Call for Participation RC 2024

The RoboCup Humanoid League invites teams to apply for participation at the RoboCup 2024 Humanoid Soccer Competition in Eindhoven, the Netherlands on July 17 – 21, 2024.

The Humanoid League will host competitions in the following categories:

  • KidSize: 40 – 100cm robot height (FIFA size 1 ball)
  • AdultSize: 100 – 200cm robot height (FIFA size 5 ball)

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Important Dates

Contents

  • Submission system open: November 27th, 2023
  • Submission deadline: December 15th, 2023
  • Team Review Period: December 15th – December 22nd 2023
  • Announcement of qualified teams: January 19th, 2024

Teams do not need to provide a full robot team to apply for competing in the Humanoid Soccer Competition. The qualifying round of Drop-In games will be played with only one robot per team. Teams that cannot provide a full team of robots (four robots in KidSize and two in AdultSize) will be grouped to form a playable team for the main tournament games. Teams are also encouraged to form and apply as joint teams. Joint proposals will be judged on their combined merit.

In case of a sufficient number of qualified teams, the sub-leagues (KidSize and/or AdultSize) will be divided into League A and League B. Teams are seeded into the leagues based on the results of an initial round of Drop-In games.

For the qualification process, teams must provide the following material:

Robot Video

Teams need to provide a video of their robot demonstrating the robots’ autonomous soccer playing skills.

The recommended skills needed for qualification are:

  • 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 (KidSize only)

We encourage teams to include in the video more complex and intelligent behavior such as demonstrating localization, and robots playing in a game, recordings from actual soccer matches are admissible. If possible, please provide footage that demonstrates the robot behavior without wires attached.

The qualification video must be supplied as a link via YouTube. The maximum duration of the video must not exceed 5 minutes. The qualifying team is responsible to ensure that the video adheres to YouTube’s TOS (especially in regard to music copyright) to prevent the video from being blocked for the reviewers. Teams that do not provide a qualification video or a viewable video will not be qualified!

Software Description

During the registration process, a form will be provided to submit details about the algorithms used or anticipated to be used for the participation in the 2024 competition. Algorithms shall be described in such detail that they can be reproduced by other teams. If software from other teams or standard algorithms are used, references need to be included. If the algorithm has been adapted to be used in the competition, those deviations need to be described in appropriate details.

The form will include questions in the following areas:

  • Walking
  • Vision
  • Localization
  • Team Communication
  • Behavior
  • Contributions to the RoboCup community, e.g. software releases, paper publications, provision of league infrastructure or data sets

Responses to the questions are expected to reflect the current or anticipated status of the software during the RoboCup 2024 competition. If the software has not changed or no changes are anticipated to be made until the competition, teams may copy & paste a response from previously submitted material.

Extended Abstract

A two-page extended abstract must be submitted. For teams which have previously participated in the Humanoid League, the extended abstract needs to:

  • include lessons learned from the participation in previous RoboCup competitions
  • highlight major problems that the team is trying to solve for the upcoming competition
  • outline the plans for the major changes that the teams anticipate to have implemented by the RoboCup 2024 competition
  • describe the implementation status of the changes planned by the time of submitting the application

For teams which have never participated in the RoboCup Humanoid League, the Extended Abstract needs to pitch the scientific aspects of their humanoid robotic system and highlight their research interests.

The Extended Abstract is limited to 2 pages maximum and must be submitted in PDF format. Extended Abstracts are designed to highlight the changes and scientific developments since the last RoboCup. Thus, we expect the usage of material from previous TDPs or Extended Abstracts to be minimal. If used, they need to be cited appropriately. Submissions of last year’s Extended Abstract will be desk-rejected.

The Extended Abstract must follow the LNCS format which can be downloaded from https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines. Teams that do to follow the LNCS formatting and style guidelines will not be qualified. No exceptions to this rule will be made.

Robot Specification

Regardless of the kid or adult size competition, a one-page specification (PDF) must be provided 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) and specific manufacturer part number (e.g. “6-DoF IMU” is NOT an acceptable description))
  • Computing unit(s)
  • Materials (e.g. Torso aluminum, legs and arms CFRP)
  • Electronics (e.g. CM730 for communicating with servos)
  • Battery (e.g. 3S1P 2200mAh LiPo)
  • Open Source link if applicable
  • Other specs

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 2024 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. If the letter does not contain a hand-written signature, it is not considered valid.

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.

Each application to the Humanoid Soccer Competition will be reviewed by two members of the Technical Committee and two other teams applying to the Humanoid Soccer Competition. The combined reviewing score will decide whether a team qualifies for participation.

Reviewing other team’s material is mandatory for teams that want to participate in the Humanoid Soccer Competition. Failing to provide an adequate review by the provided deadline will have consequences for the team’s own qualification status.

Rules

The current version of the rules may be found here at the Humanoid League website: https://humanoid.robocup.org/materials/rules/.

We expect the final version of the 2024 rules to be published in early spring 2024.

Registration

The following information is required for registration:

  • 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 category: Humanoid Soccer Competition KidSize or AdultSize

Please note that teams applying for participation in several categories must submit individual application material for each class, and pay the appropriate registration fee for each category. At least one team member must register on each team. Furthermore, teams in different categories must be able to compete, and guarantee to have members acting as referees available independently and at the same time.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, loosely the unattributed use of other peoples’ words, code, and ideas is not tolerated in the RoboCup community. See the point “Publishing Ethics” at https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines for a more detailed description. The teams and team members that plagiarize another 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.

Online Submission

All qualification material must be submitted online at https://submission.robocuphumanoid.com

Publication

Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualified teams submitted material will be made publicly available on the Humanoid League website. Teams applying for participation, therefore, implicitly grant the right of publication of their qualification material to the Humanoid League.

Visa Process

If you are a citizen of a country that needs a Visa for travelling to the Netherlands, please start the VISA process as soon as you receive your notification of qualification. If you are not sure if you’re eligible for a VISA-exempt, please consult the official website of the Netherlands government for information, at https://www.government.nl/topics/holidays-and-travels/check-visa-netherlands.

For 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.robocup.org/listinfo/robocup-humanoid