[robocup-humanoid] Result of Qualification for RoboCup 2012 in Mexico City

[Daniel Seifert]

Dear HL Teams,

the qualification results for RoboCup 2012 in Mexico City are now
available online at

       http://www.tzi.de/humanoid/bin/view/Website/Teams2012

As during review several cases of plagiarized content were found,
additional deliberations were necessary which delayed the official
announcement of the qualified teams. Please refer to the statement
below.

All qualified teams have already been notified and should receive
information how to register for RoboCup 2012 shortly.

This year there were 44 applications (31 for KidSize, 6 for TeenSize
and 7 for AdultSize). For each application the qualification material
was reviewed by several members of the technical committee and rated
according to the criteria announced in the call for participation, cf.
http://www.tzi.de/humanoid/bin/view/Website/Call2012.


KidSize Qualification
---------------------

As in the past, KidSize applications exceeded the available 24 slots.
After review of each submission, 26 teams were considered for
qualification and ranked based on the quality of their submission and
the qualification criteria. After a vote of the entire Technical
Committee, 2 teams were selected for participation in the technical
challenges and as runner-ups, and the other 24 teams for full
participation in the competition.

Runner-up teams are qualified for participation in the technical
challenges. Also in case one or several of the 24 fully qualified
teams withdraw later on, they will then replace them in the 3-vs-3
soccer competition.


TeenSize Qualification
----------------------

The TC members decided to qualify 5 applications.


AdultSize Qualification
-----------------------

The TC members decided to qualify 6 applications.


Robot inspection
----------------

All teams should be aware that the feasibility of a robot according to
the rules will, as always, be inspected onsite during the set-up days
of the competition. Please refer to the updated rules at
http://www.tzi.de/humanoid for this year's requirements of your
humanoid robots.


Referee Duties
--------------

All teams are reminded that it is their responsibility to provide at
least one team member to perform the role of referee during the
competition. Although a brief referee training will be held at the
competition your referee(s) are expected to have studied the updated
rules for 2012 and do some training on their own before coming to
Mexico City.

Also, the Call for Participation required every team to include a
clear statement of commitment indicating that they would provide a
referee. Some teams failed to include this statement. If you are in
that case you will be contacted shortly to request such statement and
complete the formality.


Confirmation of Participation
-----------------------------

According to the official notifications of qualification, all
qualified teams are expected to submit an e-mail confirming their
commitment to participate as soon as they have confirmed their
funding, but no later than *March 22nd*. Most teams have already
confirmed. If yours is not among those please make every possible
effort to secure your funding sources and confirm your participation
before this deadline.


Note on plagiarism
------------------

The Humanoid League Technical Committee, following the guidelines set
by the RoboCup Federation, does not condone plagiarism and is taking
strong action against any kind of academic misconduct. This year we
have found clear evidence of plagiarism on the TDPs of several
applicant teams. After thorough deliberation among all members of the
Technical Committee, under consideration of the teams' statements and
the severity of the case, we have reached the difficult decision of
applying the penalty of disqualification from RoboCup 2012 plus a ban
from RoboCup 2013 to the most extreme cases and a strong warning plus
a request for re-write for those with only minor infractions and that
we considered deserved a second chance.

It is our hope that this action will set an example that will prevent
this from happening again in the future and that all participants will
uphold the spirit of research and sportsmanship that we all expect to
see in an international event focused on academic collaboration such
as RoboCup. We invite everyone to familiarize themselves with
international standards of academic conduct. There are many sources on
the internet, one of which is http://www.plagiarism.org/index.html

The policy against plagiarism will stand from now on, and we may
choose not to grant second chances in future editions of RoboCup.


List of Qualified Teams
-----------------------

The list and application material of all qualified teams
is online available at
      http://www.tzi.de/humanoid/bin/view/Website/Teams2012


Team Description Papers
-----------------------

The team description papers (TDPs) of all teams will be included in
the preproceedings DVD of RoboCup 2012 Symposium if (and only if) it
is in LNCS standard and of 8 pages maximum, see
http://www.tzi.de/humanoid/bin/view/Website/Call2012, and the comments
from the review by the TC members are considered (in case there are
any, they will be forwarded to the team leaders by the end of March).

The deadline for submission of all TDPs which need to be updated is
*** April 30 ***.


We are looking forward to an exciting RoboCup 2012 in Mexico City!

With best regards,
Humanoid League Technical Committee
(Carlos, Daniel, Jacky, Luis, Mingguo, Pasan, Sven)