Welcome to RoboCup
LEAGUES
SYMPOSIUM
We are very pleased to welcome you to the 18th RoboCup International Symposium!
The 18th annual RoboCup International Symposium will be held in conjunction with RoboCup 2014, on July 25th. The Symposium represents the core meeting for presentation and discussion of scientific contributions to a variety of research areas related to all RoboCup divisions (RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home, RoboCup@Work and RoboCupJunior). Its scope encompasses, but is not restricted to, research and educational activities within the fields of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the symposium offers a unique venue for exploring various and intimate connections of theory and practice across a wide spectrum of research fields. The experimental, interactive, and benchmark character of the RoboCup initiative presents the opportunity to disseminate novel ideas and promising technologies, which are rapidly adopted and field-tested by a large (and still growing) community.
For the 18th RoboCup International Symposium, we received a total of 72 submissions, which were reviewed carefully by the International Program Committee, consisting of 53 members. Each paper was reviewed by at least three reviewers. Overall, we accepted 39 of those (54%), of which 12 were chosen for oral presentation. All papers will be published as full papers in a special book of the Springer LNCS/LNAI series.
This year we will have two invited speakers: Rodney Brooks, Professor emeritus at MIT, robotics entrepreneur and Founder, Chairman and CTO of Rethink Robotics; and Sami Haddadin, full professor and director of the Institute of Automatic Control (IRT) at Leibniz University Hanover.
In addition, a new track on the advancement of the RoboCup Major leagues takes place at this year’s RoboCup Symposium.
We look forward to seeing all of your presentations in João Pessoa!
Reinaldo A. C. Bianchi, FEI University
H. Levent Akin, Bogaziçi University
Subramanian Ramamoorthy, University of Edinburgh
Komei Sugiura, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
The 2014 Symposium Co-Chairs
OVERVIEW
The use of robotics for educational purposes has been pursued for a long time and has become more and more popular. Several factors have contributed to such situation, such as the availability of adequate and inexpensive robotics kits in the market and individual components, as well as the proliferation of robotics competitions for the pre-university levels. As a consequence, robotics started to be incorporated into classroom lessons and has become a learning tool for teaching concepts in a broad range of areas, from electricity and mechanics to programming, mathematics, physics, etc.
In this workshop, we aim at bringing together teachers, mentors, and students from schools, clubs, community centers, and educational institutions offering formal and informal educational opportunities in robotics, to discuss their experiences and the current practices using robotics. This workshop hopes to also provide a place to share relevant projects and discuss specific technical issues that may arise in different learning setting as well as the impact of robotics in education.
AREAS OF INTEREST
Some examples of topics of particular interest to this workshop are:
* impact of robotics in the learning process
* impact of educational robotics in the community
* school projects involving robotics
* specific use of robots to demonstrate scientific concepts
* techniques to build robots
* use of sensors
* showcase of students (teams) accomplishment with robotics, especially with RoboCupJunior leagues
TYPES OF PRESENTATION
* hands-on experience to introduce or teach new robotics ideas/tools (1-2 hrs)
* mentor/teacher presentation of their practice (20-30 min)
* students/team presentation of their accomplishment (showcase, 20-30 min)
For information about past presentations/papers, visit:
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IMPORTANT DATES
* submissions deadline: June 13, 2014
* notification of acceptance: June 23, 2014
* submission of final version: July 11, 2014
SUBMISSION
Please, write a brief text explaining your presentation. It can be from a single page to a maximum of 6 pages. All submitted papers must be written in English, in single column and following the template that you can find under “Author Guidelines” in http://www.springer.com/series/1244. We will post all accepted papers and their presentations on the RoboCupJunior website under the resources page.
Once your paper is ready to be submitted, please, send it by email directly to the workshop organizers (Amy Eguchi – [email protected] and Luis Almeida – [email protected]).
If you have registered for RoboCupJunior, you will have an access to the RoboCup Symposium and to this workshop. If you wish to present at the workshop but are not registered for RoboCupJunior or RoboCup, you need to register for the RoboCup Symposium, which will also grant an access to the co-located events such as this workshop.
VISITORS INFO
RoboCup is not only for the contestants. It is an event opened to the public with many attractions. During this mega-event that will take place in the Centro de Convenções in João Pessoa, you’ll be able to see all the latest technology in action in many different ways!
When?
Visitation on RoboCup 2014 will start on Sunday 20th July. That marks the start of four days of demos, matches and much technology, ending on Thursday 24 July with the contest finals day. Some of the courses and workshops may have special schedule. Please, check opening hours of the event.
LOCATION
ABOUT BRAZIL
History
Natively inhabited by numerous tribal nations, Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese in the 1500′s and has become a Republic in 1889. Between 1890-1920, the country has experienced a massive imigrantion from Euroupe and Japan, what influenced the nation in many aspects. Known as a cultural mix, the country has, for instance, the largest community of Japanese in the world outside Japan and it is well-considered by the great hospitality of its population.
Climate
Due to its large area and topographic variety, climatic conditions produce environments ranging from Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate forests in the south and tropical savannas in the center of the country.
Cousine
Brazilian cousine is highly influenced by European, African and Asian ones. Fresh fruits, juices and seafood are found easily everywhere and rice is the main sidedishe. Due to the mix of cultural influences, Pizzerias, Trattorias, Bistros, Chinese and Japanese restaurants are as easy to find as any local food. As its Latin Neighbour countries, churrasco, a kind of barbecue, is one of the countries speciallities. Feijoada, moqueca, tapioca, coconut water and guaraná (a typical soft drink) are must-tries when visiting the country.
Language
The language is one of the strongest elements of Brazil’s national unity. The official language of the country is Portuguese and it is spoken by 99% of the population.
Currency
Real (R$) is the official currency of the country. One Real is about 0.4 U$ dollars.
Curiosities
– School/Universitiy periods in Brazil are: 1st semester (February-June) and 2nd semester (August-December);
– The usual time for meals are: breakfast (7am-9am), lunch (12am-14pm) and dinner (7pm-10pm);
– Tips are usually charged in the bill. Ask if the 10% is already charged before tipping.
VISITORS INFO
João Pessoa is located in the northeast of the Brazilian coast. Capital of Paraíba state, with close to 720,000 inhabitants, João Pessoa is a peaceful touristic place with a beautiful seaside, also known as the second greenest city in the world and the easternmost place of the Americas. There are two major Atlantic Forest reserves inside the city with an enourmous biodiversity. The average temperature in the city during all year is about 28o Celsius, with minimum variation. The sun rises about 4:50h and sets around 17:20h.
João Pessoa’s Attractions
Cabo Branco Beach Cabo Branco is the main beach of João Pessoa with clean swimming water and many seafront restaurants. Sunset at Jacaré Beach In João Pessoa the sunset has a soundtrack. Everyday, when the sun gives the last gasps in the river beach of Jacaré, saxophonist “Jurady Sax” intones the “Bolero” by Ravel. Picãozinho Picãozinho is a reef formation located about 1500 meters from the beach of Tambaú. Areia Vermelha Areia Vermelha (The Red Sand Island) is a sandbar about two miles long situated in front of Camboinha Beach (about 17km from Tambaú beach). Estação Ciência and Farol do Cabo Branco Cabo Branco Station – Science, Culture and Arts was designed by the brazilian famous architect Oscar Niemeyer (the designer of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital) and inaugurated on July, 2008. The complex has more than 8,500 m² of built area in the Altiplano Cabo Branco district. |
RoboCup: the World Championship on robotics!
RoboCup was founded in 1997 with the main goal of “developing by 2050 a Robot Soccer team capable of winning against the human team champion of the FIFA World Cup”. In the next years, RoboCup proposed several soccer platforms that have been established as standard platforms for robotics research. This domain demonstrated the capability of capturing key aspects of complex real world problems, stimulating the development of a wide range of technologies, including the design of electrical-mechanical-computational integrated techniques for autonomous robots. After more than 15 years of RoboCup, nowadays robot soccer represents only a part of the available platforms.
RoboCup has already grown into a project which gets worldwide attention. Every year, multiple tournaments are organized in different countries all over the world, where teams from all over the world participate in various disciplines. There are tournaments in Germany, Portugal, China, Brazil, etc. In 2014, RoboCup will be hosted for the 1st time in South America, in Brazil.
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