This document summarizes information about RoboCup@Home 2017 Nagoya, including: 1. RoboCup@Home is the largest competition for domestic robots, focusing on human-robot interaction and mobile manipulation, evaluating robots on standardized and demonstration tasks. 2. New directions for RoboCup@Home 2017 Nagoya include standardizing platforms using the Toyota HSR and Softbank Pepper robots compatible with ROS. 3. RoboCup@Home 2017 Nagoya will include domestic/social standard platform competitions and open platform competitions taking place July 27-31, 2017 in Nagoya, Japan.

1. A New Challenge in
RoboCup 2017 Nagoya
Komei Sugiura
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology,
Japan

2. RoboCup@Home: Benchmark tests for domestic robots
• RoboCup@Home: The largest competition for domestic robots
– One of the major RoboCup leagues
– Focuses on human-robot interaction and mobile manipulation
– Robots are evaluated by 8 standardized and 3 demonstration tasks
• Scientific challenges
– Navigation in unknown environments (e.g. real shop), handling
everyday objects, spoken dialogues in very noisy environments, …
2

3. Q. As a newbie, how can I start?
A. Team description papers of top teams are informative
• Website of teams and online Team Description Papers
– Hardware and software information of top teams
• Many software packages are published by participants
(or already available as ROS packages)

4. New direction from next year:
RoboCup@Home Standard Platforms are selected
• Many teams need low-cost standardized platforms
• Companies know NAO’s success after selected as soccer-
Standard Platform (Softbank bought Aldebaran @100M USD )
Toyota HSR
• Main use case = partner robot for those who need care
• Lease-based
Softbank Pepper
• Already deployed in restaurants and shops
• Very low price
Both compatible with ROS

5. RoboCup@Home starts three competitions
1. Domestic Standard Platform Competitions (HSR)
2. Social Standard Platform Competitions (Pepper)
3. Open Platform Competitions
– “Classic” @Home competitions
2016Fall Call for RoboCup@Home SP users (proposal submission)
2016Fall Deadline of proposals
2016/12 Call for participation in RoboCup 2017
2017/2-3 Deadline of submission materials
2017/7 RoboCup 2017 Nagoya
Tentative schedule

6. More information
RoboCup@Home topic Contents
Rulebook http://www.robocupathome.org/rules
Rulebook discussions https://github.com/RoboCupAtHome/RuleBook/issu
es
Standard platform https://sites.google.com/a/dis.uniroma1.it/robocup-
home-sp/
RoboCup 2017 Nagoya http://www.robocup2017.org/eng/index.html
Video about Nagoya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8pGCGh69lU
Evolution of competitions L. Iocchi, D. Holz, J. Ruiz-del-Solar, K. Sugiura, and T. van
der Zant: "RoboCup@Home: Analysis and Results of
Evolving Competitions for Domestic and Service Robots,"
Artificial Intelligence, 2015
Handling everyday
objects
J. Stuckler, D. Holz, and S. Behnke, “RoboCup@Home:
Demonstrating Everyday Manipulation Skills in
RoboCup@Home,” Robotics & Automation Magazine, IEEE,
vol.19, no.2, pp.34–42, 2012.

7. RoboCup Nagoya, July 27-31, 2017