The RoboCup@Home league is a young league in the international RoboCup competition. It aims to encourage research that enables the viable service robots for future domestic applications. In order to evaluate the robots’ capabilities, a set of benchmark tests is used during the competition in a realistic home environment. These pose challenges which each team has to meet during the competition. The robots have to reproduce their capabilities in a different home environment than the ones they have trained in.

Since the first competition in 2006, the league has seen dramatic increases in both the complexity of the tests and the number of participating teams. The league has now become the largest senior league within the RoboCup Federation.

One key factor that accelerates the research and development in the field of service robotics, and especially in the RoboCup@Home context, is collaboration. The RoboCup@Home camp’s goal is to encourage the collaboration between teams. The benefits of such camps have been shown in the other RoboCup leagues. The idea of the RoboCup@Home camp is one that various teams concluded would be of great benefit to the league and its members.

The RoboCup@Home camp balances information sharing and experimental runs within the @Home environment. Several talks will be held in the morning followed by a number of @Home tests in the afternoon. Most of the talks are given by members of the participating teams providing them with the opportunity to share their approaches to particular problems.

The first RoboCup@Home camp has been organized in a short time, as it was desirable to have this event before the World Championships in June, and thus, it has not been possible to announce it to the league internationally. Nevertheless, starting with a small number of teams will provide us with good experience in the organizational issues. Future camps will be discussed and planned. Therefore, if you are interested in participating in the future, please stay tuned.