<div dir="ltr"><h2 style="text-align:center">Call for Participation</h2>
<div align="center">
<p><font size="3"><span style="background-color:transparent;line-height:1.6">RoboCup -2017 RoboCup@Home League<br>
</span>
July 25 - July 30, 2017 (Nagoya, Japan)<br>
<a href="http://www.robocup2017.org/" style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:10pt">http://www.robocup2017.org</a><br>
<a href="http://www.robocupathome.org/" style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:10pt">http://www.robocupathome.org/</a><br>
<a href="http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League" style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:10pt">http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/@Home_League</a>
</font></p>
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<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">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).</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt;text-indent:30px;text-align:justify">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 Behaviours, Behaviour Integration, Ambient
Intelligence, Standardization and System Integration. </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">The RoboCup@Home league is itegrated by three Leagues officially referred as
</p>
<ul style="margin:0px"><li><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace">Domestic Standard Platform League [DSPL]</span> (Toyota HSR)</li><li><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace">Social Standard Platform League [SSPL]</span> (SoftBank Robotics Pepper)</li><li><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace">Open Platform League [OPL]</span></li></ul>
<p style="font-size:10pt">This message describes the preregistration and qualification procedure for RoboCup@Home League 2017.</p>
<h4><a name="TOC-Important-dates:"></a>Important dates:</h4>
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<td style="width:100px;height:21px"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">Feb. 12, 2017</span></td>
<td style="width:747px;height:21px">Intention of Participation (Extended)<br>
</td>
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<td style="width:100px;height:21px">Mar. 12, 2017</td>
<td style="width:747px;height:21px">Deadline for submission of qualification material and preregistration</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td>(Team Description Paper, Team Video, Team Website, Information in @Home Wiki).</td>
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<tr>
<td style="width:100px;height:21px">Mar. 26, 2017</td>
<td style="width:747px;height:21px">Qualification announcement</td>
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<p>The qualification procedure consists of the following two steps:</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<h4><a name="TOC-Step-1-Intention-of-Participation-strongly-recommended-"></a>Step 1) Intention of Participation (strongly recommended)</h4>
<p>The team sends an email to the Organizing Committee (<a href="mailto:oc@robocupathome.org">oc@robocupathome.org</a>) to indicate your intention to participate in the RoboCup@Home 2017 event, including the following basic information:</p>
<div style="margin-left:1cm;font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;font-size:10pt;line-height:90%">
Team Name:<br>
League:<br>
Country:<br>
Affiliation:<br>
Team Leader Name:<br>
Contact information (E-mail):<br>
Web site:
</div>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Only one platform can be specified per team.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">The e-mail subject should be: <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace">[@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)</span></p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Please check the email is encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"><b><i>**** Deadline: Sunday, 5th Feb. 2017 23:59 GMT *****</i></b></p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<h4><a name="TOC-Step-2-Qualification-Material-Submission-mandatory-"></a>Step 2) Qualification Material Submission (mandatory)</h4>
<p style="font-size:10pt">The team ***MUST*** send an email to the Organizing Committee (<a href="mailto:oc@robocupathome.org">oc@robocupathome.org</a>) to participate in the qualification process for the RoboCup@Home 2017 event. Please fill in the following information:</p>
<div style="margin-left:1cm;font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;font-size:10pt;line-height:90%">
Team Name:<br>
League:<br>
Country:<br>
Affiliation:<br>
Team Leader Name:<br>
Contact information (E-mail):<br>
Web site:
Link to a team video:<br>
Link to a team web site devoted to their efforts:<br>
Team Description Paper (TDP) attached to the email based on the official template.
</div>
<p style="font-size:10pt">The e-mail subject should be: <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace">[@Home2017-Participation] (YourTeamName)</span></p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Considerations:
</p>
<ul style="margin:0px"><li>Only one platform can be specified per team.</li><li>All the publications and software to be evaluated for qualification ***MUST*** be in the team’s website.</li><li>The email must be encoded in UTF-8 using only the ISO-8859-1 character set.</li></ul>
<p style="font-size:10pt"><b>Important Notice:</b> As platforms are
independent, you must send an application email for each platform you
want to compete in, specifying different team names in each.
Qualification Material (e.g. video and TDP) must match the robot to
qualify.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"><i><b>**** Deadline: Sunday, Mar. 12, 2017 23:59 GMT *****</b></i></p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Instructions for the Team Video<br>
===========================</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">As a proof of running hardware, each team has
to provide a qualification video. As a minimum requirement for
qualification, we consider showing the robot(s) successfully solving at
least one test of the current or last year's rulebook.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"><b>[Standard Platforms Only]</b> The robot shown in the video must not be altered or modified in any way.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Instructions for the TDP<br>
========================</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">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:
</p>
<ul style="margin:0px"><li>Innovative technology and scientific contribution</li><li>Photo(s) of the robot</li><li>Focus of research/research interests</li><li>Re-usability of the system for other research groups</li><li>Applicability of the robot in the real world</li><li>Brief, compact list of the 3rd party robot's software (e.g. ROS vision should be included, but not OpenCV).</li><li><b>[Open Platform Only]</b> Brief, compact description of the robot's hardware.</li><li><b>[Standard Platforms Only]</b> Specify all external computing devices, if any.</li></ul>
<p style="font-size:10pt">For the TDP, please use the <a href="http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0">Springer LNAI format</a> used in the RoboCup Symposium submissions and limit yourself to 8 pages without altering margins or spacing. You may <a href="https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/TDPTemplate">download a template for the TDP from here</a>.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
Instructions for the Web site<br>
==========================<br>
<p style="font-size:10pt">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:
</p>
<ul style="margin:0px"><li>Photos of the robot(s)</li><li>Videos of the robot(s)</li><li>Description of the approaches and information on scientific achievements</li><li>Relevant publications (last 5 years, preferably available to download)</li><li>Link to repositories with software for the community</li><li>Team members</li><li>Previous participation in RoboCup</li></ul>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
Evaluation criteria:<br>
=================<br>
<p style="font-size:10pt">Qualification materials will be judged by the following criteria:
</p>
<ul><li>Team description paper (clarity, scientific contributions, re-usability by the league, applicability in real world)</li><li>Qualification Video (navigation, human-robot interaction, people/object recognition, object manipulation and new features)</li><li>Website (multimedia, publications from last 5 years, downloadable content, open-source software and other contributions)</li><li>Relevant Scientific contribution/publications (downloadable papers and open-source software)</li><li>Novelty of approach (what you do is new for @Home)</li></ul>
<p style="font-size:10pt">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.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"><b>Note to experienced competitors:</b> Major changes are being done in the rulebook. You may download the latest version from: <a href="https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook">https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook</a>.</p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt"> </p>
<p style="font-size:10pt">With kind regards, and looking forward to see your team in Nagoya,<br>
The 2017 RoboCup@Home Organizing and Technical Committees</p></div>