On behalf of the RoboCup 2001 Soccer Simulation Committee, I'm pleased
to announce that the procedures for the 2001 event have been finalized, as
detailed below.


    Please note the registration/qualification deadline is April 25, 2001.


This is a month from now, since we want to provide answers to participating
teams in time for the early registration deadline for IJCAI.


1.  All registrations will be treated as commitment on the part of a team to
     participate in RoboCup 2001.


      PLEASE NOTE: We require this information for soccer-playing teams,
         coaches, and visualization/commentary systems.


2.  Since there is a record number of pre-registrations (87!), we unfortunately
     foresee a need to choose only 40 qualifying teams which we feel we can
     accommodate in the schedule.


3.  The qualification decisions will be based on both research focus of a team
     as well as its performance. In general, equal weights would be placed on
     these two aspects.


4.  The qualification material needed by April 25, 2001 is:
      For soccer-playing teams:
        - A 2-page research abstract describing the research focus of the team and
           an overview of results in RoboCup and any additional domains.  Please
           take care to differentiate ideas and future plans from evaluated results.
        
         This abstract will be used to evaluate the research contributions of the
           team and its ability to communicate clearly with its peers. (postscript or
           pdf file is sufficient, made available on the web via a URL).


        -  A game log of the team playing against FC Portugal using server 7.xx,
           for a single full length game.  This will be used to evaluate the team's soccer-playing
           skill (a URL to the file should be sufficient)


        -  The following information:
             Names of all team authors, starting with the leader
             The institution, department and country where the team is being developed
             For past teams:
                - Is the binary available off the client web page (note: This is a requirement from
                        previous years)
                     -  Was the source code released and available, in part or in full? (note: This was
                          strongly encouraged in previous years)
              For teams using a coach:
                - Does the coach support the standard coach language?


   For visualization and coach: (Including soccer teams with coaches)
        - A 2-page abstract describing the visualization system or coach, focusing in particular
            on research results and highlighting general techniques and applications in other domains.
            (This is optional for teams that have both soccer-playing clients, and coach, as long
             as the team abstract also covers the coach).
        
    For all:
       - A clear statement along the following lines: "We understand that all binary products participating
          at RoboCup 2001 soccer simulations, whether for player clients, coach, and/or other tools used
          in the competition, are REQUIRED to be released for research usage by August 31st, 2001.  We
          also understand that source code release is highly encouraged.
      - An email message to "robocup-sim-2001@www.coral.cs.cmu.edu" with the above statements,
        and the URLs for the abstract and log file.


5.  We will announce the results of the qualification by May 15.


6.  IMPORTANT:  As a general principle, we will allow only one team from each institute (university).
     Exceptions will only be made after due consideration by the committee, and only in rare cases.


7.  IMPORTANT:  PLEASE NOTE THE DEADLINE:  We WILL reject teams whose qualification material
     is late.


I think that's about it!


Gal