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

11 Dec '21

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

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[meetings][cfp] (TRAITS @ HRI 2022) The Road to a successful HRI: AI, Trust and ethicS Workshop
by alessandra.rossi＠unina.it 08 Dec '21

08 Dec '21

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

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[meetings][cfp] (RO-MAN 2022) Second call for proposals for Special Sessions, Workshops and Tutorials at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
by Alessandra Rossi 08 Dec '21

08 Dec '21

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

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

07 Dec '21

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

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Survey about domestic robot competitions, in particular RoboCup@Home
by Alex Mitrevski 03 Dec '21

03 Dec '21

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

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

02 Dec '21

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

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[journals] Call for paper-Neural Computing and Applications, Topical Collection on Interpretation of Deep Learning
by Pub Conference 01 Dec '21

01 Dec '21

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

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HRI 2022 Workshop: Longitudinal Social Impacts of HRI over Long-Term Deployments
by Joydeep Biswas 30 Nov '21

30 Nov '21

Longitudinal Social Impacts of HRI over Long-Term Deployments HRI 2022 Workshop March 7th, 2022 Virtual - 9:00 am - 7:00pm PST Workshop Objective This workshop seeks to grow the study of how real-world, deployed robot systems impact the people who interact with them and the social structure of the places that they inhabit. As the world sees robots begin to inhabit places designed for people - delivery robots on city streets, and robots with jobs in airports, shopping malls, and in the home - we expect the importance of understanding these impacts to grow. By bringing together researchers interested in longitudinal studies on real-world human-interactive long-term deployments, we hope to arrive at a clearer vision of how best to study these systems. Workshop Audience We invite technical and/or social science researchers whose work incorporates longitudinal studies, real-world deployments, long-term deployments, ethics and social impacts, and general human-robot interaction for a day of talks and discussions regarding objectives, metrics, hypotheses, and best practices. Workshop Details The event will contain multiple virtual sessions including invited talks, oral paper presentations, poster presentations, and panel discussions. After the day’s presentations, there will be hosted breakout discussions intended to aid in the formation of collaborations and the synthesis of ideas. In the evening there will be a virtual social event to form and deepen connections amongst this research community. Paper Topics Contributions are invited on all topics relevant to longitudinal social impacts of HRI over long-term deployments and topics that can help to inform this core idea, including (but not limited to): - Longitudinal studies of HRI over real-world large-scale deployments - Interdisciplinary approaches and long-term autonomy - Methodological and technical challenges for longitudinal studies - Social impacts of HRI over long-term deployments - Social effects such as safety, privacy, and inclusion - New opportunities for HRI and HR teaming - Demonstrations of long-term deployments - Hardware and devices for human-robot interaction - New sensors, biological signals for longitudinal HRI Social Science and Technical Review Tracks While the event itself will be single track, all submissions will select at least one review track for their paper: either social science or technical. A submission may select both tracks if it appropriately represents the work. These tracks are to ensure the relevance of reviews, and submissions which are a blend of each are welcome. Each corresponding author will be asked to briefly review up to two other submissions per submitted papers, and to select at least one review track for which they’d be comfortable reviewing. Author reviews will be coordinated by a workshop program committee, which will request additional reviews as needed and generally ensure the formation of a compelling workshop program. Submission types Submission types for this workshop include: - short work-in-progress and position papers (2-4 pages) - long-format integration and experimental papers (4-6 pages). All papers are to be considered for both oral presentations and posters, with final format to be indicated along with acceptance. Key Dates Early Submission Deadline January 17, 2022 Early Submission Notifications February 7, 2022 Late Submission Deadline February 14, 2022 Late Submission Notifications March 1, 2022 Workshop Website https://sites.google.com/view/lsi-hri/home Submission Site https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lsihri22 Organizers Justin Hart - hart(a)cs.utexas.edu Elliot Hauser - eah13(a)utexas.edu Samuel Baker - sebaker(a)austin.utexas.edu Joydeep Biswas - joydeepb(a)cs.utexas.edu Junfeng Jiao - jjiao(a)austin.utexas.edu Luis Sentis - lsentis(a)utexas.edu

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[@Home2022] First Call for Participation (Deadline extended)
by Mauricio Matamoros 29 Nov '21

29 Nov '21

Online version: https://athome.robocup.org/2022-cfp1-all/ ========================================================================= *First Call for Participation* RoboCup@Home 2022 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL) Summer 2022 (Bangkok, Thailand) https://athome.robocup.org/ https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook RoboCup is an international scientific initiative with the goal to advance the state of the art of intelligent robots through competitions (RoboCup@Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup@Work and RoboCup Junior). The RoboCup@Home league aims to develop service and assistive robot technology with high relevance for future personal domestic applications. It is the largest international annual competition for autonomous service robots and is part of the RoboCup initiative. A set of benchmark tests is used to evaluate the robots’ abilities and performance in a realistic home environment setting. Focus lies on the following domains but is not limited to: Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation, Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments, Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions, Object Manipulation, Adaptive Behaviors, Behavior Integration, Ambient Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. This page describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home 2022. Important dates: Oct. 31, 2021 Publication of the Call for Participation *Dec. 12, 2021* *EXTENDED Deadline for submission of qualification material.* *(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).* Jan. 10, 2022 Qualification announcement Jan. 30, 2022 Deadline for Participation Confirmation The qualification procedure consists of the following steps: Step 1) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory) The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc[at] robocupathome.org) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2022 event. Please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Affiliation: Team Leader Name: Contact information (E-mail): Rank in local tournaments: Link to a team video: Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts: Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2022-Qualification] (YourTeamName) Considerations: - Only one platform can be specified per team. - Only one team leader can be specified per team. - Only one team video url can be specified per team. - Only one contact email can be specified per team. - All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website. - The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set. ***** Deadline EXTENDED: Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021 23:59 GMT ****** Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory) All qualified teams ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (oc[at]robocupathome.org) to confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup@Home 2022 event. Confirming attendance implies that the team has sufficient resources to register, and commits to attend to the event. To confirm participation, please fill in the following information: Team Name: League: [ DSPL | OPL | SSPL ] Country: Hereby [Team Name] of [Country] [confirms | forfeits] participation in the the RoboCup@Home [League]. The e-mail subject should be: [@Home2022-Confirmation] (YourTeamName) *Remark: *Qualified teams who miss the participation confirmation will be disqualified automatically and the participation slots freed for the Second Call for Participation. ***** Deadline: Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022 23:59 GMT ****** Step 3) Robot Acquisition (Standard Platform Leagues): Qualified Teams must contact the supplier as soon as the Qualification Notification arrives to start the acquisition procedure. Teams selected to receive Standard-Platform robots have to make an agreement with the supplier in compliance with the supplier’s instructions. The suppliers are not allowed to sell, export, lease and/or ship their products to natural or legal persons and to entities and countries which are subject to international sanctions or prohibitions. Since Selection Committee cannot answer this issue, please ask the supplier directly. *Remark:* Failing to acquire a Standard-Platform will void the qualification of the SSPL/DSPL. It won’t not possible for SSPL/DSPL to change to OPL. Instructions for the Qualification Material Instructions for the Team Video: In order to proof a running hardware, each team has to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for qualification, the video must show the robot(s) successfully solving a task involving the integration of at least 5 different abilities, such as: environmental reasoning, high-level task planning, human-robot interaction, localization, manipulation, object recognition, people recognition, etc. *Remarks:* - The shown task execution must look continuous, smooth, and robust. - When speeding-up video, the speed factor must be indicated. - The language spoken and shown in the video must be English. When using any other languages, translations must be included. - We strongly suggest upload videos to Youtube. - Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league’s youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists” <http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists> - *Standard Platforms Only:* Teams are allowed to use any robot in their Team Video. However, the use of the standard robot is advised. *HINT:* It is strongly advised to show your robot(s) smoothly and accurately solving any of the Stage II tests of the 2018, 2019, and 2020 rulebooks. *Copyright note:*When sending videos for qualification, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, modify, distribute, upload, publish, and use the multimedia material to promote the event and the league at convenience. Instructions for the TDP The TDP is an 8-pages long scientific paper, detailing information on the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, while including also the following: - TDP - Group’s research focus and interests. - Innovative technology and scientific contribution - Please specify when your research is being used by other teams or research groups - Please specify when you are using software from other teams - Brief, general description of the system when solving a [domestic] task (applicability in the real world) - The impact of your research must be clearly visible - Maximum length is *8 pages* (including figures and citations) - Annex - Photo(s) of the robot - Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot’s software (e.g. include MoveIt/YOLO) - Brief, compact description of all external computing devices, if any - Brief, compact description of the robot’s hardware (OPL Only) - Please mark with an asterisk home-made software solutions - Annex should be appended after the References - There is no page limit for annex, but a maximum of one page is strongly encouraged - TDP length is *****8 pages + annex***** (any submissions over this length will be disqualified). - *DSPL and SSPL:* The robot depicted in the TDP or Team Video must be the league’s standard one. For the TDP, please use the Springer LNAI format <http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing (including references but excluding the annex). You may download a template for the TDP from here <https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate>. *Remark: *The language for the TDP, its graphics, tables, images, and all additional content must be English. Content in other languages must be translated. *Copyright note:*All TDPs sent for qualification may be made publicly available in the RoboCup @Home Wiki for further reference. On submitting, teams implicitly grant permission to RoboCup @Home and the RoboCup Federation to copy, distribute, upload, publish, and use the manuscript to promote the event and the league at convenience. ***** Exceeding the number of pages will automatically void your application *****. Instructions for the Web site While the TDP goes into detail about the technical and scientific approach of the team’s research, the website should be designed for a broader audience, including: - Photos of the robot(s) - Videos of the robot(s) - Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements - Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download) - Link to repositories with software for the community - Team members - Previous participation in RoboCup - Participation and rankings in local RoboCup tournaments *Remark: *No IP addresses will be accepted as website. *Remark: *Only documented active software repositories are considered as contributions to the league. It must be clear and straightforward to other teams how to use your software. Qualification and evaluation criteria: In this first Call for Participation, up to 8 teams per league can be assigned a participation slot. In order to qualify, a team must meet the minimum selection requirements approved by the Executive Committee. However, meeting the minimum requirements won’t automatically grant a participation slot. Only the top 8 teams meeting the selection criterion will qualify for participation. Rejections are strongly advised to improve their qualification materials and apply in the second CFP. Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria: - Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world) - Performance in local tournaments and previous competitions. - Qualification Video (number of demonstrated abilities, integration, difficulty of the task, applicability in real world) - Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions) - Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software) - Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home) We encourage teams to produce self-explicative videos for a general audience where complex tasks are solved. For Team Description Papers focus on the scientific contribution and avoid brief descriptions of the overall system. With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Bangkok, The 2022 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees

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Call for Participation RoboCup Humanoid League Virtual Season
by Jasper Güldenstein 25 Nov '21

25 Nov '21

* Call for Participation * RoboCup Humanoid League Virtual Season https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ December 17th 2021 to April 30th, 2022 =========================================================== The RoboCup Humanoid League is inviting interested teams to apply for participation in the Humanoid League Virtual Season. The Humanoid League will host competitions in the following categories: * KidSize: 40 – 100cm robot height (FIFA size 1 ball) * AdultSize: 130 – 200cm robot height (FIFA size 5 ball) For more detailed class definitions and more information about the humanoid league, please refer to the humanoid league home page at https://humanoid.robocup.org/, specifically the robot specifications found at https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ 1. Humanoid League Virtual Season ================================= A virtual soccer competition will be organized similar to RoboCup 2021 but distributed over several months with games every other week. Since the Virtual Humanoid Soccer Competition will be held entirely online, all teams registering for the competition will be admitted. The exact tournament format will be announced once the number of participating teams is known. Details on the setup and implementation will be published and continuously updated on the RoboCup Humanoid League website:https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ 1.1. Simulator & Game Rules ---------------------------- As in RoboCup 2021, Webots with the Humanoid League simulation world, the automatic refereeing system, and the simulation interface will be used. We keep the specifications of the simulation interface and the server up to date on the this link: https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ Currently, the automatic refereeing system and the simulation world are being worked on. Most significantly, domain randomization will be introduced. This includes reasonably uneven ground, randomized reset positions of the robots starting poses, and varying lighting conditions, backgrounds and ball textures. As with any major change during the competition, these will be announced and finalized 3 weeks before the next game. Bug Fixes are not subject to this deadline. Robot models must be submitted 2 weeks before the start of the competition to be verified. If you would like to update your robot model during the season it must be submitted by Monday 8am CET of the week the next game is scheduled. The rules of the virtual game will initially be the ones used for RoboCup 2021 but will be updated during the competition. The 3 week notice period also applies here to allow teams to adapt their software. 1.2. Competition Schedule ------------------------- Matches will be played approximately every other week (see preliminary schedule). Whether Saturday or Sunday will be the day of streaming will be determined by a vote of the participating teams during the sign-up process. Two workshops are planned (see dates below) with a focus on sim2real transfer. Further information on these will follow soon. Matchday 1: Dec 18th / 19th Matchday 2: Jan 8th / 9th Matchday 3: Jan 22nd / 23rd Workshop 1: Jan 28th/29th/30th Matchday 4: Feb 5th / 6th Matchday 5: Feb 19th / 20th Matchday 6: Mar 5th / 6th Matchday 7: Mar 19th / 20th Matchday 8: Apr 2nd / 3rd Workshop 2: Apr 8th/9th/10th Matchday 9: Apr 16th / 17th Matchday 10 Apr 30th/ May 1st Please note that the exact dates of the games are subject to change in case of significant bugs in the simulation or automatic refereeing software or an overlap with regional RoboCup tournaments. In these cases, the teams will be notified as early as possible about a shift in the game schedule. 1.3. Competition Setup ----------------------- The competition will be performed entirely in the cloud. Each team is guaranteed to play a minimum of 8 games. The exact tournament format will be announced once the number of participating teams in each size class has been determined. Details of the server specification are the same as in RoboCup 2021 and can be found here https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ The deadline for teams uploading their software is Thursday, if Saturday is selected as matchday, and Friday if Sunday is selected. The simulation will then be run in the cloud and a video of the match streamed online on the match days. Access to log files will be provided to teams after the match has been streamed. Teams will be given possibilities to test the setup of the competition. Several test scenarios will be offered to teams in early December. These scenarios will be similar to the ones offered during the mock competition. Teams must pass the tests in the order presented if they have not already proven so during previous virtual competition that they pass these tests. *Robot model inspection*: A manual inspection is carried out by members of the TC, making sure that the model does not crash or significantly slows down the simulator. The TC also checks that the team.json is in the proper format and all fields are set. *Connection test*: We launch a simulator with one robot instance, and we start a game to verify whether Webots accepts the connection. *Walking test*: We launch a simulator with one robot instance, and we start a game with a cap of 5 minutes real time. We inspect the video for evidence of the robot being able to walk in the ready or play state. *Penalty shoot-out*: We launch a simulator and one robot instance with the teams being paired (if possible). Teams need to be able to move the ball to pass. *Short game*: We launch a simulator and 4 robot instances with the teams being paired (when it is possible). The game time is capped to 2.5 minutes per half time, RR style. Teams need to be able at least to touch the ball to pass. If custom test scenarios are required by teams to test specific components of the cloud infrastructure together with the team’s software, please let us know. 1.3. Registration ------------------ The registration process for the Humanoid League Virtual Season is done in two steps. First, you need to submit general data about your team via the submission system of the Humanoid League: http://submission.robocuphumanoid.com/. All teams that fulfill the formal requirements are automatically qualified to participate. The following data is required: * Team name * URL of the team’s home page * Name of team leader or team contact person * E-mail address of team leader or contact person * Postal address of the team, team leader or contact person * Competition category: Humanoid League Virtual Season Kid or Adult * Letter of Commitment Please note that teams applying for participation in several classes must register individually for each class and pay the appropriate registration fee. The registration form must be filled out online at http://submission.robocuphumanoid.org/ <http://submission.robocuphumanoid.org/> In the second step, the teams must pay a fee of $340 for the entire tournament season (including a minimum of 8 games plus tests). Payment needs to be made to the Federation via Wire Transfer or PayPal. Detailed instructions are sent to teams after registration. Please note that teams need to cover the respective transfer and conversion fees that apply for your country when transferring money to the US. For PayPal, US-based teams need to pay 2% of processing fees (around 7 USD), for international teams a 4% processing fee applies (around 14 USD). The fees for wire transfer depend on the country and specific bank. 1.4. Submission of Robot Model File ------------------------------------ Robot models used in the competition must comply with the specifications published here: https://humanoid.robocup.org/hl-vs2022/ They must be submitted by December 1st, 2021. Teams are highly encouraged to make their robot model available to the research community with an open-source license. This is, however, not a requirement for participation. In order for the Technical Committee to ensure the robot models comply with the laws of the game, the full robot file needs to be made available to the Technical Committee during the qualification process. 1.5. Registration Fee --------------------------- Each team must pay a registration fee of $340. This fee will only be used to cover the costs to run the simulations of the games and tests in the cloud. All work (e.g. automatic referee development or organisation) is done by volunteers. The amount is calculated by using the experience from RoboCup 2021 and projecting it to the number of games we plan. Any extra funds will be used for future Humanoid League Virtual Seasons as a buffer. 2. Submission System ===================== The submission system will be opened Monday November 15th and all application material must be submitted online at http://submission.robocuphumanoid.com/. 3. Deadlines ============= Registration system open: November 16th, 2021 Deadline for submission: November 26th, 2021 Deadline for payment of registration fee: December 10th, 2021 Submission of robot model file: December 1st, 2021 With best regards, Technical Committee of RoboCup Humanoid League 2021

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