<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Call for Participation</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">RoboCup 2014 Soccer Simulation 3D League</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">July 20-24, 2014 (João Pessoa, Brazil)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"><a href="http://www.robocup2014.org/" target="_blank"><span lang="PT" style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://www.robocup2014.org/</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"></span></p>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">The RoboCup Soccer Simulation 3D Competition provides a great opportunity to experiment with humanoid robots without the need for investing in robot hardware. It facilitates experimenting with different learning and optimization techniques by providing a simulated environment. Since the games are played with teams of 11 players, the league is also a very good environment for experimenting on multi-robot coordination methodologies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">We would like to invite you to participate in the RoboCup 2014 Soccer Simulation League, 3D competition, which will take place July 20-24, 2014, in João Pessoa, Brazil. If you are interested in participating, please pre-register your team and follow the procedure as outlined below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">########</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Schedule</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Team Pre-Registration Deadline: <b>January 31, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204)">2014</span> (23:59 UTC)</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Team Qualification Materials Submission Deadline: February 14, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204)">2014</span> (23:59 UTC)</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Qualified Teams Announcement: March 1, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204)">2014</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">################</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Pre-Registration</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">################</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">All teams who wish to qualify need to pre-register before the deadline (31 of January, 2014). To pre-register, send an E-Mail to <a href="mailto:lpreis@dsi.uminho.pt" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">lpreis@dsi.uminho.pt</span></a> (cc: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:'Courier New'"><a href="mailto:soccer_3d@robocup2014.org">soccer_3d@robocup2014.org</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">) with the subject '2014 3DSim Pre-registration TEAM_NAME'. The E-Mail should contain the following information:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">1. Team-Name:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">2. Team-Leader:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">3. E-Mail:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">4. Country/ies:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">5. Affiliation(s):</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">6. Number of team members:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">You should receive a confirmation E-Mail for your pre-registration within a few days of submission.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">#############</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Qualification</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">#############</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Qualification is based on a team's current performance, previous achievements in RoboCup, and scientific contributions to the RoboCup community in past years, cooperation in the 3D mailing list and development of the simulator.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">In RoboCup 2014, up to 24 teams will participate in the 3D simulation competition. The top three teams from RoboCup 2013 (Apollo, UT Austin Villa and FC Portugal) are automatically qualified after pre-registering their teams and submitting an appropriate Team Description Paper (TDP). The other 21 teams will be selected through a qualification process.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">The qualification deadline is <b>14 February <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204)">2014</span></b>. The OC does not accept qualification materials from teams who have not been pre-registered by the pre-registration deadline. Qualification material consists of:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">1. Team Description Paper (TDP)</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">The TDP should describe your research focus and ideas implemented in the team. It should clearly describe your own work and your contributions in addition to explicitly specifying 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 own work, so failing to acknowledge the work of others could result in an immediate disqualification. The length of the TDP has to be at least four (4) pages and should not exceed twelve (12) pages in Springer LNCS Style: </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"><a href="http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:windowtext">http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">. Please submit the TDP only as a PDF document, with the name of your team in the filename, i.e. ‘teamname_TDP.pdf’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">2. A List of Publications and Achievements</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> on previous RoboCup Symposia and in other relevant international journals and conferences. Please do not include TDPs that you submitted to RoboCup in previous years. Please also include your team's achievements in RoboCup and related events of previous years. If you are new to the RoboCup 3D community, you may also include references to relevant research done by your team that shows its potential. Please submit the contribution list as a PDF document, with the name of your team in the filename, i.e. ‘teamname_list.pdf.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">3. Binary</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">All teams should submit a working binary of their team. The OC will use these binaries to play 11 vs 11 matches, under the rules and with the simulator used during the 2013 competitions held in Eindhoven (<a href="http://www.robocup2013.org/3d-simulation-league/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">http://www.robocup2013.org/3d-simulation-league/</span></a>). These rules can be found at: <a href="http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/~sv08aav/RCSoccerSim3DRules2013.1.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">http://homepages.herts.ac.uk/~sv08aav/RCSoccerSim3DRules2013.1.pdf</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Submitted binaries should adhere to the following:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- Two scripts should be included: a startup script, called start.sh, to run a full team of agents and a kill script, called kill.sh, to fully kill all agents of the team. The requirements and examples of these scripts can be found at the rules page given above.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- All necessary external libraries should be included and be used locally by the binary. The OC will not make an effort to install extra libraries on the qualification systems.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- The binaries should not create any output, be it through standard output or to files and no graphical (debugging) interface should be used.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- The binary should be compiled for 64 bit systems and should work on a modern GNU/Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu 12.10. You may also send 32 bit binaries, but it is your responsibility to make sure that it runs correctly on 64 bit distributions. You can assume that basic 32 bit libraries (e.g. libc) are installed on the 64 bit OS.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">To summarize: the binary should run out of the box on a standard, clean, headless system in a restricted sand box environment with the simulation server (possibly) running on a different machine. The OC will not try to fix errors. When a binary fails to run, the respective team will be notified and will have to resubmit their material, before the deadline of 14 February, 2014.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Please put all qualification material in a folder with your team name, create a tarball name teamname.tgz and E-Mail it to <a href="mailto:lpreis@dsi.uminho.pt" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">lpreis@dsi.uminho.pt</span></a> (cc: <a href="mailto:soccer_3d@robocup2014.org">soccer_3d@robocup2014.org</a>) with the subject: '2014 3DSim Qualification TEAM_NAME'. If everything went well you will receive a confirmation. If you did not receive any confirmation within two (2) days, please contact the Organizing Committee.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Teams will be qualified based on the submitted materials as described in this E-Mail. Also, the following general qualification limitations will be considered:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- One-Third-Rule: The so called One-Third-Rule rule states that only up to 1/3 of the participants of a competition may be from the same country.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">- One-Team-Per-Institute-Rule: The One-Team-Per-Institute-Rule states that only one team from each university or research institute is allowed to participate in a competition. Note that it is okay for different teams from the same institute to participate in different competitions, e.g. 2D and 3D soccer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">If you encounter any problem sending you qualification materials please don't hesitate to contact the OC.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Best Regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">Luis Paulo Reis & Marco Simões</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">On Behalf of Organizing Committee</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'">RoboCup 2014 Soccer Simulation 3D</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Courier New'"><br></span></p></div>-- <br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Luis Paulo Reis<br><a href="http://www3.dsi.uminho.pt/lpreis" target="_blank">http://www3.dsi.uminho.pt/lpreis</a><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Associate Professor at University of Minho - DSI/School of Engineering<br>
University of Minho, Campus de Azurém 4800-058 Guimarães<br>Member of the Directive Board of LIACC - Artificial Intelligence<br>and Computer Science Lab.<br>Tel. +351 253510312 / +351 919455251 / Fax: +351 253510300<br>------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
"Don't close your eyes unless you can dream.<br>Don't open your eyes unless you can believe!"<br>------------------------------------------------------------------
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