Call for Participation
RoboCup 2019 Humanoid League

July 2nd to July 8th, 2019 (Sydney, Australia)
https://2019.robocup.org/

The RoboCup Humanoid League is inviting interested teams to apply for participation at the RoboCup 2019 competition in Sydney, Australia.

The humanoid league will host competitions in three classes:

• KidSize: 40 – 90cm robot height (FIFA size 1 ball)
• TeenSize: 80 – 140cm robot height (FIFA size 3 ball; maximum weight 20kg)
• AdultSize: 130 – 180cm robot height (FIFA size 5 ball; minimum weight 10kg)

For more detailed class definitions and more information about the humanoid league, please refer to the humanoid league home page at https://humanoid.robocup.org/ and join the humanoid league mailing list at:

https://lists.cc.gatech.edu/mailman/listinfo/robocup-humanoid

In all three classes, teams can apply to two different competitions:

• Team Competition – Teams qualified in this competition have to provide a full robot team to compete in the main tournament, starting with a number of round robin games. Teams qualified for the team competition are automatically qualified for the Drop-In competition as well and participation in the Drop-In competition is considered obligatory.
• Drop-In competition – Teams provide one robot which will compete in mixed teams with robots from other teams.

Please note that teams registering for team competition are expected to provide a full team or close-to-full team of robots (four robots in KidSize, three in TeenSize and two in AdultSize). If you do not have enough robots available for the team competition, we strongly encourage teams to form joint teams for the team competition or apply for the drop-in competition only.

Due to restrictions on the number of teams able to participate at RoboCup 2019, all teams must provide the qualification material described below. To allow for more breadth in participation, teams are encouraged to form joint teams before the event, where appropriate. Joint proposals will be judged on their combined merit. You can provide a preference for what type of competition you want to compete in (Team or Drop-In). The Technical Committee will evaluate the qualification material and select the best teams. New teams and teams from countries that have not previously taken part in RoboCup competitions may be given priority.

1. Team Data

• Team name
• URL of the team’s home page
• Name of team leader or team contact person
• E-mail address of team leader or contact person
• Postal address of the team, team leader or contact person
• Competition class: kid or teen or adult size
• Competition preference: team competition or drop-in competition

Please note that teams applying for participation in several classes must submit individual application material for each class and pay the appropriate registration fee for each class. At least one team member must register on each team. Furthermore, teams in different classes must be able to compete and have referees available independently and at the same time.
For teams qualified in the team competition, the participation in the drop-in games is obligatory. However, additional teams might be qualified for competition in the drop-in competition only.

2. Robot Video

The first part of the qualification material is a video of your robot demonstrating your team’s autonomous soccer playing skills.

The recommended standard for qualification is:

• localization of unknown ball position,
• walking ability towards the ball,
• robot positioning at the ball for kicking,
• kicking the ball towards the goal,
• ability of getting up autonomously from a fall (Kid and Teen Size only)

However, more complex and intelligent behavior of teams of robots demonstrating localization and team play are preferred, particularly recordings from actual soccer matches.

The qualification video must be supplied as a link to it via youtube. The maximum duration of the video is 5 minutes. The qualifying team is responsible to ensure that the video adheres to YouTube’s TOS (especially in regards to music copyright) to prevent the video from being blocked for the reviewers. Videos not viewable by the reviewers may lead to a team not being qualified.

No video means no qualification!

3. Team Description Paper

A team description paper (TDP) must be submitted which

• fully describes the scientific aspects of your humanoid robot system and your research interests,
• includes a summary of previous relevant achievements in research and development as well as publications,
• mentions prior performance in RoboCup competitions
• points out enhancements of the robots’ hardware or software compared to the previous year
• states explicitly whether software and hardware from other teams is used and if yes, which parts are used and what the team’s own contributions are

The TDP is limited to 8 pages maximum and must be submitted in PDF format. Material from last years TDP may be used if cited appropriately. However, teams that demonstrate significant development compared to the previous year are qualified preferentially. Resubmitting of last year’s TDP and self-plagiarism will prevent qualification. ‘Self-plagiarism’ refers to using parts of previous TDPs without proper identification of the source material.

Contributions to the RoboCup community, e.g. software releases, paper publications, provision of league infrastructure or data sets  (e.g. via the image tagger) should be included in the TDP and will benefit the team’s application.

The quality of the TDP and the robot video will be decisive for qualification.

The TDP must follow the LNCS format which can be downloaded from http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0. Please pay special attention to the “Author guidelines” that you’ll be able to find there. Teams that do to follow the LNCS formatting and style guidelines will not be qualified.

If a team that applied for team competition fails to qualify, the Technical Committee may allow the team to participate in the drop-in competition. In this case, the team will be informed and can then decide whether they would like to participate in the drop-in competition only or withdraw.

4. Plagiarism

Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples’ words, code, and ideas is not tolerated in the RoboCup community. See plagiarism_FAQ.html for a more detailed description. The teams and team members that plagiarize other peoples’ work and present it as their own will be disqualified. For a first offense, the team and team members will be banned from RoboCup competition for two years (usually the current and next year). Harsher penalties will be applied to repeat offenders or extremely serious cases of plagiarism. A team may be disqualified at any time for plagiarism, even after the competition has started. RoboCup will not reimburse teams for any expenses related to their disqualification.

5. Letter of commitment

A one-page letter addressed to the RoboCup Humanoid League Technical Committee including the following:

• a statement committing to participate in the RoboCup 2019 Humanoid League competition,
• a statement committing to make a person with sufficient knowledge of the rules available as referee during the competition,

The letter must be printed, hand signed by the team leader, digitally scanned and submitted either as a JPG, PNG or PDF file.

The TC may include the fulfillment of the statement of commitment of participation as well as the performance of the team’s referee in previous RoboCup competitions into consideration for qualification.

6. Robot Specification

A one-page specification (PDF) for each different type of humanoid robot used by the team that includes the following:

• Robot picture
• Robot name
• Height of the robot
• Weight of the robot
• Walking speed in cm/s
• Number of degrees of freedom and type of motors on each kinematic chain of the robot
• Type of sensors used (incl. type of camera(s))
• Computing unit(s)
• Other specs

7. Online Submission

All qualification material must be submitted online at

http://submission.robocuphumanoid.org/

The submission system will open November 18th, 2018.

8. Deadline

Submission system open: November 18th, 2018

Deadline for submission: December 3rd, 2018

Announcement of qualified teams: January 7th, 2019

9. Publication

Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualification material of the qualified teams will be made publicly available. Teams applying for participation therefore grant the right of publication of their qualification material to the humanoid league.

10. Rules

The rules of the RoboCup 2019 Humanoid League are discussed in the Humanoid Forum and will be published at https://humanoid.robocup.org/

In comparison to last year, the Technical Committee intends to include the following major rule changes in the rule book for the 2019 competitions:

• All games and technical challenges may be held under natural light conditions
• Robots need to have a physical and clearly marked emergency stop / power cut button (location, color and size will not be specified for 2019 but more clearly restricted in the coming years)
• During games, robots are allowed a maximum of two buttons (either physical or on-screen), one for “behavior start” and one for “behavior stop / penalize”. Buttons must be clearly labeled according to their function
• The foot size is now measured as the minimum encapsulating rectangle of the foot, which is anything below the lowest motor axis
• Team markers may now also be placed on the robot’s chest in order to fulfill the requirement of the minimal area covered by team markers
• AdultSize only: New field size of 9m * 14.5m with the direction of the blade perpendicular to the direction of play (upon Trustee’s approval)
  
• AdultSize only: Maximum number of robots allowed in regular games is now two per team (with one robot handler per robot allowed on the field)

11. Visa Process

If you are a citizen of a country that needs a Visa for traveling to Australia, please start the Visa process as soon as you receive your notification of qualification. If you are not sure if your eligible for a Visa-exempt, please consult the official website of the Australian government for information.

12. Special Offer: NimbRo-OP2

The University of Bonn offers structural parts for the 135cm tall NimbRo-OP2X to RoboCup 2019 AdultSize/TeenSize teams. The set includes:

• All 3D-printed shell parts and gears from an industrial SLS printer in PA-12 nylon,
• complete set of screws to mount the actuators,
• dry-rubbing hip, shoulder and neck bearings.

Please note that this does not include the X-540 Dynamixel actuators, electronics, onboard computer, cameras, lenses, batteries, and cables. Basic instructions on wiring and assembly will be provided.
Price: 20.000 EURO plus tax and shipping. Teams interested in this offer should contact the AIS group at nimbro-soccer@ais.uni-bonn.de

Information on the NimbRo-OP2X robot is available www.nimbro.net/OP.

This special offer is valid for an order made until April 30, 2019.

13. Special Offer: Sigmaban+ Robot

14. RoboCup fee waiver for new teams

The RoboCup Federation is pleased to introduce a waiver of the team fee for the 2019 international RoboCup competition for NEW teams in the major leagues. A NEW team is defined as a team all of whose team members have never participated in an annual international RoboCup competition. The waiver concerns only the team fee and does not imply any waiver of fees for team members.

With best regards,

Technical Committee of RoboCup Humanoid League 2019