<div dir="ltr">Call for Participation<br>
Soccer Simulation League - 2D Simulation Competition, RoboCup 2018<br><b>
June 16 - June 21, 2018 (Montreal, Canada)*</b><br>
<a href="http://www.robocup2018.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.robocup2018.org/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Introduction</b><br>
------------<br>
The RoboCup 2D Simulated Soccer League is the oldest of the RoboCup<br>
Soccer Simulation Leagues. It is based on the RoboCup Soccer Simulator<br>
that enables two teams of 11 simulated autonomous robots plus an<br>
autonomous coach agent to play a game of soccer with very realistic<br>
rules and game play. Due to its stability the RoboCup Soccer Simulator<br>
is a very good research and educational tool for multiagent systems,<br>
artificial intelligence and machine learning.<br>
<br>
We would like to invite you to participate in the RoboCup 2018 Soccer<br>
Simulation League, 2D competition, which will take place June 17 -<br>
June 22 2018, in Montreal, Canada. To pre-register all teams have to<br>
provide a Team Description Paper, and in case they are based on<br>
another team under a license they have to publish the agent source<br>
code. The teams will also have to provide a binary file and logfiles<br>
showing the team game play quality.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Schedule</b><br>
--------<br><b>
Team Pre-Registration Deadline: <span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">February 16, 2018 - 23:59 UTC</span></span></b><br>
Materials Submission Deadline: March 2, 2018 - 23:59 UTC<br>
Qualification Notification: <span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">March 16, 2018</span></span><br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Qualification</b><br>
--------------<br>
In RoboCup 2018 up to 16 teams will be allowed to participate in the<br>
2D Simulation competitions. Qualification is based on the quality of<br>
the TDP, and the team's current performance based on provided logfiles.<br>
Previous achievements in RoboCup and scientific contributions to the<br>
RoboCup community in past years are also relevant for qualification.<br>
There are several general rules on which the qualification processes<br>
as well as the tournaments are based:<br>
<br>
1. One-Fourth-Rule: Only one fourth of the participating teams may be<br>
from the same country. With 16 places in RoboCup 2018 only 4 teams per<br>
country are allowed. If a team is situated in more than one country,<br>
the bound location counts. Teams infringing this rule will be ignored<br>
in the ordered list of qualified teams. False statement results in<br>
penalty. See Appendix A.1 for further explanations.<br>
<br>
2. One-Team-Per-Research-Institut<wbr>ion:<br>
Each university or research institute may only qualify one team. If a<br>
team is affiliated with more than one institution, the unbound<br>
affiliation counts. Teams infringing this rule will be ignored in the<br>
ordered list of qualified teams. False statement results in penalty.<br>
<br>
3. Plagiarism-Penalty:<br>
If a team commits plagiarism, the team and its members will be banned<br>
from participation for this and next year's RoboCup. The term<br>
plagiarism comprises any use of external knowledge without proper<br>
referencing, i.e. copying or using the thoughts, ideas, texts or<br>
language in general and presenting them as their own. This applies for<br>
Team Description Papers as well as logfiles, team code and binaries.<br>
All kinds of licenses and copyright have to be respected. This applies<br>
for the qualification process as well as the RoboCup tournaments.<br>
Please be aware that when a team is found guilty of committing<br>
plagiarism it is disqualified and banned at any time. This may also be<br>
in the middle of the tournament.<br>
<br>
4. No-Show-Penalty:<br>
If a team qualifies for RoboCup 2018, but is not able to participate,<br>
it has to cancel its participation ONE MONTH before the RoboCup-2018?s<br>
final registration deadline for the TEAM (by an email to<br>
<a href="mailto:nader.zare88@gmail.com" target="_blank">nader.zare88@gmail.com</a> and <a href="mailto:joaofabro@gmail.com" target="_blank">joaofabro@gmail.com</a>), in order to give the<br>
next-ranked team the<br>
chance to take its place. If a team fails to observe this rule<br>
('no-show'), the team and its members will be banned for RoboCup-2019<br>
competition.<br>
"<br>
The no-show penalty will apply this year (2018) to these three teams, and<br>
their participants:<br>
Artemis,Iran;<br>
STRT,Iran;<br>
Jaeger,China;<br>
"<br>
<br>
5. Academic-Fairness-Rule:<br>
If any team breaches general academic fairness in any other way, it<br>
has to face penalties as well.<br>
<br>
6. Automatic-Qualification-Rules:<br>
The top four teams from last RoboCup (i.e., Helios, FRA-UNIted, Oxsy<br>
and Cyrus) are automatically qualified (after pre-registering<br>
their teams and submitting appropriate materials). The remaining teams<br>
will be selected through the qualification process.<br>
<br>
<br><b>
Pre-Registration</b><br>
----------------<br>
All teams wishing to qualify need to pre-register before the deadline<br>
(<span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">16 February 2018</span></span>). To pre-register, send an e-mail to<br>
<a href="mailto:nader.zare88@gmail.com" target="_blank">nader.zare88@gmail.com</a> and <a href="mailto:joaofabro@gmail.com" target="_blank">joaofabro@gmail.com</a> with the subject '2018<br>
Pre-registration TeamName'.<br>
The e-mail should contain the following information:<br>
<br>
1. Team-Name:<br>
2. Country:<br>
3. Affiliation:<br>
4. Team-Leader:<br>
5. Team Members:<br>
6. Contact e-mail:<br>
7. Base-Team:<br>
8. Dependencies:<br>
<br>
You should receive a confirmation e-mail for your pre-registration.<br>
Affiliation is the team's organization, institute or university.<br>
Dependencies should include all dependencies of your team binaries<br>
from the standard repositories (so every team binary should be executable<br>
at the tournament). Under Base-Team each team using another team as base<br>
for their agents, has to specify this team. Please note that you have to<br>
provide correct and full information and giving false or incomplete<br>
statement will be penalized with banning of the team and its members.<br>
Please be aware that with respect to gentlemanly play, we will NOT allow<br>
any team name changes from the pre-registration to the competition in<br>
RoboCup 2018. If a team has based its agent on external code or libraries<br>
published under certain licenses or copyright, it has to observe the<br>
according rules. In most cases this will be the GNU General Public License,<br>
i.e. a proper disclaimer has to be included in Team Description Paper and<br>
source code and the source code has to be submitted as well. After<br>
official RoboCup competitions the binaries will be published, i.e. the<br>
rules of the corresponding license have to be respected as well. For<br>
GPL this also implies publishing the code.<br>
<br>
<br><b>
Qualification Materials</b><br>
-----------------------<br>
All teams who wish to qualify need to send their qualification<br>
materials by the deadline (<span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">02 March 2018</span></span>). To send the<br>
qualification materials, send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:nader.zare88@gmail.com" target="_blank">nader.zare88@gmail.com</a> and<br>
<a href="mailto:joaofabro@gmail.com" target="_blank">joaofabro@gmail.com</a><br>
with the subject '2018 Qualification Materials TeamName'. The e-mail<br>
should contain the following information and files:<br>
<br>
1. Team-Name:<br>
2. Country:<br>
3. Affiliation:<br>
4. Team-Leader:<br>
5. Team Members:<br>
6. Contact E-Mail:<br>
7. Base-Team:<br>
8. Dependencies:<br>
<br>
Attachment Files:<br>
9. Team Description Paper ('TDP_TeamName.pdf')<br>
10. Team Binary (and also source code depending on the base code license)<br>
11. Links to logfiles (stored as a single file, 'Logfiles_TeamName.tar.gz')<br>
<br>
In order to participate in qualification, a team has to send as<br>
attachments a Team Description paper, the team current binary as well<br>
as links to logfiles showing the team's game play quality. The deadline for<br>
submission is <span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">March 2nd, 2018</span></span>.<br>
<br>
<br><b>
Team Description Paper</b><br>
----------------------<br>
Each team has to submit a team description paper (in English)<br>
describing the focus and ideas as well as recent advancements<br>
implemented in the team. This paper must have a length of 4 to 6 pages<br>
in Springer LNCS style and has to be submitted as PDF (to be named<br>
'TDP_TeamName.pdf'). Please note: A team can only be qualified if the<br>
quality of its TDP is appropriate!<br>
The Team Description Paper (TDP) should comprise, among other things:<br>
the scientific focus of the team; team's current efforts; progress<br>
since last TDP/competition; team base code and description how the<br>
team is different from the base code; originality of the team's<br>
approach; results (team results or ideally results achieved using the<br>
team's main scientific contribution(s)); related work (at least 5 and<br>
ideally more than 10 references comparing the work with related work<br>
developed by other teams).<br>
Please be aware that the TDP has to describe the team's very own<br>
scientific efforts and explicitly illustrate whether a team has used<br>
external knowledge (ideas, code, agent base or the like) to build<br>
upon. If a team did use knowledge not evolved by this team, the own<br>
achievements have to be outlined in contrast to this. This also<br>
applies if one or more team members have switched from another team or<br>
a new team is created on the base of another even though the involved<br>
persons have not changed. If external knowledge is used but not<br>
referenced, explained and differentiated from in the TDP, the team and<br>
its members will be penalized with banning for this and next year's<br>
RoboCup.<br>
<br>
<br><b>
Team Binary/Source Code</b><br>
-----------------------<br>
Teams should send an attachment with a working binary. Depending on<br>
the base code license teams should also provide the team's complete<br>
source code. Team binary or source code should be compressed in a<br>
single file named ('Binary_TeamName.tar.gz' or<br>
'Source_TeamName.tar.gz').<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Logfiles</b><br>
--------<br>
In order to assess the team's performance and evaluate its scientific<br>
efforts in the context of game play, teams have to submit one logfile<br>
against one of the top teams of last year's RoboCup<br>
(<br>
<a href="http://archive.robocup.info/Soccer/Simulation/2D/binaries/RoboCup/2017/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">archive.robocup.info/Soccer/Si<wbr>mulation/2D/binaries/RoboCup/2<wbr>017/</a><br>
)<br>
and one logfile against the latest agent2d<br>
(<br>
<a href="http://sourceforge.jp/projects/rctools/downloads/55186/agent2d-3.1.1.tar.gz/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://sourceforge.jp/projects<wbr>/rctools/downloads/55186/agent<wbr>2d-3.1.1.tar.gz/</a><br>
or later). Logfiles comprise both rcg and rcl in version 5<br>
(server::game_log_version = 5) generated with compression<br>
(server::game_log_compression = 1 and server::text_log_compression =<br>
1) on using the most recent version of the Soccer Server. These<br>
logfiles have to prove that the team is competitive enough to<br>
participate and demonstrate the team's characteristics.<br>
<br>
Due to the size of logfiles, it is recommended to store your files online<br>
and send only the link(s).<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Qualification Results</b><br>
-----------------------<br>
The TDPs and logfiles of all teams will be peer reviewed by experts in<br>
2D RoboCup Simulation League nominated by the OC. The reviewers will<br>
evaluate the qualification materials and rank the teams. The ranks<br>
will be averaged into a global ranking and the top teams on that<br>
ranking will be qualified for the RoboCup 2D simulation competition.<br>
Qualification results will be announced on <span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aBn"><span class="gmail-m_5178041176480263575m_1457030892669310835gmail-aQJ">March 16 2018</span></span>. Please<br>
note that the submitted materials of all qualified teams will be<br>
made publicly available during the announcement of qualification<br>
results.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>Appendix</b><br>
--------<br>
A.1 Explanations to General Rule 1<br>
"If a team is situated in more than one country, the bound location<br>
counts." General rule 1 defines an upper bound of 4 teams from the<br>
same country. If 4 qualified teams already originate from country A<br>
and there is a team XY originating from country A as well as country<br>
B, team XY is not allowed to participate in RoboCup despite the fact<br>
that the quota for country B may not be reached.<br>
<br>
A.2 Explanations to General Rule 2<br>
"If a team is affiliated with more than one institution, the unbound<br>
affiliation counts." General rule 2 defines that only one team per<br>
institute may participate in RoboCup. However, if a team XY is<br>
affiliated with institution A as well as institution B and there is<br>
already a team affiliated with A, the team XY may participate.<br>
<br>
==============================<wbr>====================<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Joao Fabro, Nader Zare<br></div>