February 2022 - RoboCup-worldwide

RoboCup International Symposium 2022 - Call for Satellite Events
by Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann 24 Feb '22

24 Feb '22

* Call for Satellite Events * RoboCup International Symposium 2022 https://2022.robocup.org/symposium-call-for-satellite-events/ Submission of proposals: 3 April 2022 Notification to authors: 25 April 2022 Satellite Events: 17 or 18 July 2022 (RoboCup 2022: 11-17 July 2022) =========================================================== We invite you to organize a satellite event for the 25th RoboCup International Symposium, which will be held on 17 July 2022, in conjunction with RoboCup 2022 (11 July to 17 July 2022) in a hybrid setting. The RoboCup symposium is an annual event in which innovative, original research with relevance to areas of robotics and artificial intelligence is presented. The Symposium Program Co-Chairs would like to facilitate the organization of satellite workshops, focus groups, roundtable discussions, and other events that are related to RoboCup itself or the general aim of the RoboCup Symposium. This includes league-specific discussions about rules and/or roadmaps, shared infrastructure projects between leagues, as well as scientific workshops focusing on a particular research topic, among others. League committee members, as well as teams or individuals from RoboCup leagues participating in the Symposium, are invited to submit their proposals. The organizers of a satellite event are free to propose events between 2 and 8 hours in length to be held during or a day after the RoboCup Symposium (17 or 18 July) in a fully virtual, hybrid, or fully local format. IMPORTANT DATES =============== Submission of satellite events: 3 April 2022 Notification to authors: 25 April 2022 Satellite Events: 17 or 18 July 2022 (RoboCup 2022: 11-17 July 2022) SUBMISSION AND PROCEEDINGS ========================== Proposals will be evaluated by the Symposium Program Co-Chairs based on their thematic relevance to the RoboCup Symposium as well as their proposed schedule and required resources. Satellite events will not be included in the RoboCup Symposium proceedings. Proposals should be formatted following the LNAI author guidelines [0] and must be electronically submitted through the EasyChair electronic submission system [1]. Please follow the LaTeX template created by us by either downloading the template file [2] or by creating a private copy of this Overleaf template [3]. Submissions are limited to a 4-page extended abstract, excluding references. Each submission must include the following sections: * Name of the satellite event * A description of the format (e.g., discussion group, workshop, tutorial, invited talks, ...) and intended length of the event * Prefered date and time of the event (17 or 18; morning or afternoon, or the whole day [no lunch will be provided unless it’s on the 17th]) * A description of the content and aim of the satellite event * Names and contacts of all members of the organizing committee/group with one clearly marked person as the corresponding member of the organizing committee * The intended audience and the number of participants expected * Any resources required to organize the workshop After the acceptance of their proposal, organizers are expected to create a short description of their event as well as a website providing further information which will both be linked from the RoboCup symposium page on the RoboCup 2022 website. Organizers of accepted proposals for satellite events will receive a location for their event as well as other required resources (e.g., a projector), if possible. Apart from this, the organizers are responsible for organizing their event independent of the RoboCup Symposium. PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS ================== Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann, University of Potsdam, Germany Nuno Lau, University of Aveiro, Portugal Thanapat Wanichanon, Mahidol University, Thailand Amy Eguchi, University of California San Diego, USA CONTACT ======= robocupsymposium2022(a)easychair.org [0] https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu… [1] https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=robocupsymposium2022 [2] https://2022.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Symposium-Satellite-Eve… [3] https://de.overleaf.com/read/gqspxdtvpwsn

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[Call for Participation] 2022 RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL), Bangkok, Thailand
by Tark Viehmann 22 Feb '22

22 Feb '22

*Call for Participation* ***2022 RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL)** **Bangkok, Thailand** **July 11th-17th, 2022* https://ll.robocup.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Important Deadlines* * Pre-Registration: March 31, 2022 * TDP Submission: March 31, 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *ABOUT RCLL* With both competitive and research aspects, the RoboCup Logistics League aims to demonstrate the possibilites of a future Smart Factory. With the concept of „Industry 4.0“ in mind, production steps have to be divided into actions executable by robots, thus making their automation possible. These actions have to be planned and coordinated fully autonomously by the robots. The RCLL strives to promote research and development on the intralogistic challenges of future production processes. For this purpose the competition is held in an exemplary factory setting where an abstract product consisting of bases, rings and caps can be produced. There are 3 separate competitions in the RCLL: * Main Track * Challenge Track * Open Challenge The Main Track is a competition similar to prior years, with games that replicate a full production scenario. The Challenge Track focuses on the individual skills that are required to succeed in the RCLL and thus is a great opportunity for newcomers to gradually progress in the domain. The Open Challenge is an invitation for teams to shine with their own innovative ideas on how to tackle the challenges arising in a Smart Factory. *QUALIFICATION* All interested teams must submit a Team description paper (TDP) in order to qualify. The TDP is limited to 8 pages and must be formatted according to the LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0 Deadline for Submission is March 31, 2022. Optional Qualification Materials include a Team Video and a Team Poster to encourage exchange between teams. *SUBMISSION AND REGISTRATION* Registration must be done via Email to: robocup-logistics-oc(a)lists.kbsg.rwth-aachen.de and must not include the Qualification Material, but a link to access the qualification material. The registration must include: 1. Team Name 2. Country 3. Affiliation 4. Team Leader Name 5. Team Contact Info (Email) 6. Team Website address The subject of the Email should be: /[RoboCupLogisticsLeague2022-Participation] (YourTeamName)/ We hope to see you around, the RoboCup Logistics League Organizing and Technical Committee

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[meetings] (RO-MAN 2022) Second call for regular and special sessions papers at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
by Alessandra Rossi 22 Feb '22

22 Feb '22

Apologies for any cross-posting Dear colleagues, Please find attached below the call for Regular and Special Session papers 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 Regular and Special Session papers, please email program(at)ro-man2022.org Kind regards, Alessandra Rossi Publicity Chair Dr. Alessandra Rossi Assistant Professor PRISCA research lab Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy ================================================================================== *** LAST CALL FOR REGULAR PAPERS and SPECIAL SESSIONS PAPERS *** 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022) August 29th - September 2nd, 2022 Naples, Italy ro-man2022.org IG: @ieeeroman2022 Twitter: @ROMAN2022ieee Facebook: @ieeeroman2022 ================================================================================== REGULAR PAPERS and SPECIAL SESSIONS PAPERS IMPORTANT DATES SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MARCH 15, 2022 NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: MAY 30, 2022 CAMERA-READY DEADLINE: JUNE 15, 2022 The RO-MAN2022 Organising Committee invites for the submission of Regular Papers and Special Session Papers 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. TEMPLATES AND SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Authors should submit their papers electronically in PDF format via Papercept. For the first submission, a manuscript can be of 6-8 pages including references. For the final submission, a manuscript should be of 6 pages, with 2 additional pages allowed at an extra charge. All papers submitted to RO-MAN 2022 will undergo a peer-review process. A manuscript will be reviewed by at least two reviewers, who will provide detailed comments. If the submission is accepted, the authors submit a revised “camera-ready” version that takes into account this feedback. The review process is managed by the program chair, the program co-chairs, the editors, and the conference associate editors. All papers are reviewed using a single-blind review process: authors declare their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers do not know each other’s identities, nor do the authors receive information about who has reviewed their manuscript. Authors will have to declare that the research presented in the submitted papers complies with the IEEE Code of Ethics. Authors should use the templates provided by the electronic submission system. The templates for US Letter format paper should be used. The manuscript submission website will require that you submit your abstract and make any final changes to the author list and title of the paper before uploading the paper. Use the following templates to create the paper and generate or export a PDF file: LaTeX or MS-Word. All authors and co-authors must be registered in the electronic system. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the complete author list and the correct title are being entered. This information will be used for the conference program and the proceedings. AUTHORS SHOULD ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING STEPS FOR SUBMITTING THE PAPER (FOR INITIAL SUBMISSION): • Create an account: go to https://ras.papercept.net/, then PIN and fill out the form. Ask all your co-authors to do the same if they do not have an account on the system yet, write down the authors' PINs (this information is needed for manuscript processing purposes). • Go to Support Menu and depending on how you are preparing your paper, download a template: LaTeX or MS-Word, Use these templates/style files to create the paper and save in PDF format. • Upload the paper as pdf: go to https://ras.papercept.net/ and click on "Submit a contribution to RO-MAN 2022". • Submit (regular paper, special session paper). • Fill in the form presented on the next page (make sure to enter all author PINs created in Step 1). SPECIAL ISSUE ON RO-MAN 2022 CONFERENCE Best papers will be invited to submit an extended/revised version to a Special Issue of RSJ International Journal of Advanced Robotics. For any concerns about Full Papers preparation, submission and review process, please contact program(at)ro-man2022.org. PC CO-CHAIRS Nak Young Chong, JAIST (JP) Mary Ellen Foster, University of Glasgow (UK) Gentiane Venture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (JP)

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LPNMR 2022 - last call for workshops - 3 days to deadline
by cfp 22 Feb '22

22 Feb '22

[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email. Please distribute to interested parties.] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOPS 16th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning LPNMR 2022 https://sites.google.com/view/lpnmr2022 Genova, Italy September 5-8, 2022 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 16th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning (LPNMR 2022) will be held in Genova, Italy. The objective of the LPNMR workshop program is to stimulate the discussion and the exchange of ideas on topics related, but not limited, to declarative logic programming, non-monotonic reasoning, and knowledge representation. We aim at creating a forum where researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines may interact and have an opportunity to promote collaboration and identify directions for joint future research. Accordingly, we solicit workshop proposals on theoretical and applied research topics. Workshop proposals should explain and motivate the topic of the workshop, and discuss the format of presentation of the contributes. Workshops will likely be half-day or one-day in duration, but we may consider longer programs. DATES * Workshop proposals submissions: February 25th, 2022 * Workshop proposals notifications: March 7th, 2022 * Workshop program: September 5th, 2022 (tentative date) SUBMISSION Proposals must be submitted via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=lpnmrws2022 Proposals should clearly specify the following: * Workshop title and acronym * A brief description, emphasizing why this workshop would appeal to audiences from LPNMR * A list of organizers with email addresses, web page URLs, and a short description of their experience in organizing events * A short description of the format of planned activities (talks, posters, panels, invited speakers if any, etc.) * The proposed duration (half day, one day, etc.) * A description of the history of the workshop (if any) * Expected number of participants VENUE Workshops are planned to be held at the University, which is in the city center of Genova. Genova is the capital of Liguria, stretching along the bay of Genova from Nervi to the east as far as Voltri to the west. Its old town district is one of the largest in Europe, and hosts some remarkable artistic and architectural treasures, including the Palazzi dei Rolli, fifty or so homes of the aristocracy entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In addition to offering a wealth of cultural attractions, Genova is a fascinating destination for tourists, with its scenic vantage points, sea promenades, aristocratic villas and of course the Riviera to the east and west, both easy to reach: Portovenere and Le Cinque Terre (also UNESCO World Heritage Sites), Portofino and Camogli to the east and Alassio, Sanremo, Bordighera to the west. The main conference will take place in Genova Nervi, Italy, in the Collegio Emiliani (http://www.collegioemiliani.it/, information available only in Italian on this link), which is a college directly situated on the sea. Nervi is a former fishing village, now a suburb of Genoa. Nervi is 7 km east of central Genova. Of course, we will continuously monitor the pandemic situation in order to evaluate whether the conference can be indeed held as an in-person event, or we will need to switch to a hybrid event, if not completely on-line. GENERAL CHAIR Georg Gottlob, Oxford University, UK PROGRAM CHAIRS Daniela Inclezan, Miami University, USA Marco Maratea, University of Genova, Italy PUBLICITY CHAIR Jessica Zangari, University of Calabria, Italy WORKSHOPS CHAIR Viviana Mascardi, University of Genova, Italy DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM CHAIR Martin Gebser, University of Klagenfurt, Austria LOCAL ORGANIZATION Matteo Cardellini, University of Genova, Italy Angelo Ferrando, University of Genova, Italy (Chair) Marco Mochi, University of Genova, Italy CONTACT For any details on workshops, please contact the Workshop Chair: viviana.mascardi(a)unige.it

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CPS&IoT'2022 Conference - Extended Submission Deadline
by Jozwiak, Lech 21 Feb '22

21 Feb '22

Extended Paper Submission Deadline: 15 March 2022. Special Focus: Green CPS&IoT for Green World Special Theme of CPS&IoT’2022: Artificial Intelligence, Edge Computing, Architectures, Methods and Tools for Autonomous Robots, Vehicles, Assistive, Environmental and other advanced CPS&IoT Dear Colleague, Please find the Call for Papers of CPS&IoT’2022 - the 10th International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet-of-Things, Budva, Montenegro, 7-10 June, 2022 attached to this e-mail. CPS&IoT’2022 will be held in the Conference Venue (Hotel Budva) and online. All papers that will be accepted after the conference review process will be published in the CPS&IoT’2022 Conference Proceedings regardless of the authors' physical presence at the conference and will be presented by their authors either in the Conference Venue or online. The CPS&IoT’2022 Conference will host several prestigious keynote speakers from industry and academia. Extended journal versions of selected high-quality papers will be published in a special issue of the ISI indexed journal “Microprocessors and Microsystems” (MICPRO) https://www.journals.elsevier.com/microprocessors-and-microsystems. The CPS&IoT'2022 Conference<https://mecoconference.me/cpsiot2022/> is collocated with the CPS&IoT’2022 Summer School<https://mecoconference.me/ss-cpsiot2022/> and MECO'2022 Conference<https://mecoconference.me/meco2022/> - the 11th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing. Together they constitute a major Europe based conference event in CPS and IoT. Please also find attached the Call for Participation in the CPS&IoT’2022 Summer School. You are encouraged to submit your papers to the CPS&IoT’2022 Conference and to participate in the collocated CPS&IoT’2022 Summer School. Paper Submission Deadline: 15 March 2022. Best regards, Lech Jozwiak Program Chairman of the CPS&IoT’2022 Conference and Radovan Stojanovic Managing Chair of the CPS&IoT’2022 Conference

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Open PostDoc/PhD (Humanoid Robots) position at Ostfalia University Germany
by Gerndt, Reinhard 20 Feb '22

20 Feb '22

Dear All (please forward, apologies for multiple postings) For the joint, interdisciplinary BMBF-funded competence network “Meaningful Human Control. Autonomous Systems between Regulation and Reflexivity” (MeHuCo), we are looking to recruit, as of 1 April 2022, A PostDoc / Doctoral Researcher (m/f/d) (100%), Computer Science, Robotics, or similar at Ostfalia University, Pay group TV-L 13, for a period of four years (fixed-term contract). The project addresses one of the most serious problems of international security – the development and application of autonomous systems and the possible loss of control due to Artificial Intelligence algorithms. In the project a team of researchers at the Paderborn University (Media Studies/Sience and Technology Studies), the University of Bonn (Media Studies/History), the University of Hamburg (Sociology/Criminology), the University of Hannover (Law) and the University of Applied Sciences Ostfalia (Computer Science/Robotics) will work together with an extended network of international partners in Germany and Europe. Your responsibilities include: • Carrying out the research activities in accordance with the approval, in particular in the work package: "Humanoid soccer robots - a lead scenario for investigating possibilities and limits in the programming and control of machine autonomy" • Publication of project results and presentation of research results at international conferences • Reporting to project partners and BMBF • Support of the project management Applicants should meet the following requirements: • Doctorate or master's degree with a strong research focus in the broader field of robotics (e.g. computer science / electrical engineering) • Good knowledge of human-robot interaction • Creativity • Experience with interdisciplinary work • Team skills • English language capabilities and German language capabilities (or serious interest to acquire them) Information in German language can be found here: https://www.ostfalia.de/cms/de/d2/.content/documents/Tom-010-22.pdf The application period will close on March 4th. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Reinhard GERNDT --- 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 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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Call for Papers ICARSC'2022 - International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions
by Pedro Neto 20 Feb '22

20 Feb '22

[Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Call for Papers ICARSC'2022 - IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions <https://festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/icarsc/> https://festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/icarsc/ / April 29-30, Santa Maria da Feira Portugal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Due to several requests, the deadline to submit papers to IEEE ICARSC 2022 has been extended to ** February 28, 2022 **. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Dear colleague We are pleased to inform you that ICARSC2022 IEEE(*) International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions will be held in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, on April 29-30, 2022. The conference is organized within ROBOTICA 2022 - 22nd Portuguese Robotics Open, a RoboCup-sponsored local event, and it is promoted by the Portuguese Robotics Society. (*) IEEE co-sponsorship pending approval == Conference Scope == ICARSC gathers participants from academia and industry working in the field of autonomous robotics and related areas. ICARSC is a well-established IEEE conference that has been growing continuously for over a decade and is nowadays a truly international forum attracting worldwide quality research papers. ICARSC has long been an IEEE co-sponsored event and its proceedings are indexed in IEEExplore and Scopus. Moreover, similarly to previous editions, extended versions of selected best papers will be invited for publication at relevant indexed journals. == Invited Speakers == George Nikolakopoulos, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden Jorge Dias, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE == Important Dates == Submission Feb 21, 2022 Notification Mar 22, 2022 Camera Ready Mar 29, 2022 Registration Apr 14, 2022 Conference Apr 29-30, 2022 == Conference Topics == The conference aims to gather researchers from the industry and academia to present and discuss the latest trends in research and technology in the fields of robotics and related areas. Contributions from researchers, industry, and outputs from collaboration between industrial and academic R&D units are welcome in, but not limited to, the following topics. - Agricultural Robotics - Applications of Autonomous Intelligent Robots - Artificial Intelligence - Autonomous Robotic Systems - Computer Vision and Image Processing - Control Architectures and Programming - Cooperative Perception - Cooperative Planning and Task Allocation - Dexterous Manipulation and Grasping - Educational Robotics - Entertainment Robots - Evolutionary Robotics - Humanoid Robotics - Human-Robot Interaction - Localization, Mapping, and Navigation - Locomotion and Actuation Systems - Multi-Robot Coordination - Multi-Robot Systems - Planning, Reasoning and Modelling - Recognition and Tracking - Robot Learning - Robotic Competitions - Robotic Simulation - Sensors and Sensor Integration - Swarm Robotics - Space Robotics - Underwater Robotics == Paper Submission == Authors are invited to submit original research contributions in English. Six pages in the standard IEEE format ( <http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.htm l> http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html ) are allowed for each paper, including tables and figures. Full draft papers should be submitted electronically, in PDF format, using the URL: <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2022> https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2022. For evaluation purposes, authors must remove their names from the submitted papers, and should take reasonable care not to indirectly disclose their identity. Accepted papers will be scheduled for presentation, which requires that at least one of the authors should register at the Conference and present the paper. If the authors of an accepted paper do not show up at the conference, the corresponding paper will not be submitted to IEEExplore. == ICARSC2022 General/Program Chairs == Pedro Fonseca, University of Aveiro, Portugal Rodrigo Ventura, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal Luís Louro, University of Minho, Portugal Pedro Neto, University of Coimbra, Portugal

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RoboCup International Symposium 2022 - Call for Papers
by Amy Eguchi 18 Feb '22

18 Feb '22

Dear RoboCuppers; Please consider submitting your paper to this year's symposium! Call for papers RoboCup International Symposium 2022 https://2022.robocup.org/symposium-call-for-papers/ 17 July 2022 Bangkok, Thailand (hybrid setting) The 25th RoboCup International Symposium will be held on 17 July 2022, in conjunction with RoboCup 2022 (11 July to 17 July 2022) in a hybrid setting. We call for submissions of papers reporting innovative, original research with relevance to areas of robotics and artificial intelligence as listed below. Within the described scope of topics, we also encourage submissions of high-quality overview articles, papers describing real-world research, and papers reporting theoretical results. Researchers are invited to submit their work independently of whether they participate in the RoboCup competitions or have a RoboCup team. The symposium is planned to be held in person in Bangkok, Thailand, with remote participation options for both presenters and attendees. In addition to the regular track with regular research papers, there is the development track encouraging reports on innovative hardware developments, software frameworks, and open-source releases of software components. A review of papers describing these contributions will be based on technical aspects and benefits to the practice of communities working in the above fields in general and RoboCup in particular. IMPORTANT DATES Submission of full papers: 17 April 2022 Notification to authors: 5 June 2022 Submission of camera-ready copies: 26 June 2022 RoboCup Symposium 2022: 17 July 2022 (RoboCup on 11-17 July 2022) SUBMISSION AND PROCEEDINGS All papers will be peer-reviewed and evaluated by members of the senior program committee. The proceedings of the RoboCup International Symposium will be published and archived within the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNCS/LNAI) series by Springer-Verlag after the conference. Papers should be formatted following the LNAI author guidelines ( https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…) and must be electronically submitted through the EasyChair electronic submission system ( https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=robocupsymposium2022). Submissions are limited to 12 pages including references. Springer’s proceedings LaTeX templates are also available in Overleaf: https://de.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer-… TOPICS Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Robot Hardware and Software - mobile robotics - humanoid robotics - sensors and actuators - embedded and mobile devices - robot construction and new materials - robot system integration - robot software architectures - robot programming environments and languages - real-time and concurrent programming - robot simulators - sim2real learning * Perception and Action - 3D perception - distributed sensor integration - sensor noise filtering - real-time image processing and pattern recognition - motion and sensor models - sensory-motor control - robot kinematics and dynamics - high-dimensional motion control * Robot Cognition and Learning - world modelling and knowledge representation - learning from demonstration and imitation - localisation, navigation, and mapping - planning and reasoning - decision making under uncertainty - neural systems and deep learning - complex motor skill acquisition - reinforcement learning and optimisation - motion and sensor model learning * Human-Robot Interaction - robot social intelligence - fluency of interaction - speech synthesis and natural language generation - natural language recognition - explainable robot behaviours - emotion recognition and reaction - understanding human intent and behaviour - safety, security and dependability - enabling humans to predict robot behaviour * Multi-Robot Systems - team coordination methods - communication protocols - learning and adaptive systems - teamwork and heterogeneous agents - dynamic resource allocation - adjustable autonomy * Education and Edutainment - robotics and artificial intelligence education - educational robotics - robot kits and programming tools - robotic entertainment * Applications and Benchmarking - search and rescue robots - robot surveillance - service and social robots - robots at home, at work and in public spaces - robots in the real world - performance metrics - human-robot interaction DEVELOPMENT TRACK To encourage open-source release of hardware and software systems, the RoboCup International Symposium has included a development track in recent years. In 2021, we expand the scope of this track to include datasets and benchmarks. We encourage the submission of papers describing open-source hardware and software, tools and frameworks that facilitate development of robotics hardware and software, datasets that enable new robotic capabilities, as well as benchmarks that establish reproducible test beds and performance metrics to advance research. If applicable, contributions to the special track should include evidence of the released system or dataset, and highlight past, ongoing, and/or potential future impacts on the RoboCup community. A review of these contributions will be based on technical merit and benefits to the RoboCup community and the research topics listed above. PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann, University of Potsdam, Germany Nuno Lau, University of Aveiro, Portugal Thanapat Wanichanon, Mahidol University, Thailand Amy Eguchi, University of California San Diego CONTACT robocupsymposium2022(a)easychair.org ****************************************************************** Amy Eguchi, Ph.D. Associate Teaching Professor, Computer Science Education Transforming Education in a Diverse Society Department of Education Studies, UC San Diego a2eguchi(a)ucsd.edu *Pronouns: she / her / hers* **********************Peace on Earth******************* *UC San Diego was built on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation. The Kumeyaay people continue to maintain their political sovereignty and cultural traditions as vital members of the San Diego community. We are honored to share this space with them and thank them for their stewardship. *

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Call for participation: RoboCup JapanOpen2021
by Wataru UEMURA 18 Feb '22

18 Feb '22

Dear RoboCuppers, We are pleased to announce that RoboCup JapanOpen 2021 will be held online on 09-17, March, 2022 as follows: RoboCup JapanOpen 2021 -- Call for Participations -- https://www.robocup.or.jp/japanopen2021/english.html It is too dificult to physically hold the conventional RoboCup JapanOpen due to COVID-19. But we would like to keep the RoboCup JapanOpen2021 as online contests. We plan to have the following leagues: - RoboCupSoccer simulation league, online, (15-17, March) - RoboCupRescue simulation league, online, (15-17, March) - RoboCup@Home DPSL at Tokyo Big Sight, (09-12, March) - RoboCup@Home OPL, TDB - RoboCup@Home EDUCATION, online, (14, March) - RoboCupLogistics league at Ryukoku University, (11-13, March) Organizer: RoboCup Japan Regional Committee More details will be announced by each league organizer. = Important Dates Registration Deadline: 11 February, 2022 Payment Deadline : 18 February, 2022 (Please contact to each league orgnizer) = Registration Fees * Free registration for new team to JapanOpen * We allow only one team from one affiliation (except Japanese teams). * We possibly limit the number of teams in the case of overstepping our prepared computer resources. * Due to the limited computational and human resources, there is a possibility to limit the number of teams. Please contact the league organizers for more details. Faculty (non-member of RoboCup Japan): 22,000 JPY Faculty (member of RoboCup Japan): 15,000 JPY Student (>= 18 years old): 5,000 JPY Student (< 18 years old): 2,000 JPY = Contact Secretary office of The Robocup Japanese Regional Committee office[at]robocup.or.jp = League Organizers Soccer 2D : Hidehisa Akiyama (hidehisa.akiyama[at]gmail.com) Rescue Agent: Nobuhiro Ito (n-ito[at]aitech.ac.jp) Logistics : Wataru Uemura (wataru[at]rins.ryukoku.ac.jp) --- Best regards, Wataru ==================== Wataru UEMURA, Dr. Eng. Associate Professor, Ryukoku University Executive Director, RoboCup Japanese Regional Committee http://friede.elec.ryukoku.ac.jp/~wataru ====================

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Soccer Simulation 2D League-Deadline
by Nader Zare 18 Feb '22

18 Feb '22

Dear Team Leader Hello, The soccer simulation 2D committee members have decided to extend the submission deadline to Feb 25. Please submit your TDP and log files via the online form: https://forms.gle/s3JmVW8JwuVV4pDx9 and improve the manual of the server: https://github.com/rcsoccersim/manual/ *We recommend selecting one part from posted issues and posting a comment on that thread in order to reserve your editing part: https://github.com/rcsoccersim/manual/issues I hope to see you in Bangkok. Best regards RoboCup2022 Soccer Simulation 2D League Organizing Committee Nader Zare, Morteza Noohpisheh

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[meetings][school] (PERSEO) Ethics and Interdisciplinary Research Methods for Personalized Robotics
by Alessandra Rossi 17 Feb '22

17 Feb '22

Dear colleagues, We would like to invite to participate at the online Winter School on Ethics and Interdisciplinary Research Methods for Personalized Robotics organised within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN Ethics and Interdisciplinary Research Methods for Personalized Robotics (PERSEO) project. The school will be held online on 23-25 March 2022. Free registration is required on the website https://perseo-winter-school.eu The school is particularly of interest for Master and PhD students. For any questions and information, do not hesitate to contact: Prof. Mark Coeckelbergh Boris Abramovic Zachary Storms Follow us: Website: www.perseo.eu Facebook: PerseoProject Twitter: PerseoProject Instagram: perseoproject YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpYwt6V8PgxtElH5qu87xeQ Kind regards, Alessandra Dr. Alessandra Rossi Assistant Professor PRISCA research lab Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy The Winter School is a training event within the ETN on PErsonalized Robotics as SErvice Oriented applications - PERSEO The PERSEO Winter School offers a new forum for learning, exchange and in-depth investigation of technological, methodological, and ethical aspects of personalized human-robot interaction, with the goal to understand and critically evaluate the opportunities and challenges in personal robotics. The aim of personal robotics is to develop robots which adapt and personalize their tasks and behaviors to each user's unique characteristics and needs. While personal robotics expands the possibilities in human-robot interaction, it also raises ethical concerns about user's data protection, moral rights, and emotional safety of users. The PERSEO Winter School is a training activity of the European Training Network on PErsonalized Robotics as SErvice Oriented applications (PERSEO). The personal robotics domain is raising new challenges concerning the need for robot behaviour with a high level of personalisation with respect to each user’s needs and preferences. The EU-funded PERSEO project provides training for Early-stage researchers (ESRs) from the fields of computer science, philosophy, and psychology in how robotics technology can be personalised on the physical, cognitive and social levels. This will help the ESRs understand how to address social, legal, and ethical issues that arise with the uptake of personal robots. We are committed to deliver on the following goals and training: (1) research methods and tools for personalized HRI; (2) user needs / user involvement; (3) experimental design; (4) methodologies for personalized robot applications; (5) data analysis and basic statistics; (6) results: description and analyses. The focus is on ethical and socio-cultural challenges of personalized human-robot interaction. It moves through a range of topics including artificial intelligence and ethics, data ethics, justice and fairness in algorithms and machine learning, trust and emotions in personalized HRI, deception, and persuasive technologies. We are happy to confirm the following keynote speakers: Prof. Tony Belpaeme (Ghent University, NL; University of Plymouth, UK) Prof. Esther Keymolen (Tilburg University, NL) Prof. Vincent C. Müller (Technical University of Eindhoven, NL)

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Call for Papers - 10th ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob 2022)
by Iman Awaad 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Apologies for multiple messages ** CALL FOR PAPERS ** Tenth ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob‚ 2022) http://icaps22.icaps-conference.org/workshops/PlanRob/ ICAPS 2022 Workshop    June 20-21, 2022 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Topics and Objectives ********************* AI Planning & Scheduling (P&S) methods are key to enabling intelligent robots to perform autonomous, flexible, and interactive behaviours. Researchers in the P&S community have continued to develop approaches and produce planners, representations, as well as heuristics that robotics researchers can make use of. However, there remain numerous challenges complicating the uptake, use and successful integration of P&S technology in robotics, many of which have been addressed by robotics researchers with novel solutions. Strong collaboration and synergy between researchers in both communities is vital to the continued growth of the fields in a way that provide mutual benefits to the two communities. To foster this, the PlanRob workshop aims to provide a stable, long-term forum (having been held annually at ICAPS since 2013) where researchers from both the P&S and Robotics communities can openly discuss relevant issues, research and development progress, future directions and open challenges related to P&S when applied to Robotics. In addition to the usual paper submissions, the workshop’s format naturally lends itself to preliminary results, position papers as well as to work focused on challenges in using and integrating planners in robotics systems. To celebrate the tenth edition on this workshop at ICAPS, a special session will be organised to revive the past PlanRob editions, analyse the state of the art and discuss the future scenarios. Chairs are also planning for a thematic special issue on a relevant international journal. Topics of Interest ****************** Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following: - real-world planning applications for autonomous and intelligent robots; - optimising behaviour in large scale automated or semi-automated systems; - integrated planning and execution in robotic architectures; - planning domain representations for robotics applications; - P&S methods for optimisation and adaptation in robotics; - mission, path, and motion planning for robots; - planning and coordination methods for multi-robot teams; - mixed-initiative planning and sliding autonomy for robotic systems; - human-aware planning and execution in human-robot interaction; - adversarial action planning in competitive robotic domains; - formal methods for robot planning and control; - challenges and solutions in using P&S technology in robotics; - open problems for P&S in robotics, - benchmark planning domains for robots. Important Dates **************** Paper submission: March 18, 2022 Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2022 Camera-ready version due: June 10, 2022 Workshop Date: June 20-21, 2022 The reference time-zone for all deadlines is UTC-12: Your submissions will be on time so long as there is still some place in the world where the deadline has not yet passed. Submissions *********** There are two types of submissions: short position papers and regular papers. Position papers are a maximum of four pages long while regular papers may be up to ten pages long. Papers may have an additional page containing references. Regular papers may be scheduled with more time in the final program. A poster session may be considered to provide a further presentation opportunity. The guidelines for formatting are the same as is used for ICAPS 2022 papers (typeset in the AAAI style as described at: http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php), but with the AAAI copyright removed. The papers must be submitted in PDF format via the EasyChair system (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=planrob2022). Please note that papers under review (e.g. which have been submitted to IJCAI-2022) are also welcome, however, in order to avoid potential conflicts, these manuscripts should be prepared as anonymous submissions for a double blind reviewing process. Accepted papers will be published on the workshop’s website. The organisers are investigating the availability of journal editors in order to invite a selection of accepted papers from the workshop to a special issue or post-proceedings volume. Organizers ********** Iman Awaad Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany Alberto Finzi Università di Napoli "Federico II", Italy AndreA Orlandini  Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Italy

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[robocup-worldwide] Reminder: CFP RoboCup Rescue Agent Simulation competition 2022
by Dina Helal 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

Call for Participation 2022 RoboCup Rescue Agent Simulation Competitions to be held in Bangkok, Thailand — July 11-19, 2022 2022 RoboCup Rescue Simulation <https://rescuesim.robocup.org/upcoming-events/2022-bangkok-rescue-simulatio…> RoboCup 2022 https://2022.robocup.org IMPORTANT DATES Pre-Registration……………………………......: February 15, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Team Description Paper (TDP) submission…: February 28, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Qualified teams announcement…………..…..: March 15, 2022 Camera-ready TDP submission………….……: May 31, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Tournament dates………………………..……..: July 11-19, 2022 WAIVER OF THE TEAM FEE FOR NEW TEAMS The RoboCup Federation is pleased to introduce a waiver of the team fee for the 2022 international RoboCup competition for NEW teams in the major leagues. A NEW team is defined as a team all of whose team members have never participated in an annual international RoboCup competition. The waiver concerns only the team fee and does not imply any waiver of fees for team members. NEW FEATURES IN THE SIMULATOR Teams can now choose to implement their agents in Java or Python Python repo: roborescue/rcrs-sample-agent-python (github.com) <https://github.com/roborescue/rcrs-sample-agent-python> AGENT SIMULATION COMPETITION This initiative focuses on promoting the use of Artificial Intelligence to support teamwork coordination and decision-making of ground rescue teams in a post-disaster urban setting. It maintains a computer simulation platform that can realistically represent natural disaster scenarios where Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) plans can be assessed. This platform is a comprehensive artificial simulation environment that can be used as a testbed to the effectiveness of coordination strategies of USAR teams, coalition formations of heterogeneous teams, rescue plans to explore large-scale environments with limited set of resources to search for survivors, disaster response public policies, among others. The RoboCup Rescue Agent Simulation Competition involves primarily evaluating the performance of teams of agents in regards to their distributed coordination and planning algorithms for rescuing civilians in a city after an earthquake. The goal is evaluating the effectiveness of Ambulance Team, Police Force, and Fire Brigade agents on rescuing civilians in earthquake scenarios. Here are some of the challenges that can be tackled in this competition: - Decision Making Algorithms - Task Allocation Methods - Multi-Agent Coordination and Team Formation Methods - Path Finding - Search Algorithms GETTING STARTED GUIDE Here are some pointers to get started with the agents development - ADF Java: - Repository: roborescue/adf-sample-agent-java: RoboCup Rescue Agent Development Framework Sample Agent Java (github.com) <https://github.com/roborescue/adf-sample-agent-java> - Documentation: Java ADF manual <https://github.com/roborescue/adf-sample-agent-java/blob/master/docs/manual…> - [NEW] Python: - Repository: roborescue/rcrs-sample-agent-python (github.com) <https://github.com/roborescue/rcrs-sample-agent-python> - [NEW] Docker: - Repository: roborescue/rcrs-docker (github.com) <https://github.com/roborescue/rcrs-docker> - Using docker is optional for teams that wish to have an environment that is already setup for development INFRASTRUCTURE COMPETITION The Infrastructure competition involves the presentation of tools or simulators related to disaster management issues already developed by the participating team. The aim is to evaluate possible enhancements and expansions of the RoboCup Rescue Simulation League environment (both the agent simulator and frameworks and the virtual robot platform) based on the new ideas and concepts proposed in these tools and simulators. The evaluation will be done by a panel of experts and the winner chosen according to a set of factors related to the technical aspects of the tool or simulator and the presentation. The winner tool will be selected for further integration with the simulation platform. The participation on Infrastructure competition requires the submission of a detailed Team Description Paper (TDP) describing the tool or simulator. In addition to the submission of the TDP, teams interested in participating on the Infrastructure competition must release their source code as an open-source project PRIOR to July 2, 2022. Participant teams should address topics including, but not limited to - Improvements to the Virtual Robot Simulator - Improvements to the Agent Development Framework - Increase the number of participants on the RoboCup Rescue league - Provide agent development kits that render easy the participation of newcomers - Integrate the Agent and Virtual Robot competitions - Improve the RoboCup Rescue sub-simulators PRE-REGISTRATION Teams must register via the submission system available at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcrs2022 no later than February 15, 2022 (23:55 UTC). This pre-registration requires only teams to fill the "Title" field and the name, institution, and contact information of all team members. The "Title" field should be "Agent_[TeamName]" to participate in the Agent Competition and “Infrastructure_[TeamName]” for the infrastructure competition, where [TeamName] should be replaced by the name of the team. The pre-registration does not imply that the team will be evaluated to participate in the competition, please see section QUALIFICATION below for further information. QUALIFICATION Teams must submit a Team Description Paper (TDP) (in English) describing the strategy and recent advancements implemented in the team. The TDP is limited to 16 pages and must be electronically submitted as PDF through the submission system available at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcrs2022 no later than February 28, 2022 (23:55 UTC). The TDP file name has to be "Agent_[TeamName]" for the Agent Competition, where [TeamName] is the name of the team submitting the TDP. This format should be also used in the "Title" field in the submission system https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=rcrs2022. Teams should prepare their Agent Competition TDP based on the templates available at https://github.com/roborescue/rcrs-templates . (overleaf link) All TDPs will be peer-reviewed by at least two PC members. The evaluation criteria of contributions will be based on originality, quality, clarity, and its relevance to the league's aims. The suggestions of the reviewers should be incorporated into an improved version (i.e., Camera-Ready version) of the TDP. The camera-ready version should be uploaded to EasyChair no later than May 31, 2022. - The previous TDPs are accessible here: https://robocup-rescue.github.io/team_description_papers/ - Qualification results will be announced on March 15, 2022. - If you have any questions please reach out to rcrs2022(a)easychair.org RULES Please read the Agent Simulation Competition Rules document available at 2022 RoboCup Rescue Simulation <https://rescuesim.robocup.org/upcoming-events/2022-bangkok-rescue-simulatio…> for further details. ABOUT ROBOCUP RESCUE AGENT SIMULATION LEAGUE Natural disasters are major adverse events that cause large-scale economic, human, and environmental losses. They are usually difficult to predict and even more challenging to prevent from happening. These characteristics demand disaster management strategies to be in place to mitigate damaging consequences after a natural disaster. The mission of the RoboCup Rescue Agent Simulation League is to promote research and development in the socially significant domain of natural disaster with focus on multiagent teamwork coordination and decision support systems. The effective implementation of this mission is translated into three main objectives. First, the league aims to provide a simulator able to realistically represent natural disaster scenarios where response rescue plans can be assessed. Second, it aims to define evaluation benchmarks for response plans elaborated by policy-makers. Finally, it aims to promote research and development by organizing competitions to stimulate the exchange of ideas and experience between researchers and practitioners. These aims are designed to help in the development of more sophisticated and formalized response plans to effectively respond to natural disasters and reduce the negative impacts on society.

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[robocup-athome] Call for Participation: Simulation (Extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

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[robocup-athome] Second Call for Participation (Extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

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[robotics-worldwide] [news] RoboCup 2022 Virtual Robot Competition - Second Call for Participation
by AMIRREZA KABIRI 13 Feb '22

13 Feb '22

============================================================= Dear All, This is the Second Call for Participation for RoboCup 2022 Virtual Robot Competition, which will be held in *Bangkok, Thailand*, from *July 11-19, 2022*. We will be very happy to welcome you next year and hope to see you all in *Thailand* ! Please apologize for multiple postings and we would be thankful if you forward this call for participation to other mailing lists and colleagues you find useful. ************************************************************ ********************************** *Bangkok, Thailand* *July 11-19, 2022* https://robocup-rsvrl.github.io/ https://2022.robocup.org/ <https://www.robocup.org/leagues/27> *IMPORTANT DATES* Pre-Registration……………………………….: February 15, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Team Description Paper (TDP) submission..: March 21, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Qualified teams announcement…………..…: March 28, 2022 Team registration deadline…….…………..…: May 31, 2022 Camera-ready TDP submission………….….: June 8, 2022 (23:55 GMT) Tournament dates………………………..……: July 11-19, 2022 If you are interested in participating please take the time to pre-register your team for the RoboCup 2022 Virtual Robot Competition as soon as possible, so that we can inform you about the latest developments. The current plan is to have the competition in-person and closely monitor the COVID-19 restrictions and if needed the committee will provide the teams remote access to a competition platform by using a cloud computing service. In order to organise the we need to know the number of participating teams. The ultimate deadline for pre-registration is set on February 15, 2022. *(1) RoboCup Rescue Simulation League and Virtual Robot Competition* ——————— The RoboCup Rescue Simulation League is a socially relevant part of the RoboCup event. Its main purpose is to provide emergency decision support by integration of disaster information, prediction, planning, and human interface. A generic urban disaster simulation environment is constructed on network computers. Heterogeneous intelligent agents such as firefighters, commanders, victims, volunteers, etc. conduct search and rescue activities in this virtual disaster world. Agents can sense their environment and make decisions on the basis of the perceived data. Mission-critical human interfaces support disaster managers, disaster relief brigades, residents, and volunteers to decide their actions to minimize the disaster damage. Addressing this problem involves advanced and interdisciplinary research themes. AI/robotics research, for example, behavior strategy (e.g., multi-agent planning, real-time/anytime planning, heterogeneity of agents, robust planning, mixed-initiative planning) is a challenging problem. For disaster researchers, RoboCup Rescue works as a standard basis in order to develop practical comprehensive simulators adding necessary disaster modules. The Virtual Robot Competition is based on ROS/Gazebo, an advanced robot simulator in which users can simulate multiple agents whose capabilities closely mirror those of real robots. ROS/Gazebo currently features several ground and air robots, as well as a wide range of sensors and actuators. Moreover, by exploiting ROS, users can easily develop their robot systems integrating standard modules. Currently addressed research topics include but are not limited to - Human-robot interfaces - Autonomous navigation - Sensor fusion - Image processing - Speech processing - 2D and 3D mapping - Distributed planning - Distributed learning *(2) Major changes to this year (2022)* ——————- This year, we had a server migration to ROS2 bringing a great opportunity for roboticists to learn ROS2 in a tested environment via challenges. This new server could be accessed on "The Construct sim <https://www.theconstructsim.com/>" as this league will provide the remote participation option. *(3) Intention of participation* ——————- If you are interested to participate in the competition, please respond, before Feb 15, 2022, by filling out the following google form: https://forms.gle/U9vFrxGzky5EQ63CA <https://forms.gle/U9vFrxGzky5EQ63CA> *(4) Qualification material* ————————- Besides sending the intention of participation, please prepare before Mar 21, 2022, a Team Description Paper describing the most innovative contributions or scientific results your team is intended to provide. The TDP is limited to 8 pages and must be formatted according to the LNCS format: http://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gui… <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/ln…> And the tex template file of the TDP can be found on the overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/read/nrcfnpygskyx <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.overleaf.com/read/nrcfnpygskyx&sa=…> The Team Description Paper is an overview of the methodologies you use or intend to use to control your robots inside the Virtual Robot Competition. If applicable, include a reference to your latest publications. The qualification material should be placed on a dedicated web page on the team’s home page. Please include the link to the qualification material on the intention of participation information. *(5) Useful links* ———– - Virtual Robot Competition Wiki <https://robocup-rsvrl.github.io/> - Virtual Robot Competition 2022 Server <https://github.com/RoboCup-RSVRL/RoboCup2022RVRL_Demo> - Official RoboCup Rescue Simulation website <https://rescuesim.robocup.org/> - Virtual Robot Competition 2022 Rule (draft) <https://robocup-rsvrl.github.io/assets/rules/RoboCup2022-RVRL-Rules-draft.p…> With kind regards, Amirreza Kabiri on behalf of RoboCup Rescue Simulation Executive, Technical, and Organizing Committees

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LPNMR 2022 - second call for workshops
by cfp 11 Feb '22

11 Feb '22

[Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email. Please distribute to interested parties.] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOPS 16th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning LPNMR 2022 https://sites.google.com/view/lpnmr2022 Genova, Italy September 5-8, 2022 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 16th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-monotonic Reasoning (LPNMR 2022) will be held in Genova, Italy. The objective of the LPNMR workshop program is to stimulate the discussion and the exchange of ideas on topics related, but not limited, to declarative logic programming, non-monotonic reasoning, and knowledge representation. We aim at creating a forum where researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines may interact and have an opportunity to promote collaboration and identify directions for joint future research. Accordingly, we solicit workshop proposals on theoretical and applied research topics. Workshop proposals should explain and motivate the topic of the workshop, and discuss the format of presentation of the contributes. Workshops will likely be half-day or one-day in duration, but we may consider longer programs. DATES * Workshop proposals submissions: February 25th, 2022 * Workshop proposals notifications: March 7th, 2022 * Workshop program: September 5th, 2022 (tentative date) SUBMISSION Proposals must be submitted via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=lpnmrws2022 Proposals should clearly specify the following: * Workshop title and acronym * A brief description, emphasizing why this workshop would appeal to audiences from LPNMR * A list of organizers with email addresses, web page URLs, and a short description of their experience in organizing events * A short description of the format of planned activities (talks, posters, panels, invited speakers if any, etc.) * The proposed duration (half day, one day, etc.) * A description of the history of the workshop (if any) * Expected number of participants VENUE Workshops are planned to be held at the University, which is in the city center of Genova. Genova is the capital of Liguria, stretching along the bay of Genova from Nervi to the east as far as Voltri to the west. Its old town district is one of the largest in Europe, and hosts some remarkable artistic and architectural treasures, including the Palazzi dei Rolli, fifty or so homes of the aristocracy entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In addition to offering a wealth of cultural attractions, Genova is a fascinating destination for tourists, with its scenic vantage points, sea promenades, aristocratic villas and of course the Riviera to the east and west, both easy to reach: Portovenere and Le Cinque Terre (also UNESCO World Heritage Sites), Portofino and Camogli to the east and Alassio, Sanremo, Bordighera to the west. The main conference will take place in Genova Nervi, Italy, in the Collegio Emiliani (http://www.collegioemiliani.it/, information available only in Italian on this link), which is a college directly situated on the sea. Nervi is a former fishing village, now a suburb of Genoa. Nervi is 7 km east of central Genova. Of course, we will continuously monitor the pandemic situation in order to evaluate whether the conference can be indeed held as an in-person event, or we will need to switch to a hybrid event, if not completely on-line. GENERAL CHAIR Georg Gottlob, Oxford University, UK PROGRAM CHAIRS Daniela Inclezan, Miami University, USA Marco Maratea, University of Genova, Italy PUBLICITY CHAIR Jessica Zangari, University of Calabria, Italy WORKSHOPS CHAIR Viviana Mascardi, University of Genova, Italy DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM CHAIR Martin Gebser, University of Klagenfurt, Austria LOCAL ORGANIZATION Matteo Cardellini, University of Genova, Italy Angelo Ferrando, University of Genova, Italy (Chair) Marco Mochi, University of Genova, Italy CONTACT For any details on workshops, please contact the Workshop Chair: viviana.mascardi(a)unige.it

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Reminder: RoboCup 2022 SPL Call for Participation
by Stefan Seering 10 Feb '22

10 Feb '22

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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Call for Participation - Rising Researchers Network - CLAIRE
by Miguel Abreu 07 Feb '22

07 Feb '22

Dear RoboCuppers, As an early-career researcher in AI, you might be interested in joining a European network for master, Ph.D., and postdoc researchers in AI. It is called CLAIRE Rising Researchers Network (in short R2Network) and you should join it because we have cookies and pizza. But seriously, it is not just the cookies and pizza we offer. CLAIRE is a powerful institution uniting research centers and universities all across Europe, with connections to top researchers in AI fields as well as industry, and a lot of resources at hand. Now, their board would like to have a lively debate with students in AI to learn how to make our academic life better. That’s why we are here. The Rising Researchers Network is meant to connect students affiliated with AI research all across Europe. If you become a member, we would love to get to know you and learn how to make your AI research life in Europe sweeter as direction of the activities of the network will be guided by the interests of its members. The CLAIRE board is here to listen to our ideas and to offer us all the possible resources to make them come true. Here is a list of goals we want to achieve in the future; and we are happy to extend it with your ideas! - Create a centralized database of current research visit/internship/postdoc positions opportunities at AI institutions and industry all across Europe - Organize events (hackathons, meetups,...) - Arrange mentorship from senior researchers - Facilitate research collaboration and mobility within Europe - Connect with top researchers from the European AI community And the most important aspect of the network: We support each other in our early-career research and decisions, and collaborate and share experiences with other students with similar interests. This is what networking is about after all. How to join? If you’re curious about this project, would like to join or learn more, simply drop us a short email at r2network(a)claire-ai.org. Then, and if you want to join, we will ask you to fill in a short application form and to become a CLAIRE supporter. Finally, we will give you access to an online communication platform (Mattermost) where all the discussion will happen and where you can learn more about us. We would love to see you there and learn more about you! Marie, Barbora, and Oliver --- Kernel Team of the R2Network ---

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Internship opportunity at Nomagic [Robotics, Software, ML]
by Aleksandra Mianowany 07 Feb '22

07 Feb '22

Dear RoboCup Community, my name is Aleksandra, and I’m a Technical Sourcer at Nomagic - a Warsaw-based start-up creating pick-and-place robots that eliminate tedious tasks in warehouses. I’m happy to share that we’re currently looking for* Europe-based* interns in Robotics, Software, and Machine Learning! We are looking for *last years' MA students or recent graduates* with a background in either machine learning, robotics, DevOps, or software engineering to join Nomagic for 3 to 6 months. We have fantastic projects waiting for you to change the world and guarantee that you will learn a lot from our amazing team of engineers. Interns are required to relocate to Warsaw for the internship, but we provide help with the relocation. Learn more & apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/Nomagic/86a7be68-fe80-48ae-8dbe-5436392e7c35 Please make sure you apply through the application form, not to our email - this will help us review your application faster. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me directly. Have a great week, Aleksandra -- [image: FreightHub Logo.png] Aleksandra Mianowany Technical Sourcer www.nomagic.ai/join

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Reminder: RoboCup 2022 SPL Call for Participation
by Stefan Seering 06 Feb '22

06 Feb '22

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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CFP: (Extended Deadline) DEI HRI Workshop on Inclusive HRI @ HRI 2022
by Frank Broz 04 Feb '22

04 Feb '22

Call for Papers DEI HRI 2022 Workshop (https://sites.google.com/view/dei-hri-2022/) We are inviting submissions for the workshop Inclusive HRI: Equity and Diversity in Design, Application, Methods, and Community (DEI HRI 2022), to be held virtually within the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2022) on March 11th, 2022. Important Dates * Extended Deadline for Paper Submission: February 11th, 2022 * Paper Acceptance Notification: February 25th, 2022 * Camera Ready Paper: March 4th, 2022 * Workshop date: March 11th, 2022 Statement of Objectives Although being a pressing issue, an understanding of how robotic systems can replicate and amplify inequalities and injustice among underrepresented communities is still to be achieved within the HRl community. This workshop contributes to filling this gap by exploring the research questions: What do Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mean in the context of HRI? How can we promote DEI in HRI? Our goal is to raise awareness on the importance of including DEI aspects in HRI to avoid exacerbating existing or creating new biases. This workshop will center around the themes of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Human-Robot Interaction. An additional goal of this workshop is to build community and solidarity among researchers in HRI who work on and are affected by these various and related issues. More information on the workshop can be found on the dedicated website<https://sites.google.com/view/dei-hri-2022/>. Submission Guidelines We invite authors to submit extended abstracts (up to 2 pages, excluding references) and short papers (up to 4 pages, excluding references) on a range of topics relevant to these questions and to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in HRI in general. Submissions may present current or in-progress research, position papers, critical essays, and summaries of already published research from all areas of HRI. Since we hope to learn from other fields of knowledge and form new connections with related research communities, we also welcome submissions from researchers outside of the HRI community. Authors should submit their papers on EasyChair<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=deihri2022>. Papers should be formatted according to the IEEE two-column format<https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html>. Submissions will be evaluated according to their fit to the workshop theme, and their adherence to the scientific standards of the discipline of origin. The workshop proceedings will be made publicly available on our website. List of Topics Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Accessibility * Bias in AI/ML algorithms * Disability and Ableism * Gender issues * LGBTQIA+ issues * Inclusive education * Intersectional feminism * Issues of representation * Neurodiversity * Racism * The global south The topics above can address one or more of the following domains: * HRI design * HRI applications * HRI research methods * HRI community Organizers More information on the workshop can be found on the workshop website<https://sites.google.com/view/dei-hri-2022/>. For any further questions, please feel free to reach out at our email addresses! * Dr. Maartje de Graaf - Utrecht University - m.m.a.degraaf(a)uu.nl<mailto:m.m.a.degraaf@uu.nl> * Dr. Giulia Perugia - Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) - g.perugia(a)tue.nl<mailto:g.perugia@tue.nl> * Dr. Eduard Fosch-Villaronga (corresponding) - Leiden University - e.fosch.villaronga(a)law.leidenuniv.nl<mailto:e.fosch.villaronga@law.leidenuniv.nl> * Dr. Angelica Lim - Simon Fraser University - angelica(a)sfu.ca<mailto:angelica@sfu.ca> * Dr. Frank Broz - Delft University - f.broz(a)tudelft.nl<mailto:f.broz@tudelft.nl> * Dr. Elaine Short, Tufts University, elaine.short(a)tufts.edu<mailto:elaine.short@tufts.edu> * Prof. dr. Mark Neerincx, Delft University and TNO, m.a.neerincx(a)tudelft.nl<mailto:m.a.neerincx@tudelft.nl> Since we acknowledge that we are a fairly homogeneous group of organizers, we would like to diversify our group composition. If you want to join the DEI HRI 2022 community and be part of the programme committee of the DEI HRI 2022 workshop, please let us know by filling out this form<https://forms.gle/fXxPiUJYBcJzSS2V9>.

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[robocup-athome] Call for Participation: Simulation
by Mauricio Matamoros 03 Feb '22

03 Feb '22

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[robocup-athome] Second Call for Participation
by Mauricio Matamoros 03 Feb '22

03 Feb '22

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[meetings][cfp](RO-MAN 2022) Special Session on Theory of Mind for social HRI
by Alessandra Rossi 03 Feb '22

03 Feb '22

Dear colleagues, It is my pleasure to invite you to submit your works at the special session on Theory of Mind for social HRI that will be held in conjunction with the IEEE RO-MAN conference in the beautiful Naples, Italy. The special session aims to define and explore the needed level of shared mental models between people and robots for effectively planning, navigating, manipulating objects and the environment, and transparently communicating. We welcome submissions from experts in the fields of Theory of Mind, cognitive and behavioural robotics, and social HRI. Please find attached below the call for papers. For any questions and information, do not hesitate to contact us (emails below). Kind regards, Alessandra Dr. Alessandra Rossi Assistant Professor PRISCA research lab Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy ================================================================================== *** SPECIAL SESSION Theory of Mind for social HRI *** Submission Code: 1y123 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022) August 29th - September 2nd, 2022 Naples, Italy http://ro-man2022.org The ability of understanding and acknowledging others' mental states is known as Theory of Mind (ToM). Theory of Mind is a multi-modal system used by people to naturally communicate and understand each other. A growing group of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research focuses on investigating whether people form ToM towards robots, and what level of ToM a robot should have to communicate transparently with the humans in their shared environment in a sociable and accepted way. In this session, we want to probe deeper in the principal lines that can contribute towards this research direction. In particular, we aim to define and explore the needed level of shared mental models between people and robots for effectively planning, navigating, manipulating objects and the environment, and transparently communicating. The topics covered in this special session include, but are not limited to: • Cognitive robotics • Mental models in HRI • Robot etiquette • Theory of Mind in HRI • XAI in HRI • Cooperation and collaboration in human-robot teams • Detection and understanding human activity • Monitoring of behaviour and internal states of humans • Motion planning and navigation in human-centred environments • Multi-modal situation awareness and spatial cognition • Social intelligence for robots in interactive and non-interactive tasks TEMPLATES AND SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Authors should submit their papers electronically in PDF format via Papercept using the code for the special issue: 1y123 For the first submission, a manuscript can be of 6-8 pages including references. For the final submission, a manuscript should be of 6 pages, with 2 additional pages allowed at an extra charge. Authors will have to declare that the research presented in the submitted papers complies with the IEEE Code of Ethics. Authors should use the templates provided by the electronic submission system. The templates for US Letter format paper should be used. The manuscript submission website will require that you submit your abstract and make any final changes to the author list and title of the paper before uploading the paper. Use the following templates to create the paper and generate or export a PDF file: LaTeX or MS-Word. ORGANISERS Dr. Alessandra Rossi, University of Naples Federico II (IT), alessandra.rossi(a)unina.it Dr. Patrick Holthaus, University of Hertfordshire (UK), p.holthaus(a)herts.ac.uk Dr. Shruti Chandra, University of Waterloo (CA), shruti.chandra(a)uwaterloo.ca

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Call for Papers ICARSC'2022 - International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions
by Pedro Neto 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

[Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Call for Papers ICARSC'2022 - IEEE(*) International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions <https://festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/icarsc/> https://festivalnacionalrobotica.pt/icarsc/ / April 29-30, Santa Maria da Feira Portugal (*) IEEE co-sponsorship pending approval ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Dear colleague We are pleased to inform you that ICARSC2022 IEEE(*) International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions will be held in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, on April 29-30, 2022. The conference is organized within ROBOTICA 2022 - 22nd Portuguese Robotics Open, a RoboCup-sponsored local event, and it is promoted by the Portuguese Robotics Society. (*) IEEE co-sponsorship pending approval == Conference Scope == ICARSC gathers participants from academia and industry working in the field of autonomous robotics and related areas. ICARSC is a well-established IEEE conference that has been growing continuously for over a decade and is nowadays a truly international forum attracting worldwide quality research papers. ICARSC has long been an IEEE co-sponsored event and its proceedings are indexed in IEEExplore and Scopus. Moreover, similarly to previous editions, extended versions of selected best papers will be invited for publication at relevant indexed journals. == Invited Speakers == George Nikolakopoulos, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden Jorge Dias, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE == Important Dates == Submission Feb 21, 2022 Notification Mar 22, 2022 Camera Ready Mar 29, 2022 Registration Apr 14, 2022 Conference Apr 29-30, 2022 == Conference Topics == The conference aims to gather researchers from the industry and academia to present and discuss the latest trends in research and technology in the fields of robotics and related areas. Contributions from researchers, industry, and outputs from collaboration between industrial and academic R&D units are welcome in, but not limited to, the following topics. - Agricultural Robotics - Applications of Autonomous Intelligent Robots - Artificial Intelligence - Autonomous Robotic Systems - Computer Vision and Image Processing - Control Architectures and Programming - Cooperative Perception - Cooperative Planning and Task Allocation - Dexterous Manipulation and Grasping - Educational Robotics - Entertainment Robots - Evolutionary Robotics - Humanoid Robotics - Human-Robot Interaction - Localization, Mapping, and Navigation - Locomotion and Actuation Systems - Multi-Robot Coordination - Multi-Robot Systems - Planning, Reasoning and Modelling - Recognition and Tracking - Robot Learning - Robotic Competitions - Robotic Simulation - Sensors and Sensor Integration - Swarm Robotics - Space Robotics - Underwater Robotics == Paper Submission == Authors are invited to submit original research contributions in English. Six pages in the standard IEEE format ( <http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.htm l> http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html ) are allowed for each paper, including tables and figures. Full draft papers should be submitted electronically, in PDF format, using the URL: <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2022> https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icarsc2022. For evaluation purposes, authors must remove their names from the submitted papers, and should take reasonable care not to indirectly disclose their identity. Accepted papers will be scheduled for presentation, which requires that at least one of the authors should register at the Conference and present the paper. If the authors of an accepted paper do not show up at the conference, the corresponding paper will not be submitted to IEEExplore. == ICARSC2022 General/Program Chairs == Pedro Fonseca, University of Aveiro, Portugal Rodrigo Ventura, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal Luís Louro, University of Minho, Portugal Pedro Neto, University of Coimbra, Portugal

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Final Call for proposals: RCF and MathWorks Support for Research Projects 2022
by Gerald Steinbauer-Wagner 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

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: February 6th, 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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Final Call for proposals: RCF Project Support 2022
by Gerald Steinbauer-Wagner 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

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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Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA) - Call for Topical Collectionon (Deadline March 31, 2022)
by Pub Conference 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

Neural Computing and Applications <https://www.springer.com/journal/521/> Topical Collection on Interpretation of Deep Learning: Prediction, Representation, Modeling and Utilization https://www.springer.com/journal/521/updates/19187658 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). 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. Authors should select “TC: Interpretation of Deep Learning” during the submission step ‘Additional Information’.

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