Important Dates
- Team Qualification Material Submission Deadline: 16th of February 2021
- Participation Intent Deadline: 16th of February 2021
- Simulator Announcement Deadline: 20th of February 2021
- TDP Peer Review Deadline: 09th of March 2021
- Preliminary Team Qualification Results Announcement: 16th of March 2021
- Final TDP Submission Deadline: 30th of March 2021
- Final Team Qualification Results Announcement: 13th of April 2021
- Simulator Development Deadline: 16th of April 2021
- Final Simulator Announcement: 14th of May 2021
- Team Registration: 7th of June 2021
- Team Member Registration: 28th of June 2021
- Technical Challenges Sign Up Deadline: 13th of June 2021
- Open Source Submission Deadline: 21st of June 2021
- Team Setup: 21st of June 2021
- Competitions: 22nd of June 2021 to 27th of June 2021
- Symposium: 28th of June 2021
* All deadlines are by the end of the day at any place on Earth
RoboCup 2020/2021
Due to the circumstances in January 2021, RoboCup 2021 will be a fully virtual / decentralized event. All teams, even already qualified teams via the Qualification for RoboCup 2020 are advised to read the following point carefully.
- Evey team intending on participating in RoboCup 2021 has to sent a participation intent. The details can be found under Qualification Criteria.
- The RoboCup 2021 will be consistent of two parts: A simulation based tournament, and a collection of four robot-based decentralized activities. To participate in the robot-based tournament, you need to have access to a field of at least 4x3m. The detailed rules for the robot-based tournament are still being drafted.
- There will not be different divisions in 2021. The robot-based tournament does not play normal matches, so divisions are not relevant there. In the virtual tournament, both teams have to agree on the used rules for each match. If no agreement is reached, the rules default to Division B.
- Due to the unusual circumstances regarding the qualification for Robocup 2021, the organizing committee might ask some more experienced teams to review some of the newly submitted TDPs, even if the reviewer are already qualified for the event.
Qualification Criteria
Every team interested to participate must complete the following actions by 16th of February 2021:
- Submit a Team Description Paper (see instructions below).
- Submit a Team Video (see instructions below).
In addition, every team that intents on participating in the Robocup 2021 has to sent an participation intent, even if they were already qualified for the previous competition. A participation intent is an email to the organizing committee. The email subject should be 2021 Participation Intent <Your Team Name>. Please also include:
- Team Name
- Country
- University
- Main contact name and email
- Website (if you have one)
- Tournament you wish to participate in (simulation, robot based or both)
Please pay attention to the following points:
- All teams qualified for Robocup 2020 are automatically qualified and do not have to submit a Team Description Paper or a Team Video.
- Communication will be made via e-mail, using the Small Size mailing list. Pay attention to these e-mails and answer the OC’s questions. A team that does not reply risks losing its qualified place.
- We understand that new teams may struggle meeting all of the qualification criteria below. We encourage new teams to submit qualification video material demonstrating their true current capabilities, while stating in their Team Description Paper (TDP) what is expected to be completed by competition, teams not meeting minimum required criteria will be considered for inclusion only after all teams submitting compliant qualification materials.
Team Description Paper
As part of the qualification procedure, every division B team must submit a Team Description Paper (TDP) and every division A team an Extended Team Description Paper (ETDP). Every TDP and ETDP will be reviewed by a panel of peers. Teams that present substandard TDPs and ETDPs will not qualify for the RoboCup tournament.
TDP and ETDP Guidelines
All TDPs and ETDPs should follow these guidelines:
- The TDP should contain a brief description of the team, with citations to previous TDPs and the team’s website where appropriate.
- The TDP should focus on innovations that the team has produced with respect to their previous TDPs. These innovations should be described in detail, to facilitate reproducibility for other teams, where possible.
- The TDP should have a clear structure and it should be written in clear English.
- The TDP should be formatted according to the Springer LNCS format, as the symposium submissions.
In addition to the above requirements, ETDPs should follow these guidelines:
- The ETDP should describe in detail the aspects of the team’s system which most contribute to its success.
- The ETDP should be at least 6 pages long.
Submission Information
We have set up a conference management system to handle this years peer review process. It can be accessed at https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/RCSSL2020.
To create an account, click on “Register”, next to the “New to CMT?” text. To submit a paper, click on the top left button “Create a new submission”.
Peer Review
Each team needs to review other teams, and every team will receive three reviews for their (E)TDP.
The Organizing Committee will assign reviewers to the papers.
Teams that do not review the papers assigned will not qualify.
Team Video
Your team video must contain at least 1 minute of unedited continuous footage and be under 2 minutes long. The qualification video can be either of the following types, although preference will be given to item 1 (then 2 and last 3):
- A video of your robots participating in a RoboCup game or one of the local regional competitions. The video should show obstacle avoidance, shooting and passing skill.
- A video of your robots (there must be at least two moving robots) engaging in two or more of the following activities:
- One or more robots competing against an active robot goalkeeper.
- Two or more robot field players actively going to the ball and playing against one another.
- At least two robots playing cooperatively against 5 static or moving obstacles.
- A video showing one or more robots partially demonstrating capabilities listed in item 2.
The team video is used by the OC to determine the readiness of a team to compete effectively and is part of the criteria in ranking teams in the qualification process. Teams are advised to submit a video that best demonstrates the readiness of the team to compete in an international competition.
Teams have been asking us if they could show a video of a simulation due to current COVID restrictions. We want to make clear that teams need to have real working robots to participate in the SSL for 2021. If teams cannot satisfy the requirements for the team video, they can use a simulation, but it has to be video of your robots participating in a (simulated) match (item 1 in the list). Additionally, teams should show to the best of their capabilities that they do have real working robots.
Submission Information
To submit the video footage, you must send an e-mail to the RoboCup Small Size League mailing list and CC it also to the organizing committee. The e-mail should contain the following information:
- Subject: 2021 Qualification Video <Your Team Name>.
- The URL of your video, which must be available via FTP or HTTP.
Please pay attention to the following:
- Please submit a single video file.
- The video must be stored on your own server or a reliable online video hosting service.
- Do NOT send the video as an attachment to the mailing list nor to the organization committee!
Team Poster
Every team must bring a poster to the RoboCup competition that illustrates the content of the (E)TDP. The poster is meant to be hung up in the venue for everyone to see and read. Technical details how this is going to happen in 2021 will be added here as soon they are available.