- RoboCup-worldwide - lists.robocup.org

Call for two post doc positions in Smart Agriculture
by Reinaldo A. C. Bianchi 14 Feb '25

14 Feb '25

********************************************************** FAPESP Post-doctoral Fellowship #1 - Call for applications ********************************************************** The FAPESP project "SMART: Sustainable Management of Agriculture with the Intelligent Computing Continuum" (bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/116446<http://bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/116446>) has an open Post-Doctoral position to work at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC). The research theme is "Smart Application Deployment for the IoT Computing Continuum", dealing with the challenges of deploying smart agriculture applications over the IoT Computing Continuum (IoTinuum), considering the inherent distribution of the end-to-end path between devices and the cloud and the need for individual services to run in multiple stages in-between. The SMART project aims to develop and deploy a trustworthy platform for smart agriculture across the IoTinuum, from field sensors to the cloud. It will utilize various sensors, data sources, networking technologies, data management, and machine learning to ensure reliable dataflow and trustworthiness. The deployment of smart applications for the IoTinuum requires the efficient orchestration of resources allocated to the services to provide the intended quality levels. Orchestration involves fulfilling the application needs by carefully matching services, resources, and workloads, including microservice placement, deployment, and migration. In the IoTinuum context, it means being aware of and monitoring the resources available in each stage, understanding the application QoS requirements (such as maximum delay), and deploying the services in the most appropriate stage, i.e., in Mist, Fog, or Cloud. An IoT smart application comprises various services (i.e., microservices), which may be deployed in different stages for distinct installations. Using a certain node within the continuum stage involves deploying services. If this stage is not used in a given installation, this service must be deployed elsewhere in another stage. Current deployment strategies cannot handle varying configurations for IoT efficient and scalable application deployment within the continuum. The general objective of this postdoc fellowship is to design and implement an application deployment methodology for the IoTinuum that takes as input a model (such as a directed acyclic graph) representing the application and generates a deployment strategy as output. The main challenges in this proposal involve: 1. A Deployment Triggering strategy, which identifies the need for a new deployment to be executed over the IoTinuum 2. A Deployment Biding strategy, which means that that abstract graph representing the application will be mapped to specific nodes (with IP addresses and ports) located in different stages of the continuum, such as Thing, Mist, Fog, or Cloud 3. A Deployment Distribution and installation strategy for transferring services to where they will be executed (e.g., cloud or fog) 4. A preliminary version of the application deployment methodology A highly motivated candidate is expected to show background in the following concepts: - IoT, cloud, fog, edge, and the computing continuum - Application deployment and DevOps strategies - Performance analysis with experimentation techniques - Advanced programming language skills - Advanced English language skills - Strong publication record The candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related areas (less than 7 years since graduation). The fellowship's duration is 30 months, and the monthly stipend is R$12.000,00 plus 10% for research expenses. The term for this scholarship is expected to start as soon as possible, ideally in April 2025. Candidates should fill out the online form at: https://forms.gle/AxC47yMXqFi9fP9K8<https://cas5-0-urlprotect.trendmicro.com/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3…> Deadline: March, 14, 2025 Inquiries can be sent to carlos.kamienski(a)ufabc.edu.br<mailto:carlos.kamienski@ufabc.edu.br> ********************************************************** FAPESP Post-doctoral Fellowship #2 - Call for applications ********************************************************** The FAPESP project "SMART: Sustainable Management of Agriculture with the Intelligent Computing Continuum" (bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/116446<http://bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/116446>) has an open Post-Doctoral position to work at the FEI Univerity Center (FEI). The research theme is "Developing the Intelligent IoT Continuum for Precision Agriculture: Task Allocation, Forecasting, Resource Management, and Data Analytics", dealing with the challenges of deploying smart agriculture applications over the IoT Computing Continuum (IoTinuum). This project aims to develop an intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) system focused on precision agriculture. The aim is to create an interconnected network of devices capable of collecting and analyzing data on crop conditions, such as soil moisture, temperature, and weather conditions. Using artificial intelligence techniques, the system should be able to optimize the allocation of tasks between the different devices in the network, manage resources efficiently, and carry out predictive analyses of agricultural production. The system will train machine learning and deep learning models collaboratively through federated learning, using data from different devices without centralizing the information. Based on the data collected and analyzed, the system should predict the production of a given crop, optimize irrigation and fertilizer application, and identify possible crop problems in advance. In short, this project aims to create an innovative solution for agriculture, combining the Internet of Things with artificial intelligence to improve productivity, reduce costs, and promote sustainability. The general objective of this postdoc fellowship is to develop an intelligent Internet of Things system for precision agriculture that can collect, analyze, and utilize data on crop conditions. The main challenges in this proposal involve: 1. To design an intelligent IoT system for precision agriculture. 2. To optimize the allocation of tasks and resources within the IoT network using artificial intelligence techniques. 3. To perform predictive analyses of agricultural production through machine learning and deep learning models trained collaboratively using federated learning. 4. To predict crop production, optimize irrigation and fertilizer application, and identify potential crop problems. A highly motivated candidate is expected to show background in the following concepts: - Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Neural Network Architectures, time series and their application to agricultural problems. Federated Learning is a plus - Data Analytics, Model Evaluation and Deployment - IoT, cloud, fog, edge, and the computing continuum - Advanced programming language skills - Advanced English language skills - Strong publication record The candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related areas (less than 7 years since graduation). The fellowship's duration is 30 months, and the monthly stipend is R$12.000,00 plus 10% for research expenses. The term for this scholarship is expected to start as soon as possible, ideally in April 2025. Candidates should fill out the online form at: https://forms.gle/oftX3orZz478Gne17<https://cas5-0-urlprotect.trendmicro.com/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=https%3…> Deadline: March, 14, 2025 Inquiries can be sent to rbianchi(a)fei.edu.br<mailto:rbianchi@fei.edu.br> Esta mensagem, juntamente com qualquer outra informa??o anexada, ? confidencial e protegida por lei. Somente os seus destinat?rios est?o autorizados a us?-la. Se voc? n?o for o destinat?rio, por favor, informe o remetente e, em seguida, apague a mensagem, observando que n?o h? autoriza??o para usar, copiar, armazenar, encaminhar, imprimir ou tomar qualquer a??o baseada no seu conte?do.

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[NEW LEAGUE] RoboCup 2025 Flying Robots - Call for Participation
by Marco Antonio C. Simões 10 Feb '25

10 Feb '25

Call for Participation RoboCup 2025 Flying Robots League July 15 – July 21, 2025, Salvador (Brazil) https://2025.robocup.org/robocup-flying-robots/ The Flying Robot League (FRL) aims to stimulate the study and development of autonomous and intelligent flying robots for different tasks applied to the industrial and logistics sector. The Challenge is a reduced and playful model that tries to emulate logistical problems in an arena with two suspended bases for landings and takeoffs, a takeoff base, and three mobile land bases. Among the research challenges still existing on autonomous and intelligent robots, the Flying Robot League aims to stimulate the development of aerial robotic systems and robust flight controllers (trajectory, altitude, and pose) with embedded, precise, and independent camera tracking and localization systems; high-capacity embedded processing; and devices for manipulating and loading objects. We invite you to participate in the RoboCup 2025 Flying Robot League competition in Salvador, Brazil. If you are interested in participating, please register your team and follow the procedure outlined below. This league is promoted in partnership with RoboCup Rescue Robot League. Important Dates April 10, 2025 (23:59 AoE): Team Qualification Materials Submission Deadline (TDP and Video) April 15, 2025: Qualified Teams Announcement July 15 – 20, 2025: Competition Waiver of the team fee for 2025 Qualified Teams The RoboCup Federation is pleased to announce a waiver of the team registration fee for the RoboCup competition for QUALIFIED teams in this new league. This fee applies only to the team fee but not to the members’ registration fee. A QUALIFIED team is one in which the TDP paper and TDP Challenge video were accepted as performing the required points. The waiver concerns only the team fee and does not imply any waiver of fees for team members. Qualification Qualification is based on a team’s current performance, previous achievements in RoboCup, and scientific contributions in relevant areas in past years. In RoboCup 2025, up to 11 (eleven) teams will participate in the Flying Robots League. The top three teams from RoboCup Brazil Open 2024 (Capybots, Atena, and RoboCIn) are automatically qualified after submitting an appropriate Team Description Paper (TDP) without needing the TDP challenge video. The team from Salvador (BahiaRT), home of the 2025 event, is also automatically qualified after submitting an appropriate Team Description Paper (TDP) without needing the TDP challenge video. The other seven teams will be selected through the qualification process involving the proper Team Description Paper (TDP) and the TDP Challenge video. Qualification material consists of: 1. Team Description Paper (TDP) The TDP should describe your research focus and ideas implemented by the team. It should clearly describe your work and your contributions and specify what you have used from others’ efforts (including, but not limited to, any source code released by other teams or their scientific work). In qualification, teams must be judged based on their work, so failing to acknowledge the work of others could result in immediate disqualification. The length of the TDP must be at least eight (8) pages and should not exceed ten (10) pages in Springer LNCS Style. Please do not send TDPs that you submitted to RoboCup in previous years. Please submit the TDP as a PDF document with your team's name in the filename, i.e., Teamname_TDP.pdf. The TDP needs to be done using the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science template, with a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 8 pages containing the following information: * Title: must be the name of the team; * Authors: must be the names of the team members (full name); * Affiliation: * University where the team comes from; * Link to the team, group, or lab’s webpage; * Phone number of 2 contacts for Whatsapp Group; * The e-mail of the captain of the team; * Just below the Keywords, there should be a link to the execution of the TDP challenge performed by the team’s UAV; * As for the article itself, the TDP must contain: * 0.5 page maximum for the title, author's names, affiliation, abstract, keywords, and video link. * 1.5 pages maximum describing the used UAV (mechanics, electronics, sensors, etc); * 2 pages maximum describing with details the Navigation System (software, with open git-hub); * 3 pages describing how the team solved the TDP task, describing the proposed architecture and development, as well as presenting the obtained results and discussing them; * 1 page maximum for References. 2. TDP Challenge: To be classified to participate in the RoboCup Flying Robot Trial League, the team must perform a TDP challenge and submit the video of the drone performing the desired task along with the written TDP. The task consists of one flying robot performing 2 (two) different plight paths (Position and Transverse) autonomously around a desired target. More details about the challenge can be found within the Rulebook<https://2025.robocup.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Flying-Robots-League-Ro…>. The video should be sent in a mp4 file with your team's name in the filename, i.e., Teamname_TDP.mp4. Please put all qualification material in a folder with your team name, create a tarball named teamname.tar.gz, and upload it to the registration form. https://forms.gle/TsWg7FCuURRz41w77 You should upload only one file, including all your qualification materials. If everything works fine, you will receive a confirmation. If you do not receive any confirmation within two (2) days, please contact the Organizing Committee. If you encounter any problem sending your qualification materials, please don’t hesitate to contact the OC. Best Regards, RoboCup 2025 Flying Robot League Organizing Committee Dr. Marco Antonio Costa Simões Centro de Pesquisa em Arquitetura de Computadores, Sistemas Inteligentes e Robótica - ACSO - http://www.acso.uneb.br<http://www.acso.uneb.br/> Bahia Robotics Team - http://www.acso.uneb.br/bahiart Universidade do Estado da Bahia - UNEB Ciência da Computação, Ph.D.

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Call for Papers: The 7th Games, Agents, and Incentives Workshop (GAIW)@AAMAS 2025
by Nicholas Mattei 07 Feb '25

07 Feb '25

Call for Papers: The 7th Games, Agents, and Incentives Workshop (GAIW)@AAMAS 2025 TL;DR:GAIW submission deadline is extended to Monday, February 18, Anytime on Earth Webpage: https://preflib.github.io/gaiw2025 - Submission Deadline: February 11 18, 2025 (AoE). - Acceptance Notification: March 10, 2025. - Camera Ready: April 4, 2025 (AoE). - Workshop: May 19 or 20, 2025 (TBA). Call for Papers: We invite submissions to the 7th iteration of the Games, Agents and Incentives Workshop, co-located with AAMAS 2025 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Games, Agents and Incentives is a confederated workshop which focuses on agents and incentives in AI. In particular, it promotes approaches that deal with game theory (cooperative and non-cooperative), social choice, and agent-mediated e-commerce aspects of AI systems. The confederated workshop merges multiple workshops that have been associated with AAMAS in the past, which considered different aspects of the general interplay between AI and economics: • CoopMAS: Cooperative Games in Multi-agent Systems • AMEC: Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce • EXPLORE: Exploring Beyond the Worst Case in Computational Social Choice Over the past two decades, the focus of agent incentives in decentralised and centralised AI systems has increased dramatically. These issues come up when designing preference aggregation mechanisms and markets; computing equilibria and bidding strategies; facilitating cooperation among agents; and fairly dividing resources. ********************************************************** PAPER SUBMISSION ********************************************************** Authors should submit full papers electronically in PDF format at < Open review link TBA. See website for updates > Formatting Guidelines: Please format papers according to the AAMAS 2025 format (author kit <https://aamas2025.org/index.php/conference/calls/submission-instructions-ma…>). Optionally, one may submit in LNCS format as well (LaTeX template). Paper Length: Papers can be at most 8 pages long in AAMAS format, or 12 pages long in LNCS format. Additional pages may be used for references. Supplemental material can be appended at the end of the paper. However, reviewers are instructed to make their evaluations based on the main submission, and are not obligated to consult the supplemental material. Multiple Submissions: To widen participation and encourage discussion, there will be no formal publication of workshop proceedings. We will, however, post the accepted papers online to the benefit of the participants to the workshop. Therefore, submission of preliminary work and papers to be submitted or in preparation for submission to other major venues in the field are encouraged. Past Submissions: In order to strike a balance between new work and work that may have been presented, but not widely seen, we ask that if authors want to submit published work they do so non-anonymously and clearly indicate when and where the work was published. We will only accept work which has been published in the last calendar year (e.g., IJCAI 2024, NeurIPS 2024, AAAI 2024, AAAI 2025 and any conference held strictly after February 2024). We invite papers on topics of game theory, mechanism design, fair allocation, computational social choice, and their applications to multi-agent systems: - Algorithmic mechanism design - Auctions - Behavioral Game Theory - Bounded rationality - Cooperative Games - Computational advertising - Computational aspects of equilibria - Computational social choice - Coalitions, coordination, collective action, and cooperation - Economic aspects of security and privacy - Economic aspects of distributed and network computing - Equilibrium computation - Empirical approaches to e-market - Fairness (in ML & elsewhere) - Fair Division - Incentives in machine learning - Information and attention economics - Learning in games (e.g., solution concepts and equilibria) - Matching and Matching Markets - Negotiation - Price differentiation and price dynamics - Social networks - Trading agent design and analysis - Uncertainty in AI and economics Best Presentation Award: The organizing committee of GAIW will be giving two awards (first-place and runner up) for best paper presentations. The award criteria include the clarity of presentation, the level of engagement, the content, and discussion handline. Inquiries: If you have any questions, direct them to alan.tsang(a)carleton.ca. ********************************************************** IMPORTANT DATES ********************************************************** - Submission Deadline: February 11, 2025 (AoE). - Acceptance Notification: March 10, 2025. - Camera Ready: April 4, 2025 (AoE). - Workshop: May 19 or 20, 2025 (TBA). ********************************************************** ORGANIZATION ********************************************************** Program Chairs Ben Abramowitz, Tulane University Haris Aziz, UNSW Sydney and Data61 John P. Dickerson, University of Maryland Hadi Hosseini, Penn State University Nicholas Mattei, Tulane University Svetlana Obraztsova, Carleton University Zinovi Rabinovich, Carleton University Alan Tsang, Carleton University Tomasz Wąs, Penn State University Michael Curry, University of Illinois Chicago -- *Nicholas Mattei* Associate Professor, Tulane University nsmattei(a)tulane.edu | www.nickmattei.net Stanley Thomas Hall | 305B +1 504 865 5782 Department of Computer Science Tulane University 6823 St Charles Ave New Orleans, LA 70118

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CFP:World Robot Summit Harsh Environment F-REI Challenge (WRS F-REI Challenge)
by Tetsuya Kimura 04 Feb '25

04 Feb '25

Dear Robocuppers, CFP:World Robot Summit Harsh Environment F-REI Challenge (WRS F-REI Challenge) Event Details: Dates: October 10–12, 2025 Venue: Fukushima Robot Test Field Host: Fukushima Institute for Research, Education, and Innovation (F-REI) Co-Host: Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Japan Application Information: Application Guidelines: https://wrs.f-rei.go.jp/en/guideline/ Entry Form: https://wrs.f-rei.go.jp/en/entry/ Application Deadline: May 12, 2025 Team Qualification Announcement: May 30, 2025 Challenge Categories: The WRS F-REI Challenge will feature the following four categories: 1.Harsh Environment Drone Challenge 2.Plant Disaster Challenge 3.Simulation Disaster Challenge 4.Standard Disaster Robotics Drone Challenge Travel Support and Award Money will be provided. Performance in competitions such as the RoboCup Rescue Robot League or similar events will be considered as supporting evidence during the selection process. Tetsuya Kimura, WRS F-REI Challenge OC RRRL-WC Former Executive Committee Members ---- Tetsuya KIMURA, Dr. of Eng., Professor. Dept. of System Safety Engineering, Nagaoka Univ. of Tech. Trustee, Internat. Rescue System Inst. kimura(a)mech.nagaokaut.ac.jp Tel.+81-258-47-9708, Fax.+81-258-47-9770

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CfP KI 2025 - German AI Conference , Potsdam, September 2025
by Frieder Stolzenburg 31 Jan '25

31 Jan '25

================================= Call for Contributions KI 2025 <https://ki2025.gi.de> Potsdam, September 16-19, 2025 ================================= On September 16-19, 2025, the German AI conference KI2025 will take place. We cordially invite you to join! In 2025, KI and INFORMATIK will be co-located, so that we can exchange with computer science society. To make KI2025 a resounding success, we call for your papers, workshop and tutorial proposals, and doctoral consortium contributions. The deadlines are: 28.02.25 Workshop & Tutorial Proposal Submission 18.04.25 Abstract Submission 25.04.25 Full Paper Submission 16.05.25 Doctoral Consortium Submission For more detailed info on each call, please refer to: Call for Papers (Long, Short, Extended Abstracts): <https://ki2025.gi.de/calls/call-for-papers> Call for Workshops and Tutorials: <https://ki2025.gi.de/calls/call-for-workshops-and-tutorials> Call for Doctoral Consortium Contributions: <https://ki2025.gi.de/calls/call-for-doctoral-consortium-contributions> Submissions are possible via EasyChair: <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ki2025> We are very much looking forward to your contributions and the scientific exchange! Last, but not least, we would like to announce our excellent keynote speakers for KI2025: Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, Federal Data Protection Officer, Germany Rineke Verbrugge, U Groningen, Netherlands Barbara Hammer, U Bielefeld, Germany Best regards Program Chairs Tanya Braun (Uni Münster) Benjamin Paaßen (Uni Bielefeld) Frieder Stolzenburg (HS Harz) Tutorial/Workshop Chairs Magda Gregorova (TH Würzburg-Schweinfurt) Philipp Väth (TH Würzburg-Schweinfurt) Doctoral Consortium Chair Gesina Schwalbe (Uni Lübeck)

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[CFP] 2nd Call for Papers for the 19th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-19)
by Arnoud Visser 29 Jan '25

29 Jan '25

IAS-19 Call for Papers We are all invited to contribute to the 19th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-19), which will be held in Genoa, Italy, from June 30 to July 4, 2025. Since the first edition in 1985, IAS has been a venue for original, novel, and innovative papers with a theoretical or experimental flavor. For IAS-19, we look for papers centered around the theme "Ethical, Responsible, and Inclusive Robotics". Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Mobile Robots Collaborative Robots/Cobots Robots for Industry 4.0 Household Robots Humanoid Robots Climbing Robots Outdoor and Field Robots Autonomous Vehicles Healthcare Robots Flying Robots On-Water/Underwater Robots Robot Swarms Biomimetic Robots Long-Term Autonomous Systems Intelligent Machines Cognitive Architectures for Robots Human-Robot-Interaction Software Architectures for Robots Cloud Robotics Robot Vision Tactile Sensing Intelligent Sensors and Systems Neuromorphic Sensing Semantic Modelling Data Fusion and Machine Learning Obstacle Avoidance Localization and SLAM Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Planning Task-Motion Planning Robot Foundation Models Vision and Language Models Robot Simulations Mechatronics for Intelligent Systems All contributed papers will go through a rigorous peer-review process, which will be managed by Editors, Associated Editors, and Reviewers. Each manuscript will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. If a paper will be accepted, the authors should submit a revised final version reflecting reviewers' comments and present their paper orally and in presence. All accepted and presented papers will be published in the conference proceedings, and a post-proceedings book will be published by Springer, as is customary for IAS conferences. A limited number of authors will be invited to submit an extended version of their papers for a special issue of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, published by Elsevier. Proposals for special sessions, workshops, and tutorials are strongly encouraged. Workshops and tutorials will be scheduled on 30/6/2025. Updates on www.ias-19.org<http://www.ias-19.org/>. Important dates 20/9/2024 > First call for papers 30/11/2024 > Deadline for proposals for special sessions 7/12/2024 > Notification for proposals for special sessions 15/12/2024 > Deadline for proposals for workshops, and tutorials 15/1/2025 > Notification for proposals for workshops and tutorials 15/2/2025 > Deadline for papers submission 15/4/2025 > Papers acceptance notification 15/5/2025 > Papers final submission 30/6/2025 - 4/7/2025 > IAS-19 in Genoa, Italy CONFIRMED: Plenary speakers Tomaso A. Poggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Yoshihiko Nakamura, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence CONFIRMED: Keynote speakers Arash Ajoudani, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Perla Maiolino, University of Oxford HIGHLIGHTS: Call for Workshops and tutorials We look for proposals for workshops and tutorials on a broad set of topics in intelligent and autonomous systems. A workshop or tutorial can be half or full day. Please send proposals for workshops or tutorials by email at contact(a)ias-19.org<mailto:contact@ias-19.org>. Each proposal must include (a) the workshop or tutorial title, (b) the list of organizers with contact information, (c) a brief statement of purpose for the workshop or tutorial, and (d) a list of potential contributors. Workshops and tutorials chairs will review the submitted proposals. The management of the related Call for Papers will be managed autonomously by the workshop or tutorial organisers. IAS-19 Workshops and Tutorials Chairs Ivan Petrovic, University of Zagreb, Croatia Nak Young Chong, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan Monica Reggiani, University of Padua, Italy STILL OPEN: Call for Special Sessions Methods and technologies to design and develop intelligent and autonomous systems have advanced remarkably in the past few years, with the rapid development of critical and foundational approaches in robotics and artificial intelligence. Intelligent and autonomous systems are being deployed in various scenarios, such as nuclear power plants, defense, agriculture, industrial safety, aerospace, construction, and unmanned vehicles. Special sessions are the ideal venues to highlight selected topics, spark debates, and narrow down applications of intelligent and autonomous systems, especially connected to innovative emerging areas of interest related to the main conference topics. We look for proposals for special sessions featuring emerging topics in intelligent and autonomous systems. We welcome submissions of proposals considering the conference theme, that is, "Ethical, Responsible, and Inclusive Robotics", along with scientific, methodological, and technological advances. A special session will consist of 4 papers. Please send proposals for special sessions by email at contact(a)ias-19.org<mailto:contact@ias-19.org>. Each proposal must include (a) the special session title, (b) the list of organizers with contact information, (c) a brief statement of purpose for the session, and (d) a list of potential contributors. Special Sessions Chairs will review the submitted proposals. Papers addressed to approved special sessions will be provided with a session code and will undergo the same review process as regular papers. Special session organizers can be involved in the review process and in the final decisions. Also, they will be offered a gift voucher as a sign of gratitude. IAS-19 Special Session Chairs Alessandra Sciutti, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy Jun Ota, The University of Tokyo, Japan Stefano Carpin, University of California Merced, CA, USA ===== On behalf of the General & Program Chair Francesco Amigoni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, University of Genua, Italy

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[robotics-worldwide] [Meetings][News] RoboCup 2025 Virtual Robot Competition - Call for Participation
by Reyhaneh 28 Jan '25

28 Jan '25

*RoboCup Rescue Simulation Virtual Robot Competitions 2025* *Salvador, Brazil**July 15-21, 2025* https://robocup-rsvrl.github.io/ <https://www.robocup.org/leagues/27>https://2025.robocup.org *IMPORTANT DATES* Team Qualification Materials Submission Deadline..: Feb 21st, 2025 (23:55 GMT) Filling the intent letter form is mandatory. Qualified Teams Announcement…………....................…: Rolling basis till March 14th, 2025 Camera-ready TDP submission………....................….….: June 6th, 2025 If you are interested or considering participating please take the time to fill the RoboCup 2025 Virtual Robot Competition - intent letter form <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvXrsia1IbEk6lMGCfF1z_x6mk66zJ4hD…> as soon as possible, so that we can inform you about the latest developments and updates. *(1) RoboCup Rescue Simulation League and Virtual Robot Competition* ——————— The Virtual Robot Simulation competition aims to raise awareness about the complexities involved in search and rescue applications. It provides an objective platform for evaluating robotic implementations in environments that mimic real-world disaster scenarios. This competition also fosters collaboration among researchers, promoting the exchange of ideas and advancements in the field. In this competition, a generic urban disaster simulation environment is created on network computers. This virtual world is populated by robots who carry out search and rescue operations. These robots are designed to mimic the roles and responsibilities of the rescue team in the real-world to work together with the rescue team to reduce the disaster effects. Participating in the RoboCup Virtual Robot Competition offers a multitude of benefits. This competition is part of the RoboCup Rescue Simulation League, provides a unique platform for participants to apply and enhance their skills in AI and robotics within a simulated disaster environment. The Virtual Robot Competition is based on ROS/Gazebo, a sophisticated robot simulator. This platform allows participants to simulate multiple robots with capabilities that closely mirror those of real robots. It provides an opportunity to work with a variety of sensors and actuators, and to develop UAV and UGV robots using standard modules. The competition also addresses a wide range of research topics, including human-robot interfaces, autonomous navigation, sensor fusion, image processing, speech processing, 2D and 3D mapping, distributed planning, and distributed learning. By participating in the competition, individuals can gain hands-on experience in these areas, contributing to their professional development and potentially leading to advancements in the field of AI and robotics. In 2025, we will hold the competition in hybrid mode, so both remote and in-person options would be available for the teams. *(2) Intention of participation* ——————- If you are interested or considering participating please take the time to fill the RoboCup 2025 Virtual Robot Competition - intent letter form <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvXrsia1IbEk6lMGCfF1z_x6mk66zJ4hD…> as soon as possible, so that we can inform you about the latest developments and updates. *(3) Qualification material* ————————- Besides sending the intention of participation, please prepare before Feb 21, 2025, 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 2025 Rule (draft) <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z2XkqSYPFblGC6BFMBvZXZ9plrQCwEfiXETrjV0…> - Virtual Robot Competition Wiki <https://robocup-rsvrl.github.io/> - Virtual Robot Competition Server <https://github.com/RoboCup-RSVRL/RoboCup2022RVRL_Demo> - Official RoboCup Rescue Simulation website <https://rescuesim.robocup.org/> Kind regards, Reyhaneh Pahlevan on behalf of RoboCup Rescue Simulation Executive, Technical, and Organizing Committees

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RoboCup@Work 2025: Call for Participation
by Asad Norouzi 22 Jan '25

22 Jan '25

Call for Applications for Participation RoboCup 2025 – RoboCup at Work https://2025.robocup.org Venue: Salvador, Brazil Tuesday, July 15th through Monday, July 21st, 2025 RoboCup at Work: Competing for the Factory of the Future RoboCup at Work is a league of the RoboCup competition that replicates the use of robots in autonomous, industrial scenarios. It aims to promote research and development that enables the use of innovative mobile robots with advanced manipulators for cutting-edge industrial applications. Such applications include complex tasks ranging from manufacturing, automation, and parts handling to general logistics, as well as interaction with human workers. The RoboCup at Work league is characterized by an industrial environment. This consists of manipulation objects including nuts and bolts, arena elements such as shelves, bins, and platforms of different sizes, and networked automation devices like conveyor belts and drilling machines. The actual competition tasks to be performed in the environment are defined in a set of so-called tests. Each test addresses various mobile manipulation capabilities such as grasping, transportation, precision placement, and visual serving. The complete rules of RoboCup@Work as well as further technical details are (will be) posted on the RoboCup@Work website (https://atwork.robocup.org). Participation in the Competition All teams that intend to participate in the competition have to perform the following steps: 1. Submission of qualification materials including a Team Description Paper and a video of their robot performance. Details are below. 2. Final registration (qualified teams only) Qualification The qualification process serves a dual purpose: It should allow the Technical Committee (aka TC) to assess the safety of the robots a team intends to bring to the competition, and it should allow ranking teams according to a set of evaluation criteria in order to select the most promising teams for a competition, if not all interested teams can be permitted. The TC will select the qualified teams according to the qualification materials provided by the teams. The evaluation criteria will include: - Team description paper - Relevant scientific contributions/publications - The professional quality of the robot and software - Novelty of approach - Relevance to industry - Performance in previous competitions - Contribution to RoboCup at Work league, e.g. by Organization of events and/or provision and sharing of knowledge - The quality of the robot's performance of a task (selected by the team) shown in a video - Team website Team Description Paper The Team Description Paper (TDP) is a central element of the qualification process and has to be provided by each team as part of the qualification process. The TDP should at least contain the following information in the author/title section of the paper: - Name of the team (title) - Team members (authors), including the team leader - Link to the team website - Contact information The body of the TDP should contain information on the following: - the focus of research/research interest - a description of the hardware, including an image of the robot(s) - a description of the software, esp. the functional and software architectures - innovative technology (if any) - reusability of the system or parts thereof - applicability and relevance to industrial tasks - usage of components (software or hardware) developed by other RoboCup at Work teams The team description paper should cover the technical and scientific approach in detail, while the team website should be designed for a broader audience. Both the website and the TDP have to be in English. All TDPs must be written using the following template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/springer-lecture-notes-in-computer… Submission and Evaluation All applications with the qualification material must be submitted by February 23rd, 2025 through the following online form: https://forms.gle/hWNyHRHbzAZJbJgHA Qualified teams will be tentatively announced by March 10th, 2025. Important Links of RoboCup@Work League Official Website: https://atwork.robocup.org Discord: https://discord.gg/WaBHRdZq LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14158849/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/communities/1606361981937754115 Mailing List: https://lists.robocup.org/mm/lists/rc-work.lists.robocup.org/ Regards, RoboCup@Work EC/TC/OC

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[meetings] [news] 2nd CfP: The 4th Benchmark for Autonomous Robot Navigation (BARN) Challenge -- ICRA 2025 Competition
by Xuesu Xiao 22 Jan '25

22 Jan '25

Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYFw_BVg-7lpXNVxQIX_xQKpFrU2m4jrX… Competition Website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN_Challenge/BARN_Challenge25.html Participation Instructions: https://github.com/Daffan/nav-competition-icra2022 Lessons Learned from The BARN Challenge 2024: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/papers/barn24_report.pdf Lessons Learned from The BARN Challenge 2023: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/papers/barn23_report.pdf Lessons Learned from The BARN Challenge 2022: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/papers/barn22_report.pdf Dear roboticists, are you interested in agile robot navigation in highly constrained spaces with a lot of obstacles around, e.g., cluttered households or after-disaster scenarios? Do you think mobile robot navigation is mostly a solved problem? Are you looking for a hands-on project for your robotics class, but may not have (sufficient) robot platforms for your students? If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, we sincerely invite you to participate in The 4th BARN Challenge at ICRA 2025 (https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN_Challenge/BARN_Challenge25.html)! The BARN Challenge aims at evaluating state-of-the-art autonomous navigation systems to move robots through highly constrained environments in a safe and efficient manner. The task is to navigate a standardized Clearpath Jackal robot from a predefined start to a goal location as quickly as possible without any collision. The challenge will take place both in the simulated BARN dataset and in physical obstacle courses at ICRA 2025. 1. The competition task is designing ground navigation systems to navigate through all 300 BARN environments (https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/Research/BARN/BARN.html) and physical obstacle courses constructed at ICRA 2025 as fast as possible without collision. 2. The 300 BARN environments can be the training set for learning-based methods, or to design classical approaches in. During the simulation competition, we will generate another 50 unseen environments unavailable to the participants before the competition. 3. We will standardize a Jackal robot in the Gazebo simulation, including a Hokuyo 2D LiDAR, motor controller of 2m/s max speed, etc. 4. Participants can use any approaches to tackle the navigation problem, such as using classical sampling-based or optimization-based planners, end-to-end learning, or hybrid approaches. We will provide baselines for reference. 5. A standardized scoring system is provided on the website. 6. We will invite the top teams in simulation to compete in the real world. The team who achieves the fastest collision-free navigation in the physical obstacle courses wins. If you are interested in participating, please submit your navigation system at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYFw_BVg-7lpXNVxQIX_xQKpFrU2m4jrX… Co-Organizers: Xuesu Xiao (George Mason University) Zifan Xu (UT Austin) Aniket Datar (George Mason University) Saad Abdul Ghani (George Mason University) Peter Stone (UT Austin / Sony AI) Sponsor: Clearpath Robotics, https://clearpathrobotics.com/ Thanks Xuesu ----------------------- Xuesu Xiao, Ph.D. -- Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science George Mason University xiao(a)gmu.edu <mailto:xiao@gmu.edu> https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/ https://robotixx.cs.gmu.edu/

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RoboCup SPL Call for Participation 2025 - Deadline Reminder
by Tom Ellis 16 Jan '25

16 Jan '25

Call for Participation Reminder RoboCup 2025 Standard Platform League Hi RoboCuppers, Just a quick reminder that all applications for the 2025 RoboCup SPL Competition, with the relevant qualification material, must be submitted by 17th of February 2025, just over 1 month from now! Full Application Details can be found at spl.robocup.org/call-for-participation-2025<https://spl.robocup.org/call-for-participation-2025/> Tom Ellis, on behalf of the RoboCup 2025 Standard Platform League Technical and Organizing Committees

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