Call for Applications for Participation 2013

Call for Applications for Participation

RoboCup 2013 Standard Platform League

www.tzi.de/spl

Monday 24th through Sunday 30th June 2013 (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

www.robocup2013.org

RoboCup is an international initiative that fosters research and education in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence through a variety of competitions (RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home, RoboCupJunior) involving mostly multi-robot systems. RoboCup currently includes a number of different robot soccer leagues that focus on different research challenges.

The Standard Platform League (SPL) is characterized by the use of an identical robot platform by all the teams. Participating researchers focus on algorithmic development for fully autonomous robots, i.e., robots that operate with no external control. The SPL at RoboCup 2013 will use any H21 or H25 version of the NAO humanoid robot manufactured by Aldebaran Robotics. The SPL robot soccer games at RoboCup 2013 will be played between teams of five robots on a 6m x 9m field. The RoboCup 2013 SPL will be able to host between 24 and 28 teams, which will be selected from the interested parties responding to this call.

The full rules of RoboCup 2013 SPL will be released on the SPL web site by October 25th, 2012.

Qualification

All interested teams need to submit an up-to five pages original qualification document that includes:

  1. a statement of commitment to participate in the RoboCup 2013 SPL
  2. the leader(s), the constitution, and the affiliation(s) of the team.
  3. number of each type of NAO used by the team (eg, intend to buy 6 H25 NAO v4s or currently have 5 H21 V3.3, etc)
  4. a statement of the team’s related research interests and planned activities
  5. a summary of past relevant work and scientific publications

The written material must be complemented by a link to a video (maximum 5 min long, uploaded on the team’s web site or on some video server) that demonstrates the current status of the robotics research of the team. Videos of simulation contributions will also be accepted, only in case real robots are unavailable. If the candidates already have NAOs, the video should show the current state of their robot soccer performance. Preference will be given to teams that use real robots in their video.

Pre-Qualification

Teams that reached the quarter-finals at RoboCup 2012 will be pre-qualified for RoboCup 2013, if they submit the following original qualification document that includes::

  1. a statement of commitment to participate in the RoboCup 2013 SPL
  2. the leader(s), the constitution, and the affiliation(s) of the team
  3. number of each type of NAO used by the team (eg, intend to buy 6 H25 NAO v4s or currently have 5 H21 V3.3, etc)
  4. a team research report describing their work for RoboCup 2012

If a joint 2012 team splits, only one team can be pre-qualified for 2013 (please, indicate which one).

Submission and Evaluation

All applications with the (pre-)qualification material must be submitted by November 8, 2012, by email to rc–spl–tc@lists.robocup.org. Applications must not be sent to personal SPL TC/OC email addresses and must not contain video attachments.

Teams are encouraged to consider joint participation. Joint proposals will be judged on combined merit.

Qualification decisions will be announced by December 1st, 2012.

Robot Acquisition

Aldebaran Robotics has a special pricing package for teams participating in both the RoboCup SPL Competition and RoboCup Recognized Regional competitions.

New Product Acquisition
RoboCup SPL Competition: 6 NAO v4 19 200Euros (excl VAT)
RoboCup Regional Competition: 5 NAO v4 25 000Euros (excl VAT)
Further pricing details for additional robots, chargers, batteries, etc, available by emailing rc–spl–tc@lists.robocup.org.

RoboCup 2013 Standard Platform League Technical and Organizing Committees