December 2021 - RoboCup-worldwide

CFP: RoboCup 2022 Soccer Simulation 2D League
by Nader Zare 29 Dec '21

29 Dec '21

Call for Participation RoboCup 2022 Soccer Simulation 2D League July 11 – July 17, 2022 Bangkok, Thailand https://2022.robocup.org/ We would like to invite you to participate in the RoboCup 2022 Soccer Simulation League 2D competition, which will take place July 11 - 17 2022, in Bangkok, Thailand. If you are interested in participating, please pre-register your team, and then submit qualification materials. Please see below in detail. Important Dates -Pre-registration Deadline: Feb 1, 2022 – 23:59 UTC ----Submit information via the online form: https://forms.gle/tKyVA2YXQGLZgt1T7 -Qualification Materials Submission Deadline: Feb 15, 2022 – 23:59 UTC ----Submit TDP, Log files via the online form: https://forms.gle/s3JmVW8JwuVV4pDx9 ----Submit a part of the documentation of the soccer server by Pull Request on GitHub. -Qualification Notification: March 1, 2022 To view the full Call for Participation document, please visit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y3QxyKUvmJw4V74TQga5wpFP2j41_VG-z16zb-j… Best Regards RoboCup2022 Soccer Simulation 2D League Organizing Committee Nader Zare, Morteza Noohpisheh

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[reminder] Survey about domestic robot competitions, in particular RoboCup@Home
by Alex Mitrevski 26 Dec '21

26 Dec '21

Dear RoboCup community, This is just a reminder that our survey about domestic robot competitions will remain open for only a few more days. If you would like to contribute towards shaping the RoboCup@Home competition, please take a few minutes to share your ideas (link to the survey below). Thanks in advance, and a big thanks to everyone who has already answered the survey! Best regards, Alex Mitrevski on behalf of the RoboCup@Home Technical Committee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear RoboCup community, As part of the preparations for the rule book for next year's RoboCup@Home <https://athome.robocup.org> competition, which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand in 2022, we would like toimprove the competition tasks so that they serve the robotics research community better. We all know the transformative effect that various competitions in the computer vision community have had on our field; we hope that RoboCup@Home can have the same effect for domestic service and social robots. To make this possible, we need a collective effort from the community. We would, in particular, like to identify (i) research areas that are considered important by those of you working in the umbrella domain of "domestic service and social robots" as well as (ii) aspects that you, the community, consider important for a competition of this type to be valuable for your research activities. For this, we would be very much obliged if you could take a few minutes of your time to answer a short /anonymous/ survey about domestic robot competitions until 23:59 CET on December 30th, 2021. The link to the survey is https://forms.gle/DuNzPVKd5c41DRxq7 <https://forms.gle/DuNzPVKd5c41DRxq7> Please note that this survey is open to everyone, regardless of whether you are currently participating in RoboCup@Home or similar competitions; we would be particularly happy if the competition can attract researchers and groups which are currently not participating. Thanks in advance for your time and insights. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Mitrevski Research Associate Room: C201 Email: aleksandar.mitrevski(a)h-brs.de Phone: +49-2241-865-206 Web: https://www.h-brs.de/en/inf/aleksandar-mitrevski Autonomous Systems Group Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Computer Science Department Grantham-Allee 20 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Call for Papers: 19th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS (EUMAS-2022)
by Jörg-Matthias Rothe 22 Dec '21

22 Dec '21

*********************************************** 19th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS (EUMAS-2022) September 14 - 16, 2022, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf https://ccc.cs.hhu.de/eumas2022/ *********************************************** ------------------------------------ IMPORTANT DATES ------------------------------------ - Deadline for paper submission: May 6, 2022 - Notification of authors: July 15, 2022 - Camera-ready papers due: August 12, 2022 - Conference: September 14 - 16, 2022 All deadlines are at 23:59 UTC-12, i.e., while it is still the respective date anywhere on earth. Submission instructions: https://ccc.cs.hhu.de/eumas2022/ ------------------------------------ AIMS AND SCOPE ------------------------------------ In the past two decades, we have seen an enormous increase of interest in agent-based computing and multi-agent systems (MAS). This field is set to become one of the key intelligent systems technologies in the 21st century. The EUMAS conference series aims to provide the main forum for academics and practitioners in Europe to discuss current MAS research and applications. EUMAS-2022, the 19th installment of the conference series, follows the tradition of previous editions (Oxford 2003, Barcelona 2004, Brussels 2005, Lisbon 2006, Hammamet 2007, Bath 2008, Agia Napa 2009, Paris 2010, Maastricht 2011, Dublin 2012, Toulouse 2013, Prague 2014, Athens 2015, Valencia 2016, Evry 2017, Bergen 2018, Thessaloniki 2019, Virtual 2020), and encourages and supports activity in the research and development of multi-agent systems, in academic and industrial efforts. The conference aspires to be the primary European forum for researchers interested in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. EUMAS enables researchers to meet, present challenges, preliminary and mature research results in an open and informal environment. To attract students as well as experienced researchers, preliminary as well as mature work, EUMAS 2021 offers three submission types and formal proceedings. Also, we will be working hard to arrange for the post-publication of selected papers in the form of a special issue of a high-quality journal in the area. EUMAS-2022 is a designated event of the European Association of Multi-Agent Systems (EURAMAS): http://www.euramas.org <http://www.euramas.org/> Topics of interest include but are not limited to: - Action and Planning - Adaptation and Learning - Agent Architectures - Agent Programming Languages - Agent Development Methodologies and Tools - Agent-Based Simulations and Modeling - Agent Organizations and Institutions - Agent-Oriented Software Engineering - Agents and Complex Systems - Applications of Multi-Agent Systems - Argumentation - Automated Negotiation - Biologically Inspired Approaches - Cognitive Models - Collective and Swarm Intelligence - Collective Intentionality - Communication, Cooperation, and Coordination - Deep Reinforcement Learning in Multi-Agent Domains - Economic Models - Electronic Commerce - Ethical Behaviour of Multi-Agent Systems - Formal Modeling - Game-Theoretic Methods - Logics for Multi-Agent Systems - Logics for Strategic Reasoning - Machine Learning for Multi-Agent Systems - Multi-Agent Learning - Multi-Robot Systems - Negotiation - Self-Organization - Semantic Web Agents - Socio-Technical Systems - Theories of Agency - Trust and Reputation - Verification - Virtual Agents - Voting and Judgment Aggregation Models for Multi-Agent Systems - Computational Social Choice - Social Networks - Human-Agent Interaction ------------------------------------ SUBMISSIONS ------------------------------------ EUMAS-2022 welcomes original, unpublished papers. Papers submitted shall describe original work that has not been published or accepted for publication, nor is currently under review by another conference or journal (it might be on arXiv or a similar preprint server, though). NEW! Papers rejected from AAMAS, AAAI, or IJCAI will be fast-tracked given that their original reviews and an authors' cover letter (indicating all changes made) will be submitted. Extended abstracts from AAMAS also qualify for this fast track. Each submission will be peer-reviewed in a double-blind fashion. All submissions should be formatted according to Springer's LNCS format and contain at most 15 pages, plus any number of additional pages for bibliography and, if needed, a clearly marked appendix. For templates and instructions for authors, see http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html. Authors must submit their abstracts and papers through the EUMAS-2022 Easychair submission site https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eumas2022. EUMAS-2022 accepted papers will be published by Springer in an LNCS/LNAI volume. As such, they will be made available to several indexing services (including Scopus, Google Scholar, DBLP, CPCI, EI Engineering Index, and more). Authors should consult Springer's author guidelines and use their proceedings templates, either for LaTeX (preferred) or for Word (if need be), for the preparation of their papers. Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. We urge the authors to follow these guidelines from the submission stage already. Additional guidelines will be communicated after the conference to the authors of accepted papers for the preparation of the final versions to be included in the post-proceedings. ------------------------------------ Opportunity for a JAAMAS publication ------------------------------------ This year, the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (JAAMAS) will provide the opportunity for revised and extended versions of the EUMAS-2022 best paper award winner (see below) and the EUMAS-2022 best paper award runner-up to be fast-tracked for the journal. ----------------------------------------------------------- Opportunity to publish revised and extended papers in SN CS ----------------------------------------------------------- A selection of EUMAS-2022 papers will be invited to submit revised and extended versions for publication in a special issue of the Springer Nature Computer Science journal. ------------------------------------ Best Paper Award ------------------------------------ A Best Paper Award will be presented at the conference. ------------------------------------ Keynote Speakers ------------------------------------ Prof. Marija Slavkovik (University of Bergen) [TBA] ------------------------------------ DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM ------------------------------------ There will be a doctoral consortium day prior to the conference where PhD students can present the topics related to MAS they are currently working on. Keynote Speaker for the PhD Day (September 14, 2022): Piotr Faliszewski (AGH University of Science and Technology Kraków) Organizers of the PhD Day: Linus Boes (HHU Düsseldorf) Christian Laußmann (HHU Düsseldorf) ------------------------------------ CONFERENCE CHAIRS ------------------------------------ Dorothea Baumeister (HHU Düsseldorf) Jörg Rothe (HHU Düsseldorf) ------------------------------------ PROGRAM COMMITTEE ------------------------------------ https://ccc.cs.hhu.de/eumas2022/ ------------------------------------ CONTACT DETAILS ------------------------------------ EUMAS-2022 Organizing Committee: eumas2022(a)cs.hhu.de

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Call for proposals: RCF Project Support 2022
by Gerald Steinbauer-Wagner 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Call for proposals: RCF Project Support 2022 The RoboCup Federation (RCF) is pleased to announce this call for proposals to support activities for promoting the development of RoboCup Leagues. RCF Project Support aims at funding activities for the development of the RoboCup Leagues or the promotion of RoboCup in general. The main goal of these projects is to research and develop activities that support significant advancements of the RoboCup leagues and/or the RoboCup community which are difficult to achieve otherwise. This includes support for short-term visits for a collaboration between teams (e.g. joint team development, integration of research agendas) and/or RoboCup camps on special or novel topics. This year the RCF particularly encourages proposals in the following areas: * Human-Robot-Interaction (HRI), any type interaction of a human with a robot within one of the RoboCup leagues * Low-Cost Standard Robots, any ideas to lower the entry bar to a RoboCup league or to allow to scale the number of robots in a team * Unified Game Controllers, development of game controllers that can be shared between RoboCup leagues easily and with minor re-configuration * Data Sets from Competitions, any concept for automated collecting and annotating data (i.e. ground truth) from competitions in order to support statistical analysis or machine learning Support Support will be provided in the form of reimbursement upon receipts of direct expenses (e.g., hardware devices or costs for organization of events) or of a grant for the applicants. In case of hardware acquisition, it must be specified how the league (e.g. other teams) will benefit from this hardware. A detailed list of expenses must be described in the proposal. Funds from RCF are limited, partial funding may be also considered. Submission A single PDF file should be submitted through the easychair system https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcfsupport2022 under the Category: Projects for League Developments The proposal (MAX 4 pages) must include: 1. description of the project, 2. motivations and goals, 3. benefits for RoboCup and RoboCup leagues (not for a single or a few teams), 4. implementation plan and budget. Evaluation Application materials will be evaluated by a committee of RoboCup Trustees or RoboCup Exec members. The evaluation of the proposals will be based on (i) the quality of the proposed research; (ii) the research contributions of the applicants, particularly in relation to RoboCup; and (iii) the impact of the proposed plan on the advancement and visibility of RoboCup (e.g. high ranked publications). A limited number of awards is expected to be assigned. Deadlines Submission Deadline: January 30th, 2022 Notification: February 8th, 2022 Completion of the project: Preliminary work expected to be presented during the RoboCup Symposium 2022, the project needs to be finished by end of 2022 and a final report submitted by January 2023. Exceptions to this rule must be submitted for approval to the evaluation committee.

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Call for proposals: RCF and MathWorks Support for Research Projects 2022
by Gerald Steinbauer-Wagner 20 Dec '21

20 Dec '21

Call for proposals: RCF and MathWorks Support for Research Projects 2022 The RoboCup Federation (RCF) and MathWorks, a Global Sponsor of RoboCup, are pleased to announce this call for proposals to support research projects in RoboCup. RCF-MathWorks Support for Research Projects 2022 aims at funding robotics research projects that use MATLAB and Simulink software. The goal is to enable collaboration between RoboCup researchers and MathWorks engineers to foster progress of RoboCup and its leagues. The RoboCup Federation and MathWorks hosted a webinar to discuss the details of the call, describe expected results and MathWorks tools, showcase previously sponsored projects, and answer questions. Link to the webinar: https://youtu.be/znZSFBWAWhg For more info or clarification on the details of this call, please contact info(a)robocup.org Proposal Requirements Proposals in this category must meet *ALL* of the following requirements: 1. Work must be associated with one or more of the research topics listed below. 2. Work must primarily utilize MathWorks software such as MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, and other add-on products. Preference may be given if using one or more of the development methods listed below. 3. Project team will be assigned MathWorks contacts, and must arrange and participate in at least 3 progress check-in meetings with them during the course of the project. The team is encouraged to reach out to their MathWorks contacts whenever they have questions. 4. Final deliverables shall be posted publicly after review by MathWorks contacts. Research Topics 1. Navigation and Planning a. Motion Planning for Manipulators and Mobile Robots b. Motion planning for humanoid robots c. Collision avoidance 2. Perception and Sensor Fusion a. Object detection and tracking b. Lidar and vision-based SLAM c. Point cloud processing d. Fusing IMU with other sensors for localization and state estimation 3. Control systems a. Control of humanoid robots b. Hybrid systems and behavior c. Multi-agent systems d. Robot Manipulation and Grasping 4. Human-Robot Interaction a. Natural language processing b. Signal and audio processing NOTE: teams are encouraged to apply machine learning techniques (deep learning, reinforcement learning, etc.) toward these research topics Development Methods 1. Development Tools a. User interfaces and Web applications b. Hardware initialization and calibration tools 2. Modeling and simulation a. Model-based design of software components b. Physical system simulation and design c. Behavior modeling: finite-state machines, behavior trees, etc. d. Multi-agent simulation 3. Embedded systems a. Implementation to reduce memory, power consumption, etc. b. Targeting microcontrollers, FPGAs, and GPUs c. Real-time and hardware-in-the-loop simulation 4. Interfaces to standard platforms a. Robots, e.g., Toyota, SoftBank, FESTO b. Software frameworks, e.g., ROS Support Support will be given as a gift between 5,000 and 10,000 USD depending on quantity and quality of accepted proposals in this category. Teams will be notified of the exact amount awarded upon their proposal being accepted. Funding will be provided directly by RCF after the RoboCup Symposium 2022 if the research and deliverables are completed in a satisfactory manner. Submission A single PDF file should be submitted through the easychair system https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcfsupport2022 under the Category: RCF and MathWorks Support for Research Projects 2022 The proposal (MAX 6 pages) must include: 1. description of the project, 2. motivations and goals, 3. intended use of MATLAB and/or Simulink software, 4. benefits for RoboCup and for the RoboCup League (not for a single or a few teams), 5. implementation plan and budget. Evaluation Application materials will be evaluated by a committee of RoboCup Trustees and MathWorks engineers. The evaluation of the proposals will be based on (i) the quality of the proposed research; (ii) the research contributions of the applicants, particularly in relation to RoboCup; (iii) the usage of MATLAB and/or Simulink software; and (iv) the impact of the proposed plan on the advancement and visibility of RoboCup. A limited number of awards is expected to be assigned. Deadlines Submission Deadline: January 30th, 2022 Notification: February 8th, 2022 Completion of the action: Preliminary work expected to be presented during the RoboCup 2022 Research Symposium, and official content publication by October 2022 Exceptions to this rule must be submitted for approval to the evaluation committee. ** For more information about the call for projects, please contact: info [at] robocup.org **

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ISAIM-2022: Call for Participation
by Diochnos, Dimitrios 18 Dec '21

18 Dec '21

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Seventeenth International Symposium on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and MATHEMATICS ISAIM 2022 http://isaim2022.cs.ou.edu/ January 3-5, 2022 Online via Zoom (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Registration is free and required in advance Zoom links will be sent by email several days before the symposium The International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics (ISAIM), is a biennial meeting that fosters interactions between mathematics, theoretical computer science, and artificial intelligence. This will be the seventeenth Symposium in the series, sponsored by Florida Atlantic University and the Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. Due to the pandemic the three-day Symposium will take place online. ISAIM-2022 will feature invited speakers, special topic sessions, and a special event: an interview of Judea Pearl by Stephen Wolfram. Registration is free but you need to register in advance so that you can get the Zoom links in a timely manner. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: o Noa Agmon (Bar-Ilan University) o Cynthia Dwork (Harvard University) o Jerome Lang (LAMSADE, CNRS, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL) o Arun Ross (Michigan State University) o Ohad Shamir (Weizmann Institute of Science) o Noam Slonim (IBM Research AI) o Noga Zaslavsky (MIT) SPECIAL EVENT: o Judea Pearl 85th Birthday Celebration -Interview of Judea Pearl by Stephen Wolfram SPECIAL TOPIC INVITED SESSIONS: o In Memory of Naftali Tishby -Organized by Martin Golumbic (University of Haifa) o Boolean and pseudo-Boolean Functions -Organized by Endre Boros (Rutgers University) and Yves Crama (University of Liege) o Coalition Formation Games -Organized by Judy Goldsmith (University of Kentucky) and Joerg Rothe (Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf) o Combinatorial and Geometric Problems in Imaging Sciences -Organized by Valentin Brimkov (Buffalo State College) o Formalization in Mathematics -Organized by Gonzalo A. Aranda-Corral (Universidad de Sevilla) and Francisco Jesus Martin Mateos (Universidad de Sevilla) o Sequencing, sequential decision making and scheduling -Organized by Lisa Hellerstein (New York University) and Thomas Lidbetter (Rutgers University) o Uncertain Reasoning -Organized by Alessandro Antonucci (Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale - IDSIA), Salem Benferhat (University of Artois), and Kamal Premaratne (University of Miami) ORGANIZERS: o General Chair: Martin Charles Golumbic, University of Haifa o Conference Chair: Frederick Hoffman, Florida Atlantic University o Publications & Publicity Chair: Dimitrios I. Diochnos, University of Oklahoma REGISTRATION: o Registration is free and required in advance -Zoom links will be sent by email several days before the symposium -Visit https://isaim2022.cs.ou.edu/registration.html Send inquiries and requests to <isaim2022 AT cs.ou.edu>. Visit http://isaim2022.cs.ou.edu/. Join isaim(a)googlegroups.com to receive announcements related to ISAIM.

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[jobs][extended deadline] Two tenured positions in Autonomous Systems at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences
by Alex Mitrevski 18 Dec '21

18 Dec '21

Dear roboticists, Please note that the application deadline for the positions below has been extended to January 12th, 2022. Regards, Nico Hochgeschwender ------------------------------ Dear roboticists, The Department of Computer Science at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (Sankt Augustin Campus), together with the Bonn-Aachen International Centre for Information Technology (b-it), has the following two permanent professorships (W2) for Computer Science, in particular in Autonomous Systems: 1. Mathematical foundations of autonomous systems 2. Industry-relevant and application-related aspects of autonomous systems. The two position are to be filled as soon as possible. We expect applicants for both positions to meet the following requirements: * the employment requirements of §36 HG NRW, in particular three years of professional experience outside of higher education institutions, * very good knowledge of English, as well as the ability and willingness to teach in English, * pedagogical and didactic skills in teaching complex learning content, * willingness to participate in activities within the university, as well as national and international committees, * experience in the acquisition, establishment and implementation of internal and externally funded research and development projects, * active participation in the further development and expansion of the MAS program. In addition, the following criteria would be desirable: * teaching experience at universities or comparable institutions, * willingness to also teach undergraduate courses that correspond to the topics of the call for applications, * willingness for interdisciplinary cooperation with other institutions within and outside the university, * evidence of international collaborations and networking with the professional community, * willingness to conduct courses and examinations in German. More detailed information can be found at: 1. Mathematical foundations of autonomous systems: https://stellen.h-brs.de/jobposting/dcdfdd50800036e2492311716a44c03b81a1583… <https://stellen.h-brs.de/jobposting/dcdfdd50800036e2492311716a44c03b81a1583…> 2. Industry-relevant and application-related aspects of autonomous systems: https://stellen.h-brs.de/jobposting/0adf13b597c4a2f154f856c2fcaf65311ffeb2c… <https://stellen.h-brs.de/jobposting/0adf13b597c4a2f154f856c2fcaf65311ffeb2c…> We would like to see more female scientists at our university and are therefore particularly pleased to receive applications from women. We welcome applicants with children. H-BRS is a certified family-friendly university - and proud of it. People with severe disabilities are part of our university. We give them preference in the application process if their qualifications are equal. The position is suitable for part-time work. For information about the professorship to be filled, please contact the head of the appointment committee Prof. Dr. Nico Hochgeschwender (nico.hochgeschwender(a)h-brs.de <mailto:nico.hochgeschwender@h-brs.de>). In addition, the Equal Opportunity Officer of the H-BRS, Dr. Barbara Hillen, is also happy to assist you (www.h-brs.de/de/gi/barbara-hillen <https://www.h-brs.de/de/gi/barbara-hillen>). Regards, Nico Hochgeschwender **************************************************************************************** Prof. Dr. Nico Hochgeschwender Professor of Autonomous Systems B-IT Bonn-Aachen International Center of Information Technology Fon: +49-2241-865-9634 Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University oAS Fax: +49-2241-865-8293 Computer Science Department Net: nico.hochgeschwender(a)h-brs.de Grantham-Allee 20 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany Web: http://www.h-brs.de/de/inf/nico-hochgeschwender Twitter: @nico_roboticist **************************************************************************************** International Master Program on Autonomous Systems https://www.h-brs.de/en/inf/autonomous-systems-msc ****************************************************************************************

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RoboCup 2022 SPL Call for Participation
by Stefan Seering 16 Dec '21

16 Dec '21

Call for Applications for Participation RoboCup 2022 Standard Platform League spl.robocup.org <http://spl.robocup.org/> Monday 11th July through Sunday 17th July 2022 Bangkok, Thailand 2022.robocup.org <https://2022.robocup.org> RoboCup <https://www.robocup.org/> is an international initiative that fosters research and education in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence through a variety of competitions (RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home, RoboCupJunior) involving mostly multi-robot systems. RoboCup currently includes a number of different robot soccer leagues that focus on different research challenges. *The Standard Platform League (SPL)* is characterized by all the teams using an identical robot platform. Participating researchers focus on algorithmic development for fully autonomous robots, i.e., robots that operate with no external control. The SPL at RoboCup 2022 will use V6, V5 or older versions of the NAO humanoid robot manufactured by SoftBank Robotics <https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/nao>. The SPL robot soccer team competition games at RoboCup 2022 will be played indoor and outdoor between teams of five robots on a 6m x 9m playing surface. Teams should be able to play on a randomly assigned indoor or outdoor field within one hour. The RoboCup 2022 SPL will host: * A 5 vs. 5 team competition as the main competition of the event. * A 7 vs. 7 competition. * A visual referee technical challenge. * A dynamic ball handling technical challenge. * A video analysis and statistics open research challenge. The 5 vs. 5 team competition will consist of a similar number of games for most teams compared to recent years. The structure from 2019 will be used to allow all teams to play games against teams with similar skill levels. See Appendix A.4 of the preliminary rulebook <https://spl.robocup.org/downloads/> for more details. The teams participating in the team competition should also compete in some of the additional technical challenges. The 7 vs. 7 side competition extends the ideas from the mixed team competition, and 1 vs. 1 remote challenge from RoboCup 2021 to a standardized 7 vs. 7 NAO V6 on-site competition. Its goal is to encourage more collaborative game play and offer a chance for teams to work together more closely. Participating in 7 vs. 7 is recognized as participation in a technical challenge. Additional technical challenges offered at the competition are the visual referee challenge and the dynamic ball handling challenge. The open research challenge aims to provide the SPL with long term performance statistics based on video analysis. Please note that the open research challenge comes with additional deadlines as mentioned in the rulebook. All challenges will be detailed further with the release of the SPL rules document. To assist in adoption of V6 Robots source code examples and documentation regarding V6 robots were published on the SPL website <https://spl.robocup.org/v6-support/>. One can also find example code working with V6 Robots in the code released by participating teams. These examples allow teams to adapt their competition code from recent years more easily to encourage use of V6 Robots. If you need access to the RoboCup NAOqi Image and the specific documentation, please write an email (mentioning your team affiliation) to rc-spl-tc(a)lists.robocup.org. Survey The RoboCup Federation is committed to supporting an in-person event in Thailand from July 11th-17th, as long as the LOC in Thailand decides it is possible. For this purpose, the RoboCup Federation plans to send a survey to all teams considering to apply for RoboCup 2022. If you are considering to apply for participation this year, please send an email stating your interest in RoboCup SPL to rc-spl-tc(a)lists.robocup.org by 12th of January 2022 in addition to your regular application. Qualification All interested teams must submit an original qualification document. For the qualification document to be considered, it must (1) be no longer than *6 pages* and (2) include all the following information in *sections with the specified headings*: 1. *Team Information:* the team name, the team leader(s), and the university/company affiliation(s) of the team 2. *Code Usage:* Acknowledge the team’s use of any other team’s code (1) previously from 2017 to present and (2) anticipated at RoboCup 2022. If code is used from other teams, is this code integrated into a code base that is mainly designed by the applying team? If the applying team does not use any other team’s code, state so. For further details, please have a look into the rule book, section A.1 <https://spl.robocup.org/downloads/>. 3. *Own Contribution:* Describe in detail the ‘research publishable’ significant advancements the applying team has made and is going to use at RoboCup 2022, in accordance with the rule book, section A.1 <https://spl.robocup.org/downloads/>. 4. *Past History:* provide game results in RoboCup Open competitions as well as main RoboCup competitions from 2018 onward. Include opponents and game scores from each competition in a table. State if the team plans to participate in any RoboCup Open competitions or friendlies prior to RoboCup 2022. 5. *Impact:* What is the impact of the team’s participation and research in RoboCup on (1) the SPL, (2) the team’s university/community? 6. *Video presentation:* Include a link to a video (maximum 5 minutes long, uploaded on the team’s web site or on some video server) that demonstrates the status of the team. The organizing committees use the video to determine the readiness of the team to compete effectively, and hence should focus on the team’s ability to play soccer. Teams who did not participate in the team competition at RoboCup 2019 or any challenge at RoboCup 2021 *must* include footage of at least one robot attempting to kick off and score (this footage must be captured as a single wide shot with no cuts). If robots from multiple teams are active in the footage (e.g., game footage), please include a textual overlay or additional document denoting which robots belong to the applying team for every scene. Videos of simulation contributions will also be accepted, but only when a real robot is unavailable. Preference will be given to teams that use real robots to show soccer skills in their video. 7. *Other:* Present any other information that you believe supports your application. If your application mentions more than one e-mail address, please specify which one should be used to contact your team regarding your application. Pre-Qualification Teams are given the chance to pre-qualify based on their performance at RoboCup 2019 and 2021. Teams will be pre-qualified for RoboCup 2022, if they submit the following original qualification document. Teams able to pre-qualify include: * B-Human * UNISABANA Herons SPL * rUNSWift * HULKs * Bembelbots * Berlin United- Nao TH * Nao Devils * HTWK Robots * UT Austin Villa The original qualification document must include: 1. *Team Information:* the team name, the team leader(s), and the university/company affiliation(s) of the team 2. *Code Usage:* Acknowledge the team’s use of any other team’s code (1) previously from 2017 to present and (2) anticipated at RoboCup 2020. If code is used from other teams, is this code integrated into a code base that is mainly designed by the applying team? If the applying team does not use any other team’s code, state so. For further details, please have a look into the rule book, section A.1 <https://spl.robocup.org/downloads/>. 3. *Own Contribution:* Describe in detail the ‘research publishable’ significant advancements the applying team has made and is going to use at RoboCup 2022, in accordance with the rule book, section A.1 <https://spl.robocup.org/downloads/>. 4. *TRR:* a link to a team research report describing their work for RoboCup 2019 or 2021 or both (which must be published in a publicly available location) 5. *Code Release:* a link to a public code release as detailed in the 2019 SPL rulebook If a joint 2019 team splits, only one team can be pre-qualified for 2022 (please, indicate which one). Qualification for Regional Opens Only Teams may also submit a short intent to participate in a regional open if they do not wish to participate in the 2022 RoboCup competition. Although teams may participate in regional opens without submitting this intent to participate, teams who submit an intent to participate and become qualified will be eligible for future special robot pricing. Special robot pricing for team competing in RoboCup Events are still being discussed. Updates about special prices will be announced as soon as offers and conditions are finalized. Teams must submit the following information by 15th of February 2022: (1) The team name, leader(s), and the university/company affiliation(s) of the team and (2) a short statement describing the status/progress of the team. A link to a short video showing robot soccer behaviours and/or game play (using robots or in simulation) may be included if available. Submission and Evaluation All applications with the (pre-)qualification material must be submitted by *15th of February 2022*, by email to rc-spl-tc(a)lists.robocup.org. Applications must not be sent to personal SPL TC/OC email addresses and must not contain video attachments. Note that applying serves as a statement of commitment to participate in the RoboCup 2022 SPL. The organizing committees are aware of the ongoing COVID situation and assume that all applications are subject to withdrawal due to COVID. Applications are not required to mention uncertainties related to COVID to avoid negative effects on future applications. We would rather encourage teams to plan optimistically and sign up with the possibility of withdrawing if situation requires it. For situations other than COVID: If you have doubts regarding the ability of your team to participate (due to funding, visas, etc.), please apply by the deadline but note this in your application. Declining to participate in any competition after the official early registration period has opened may negatively affect future applications (the later you decline, the worse it will affect future applications). Teams are encouraged to consider joint participation. Joint proposals will be judged on combined merit. Applications will be evaluated to consider a variety of components including: 1. Potential to play competitive games at RoboCup 2022 (demonstrated ability to play soccer, previous results, etc.) 2. Contributions (and potential contributions) to league (code releases/papers, active in organization, developing own code, etc.) 3. Diversity (region, team make-up, unique characteristics, etc.) Qualification decisions, including alternate lists, will be announced by 29th of February 2022. Robot Acquisition Teams who submit an intent to participate and become qualified will be eligible for potential future special robot pricing. Special robot pricing for team competing in RoboCup Events are still being discussed. Updates about special prices will be announced if offers and conditions are finalized. /RoboCup 2022 Standard Platform League Technical and Organizing Committees/

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Postdoc in Robotics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences
by Gerndt, Reinhard 15 Dec '21

15 Dec '21

Dear All We have a 4 years postdoc position in our project ‘Meaningful Human Control’ (MeHuCo) funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The main objective of the research is developing a deeper understanding of potentials and limitations of high level control, prediction and assessment of autonomous robot behaviours. The tasks involves adapting and programming of anthropomorphic robots and conducting practical experiments in robot-robot and human-robot scenarios. The preferred candidate has a background in humanoid robotics and human-robot interaction. Willingness to work together with other disciplines is expected. German language capabilities or interest in acquiring it may be a plus. If you are interested, please reply to this email. (Please make sure, you do not copy the entire mailing list.) Regards Reinhard --- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Gerndt Arbeitsgruppe Robotik / Robotics Group Institut für Verteilte Systeme / Institute for Distributed Systems Internationalisierungsbeauftragter / International Affairs Coordinator Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften - Fachhochschule Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel - Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences Fakultät Informatik - Computer Science Department Salzdahlumer Str. 46-48 38302 Wolfenbüttel, Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 5331 939 32120 / 31005 FAX: +49 (0) 5331 939 31004 E-Mail: r.gerndt(a)ostfalia.de<mailto:r.gerndt@ostfalia.de> Web: www.ostfalia.de ********************************************************************** Der Inhalt dieser E-Mail ist vertraulich und ausschliesslich fuer den bezeichneten Adressaten bestimmt. Wenn Sie nicht der vorgesehene Adressat dieser E-Mail oder dessen Vertreter sein sollten, so beachten Sie bitte, dass jede Form der Kenntnisnahme, Veroeffentlichung, Vervielfaeltigung oder Weitergabe des Inhalts dieser E-Mail unzulaessig ist. Wir bitten Sie, sich in diesem Fall mit dem Absender der E-Mail in Verbindung zu setzen. The information contained in this email is confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any form of disclosure, reproduction, distribution or any action taken or refrained from in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please notify the sender immediately. ********************************************************************** P Please consider the environment before deciding to print this e-mail.

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RoboCup 2022
by Peter Stone 14 Dec '21

14 Dec '21

Dear RoboCup Committee Members and Participants, I'm writing to you today to keep you informed about RoboCup 2022. As you know, we continue to face uncertainty about the feasibility of travel. However this year, we, the RoboCup Federation, are committed to supporting an in-person event in Thailand from July 11th-17th, as long as the LOC in Thailand decides it is possible. To help with planning, we need to estimate how many teams will participate in RoboCup in Thailand. For this purpose, we will send a survey around January 15 to all the prospective participants. Of course uncertainty will inevitably remain. Please plan on responding to the survey in the best way you can, taking into account all the factors relating to your country, Thailand, and your team. Please stay tuned for this survey. We will share the responses and the next steps by February. Warmly, Peter Stone President, RoboCup Federation ___ Professor Peter Stone David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor University Distinguished Teaching Professor Director, Texas Robotics Associate Chair, Department of Computer Science phone: 512-471-9796 The University of Texas at Austin fax: 512-471-8885 2317 Speedway, Stop D9500 pstone(a)cs.utexas.edu Austin, Texas 78712-1757 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone

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RoboCup 2022 Small Size League Call for Participation
by Carla Cosenza 13 Dec '21

13 Dec '21

Hello! The Small Size League committee is glad to invite you to participate in the RoboCup 2022! Below you can find important information about the competition and qualification. Location and dates RoboCup Bangkok 2022 Small Size League July 11 - 17, 2022 https://ssl.robocup.org/robocup-2022/ About RoboCup RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots. When established in 1997, the original mission was to field a team of robots capable of winning against the human soccer World Cup champions by 2050. About the Small Size League The RoboCup Small Size League is a part of the RoboCup Research Federation focused on multi-agent coordination and control. Teams currently compete in 11 vs. 11 soccer matches (6 vs. 6 in Div. B). The robots must fit within an 18 cm diameter circle and must be no higher than 15 cm. The robots play soccer with an orange golf ball on a green carpeted field that is about 12 m long by 9 m wide. About the qualification To qualify for the competition, each team must submit a Team Description Paper and a video by February 1, 2022. More information on the qualification requirements and processes are located on the website<https://ssl.robocup.org/robocup-2022-qualification/>. Please direct all inquiries to the Small Size League Organizing Committee: rc-ssl-oc(a)lists.robocup.org<mailto:rc-ssl-oc@lists.robocup.org> Thank you! Carla Cosenza RoboCup Small Size League | Organizing Committee

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Call for Participation Humanoid Soccer Competition and the Humanoid Research Demonstration
by Jasper Güldenstein 11 Dec '21

11 Dec '21

* Call for Participation * RoboCup 2022 Humanoid Soccer Competition https://humanoid.robocup.org/ July 11 - 17, 2022, Bangkok, Thailand https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-2022/ Important: This Call for Participation concerns the Humanoid Soccer Competition and the Humanoid Research Demonstration. A separate call may be published for the Humanoid Open Competition. =========================================================== The RoboCup Humanoid League invites teams to apply for participation at the RoboCup 2022 Humanoid Soccer Competition and the Humanoid Research Demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand. The Humanoid League will host competitions in the following categories: * Humanoid Soccer Competition * KidSize: 40 - 100cm robot height (FIFA size 1 ball) * AdultSize: 130 - 200cm robot height (FIFA size 5 ball) * Humanoid Research Demonstration In addition, we may organize a Humanoid Open Competition with a CfP following later this year. For more detailed class definitions and more information about the humanoid league, please refer to the humanoid league home page at https://humanoid.robocup.org/ and join the humanoid league mailing list at: https://lists.robocup.org/listinfo/robocup-humanoid Teams are also encouraged to form and apply as joint teams. Joint proposals will be judged on their combined merit. Teams must provide the following qualification material: 1) Humanoid Soccer Competition ======================================= You do not need to provide a full robot team to apply for competing in the Humanoid Soccer Competition. The qualifying round of Drop-In games will be played with only one robot per team. Teams that cannot provide a full team of robots (four robots in KidSize and two in AdultSize) will be grouped to form a playable team for the main tournament games. In case of a sufficient number of qualified teams, the sub-leagues (KidSize and/or AdultSize) will be divided into League A and League B. Teams are seeded into the leagues based on the results of an initial round of Drop-In games. Each application to the Humanoid Soccer Competition will be reviewed by two members of the Technical Committee and two others teams applying to the Humanoid Soccer Competition. The combined reviewing score will decide whether a team qualifies for participation. Reviewing other team's material is mandatory for teams that want to participate in the Humanoid Soccer Competition. Failing to provide an adequate review by the provided deadline will have consequences for the teams own qualification status. 1.1) Robot Video --------------------------------------- Teams need to provide a video of their robot demonstrating the robots' autonomous soccer playing skills. The recommended skills needed for qualification are: * localization of unknown ball position, * walking ability towards the ball, * robot positioning at the ball for kicking, * kicking the ball towards the goal, * ability of getting up autonomously from a fall (KidSize only) We encourage teams to include in the video more complex and intelligent behavior such as demonstrating localization, and robots playing in a game, recordings from actual soccer matches are admissible. If possible, please provide footage that demonstrates the robot behavior without wires attached. The qualification video must be supplied as a link via youtube. The maximum duration of the video must not exceed 5 minutes. The qualifying team is responsible to ensure that the video adheres to YouTube's TOS (especially in regards to music copyright) to prevent the video from being blocked for the reviewers. Teams that do not provide a qualification video or a viewable video will not be qualified! 1.2) Software Description --------------------------------------- During the registration process, a form will be provided to submit details about the algorithms used or anticipated to be used for the participation in the 2022 competition. Algorithms shall be described in such detail that they can be reproduced by other teams. If software from other teams or standard algorithms are used, references need to be included. If the algorithm has been adapted to be used in the competition, those deviations need to be described in appropriate details. The form will include questions in the following areas: * Walking * Vision * Localization * Team Communication * Behavior * Contributions to the RoboCup community, e.g. software releases, paper publications, provision of league infrastructure or data sets Responses to the questions are expected to reflect the current or anticipated status of the software during the RoboCup 2022 competition. If the software has not changed or no changes are anticipated to be made until the competition, teams may copy & paste a response from previously submitted material. 1.3) Extended Abstract --------------------------------------- A two-page extended abstract must be submitted. For teams which have previously participated in the Humanoid League, the extended abstract needs to: * include lessons learned from the participation in previous RoboCup competitions * highlight major problems that the team is trying to solve for the upcoming competition * outline the plans for the major changes that the teams anticipate to have implemented by the RoboCup 2022 competition * describe the implementation status of the changes planned by the time of submitting the application For teams which have never participated in the RoboCup Humanoid League, the Extended Abstract needs to pitch the scientific aspects of their humanoid robotic system and highlight their research interests. The Extended Abstract is limited to 2 pages maximum and must be submitted in PDF format. Extended Abstracts are designed to highlight the changes and scientific developments since the last RoboCup. Thus, we expect the usage of material from previous TDPs or Extended Abstracts to be minimal. If used, they need to be cited appropriately. Submissions of last year's Extended Abstract will be desk-rejected. The Extended Abstract must follow the LNCS format which can be downloaded from https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…. Teams that do to follow the LNCS formatting and style guidelines will not be qualified. No exceptions to this rule will be made. 1.4) Robot Specification --------------------------------------- Regardless of the kid or adult size competition, a one-page specification (PDF) must be provided for each different type of humanoid robot used by the team that includes the following: * Robot picture * Robot name * Height of the robot * Weight of the robot * Walking speed in cm/s * Number of degrees of freedom and type of motors on each kinematic chain of the robot * Type of sensors used (incl. type of camera(s) and specific manufacturer part number (e.g. “6-DoF IMU” is NOT an acceptable description)) * Computing unit(s) * Other specs 1.5) Rules --------------------------------------- This year’s rule discussion has not been completed yet. Therefore, no update has been made except for the change of the minimum size of Adult Size robots to 130cm. All other hardware specifications will stay the same for RoboCup 2022 such that teams already know if their robot qualifies. We will initiate the rule discussion with proposals from the discussion at RoboCup 2021 in the coming weeks. The current version of the rules may be found here: http://humanoid.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/RCHL-2020-Rules-Dec23.pdf We expect the final version of the 2022 rules to be published in early spring 2022. 1.6) Registration --------------------------------------- The following information is required for registration: * Team name * URL of the team's home page * Name of team leader or team contact person * E-mail address of team leader or contact person * Postal address of the team, team leader or contact person * Competition category: Humanoid Soccer Competition KidSize or AdultSize Please note that teams applying for participation in several categories must submit individual application material for each class, and pay the appropriate registration fee for each category. At least one team member must register on each team. Furthermore, teams in different categories must be able to compete, and guarantee to have members acting as referees available independently and at the same time. 1.7) Letter of Commitment --------------------------------------- Regardless of the specific competition, a one-page letter addressed to the RoboCup Humanoid League Technical Committee including the following: * a statement committing to participate in the RoboCup 2022 Humanoid League competition, * a statement committing to make a person with sufficient knowledge of the rules available as referee during the competition. The letter must be printed, hand signed by the team leader, digitally scanned and submitted either as a JPG, PNG or PDF file. If the letter does not contain a hand-written signature, it is not considered valid. The TC may include the fulfillment of the statement of commitment of participation as well as the performance of the team's referee in previous RoboCup competitions into consideration for qualification. 2. Humanoid Research Demonstration (HRD) ======================================= The RoboCup Humanoid League invites the research community to apply for showcasing the latest research and development results that are relevant for humanoid robots, during the virtual Humanoid League 2022. Researchers are invited to submit their demonstrations independently of whether they participate in the RoboCup competitions, symposium or have a RoboCup team. Contributions will be evaluated for scientific and technical excellence. 2.1. Topics of Interest --------------------------------------- We welcome demonstrations containing new ideas, concepts, practical studies, and experiment demonstrations relevant to the field of Humanoid Robotics. This year, the special theme of the Humanoid Research Demonstration is sim2real learning and we particularly invite teams to showcase their research in this area. Other topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Components, joints and mechanics; * Soft robotics; * Anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic; * Walking, running, jumping and other humanoid locomotion; * Adaptability and scalability; * Sensors and perception; * Control and stability; * Dealing with falling; * Reflexes and learning; * Energy supply and efficiency; * Robot design and robotic kits; * Virtual robots and simulation; * Benchmarking; * Bipedal robots applied to real problems; * Education with and for humanoid robots. 2.2. Procedure --------------------------------------- The Humanoid Research Demonstration will take place in one or several sessions and participating teams are asked to show a demonstration of the system live in Bangkok or stream their demonstration from their lab during the session. As a back-up solution, each team needs to provide a video demonstration prior to the beginning of the tournament. If the demonstration is performed in Bangkok, the Humanoid League will provide a humanoid league soccer playing field for the demonstration. However, the members of the Technical Committee of the Humanoid League understand that for some demonstrations this setup may not be ideal and will try to accommodate all teams. If a team requires other arrangements for the demonstration, it must submit a request to the Technical Committee at least 3 months before the competition to allow sufficient time for alternative arrangements. 2.3. Application --------------------------------------- We invite teams to apply to participate in the Humanoid Research Demonstration by submitting the following material: 2.3.1. Demonstration Data * Demonstration title; * URL of the group’s home page; * Name of the contact person; * E-mail address of the contact person; * Postal address of the contact person. 2.3.2. Demonstration Video The first part of the material is a video of your robot or robotic part demonstrating its skills or a brief overview of the software demonstration if your demonstration does not involve a physical embodiment. The video must be supplied as a link to it via YouTube. The maximum duration of the video is 3 minutes. The proponent is responsible to ensure that the video adheres to YouTube’s TOS (especially in regards to music copyright) to prevent the video from being blocked for the reviewers. 2.3.3. Hardware Specification If the demonstration includes any type of hardware to be showcased, a one-page specification (PDF) for each different type of humanoid type robot/mechanism used that includes the following: * Robot/mechanism picture; * Robot/mechanism name; * Size of the humanoid type robot/mechanism; * Weight of the robot/mechanism; * Robots/mechanisms joint specification; * Type of sensors used (incl. type of camera(s)); * Computing unit(s); * Other specifications 2.3.4. Short paper A short paper describing the robot, robot part of software and its task and required environment, limited to four (4) pages including text, references, tables, and figures. The short paper must follow the LNCS format which can be downloaded fromhttp://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0 <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0>. Please pay special attention to the “Author guidelines” that you’ll be able to find there. 3) Plagiarism ======================================= Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples' words, code, and ideas is not tolerated in the RoboCup community. See the point “Publishing Ethics” at https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu… for a more detailed description. The teams and team members that plagiarize other peoples' work, and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification. 4) Online Submission ======================================= All qualification material must be submitted online at http://submission.robocuphumanoid.org/ 5) Important Dates ======================================= Humanoid Soccer Competition * Submission system open: November 29th, 2021 * Submission deadline: December 12th, 2021 * Team Review Period: December 13th - December 27th * Announcement of qualified teams: January 21st, 2022 Humanoid Research Demonstration * Submission system open: November 29th, 2021 * Submission deadline: February 14th, 2022 6) Publication ======================================= Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualified teams submitted material will be made publicly available on the Humanoid League website. Teams applying for participation, therefore, implicitly grant the right of publication of their qualification material to the Humanoid League. 7) Visa Process ======================================= If you are a citizen of a country that needs a Visa for traveling to Thailand, please start the VISA process as soon as you receive your notification of qualification. If you are not sure if you're eligible for a VISA-exempt, please consult the official website of the Thailand government for information. With best regards, Technical Committee of RoboCup Humanoid League 2021

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[Journals] Call for IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on "Stream Learning, " Submission Deadline: December 15, 2021
by Pub Conference 11 Dec '21

11 Dec '21

Guest Editors: Jie Lu, University of Technology Sydney, Australia; Joao Gama, University of Porto, Portugal; Xin Yao, Southern University of Science and Technology, China; Leandro Minku, University of Birmingham, UK. *Submission Deadline: December 15, 2021 [EXTENDED].* *Website: * *https://cis.ieee.org/images/files/Publications/TNNLS/special-issues/One-Page_IEEE_Transactions_on_NNLS-SI-CFP-Update.pdf* <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/cis.ieee.org/images/files/Publications/T…>

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[meetings][cfp] (TRAITS @ HRI 2022) The Road to a successful HRI: AI, Trust and ethicS Workshop
by alessandra.rossi＠unina.it 09 Dec '21

09 Dec '21

Dear colleagues, Apologies for any cross-posting It is our great pleasure to invite you to submit your work at the second edition of TRAITS - The Road to a successful HRI: AI, Trust and ethicS Workshop that will be held in conjunction with HRI 2022 conference. The workshop and conference will be fully online on March 7-11, 2022. This year edition of TRAITS will have the participation of three amazing keynote speakers that will share their valuable experience and knowledge covering topics on AI, trust and ethics in HRI. More information can be also found on the website and social media: Workshop Website: https://sites.google.com/view/traits-hri-2022/home Workshop Twitter account: @HriTraits For any questions and further information, please do not hesitate to email me. Kind regards, Alessandra On behalf of the organising committee Dr. Alessandra Rossi Postdoctoral researcher PRISCA research lab University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy ============================================================ TRAITS 2022: The Road to a successful HRI: AI, Trust and ethicS online March 7-11, 2022 Conference website https://sites.google.com/view/traits-hri-2022/home Submission link https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=traits2022 Submission deadline February 21, 2022 The Road to a successful HRI: AI, Trust and ethicS - TRAITS The increasing presence of robots in human-centred environments requires natural robot behaviours to ensure a successful and efficient human-robot interaction (HRI). Guaranteeing such high quality HRIs is very challenging due to the inherent uncertainty of human-robot dynamics involving the perception, reasoning and decision-making of robots and people. In such realities, robots and people need to be able to cooperate together to reach a goal, which can only be achieved if people accept and trust robots to complete their task and prevent any potential harm (emotional or physical) to people and their belongings. Then, they need to correctly interpret the other's behaviour, and act accordingly. Finally, they need to be able to adapt and communicate their intention and internal state in a way that the other counterpart can understand and accept, e.g. through social cues. Successful HRIs, therefore, can be guaranteed by designing robots: 1) able to autonomously sense and react to the situation, people and the environment by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) techniques; 2) such that people feel comfortable to interact with robots and trust them to reach intended outcomes, and 3) by adhering to ethical and legal principles. This workshop is a continuation of a successful workshop at the HRI conference 2021. This iteration of workshop will continue contributing to the exploration of successful HRIs from a multidisciplinary perspective, and the analysis of the different aspects of HRI that impact its success. For this reason, in this second edition, we wish to particularly focus on the AI algorithms required to implement autonomous and proactive interactions as well as to AI techniques that can make the robot explain itself and its behaviour being legible and understandable by humans. Furthermore, we concentrate on the factors that enhance, undermine, or recover humans' trust in robots. Finally, potential ethical and legal concerns, and how they can be addressed will be considered. Submission Guidelines All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract of 2 pages or full papers up to 6 pages on original and unpublished research. We also invite authors to submit 2 pages position papers. All submitted papers will be reviewed by two reviewers. The abstracts of the accepted papers will appear on the workshop website. Authors should submit their papers formatted according to the ACM SIG format, which is also used for contributions to the main conference. All papers must be submitted in PDF format. Use the following templates to create the paper and generate or export a PDF file: LaTeX, on Overleaf or MS-Word. Following HRI 2021 directives, we invite authors to prepare an anonymised submission. Authors are expected to remove author and institutional identities from the cover page, the acknowledgements section, and the PDF meta-data. More information about how to anonymise your submission can be found on the conference website. Authors will be able to submit a PDF copy through Easychair. Please see submission instructions. List of Topics We intend to open the workshop to a broad audience from academia and industry researching social robotics, machine learning, robot behavioural control, and so on. We will foster the exchange of insights on past and ongoing research and contribute to the discussion of innovative ideas for tackling unresolved issues providing new and inspirational directions of research. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: • Evaluation of human-robot interaction quality; • Human factors affecting successful HRI; • Mental models in HRI; • XAI in HRI; • Trustworthy AI; • Antecedents of Trust and Human-Robot Trust; • The impact of social robots on acceptance in HRI; • Legal frameworks for trustworthy robotics; • Ethics implications in HRI Invited Speakers • AI in HRI: Tony Belpaeme (confirmed) • Trust and acceptance in HRI: Kristin Schaefer (to be confirmed) • Ethics in HRI: John Danaher (confirmed) Each session of the program will be interspersed with break-out sessions during which attendees will be available to networking and discuss further the workshop topics. One of the break-out sessions will be dedicated to a “mentor and mentees” event where attendees, in particular students and PhD students who just started to work in research, are encouraged to ask questions and advices to the keynotes speakers. Participants and attendees will be invited to submit questions before the workshop to allow the keynotes to also reply offline. Questions and comments will be available in a special session on the workshop website. Committees Alessandra Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, alessandra.rossi(a)unina.it Antonio Andriella, Institut de Robotica i Informatica Industrial (CSIC-UPC), Spain, aandriella(a)iri.upc.edu Silvia Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, silvia.rossi(a)unina.it Anouk van Maris, University of the West of England, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK, anouk.vanmaris(a)uwe.ac.uk Publication Authors of accepted papers will also be invited to publish their works on a pre-print archive (e.g. arXiv) to increase the visibility of their work, this Workshop and the whole Conference. Attendees, invited speakers, and participants of the workshop will also be invited to submit extended and revised works to a special issue in high rank journal. Contact More information can be found on the website. All questions about submissions should be emailed to the organising committee members. Workshop Website: https://sites.google.com/view/traits-hri-2022/home Workshop Twitter account: @HriTraits

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[meetings][cfp] (RO-MAN 2022) Second call for proposals for Special Sessions, Workshops and Tutorials at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
by Alessandra Rossi 09 Dec '21

09 Dec '21

Dear colleagues, Apologies for any cross-posting Please find attached below the second call for proposals for Special Sessions, Workshops and Tutorials at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022) that will be held in Naples (Italy) on August 29th - September 2nd, 2022. More information can be also found on the website and social media: http://ro-man2022.org IG: @ieeeroman2022 Twitter: @ROMAN2022ieee Facebook: @ieeeroman2022 For any questions and further information about the Special Session and Workshop/Tutorial proposal, please email workshop(a)roman2022.org or contactinfo(a)roman2022.org. Kindest regards, Alessandra Rossi Publicity Chairs Dr. Alessandra Rossi Postdoctoral researcher PRISCA research lab University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy ============================================================ *** SECOND CALL FOR SPECIAL SESSIONS, WORKSHOPS, AND TUTORIALS *** ============================================================ 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022) August 29th - September 2nd, 2022 Naples, Italy http://ro-man2022.org IG: @ieeeroman2022 Twitter: @ROMAN2022ieee Facebook: @ieeeroman2022 ============================================================= The RO-MAN2022 Organising Committee invites proposals for Special Sessions, Workshops and Tutorials to be held during the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication in Naples, Italy from August 29th to September 2nd, 2022. The RO-MAN conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed. The conference covers a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, involving theories, methodologies, technologies, empirical and experimental studies. Proposals related to the study of robotic technology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, ethics and policies, interaction-based robot design and other topics related to human-robot interaction are welcome. This year's theme is “Social, asocial, and antisocial robots”. One of its goals is to explore how to create robots that are capable of being welcomed as our assistants and companions in society while, at the same time, not being perceived as “asocial” or “antisocial”. A second aim is to understand how we can create robots perceived as facilitators of the natural development of human beings and communities, rather than obstacles. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINES SPECIAL SESSIONS DEADLINE: JANUARY 10, 2022 WORKSHOPS/TUTORIALS DEADLINE: JANUARY 10, 2022 SPECIAL SESSION PROPOSALS Prospective special session organisers are invited to submit a proposal via the main conference's submission system. The organisers of the accepted special sessions will be responsible for the high-quality peer-review of the submitted papers according to IEEE standards (i.e. at least 2 anonymous peer-reviews). The organisers will be Associate Editors (AE) for the proposed session, and they will be responsible for assigning reviewers and judging the submitted paper for the special session. Proposals should include the following information: • Title: Please propose a title that shows the relevance of the session for the RO-MAN community and the innovativeness of the proposed topic. • Aims and scope: Please explain why the chosen topic is novel and relevant, with the potential to contribute to the growth of the RO-MAN community, and is also suitable for either the conference theme or a new emerging theme with potentially high impact. • Tentative speakers: Please provide a list of prospective contributing authors and tentative titles. Special Sessions are normally expected to have 4 to 6 papers. Invited speakers or session-related demonstrations (such as renowned speakers or industrial talks) could be a part of the Special Session. • Organisers and biographies: Please provide a short bio-sketch of the session organisers including their experience in the topic of the Special Session. The guidelines to submit a special session proposal are available at the Special Session section on the RO-MAN 2022 website or by clicking on this link. WORKSHOPS and TUTORIALS PROPOSALS Workshops and tutorials should focus on key areas of established and emerging research, and should provide a forum for participants to exchange new ideas and discuss recent results. We encourage proposals for topics that have substantial community interest, with a creative and innovative program, led by recognised leaders in their fields, that will attract a broad and diverse audience. Organisers of approved workshops and tutorials will be asked to create and maintain a dedicated webpage, which will be used to promote the workshop/tutorial, and disseminate relevant and updated information. Proposals should include the following information: • Title • Format (indicate full or half day, tutorial or workshop) • Main organiser (one person only, complete address, phone, and email) • Co-organisers (complete address, and email) • Previous editions (if any) • Statement of objectives • Intended audience • List of speakers • List of topics • Plan to solicit participation • Workshop organisation • Plan for inclusion, diversity and equity The guidelines to submit a workshop/tutorial proposal are available at the Workshop and Tutorial section on the RO-MAN 2022 website or by clicking on this link. ============================================================== The primary criteria in the evaluation of special session and workshop/tutorial proposals will be the timeliness of the topics, the quality, track record, and diversity of the proposers and speakers, the coherence of the proposal, the novelty or creativity, and the expected value added to the overall conference. Aspects of diversity that will be considered include the age, gender, national origin, background, and workplace of the proposers and speakers. We will give priority to proposals that fully follow these requirements. Moreover, we encourage the submission of workshops, tutorial and special sessions organized by communities that are under-represented within the RO-MAN activities. For any questions and further information about the Special Session and Workshop/Tutorial proposal, please email workshop(a)roman2022.org or contact info(a)roman2022.org. SPECIAL SESSION CO-CHAIRS JongSuk Choi, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KR) Mariacarla Staffa, University of Naples Parthenope (IT) Kerstin Haring, University of Denver (USA) TUTORIAL / WORKSHOP CO-CHAIRS Amir Aly, University of Plymouth (UK) Daniel Riccio, University of Naples Federico II (IT) Raquel Ros, La Salle - Universitat Ramon Llull (ES)

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[Journal] Call for IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on "Stream Learning, " Submission Deadline: December 15, 2021
by Pub Conference 07 Dec '21

07 Dec '21

IEEE TNNLS Special Issue on "Stream Learning," Guest Editors: Jie Lu, University of Technology Sydney, Australia; Joao Gama, University of Porto, Portugal; Xin Yao, Southern University of Science and Technology, China; Leandro Minku, University of Birmingham, UK. Submission Deadline: December 15, 2021 [EXTENDED]. Website: https://cis.ieee.org/images/files/Publications/TNNLS /special-issues/One-Page_IEEE_Transactions_on_NNLS-SI-CFP-Update.pdf <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://cis.ieee.org/images/files/Publications/…>

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Survey about domestic robot competitions, in particular RoboCup@Home
by Alex Mitrevski 04 Dec '21

04 Dec '21

Dear RoboCup community, As part of the preparations for the rule book for next year's RoboCup@Home <https://athome.robocup.org> competition, which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand in 2022, we would like toimprove the competition tasks so that they serve the robotics research community better. We all know the transformative effect that various competitions in the computer vision community have had on our field; we hope that RoboCup@Home can have the same effect for domestic service and social robots. To make this possible, we need a collective effort from the community. We would, in particular, like to identify (i) research areas that are considered important by those of you working in the umbrella domain of "domestic service and social robots" as well as (ii) aspects that you, the community, consider important for a competition of this type to be valuable for your research activities. For this, we would be very much obliged if you could take a few minutes of your time to answer a short /anonymous/ survey about domestic robot competitions until 23:59 CET on December 30th, 2021. The link to the survey is https://forms.gle/DuNzPVKd5c41DRxq7 <https://forms.gle/DuNzPVKd5c41DRxq7> Please note that this survey is open to everyone, regardless of whether you are currently participating in RoboCup@Home or similar competitions; we would be particularly happy if the competition can attract researchers and groups which are currently not participating. Thanks in advance for your time and insights. Best regards, Alex Mitrevski on behalf of the RoboCup@Home Technical Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Mitrevski Research Staff Room: C201 Email:aleksandar.mitrevski@h-brs.de Phone: +49-2241-865-206 Web:https://www.h-brs.de/en/inf/aleksandar-mitrevski Autonomous Systems Group Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Computer Science Department Grantham-Allee 20 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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RCAP 2021
by noda50＠gmail.com 02 Dec '21

02 Dec '21

Dear all RoboCuppers, I like to share about the news of RoboCup Asia Pacific (RCAP) 2021 Aichi, Japan. In the last weekend, RCAP 2021 was successfully held in person. The following article reports about the event. https://robotstart.info/2021/11/28/rcap21-report.html Unfortunately, the article is in Japanese, but you can see several photo and movies that provide RoboCup atmosphere!!! --Itsuki Noda

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[journals] Call for paper-Neural Computing and Applications, Topical Collection on Interpretation of Deep Learning
by Pub Conference 02 Dec '21

02 Dec '21

Neural Computing and Applications <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/journal/521/__;!!LIr3w…> Topical Collection on Interpretation of Deep Learning: Prediction, Representation, Modeling and Utilization https://www.springer.com/journal/521/updates/19187658 <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/journal/521/updates/19…> Aims, Scope and Objective While Big Data offers the great potential for revolutionizing all aspects of our society, harvesting of valuable knowledge from Big Data is an extremely challenging task. The large scale and rapidly growing information hidden in the unprecedented volumes of non-traditional data requires the development of decision-making algorithms. Recent successes in machine learning, particularly deep learning, has led to breakthroughs in real-world applications such as autonomous driving, healthcare, cybersecurity, speech and image recognition, personalized news feeds, and financial markets. While these models may provide the state-of-the-art and impressive prediction accuracies, they usually offer little insight into the inner workings of the model and how a decision is made. The decision-makers cannot obtain human-intelligible explanations for the decisions of models, which impede the applications in mission-critical areas. This situation is even severely worse in complex data analytics. It is, therefore, imperative to develop explainable computation intelligent learning models with excellent predictive accuracy to provide safe, reliable, and scientific basis for determination. Numerous recent works have presented various endeavors on this issue but left many important questions unresolved. The first challenging problem is how to construct self-explanatory models or how to improve the explicit understanding and explainability of a model without the loss of accuracy. In addition, high dimensional or ultra-high dimensional data are common in large and complex data analytics. In these cases, the construction of interpretable model becomes quite difficult and complex. Further, how to evaluate and quantify the explainability of a model is lack of consistent and clear description. Moreover, auditable, repeatable, and reliable process of the computational models is crucial to decision-makers. For example, decision-makers need explicit explanation and analysis of the intermediate features produced in a model, thus the interpretation of intermediate processes is requisite. Subsequently, the problem of efficient optimization exists in explainable computational intelligent models. These raise many essential issues on how to develop explainable data analytics in computational intelligence. This Topical Collection aims to bring together original research articles and review articles that will present the latest theoretical and technical advancements of machine and deep learning models. We hope that this Topical Collection will: 1) improve the understanding and explainability of machine learning and deep neural networks; 2) enhance the mathematical foundation of deep neural networks; and 3) increase the computational efficiency and stability of the machine and deep learning training process with new algorithms that will scale. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: - Interpretability of deep learning models - Quantifying or visualizing the interpretability of deep neural networks - Neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary based interpretable control systems - Supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning - Extracting understanding from large-scale and heterogeneous data - Dimensionality reduction of large scale and complex data and sparse modeling - Stability improvement of deep neural network optimization - Optimization methods for deep learning - Privacy preserving machine learning (e.g., federated machine learning, learning over encrypted data) - Novel deep learning approaches in the applications of image/signal processing, business intelligence, games, healthcare, bioinformatics, and security Guest Editors Nian Zhang (Lead Guest Editor), University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, USA, nzhang(a)udc.edu Jian Wang, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China, wangjiannl(a)upc.edu.cn Leszek Rutkowski, Czestochowa University of Technology, Poland, leszek.rutkowski(a)pcz.pl Important Dates Deadline for Submissions: March 31, 2022 First Review Decision: May 31, 2022 Revisions Due: June 30, 2022 Deadline for 2nd Review: July 31, 2022 Final Decisions: August 31, 2022 Final Manuscript: September 30, 2022 Peer Review Process All the papers will go through peer review, and will be reviewed by at least three reviewers. A thorough check will be completed, and the guest editors will check any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published paper or submitted manuscripts of which they are aware. In such case, the article will be directly rejected without proceeding further. Guest editors will make all reasonable effort to receive the reviewer’s comments and recommendation on time. The submitted papers must provide original research that has not been published nor currently under review by other venues. Previously published conference papers should be clearly identified by the authors at the submission stage and an explanation should be provided about how such papers have been extended to be considered for this special issue (with at least 30% difference from the original works). Submission Guidelines Paper submissions for the special issue should strictly follow the submission format and guidelines ( https://www.springer.com/journal/521/submission-guidelines <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/journal/521/submission…>). Each manuscript should not exceed 16 pages in length (inclusive of figures and tables). Manuscripts must be submitted to the journal online system at https://www.editorialmanager.com/ncaa/default.aspx <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.editorialmanager.com/ncaa/default.a…> . Authors should select “TC: Interpretation of Deep Learning” during the submission step ‘Additional Information’.

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