis of HRI studies. Industry professionals are encouraged to submit short papers suggesting AI advances that would facilitate the development, enhancement, or deployment of HRI technologies in the real world. Please see the AAAI Author Kit ( https://www.aaai.org/Publications/Templates/AuthorKit19.zip) for paper templates to ensure that your submission has proper formatting. Contributions may be submitted here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aihri2019 Kind regards, The AI-HRI 2019 program chairs • Justin W. Hart (UT Austin) • Nick DePalma (Samsung Research of America) • Richard G. Freedman (Smart Information Flow Technologies and UMass Amherst) • Luca Iocchi (Sapienza University of Rome) • Matteo Leonetti (University of Leeds) • Katrin Lohan (Heriot-Watt University) • Ross Mead (Semio) • Emmanuel Senft (Plymouth University) • Jivko Sinapov (Tufts University) • Elin A. Topp (Lund University) • Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines) -- Ross Mead, PhD Founder and CEO Semio <http://semio.ai> ross(a)semio.ai +1 (618) 696-2600

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

19 Jun '19

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

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

03 May '19

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

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

25 Apr '19

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

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

24 Apr '19

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

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

23 Apr '19

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

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

19 Apr '19

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

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

11 Jan '19

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

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

10 Jan '19

This is a reminder for the Second Call for Participation for RoboCup@Home 2019 Second Call for Participation [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) [http://www.robocup2019.org](http://www.robocup2019.org/) http://www.robocupathome.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook -== Text-only version ==_ HTML version available at http://www.robocupathome.org/call-for-participation/cfp2-all-2019 RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions ([RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome), RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, [RoboCup at Work](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) and RoboCup Junior). The [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019. Important dates: Dec. 30, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Jan. 20, 2019 Deadline for Intention of Participation Feb. 17, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 10, 2019 Qualification announcement Mar. 31, 2019 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended) The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee ([oc at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to indicate your intention to participate in the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one team leader can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. **** Deadline: Sunday, 20th of January, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee ([oc at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to participate in the qualification process for the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: Only one platform can be specified per team. Only one team leader can be specified per team. Only one contact email can be specified per team. Only one team video url can be specified per team. All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. **** Deadline: Sunday, 17th of February, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee ([oc at robocupathome.org](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocu…) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) 2019 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) Remark: Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. **** Deadline: Sunday, 31st of March, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Instructions for the Team Video ============================ In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" Standard Platforms Only: Teams ***MUST*** use the standard-platform robot in their Team Video. SPL teams featuring a non standard-platform robot will have their application voided. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ====================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: TDP Group's research focus and interests. Innovative technology and scientific contribution Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups Please specify when you are using software from other teams Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) The impact of your research must be clearly visible Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations) Annex Photo(s) of the robot Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV) Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions Annex should be appended after the References There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged TDP length is 8 pages + annex DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video ***MUST*** be the league's standard one For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the Web site ========================== While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: Photos of the robot(s) Videos of the robot(s) Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) Link to repositories with software for the community Team members Previous participation in RoboCup Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: ================================ Teams must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee in order to qualify. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top nl teams meeting the selection criterion can qualify for participation, being nlthe number of available slots in league l. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. Note to experienced competitors: Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. You're encouraged to be part of the discussion of its ongoing development. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 [RoboCup at Home](http://lists.robocup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robocup-athome) Organizing and Technical Committees

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

20 Dec '18

Second Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) http://www.robocup2019.org http://www.robocupathome.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook -== Text-only version ==_ HTML version available at http://www.robocupathome.org/call-for-participation/cfp2-all-2019 RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2019. Important dates: Dec. 30, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Jan. 20, 2019 Deadline for Intention of Participation Feb. 17, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Mar. 10, 2019 Qualification announcement Mar. 31, 2019 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended) The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one team leader can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. **** Deadline: Sunday, 20th of January, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: Only one platform can be specified per team. Only one team leader can be specified per team. Only one contact email can be specified per team. Only one team video url can be specified per team. All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. **** Deadline: Sunday, 17th of February, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) Remark: Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. **** Deadline: Sunday, 31st of March, 2019 23:59 GMT ***** Instructions for the Team Video ============================ In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. Remarks: The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" Standard Platforms Only: Teams ***MUST*** use the standard-platform robot in their Team Video. SPL teams featuring a non standard-platform robot will have their application voided. Copyright note:When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ====================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: TDP Group's research focus and interests. Innovative technology and scientific contribution Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups Please specify when you are using software from other teams Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) The impact of your research must be clearly visible Maximum length is 8 pages (including figures and citations) Annex Photo(s) of the robot Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV) Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only) Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions Annex should be appended after the References There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged TDP length is 8 pages + annex DSPL and SSPL: The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video ***MUST*** be the league's standard one For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here. Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application. Remark: The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. Copyright note:All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the Web site ========================== While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: Photos of the robot(s) Videos of the robot(s) Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) Link to repositories with software for the community Team members Previous participation in RoboCup Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments Remark: No IP addresses will be accepted as website. Remark: Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: ================================ Teams must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee in order to qualify. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top nl teams meeting the selection criterion can qualify for participation, being nlthe number of available slots in league l. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. Note to experienced competitors: Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. You're encouraged to be part of the discussion of its ongoing development. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

06 Dec '18

The Knowledge Technology Research Institute at the University of Hamburg invites applications for a Research Associate (Postdoc or postdoc-level/ final year PhD candidate) in accordance with Section 28 subsection 2 of the Hamburg Higher Education Act (Hamburgisches Hochschul- gesetz, HmbHG). The position commences on 1 Feb 2019 or as soon as possible and is for three years plus a three year extension option subject to the availability of resources. Responsibilities: Duties include teaching and research in the knowledge technology institute. Research associates can also pursue independent research and further academic qualifications as well as acquire teaching experience. These duties are intended to promote academic achieve- ment. Therefore, at least one-third of set working hours will be made available for the associate's own academic work. Specific Duties: The successful candidate will manage the international Master Programme in Computer Science (Intelligent Adaptive Systems) as well as contribute to teaching (4hrs/teaching week). Furthermore, the candidate is expected to conduct research in the area of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems. Requirements: A university degree in a relevant subject plus doctorate prefered. Academic degree preferably in computer science qualifying the post holder to carry out the above-mentioned responsibilities. In particular, an MSc or PhD in Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science is essential. This post is open to Postdocs or experienced PhD candidates. Your demonstrated research interests should be in the areas of Knowledge Technology and Intelligent Systems (e.g. Neural Networks, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Vision, or Knowledge Representation etc). You should have published in a field relevant to this post. We are also looking for very good communication skills and teamwork; a very good command of both German and English is a requirement. Experience with teaching or organisation of MSc programmes is considered an advantage. The job is remunerated at the salary level TV-L 13. The position is full-time and comprises 39 hours per week. The fixed-term nature of this contract is based upon Section 2 of the Academic Fixed-Term Labor Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitver- tragsgesetz, WissZeitVG). The initial fixed term is three years. The contract provides for a maximum extension of another three years de- pending on the associate's achievements during the first stage. The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally qualified female applicants will receive preference in accordance with the Hamburg Equality Act (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG). Severely disabled applicants will receive preference over equally qualified non-disabled applicants. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Stefan Wermter, Head of Knowledge Technology Institute or consult our website at https://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/wtm/ https://www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/en/inst/ab/wtm/about/job/files/open-position… Applications should include an application letter, full curriculum vitae, pdf of best international publications, copies of degree certificates, evidence for required German and English language. The application deadline is 19 Dec 2018. Please email applications in a single pdf file to: Ms Katja Koesters, katja.koesters(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de *********************************************** Professor Dr. Stefan Wermter Director of Knowledge Technology Department of Informatics University of Hamburg Vogt Koelln Str. 30 22527 Hamburg, Germany Email: wermter AT informatik.uni-hamburg.de http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~wermter/ http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/WTM/ ***********************************************

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

22 Nov '18

Dear teams, please note that the deadline for the registration of major teams is *Nov 30, 2018*! There is no qualification procedure, but you should propose a web-link where we can find information about your team. RoboCup German Open 2019 Call for Participation https://robocupgermanopen.de 3 - 5 May 2019 MESSE MAGDEBURG, Germany The RoboCup German Open 2019 will be the 17th open RoboCup competition held in Germany. The event will take place in Magdeburg at MESSE MAGDEBURG. -- RoboCup Major Leagues (international teams) ---------------------- Competitions are offered in the following leagues: - RoboCupSoccer Standard Platform League - RoboCupSoccer Humanoid League (Kid-Size) - RoboCupRescue Robot League - RoboCup@Home League - RoboCupIndustrial Logistics League - RoboCupIndustrial RoboCup@Work League The registration opens *** 15 October 2018 ***. The registration deadline is *** 30 November 2018 ***. Visithttps://robocupgermanopen.de to register your RoboCup Major League team. Details on the registration (fee, accommodation, rules) are available on the web site. Booking of blocked accommodation with special rates is possible after your registration. The Major Leagues Organizing Committee: - Thomas Röfer (Standard Platform League) - Reinhard Gerndt (Humanoid League) - Johannes Pellenz, Stefan May (Rescue Robot League) - Sven Wachsmuth, Raphael Memmesheimer (RoboCup@Home League) - Ulrich Karras (Logistics League) - Sebastian Zug (RoboCup@Work League) -- RoboCup Junior ---------------------------------------------------- The German RoboCup Junior qualification for RoboCup 2019 is performed in two steps. German teams qualify in eight local tournaments in Bad Zwischenahn, Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Kassel, Mannheim, Sankt Augustin and Vöhringen for the final of the 19th German RoboCup Junior Championship which is held within the RoboCup German Open 2019. The best Junior teams will qualify for RoboCup 2019 in Australia. -- Important dates -------------------------------------------------- 15.10.2018 Registration start 30.11.2018 Registration deadline RoboCup Major teams 15.02.2019 Invoices are sent to team leaders 15.03.2019 Registration deadline names of team members 15.04.2019 Registration fee due 01.05.2019 Set-up day Major League teams (venue opens 12:00) 02.05.2019 Set-up day Major League teams 03.05.2019 Competition day (open to the public) 04.05.2019 Competition day (open to the public) 05.05.2019 Competition day, finals (open to the public) Please contactinfo(a)robocupgermanopen.de for any questions. See you all again at the 17th RoboCup German Open 2019! Best regards, Ansgar Bredenfeld (Chair RoboCup German Open) RoboCup German Open is organized on behalf of the German RoboCup Committee by Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg and Dr. Bredenfeld UG.

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

16 Oct '18

First Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) http://www.robocup2019.org http://www.robocupathome.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2019. Important dates: Sept. 15, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Sept. 30, 2018 Deadline for Intention of Participation Oct. 28, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2018 Qualification announcement Jan. 20, 2019 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended) The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one team leader can be specified per team. Please provide only one e-mail for contact purposes and double-check you can receive emails there. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 30th Sept. 2018 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee ( oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee ( oc(a)robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Team Video ============================ In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. *Remarks:* - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ====================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups. - Please specify when you are using software from other teams. - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations). - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV.). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any. - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only). - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions. - Annex should be appended after the References. - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged. - TDP length is *8 pages + annex*. - *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application*. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the Web site ========================== While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: ================================ In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (scientific contributions), re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. *Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. You're encouraged to be part of the discussion of its ongoing development. Step 4) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly ( spl-sc(a)robocupathome.org). *Remark: *Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

01 Oct '18

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

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

17 Sep '18

First Call for Participation RoboCup@Home 2019 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) July 02 - July 08, 2019 (Sydney, Australia) http://www.robocup2019.org http://www.robocupathome.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots' abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2019. Important dates: Sept. 15, 2018 Publication of the Call for Participation Sept. 30, 2018 Deadline for Intention of Participation Oct. 28, 2018 Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration. (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website). Nov. 15, 2018 Qualification announcement Jan. 20, 2019 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended) The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (oc(a)robocupathome.org) to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one team leader can be specified per team. Please provide only one e-mail for contact purposes and double-check you can receive emails there. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 30th Sept. 2018 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee ( oc(a)robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team's website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing Committee ( oc(a)robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2019 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2019-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Team Video ============================ In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. Is strongly advised to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last year's rulebook. *Remarks:* - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists" <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP ====================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group's research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups. - Please specify when you are using software from other teams. - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations). - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV.). - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any. - Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware (OPL Only). - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions. - Annex should be appended after the References. - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged. - TDP length is *8 pages + annex*. - *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league's standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application*. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the Web site ========================== While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team's research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: ================================ In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won't automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, completeness, innovation (scientific contributions), re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. *Note to experienced competitors:* Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook. You're encouraged to be part of the discussion of its ongoing development. Step 4) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): ================================================== Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier's instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly ( spl-sc(a)robocupathome.org). *Remark: *Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won't not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Sydney, The 2019 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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

07 Sep '18

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

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

05 Sep '18

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

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

05 Sep '18

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

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

28 Aug '18

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

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

24 Aug '18

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

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

18 Jul '18

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

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