call for proposal: RoboCup Design Award

26 May 2017
Dear all participants of RoboCup-2017,

We are grad to announce that we organize the following RoboCup Design Award this year as follow:


RoboCup Design Award

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RoboCup holds up the ultimate goal:

"By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot
soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying
with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World
Cup"

This goal includes the mission to foster science and technologies for evolving
industries and for advancing societies. 2050 is not too far in the future. In
order to reinforce relations between robots and the public, we need to think
again about the power of “design”.

"Robot" is not just a single technology, but a combination of systems and
services that can enhance human activities that extend across the cyber and
physical worlds. Also, “Robot” is not just useful, but also a continuous
occupation to provide creative functionality to the public. Nowadays, robots
and robotics have become familiar and are considered to work closer with
people in their daily lives. Therefore, robots must be well-designed and taken
into consideration their interactions with people, their use in various
societies/environments, and their sustainable operations.

Based on these premises, in the last years, Flower Robotics and the RoboCup
Federation introduced an award, called the “RoboCup Design Award”, to
encourage research and education to focus on the importance of the design of
robots. And, we continue the award for this year. Robots and/or technologies
will be awarded that are well-designed not only for their performance but also
for their simpleness, easiness, smoothness in daily operation and other
usages. We believe that the award will promote the popularity of robotics in
wider fields.

Any participating team from all leagues/challenges (in Major and Junior) in
RoboCup-2017 can apply for this award. Applicants should send a brief team
description (half page, including the indication of the league and of the
email of a referent person for the communications concerning the award) and a
presentation of the design focused on the following elements:

          * identity of the team in styles and appearances
          * simpleness in structure and system
          * smooth interaction with humans/users
          * ease of maintenance in daily operation
          * wide usage
          * robustness and resilience during intense use

The format of the submission is free and should emphasize the robot's
innovation and design. Submissions should be no longer than 6 pages including
pictures and diagrams. Based on an initial evaluation, a select group of
finalists will be invited for a live interview at the competition. The final
evaluation will be based on both the initial submission and the interview.

Applications should be submitted by sending an email with a link to download a
as single pdf document including everything by June 30th, 2017 (24:00 (Hawai
TZ)), to the following email address: ester@dis.uniroma1.it