February 2022 - RoboCup-worldwide

[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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