- RoboCup-athome - lists.robocup.org

[RoboCup@Home2017] First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

Call for Participation RoboCup 2017 RoboCup@Home League July 25 - 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan) http://www.robocup2017.org http://www.robocupathome.org http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/ 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 Behaviours, Behaviour Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three sub-leagues officially referred as - Domestic Standard Platform sub-league (Toyota HSR) - Social Standard Platform sub-league (SoftBank Robotics Pepper) - Open Platform sub-league This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2017. Important dates: Feb 5, 2017 Intention of Participation Mar 12, 2017 Preregistration and Deadline for qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home Wiki). Mar 26, 2017 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: *Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)* The team sends an email to the Oranizing Committee <oc(a)robocupathome.org> to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: Sub-league: Platform: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one platform can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ****** *Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)* The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee < oc(a)robocupathome.org> to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Sub-league: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform 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 Notice: * As platforms are independent, you must send an application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP) must match the robot to qualify. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Team Video =========================== As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last year's rulebook. *[Standard Platforms Only]* The robot shown in the video must not be altered or modified in any way. Instructions for the TDP =========================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Photo(s) of the robot - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV). - *[Open Platform Only] *Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware. - *[Standard Platforms Only] *Specify all external computing devices, if any. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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 Evaluation criteria: =========================== Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - 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/RoboC upAtHome/RuleBook With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya, The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[RoboCup@Home2017] First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

Call for Participation RoboCup 2017 RoboCup@Home League July 25 - 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan) http://www.robocup2017.org<http://www.robocup2017.org/> http://www.robocupathome.org<http://www.robocupathome.org/> http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/ 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 Behaviours, Behaviour Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three sub-leagues officially referred as * Domestic Standard Platform sub-league (Toyota HSR) * Social Standard Platform sub-league (SoftBank Robotics Pepper) * Open Platform sub-league This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2017. Important dates: Feb 5, 2017 Intention of Participation Mar 12, 2017 Preregistration and Deadline for qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home Wiki). Mar 26, 2017 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended) The team sends an email to the Oranizing Committee <oc(a)robocupathome.org<mailto:oc@robocupathome.org>> to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: Sub-league: Platform: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one platform can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. **** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ***** Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee <oc(a)robocupathome.org<mailto:oc@robocupathome.org>> to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Sub-league: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: * Only one platform 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 Notice: As platforms are independent, you must send an application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP) must match the robot to qualify. **** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ***** Instructions for the Team Video =========================== As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last year's rulebook. [Standard Platforms Only] The robot shown in the video must not be altered or modified in any way. Instructions for the TDP =========================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: * Innovative technology and scientific contribution * Photo(s) of the robot * Focus of research/research interests * Re-usability of the system for other research groups * Applicability of the robot in the real world * Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV). * [Open Platform Only] Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware. * [Standard Platforms Only] Specify all external computing devices, if any. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format<http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from here<https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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 Evaluation criteria: =========================== Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: * Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) * Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) * Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) * Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) * Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. Note to experienced competitors: Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya, The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[RoboCup@Home2017] First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

Call for Participation RoboCup 2017 RoboCup@Home League July 25 - 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan) http://www.robocup2017.org http://www.robocupathome.org http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/ 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 Behaviours, Behaviour Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three sub-leagues officially referred as - Domestic Standard Platform sub-league (Toyota HSR) - Social Standard Platform sub-league (SoftBank Robotics Pepper) - Open Platform sub-league This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2017. Important dates: Feb 5, 2017 Intention of Participation Mar 12, 2017 Preregistration and Deadline for qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home Wiki). Mar 26, 2017 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: *Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)* The team sends an email to the Oranizing Committee <oc(a)robocupathome.org> to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: Sub-league: Platform: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one platform can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ****** *Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)* The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee < oc(a)robocupathome.org> to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Sub-league: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform 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 Notice: * As platforms are independent, you must send an application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP) must match the robot to qualify. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Team Video =========================== As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last year's rulebook. *[Standard Platforms Only]* The robot shown in the video must not be altered or modified in any way. Instructions for the TDP =========================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Photo(s) of the robot - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV). - *[Open Platform Only] *Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware. - *[Standard Platforms Only] *Specify all external computing devices, if any. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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 Evaluation criteria: =========================== Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - 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/RoboC upAtHome/RuleBook With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya, The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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[RoboCup@Home2017] First Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

Call for Participation RoboCup 2017 RoboCup@Home League July 25 - 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan) http://www.robocup2017.org http://www.robocupathome.org http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League/ 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 Behaviours, Behaviour Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three sub-leagues officially referred as - Domestic Standard Platform sub-league (Toyota HSR) - Social Standard Platform sub-league (Aldebaran/Softbank Pepper) - Open Platform sub-league This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2017. Important dates: Feb 5, 2017 Intention of Participation Mar 12, 2017 Preregistration and Deadline for qualification material (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home Wiki). Mar 26, 2017 Qualification announcement The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps: *Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)* The team sends an email to the Oranizing Committee <oc(a)robocupathome.org> to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event, including the following basic information: Team Name: Sub-league: Platform: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Web site: Only one platform can be specified per team. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName) Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT ****** *Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)* The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Oranizing Committee < oc(a)robocupathome.org> to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: Sub-league: Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2017-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform 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 Notice: * As platforms are independent, you must send an application email for each platform you want to compete in, specifying different team names in each. Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP) must match the robot to qualify. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT ****** Instructions for the Team Video =========================== As a proof of running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, we consider showing the robot(s) successfully solving at least one test of the current or last year's rulebook. *[Standard Platforms Only]* The robot shown in the video must not be altered or modified in any way. Instructions for the TDP =========================== The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Photo(s) of the robot - Focus of research/research interests - Re-usability of the system for other research groups - Applicability of the robot in the real world - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV). - *[Open Platform Only] *Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware. - *[Standard Platforms Only] *Specify all external computing devices, if any. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. 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 Evaluation criteria: =========================== Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features) - 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/RoboC upAtHome/RuleBook With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya, The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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CFP PAAMS 2017- Special Session on Computer vision in Multi-Agent Robotics
by António J. R. Neves 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

* Special Session on Computer vision in Multi-Agent Robotics * 15th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Polytechnic of Porto - Porto (Portugal) 21st-23rd June, 2017 http://paams.net/special-sessions/rv ***************************************** [Apologies for any cross-posting] Dear Colleague, The 15th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (PAAMS -http://www.paams.net/) will take place next June in Porto, Portugal, and will include several special sessions, namely one on Computer Vision in Multi-Agent Robotics. This thematic session will provide an opportunity to bring together researchers with interests in computer and robot vision applied to multi-agent systems. This special session aims to receive contributions relevant to the use of vision and related sensors in robotics, as well as all issues related to robot perception. As chairs of that special session, we would like to invite you to submit papers in the following and related areas: * distributed sensing * multimodal sensor fusion * real-time and efficient solutions for multi-agent robotics * localization and mapping * vision based control * object detection, segmentation and categorization * semantic scene understanding and categorization * perceptual strategies for human robot interaction * robustness and generalization of algorithms to conditions and environments * sensor calibration *PRELIMINARY DATES* Paper submission: 6th February, 2017 Notification of acceptance: 13th March, 2017 Camera ready: 27th March, 2017 * REVIEW PROCESS * PAAMS welcomes the submission of application papers with preference to the topics listed in the call for papers. All submitted papers will undergo a thorough review process; each paper will be refereed by at least three experts in the field based on relevance, originality, significance, quality and clarity. The papers must consist of original, relevant and previously unpublished sound research results related to any of the topics of the conference * SUBMITTING PAPERS * PAAMS papers must be formatted according to the Springer LNCS Template, with a maximum length of 12 pages in length, including figures and references. All proposed papers must be submitted in electronic form (PDF format) using the Paper Submission Page. * PUBLICATION * Accepted papers will be included in PAAMS Proceedings. At least one of the authors will be required to register and attend the symposium to present the paper in order to include the paper in the conference proceedings.All accepted papers will be published by LNCS/LNAI series of Springer Verlag. * SPECIAL ISSUES * Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2017 will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to special issue in diffetent journals. - Special Issue on Journal of Data Science and Analytics Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2017 and Co-located Events will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a special issue published on Journal of Data Science and Analytics. - Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2017 and Co-located Events will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a Special Section published in Neurocomputing (JCR Impact Factor: 2.392). - Authors of selected papers from PAAMS 2017 and Co-located Events will be invited to submit an extended and improved version to a Special Issue published in the International Journal of Knowledge and Information Systems -KAIS- (JCR Impact Factor: 1.702). Our best Regards, Antonio J. R. Neves <an(a)ieee.org> Angel D. Sappa <sappa(a)ieee.org>

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Postdoc and PhD Positions in Deep Learning and Robotics @ University of Bonn
by Sven Behnke 30 Dec '16

30 Dec '16

The Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group of University of Bonn invites applications for multiple Postdoctoral and fully funded PhD positions. Candidates should have a background in one of the following research areas: * Deep learning, * Computer vision, * Pattern recognition, * Machine learning, * Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), * Manipulation and locomotion planning, * Human-robot interaction, * Micro aerial vehicles, * Service robots, * Humanoid robots, or * Search and rescue robots. Candidates for Postdoctoral positions must hold a PhD with very good results in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering or a related field. Top-level publications and good organizational skills are important. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to develop their own research agenda and at the same time contribute to the ongoing projects linked below, guiding PhD students and master students. Payment will be according to TV-L-E14 (52,000-66,000 Euros per annum, depending on experience). Candidates for PhD positions must hold a very good university Master's degree in computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, or a related field. A strong mathematical background and programming skills are necessary. Successful candidates will conduct focused research towards a PhD in Computer Science and contribute to one of the ongoing projects linked below, guiding master and bachelor students. Payment will be according to TV-L-E13 (44,000- 51,000 Euros per annum, depending on experience). Applications in PDF format should be sent by email to behnke @ ais . uni-bonn . de with the subject line "Postdoc Application AIS" or "PhD Application AIS". Please indicate in your cover letter your main achievements, the research area or project where you want to contribute, and your availability date. A list of publications and transcripts must be included. There is no application deadline. Positions will be filled as soon as possible. Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group: The University of Bonn has a long tradition in computer vision and robotics research and multiple outstanding groups in these areas. The Autonomous Intelligent Systems Group, headed by Sven Behnke, has developed award-winning cognitive robot systems, including domestic service robots, autonomous micro aerial vehicles, humanoid soccer robots, robots for mobile manipulation in rough terrain, bin-picking robots, and robots for intuitive human-robot interaction. Contributions include deep learning architectures and algorithms, efficient methods for RGB-D and laser-based SLAM, semantic environment perception, robot navigation, object manipulation and tool use, bipedal walking, multimodal human-robot interaction, and learning from demonstrations and own experience. Useful links: * Ongoing projects in Autonomous Intelligent Systems group: http://www.ais.uni-bonn.de/jobs.html * Autonomous Intelligent Systems group: http://www.ais.uni-bonn.de * Robotics in Bonn: http://robotics.uni-bonn.de * Bonn Computer Science: https://www.informatik.uni-bonn.de/en * University of Bonn: https://www.uni-bonn.de/startpage?set_language=en * Federal City of Bonn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonn

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

20 Dec '16

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

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LU4R now out!
by Danilo Croce 16 Dec '16

16 Dec '16

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

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

14 Dec '16

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

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

12 Dec '16

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

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