[robocup-worldwide] [@Home2020] Call for Participation (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)

Fri Oct 4 08:04:41 EDT 2019

First Call for Participation RoboCup at Home 2020 (DSPL · OPL · SSPL)
    June 23 - June 29, 2020 (Bordeaux, France)
    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 at Home, RoboCup Soccer, RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup at Work and
RoboCup Junior).

The RoboCup at 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.

Note for experienced participants: Included in the Rulebook is a
standard object list.

This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure
for RoboCup at Home League 2020.

Important dates:

Oct. 4, 2019 Publication of the Call for Participation
Oct.  27, 2019 Deadline for submission of qualification material and
preregistration.
               (Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website).
Nov.  15, 2019 Qualification announcement
Jan.  19, 2020 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
atrobocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>
<http://robocupathome.org/>) to participate in the
qualification process for the
RoboCup at Home 2020 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 email subject should be: [@Home2020-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: Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019 23:59 GMT ******

Step 2) Participation confirmation (mandatory)
==============================================

All qualified teams ****MUST**** send an email to the Organizing
Committee (oc at robocupathome.org <http://robocupathome.org>
<http://robocupathome.org/>) to
confirm (or cancel) their participation in the RoboCup at Home 2020
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 at Home [League].

The email subject should be: [@Home2020-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. 19, 2020 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 prove 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. It is Highly
Recommend to show at least one Stage 2 test of the current or last
year's rulebook.

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 will only accept Youtube Video or a direct download link that has
no country protection
- Videos sent will be uploaded/displayed in the league's youtube
channelhttp://www.youtube.com/channel/UChkdCpT0xrFMMt-_N8wSVew/playlists
- *Standard Platforms Only:* New teams are allowed to use any robot in
the Team Video. However, using the standard platform one is advised.

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.
MoveIt/YOLO should be included, but not OpenCV.).
   - 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>
<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
fromhttps://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 criteria
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, completeness, innovation (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 the 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 seeing your team in Bordeaux,

The 2020 RoboCup at Home Organizing and Technical Committees
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