@article{FerreinSteinbauer2016,
  author    = {Ferrein, Alexander and Steinbauer, Gerald},
  title     = {20 Years of RoboCup - A Subjective Retrospection},
  series = {KI - K{\"u}nstliche Intelligenz},
  volume    = {30},
  journal   = {KI - K{\"u}nstliche Intelligenz},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Berlin},
  issn      = {1610-1987},
  doi       = {10.1007/s13218-016-0449-5},
  pages     = {225 -- 232},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {This summer, RoboCup competitions were held for the 20th time in Leipzig, Germany. It was the second time that RoboCup took place in Germany, 10 years after the 2006 RoboCup in Bremen. In this article, we give an overview on the latest developments of RoboCup and what happened in the different leagues over the last decade. With its 20th edition, RoboCup clearly is a success story and a role model for robotics competitions. From our personal view point, we acknowledge this by giving a retrospection about what makes RoboCup such a success.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{FerreinSchifferBooysenetal.2016,
  author    = {Ferrein, Alexander and Schiffer, Stefan and Booysen, T. and Stopforth, R.},
  title     = {Why it is harder to run RoboCup in South Africa: Experiences from German South African collaborations},
  series = {International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems},
  number    = {5},
  issn      = {1729-8806},
  doi       = {10.1177/1729881416662789},
  pages     = {1 -- 13},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Robots are widely used as a vehicle to spark interest in science and technology in learners. A number of initiatives focus on this issue, for instance, the Roberta Initiative, the FIRST Lego League, the World Robot Olympiad and RoboCup Junior. Robotic competitions are valuable not only for school learners but also for university students, as the RoboCup initiative shows. Besides technical skills, the students get some project exposure and experience what it means to finish their tasks on time. But qualifying students for future high-tech areas should not only be for students from developed countries. In this article, we present our experiences with research and education in robotics within the RoboCup initiative, in Germany and South Africa; we report on our experiences with trying to get the RoboCup initiative in South Africa going. RoboCup has a huge support base of academic institutions in Germany; this is not the case in South Africa. We present our 'north-south' collaboration initiatives in RoboCup between Germany and South Africa and discuss some of the reasons why we think it is harder to run RoboCup in South Africa.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NeumannDuelbergSchifferetal.2016,
  author    = {Neumann, Tobias and D{\"u}lberg, Enno and Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {A rotating platform for swift acquisition of dense 3D point clouds},
  series = {Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I},
  volume    = {9834},
  booktitle = {Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I},
  publisher = {Springer},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-43505-3 (Print)},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-43506-0_22},
  pages     = {257 -- 268},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{FerreinMaierMuehlbacheretal.2016,
  author    = {Ferrein, Alexander and Maier, Christopher and M{\"u}hlbacher, Clemens and Niem{\"u}ller, Tim and Steinbauer, Gerald and Vassos, Stravros},
  title     = {Controlling logistics robots with the action-based language YAGI},
  series = {Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I},
  volume    = {9834},
  booktitle = {Intelligent Robotics and Applications: 9th International Conference, ICIRA 2016, Tokyo, Japan, August 22-24, 2016, Proceedings, Part I},
  publisher = {Springer},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-43505-3 (Print)},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-43506-0_46},
  pages     = {525 -- 537},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NiemuellerReuterFerrein2016,
  author    = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {Fawkes for the RoboCup Logistics League},
  series = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  booktitle = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  editor    = {Almeida, Luis},
  publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
  address   = {Cham},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-29339-4},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_31},
  pages     = {365 -- 373},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NiemuellerReuterFerreinetal.2016,
  author    = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard},
  title     = {Evaluation of the RoboCup Logistics League and Derived Criteria for Future Competitions},
  series = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  booktitle = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  editor    = {Almeida, Luis},
  publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
  address   = {Cham},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-29339-4},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_3},
  pages     = {31 -- 43},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NiemuellerReuterEwertetal.2016,
  author    = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ewert, Daniel and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard},
  title     = {The Carologistics Approach to Cope with the Increased Complexity and New Challenges of the RoboCup Logistics League 2015},
  series = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  booktitle = {RoboCup 2015: Robot World Cup XIX},
  editor    = {Almeida, Luis},
  publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
  address   = {Cham},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-29339-4},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-29339-4_4},
  pages     = {47 -- 59},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{FerreinMaierMuehlbacheretal.2015,
  author    = {Ferrein, Alexander and Maier, Christopher and M{\"u}hlbacher, Clemens and Niemueller, Tim and Steinbauer, Gerald and Vassos, Stravros},
  title     = {Controlling Logistics Robots with the Action-based Language YAGI},
  series = {Proceedings of the 2015 IROS Workshop on Workshop on Task Planning for Intelligent Robots in Service and Manufacturing},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 IROS Workshop on Workshop on Task Planning for Intelligent Robots in Service and Manufacturing},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{LeingartnerMaurerFerreinetal.2016,
  author    = {Leingartner, Max and Maurer, Johannes and Ferrein, Alexander and Steinbauer, Gerald},
  title     = {Evaluation of Sensors and Mapping Approaches for Disasters in Tunnels},
  series = {Journal of Field Robotics},
  volume    = {33},
  journal   = {Journal of Field Robotics},
  number    = {8},
  publisher = {Wiley-VCH},
  address   = {Weinheim},
  issn      = {1556-4967},
  doi       = {10.1002/rob.21611},
  pages     = {1037 -- 1057},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Ground or aerial robots equipped with advanced sensing technologies, such as three-dimensional laser scanners and advanced mapping algorithms, are deemed useful as a supporting technology for first responders. A great deal of excellent research in the field exists, but practical applications at real disaster sites are scarce. Many projects concentrate on equipping robots with advanced capabilities, such as autonomous exploration or object manipulation. In spite of this, realistic application areas for such robots are limited to teleoperated reconnaissance or search. In this paper, we investigate how well state-of-the-art and off-the-shelf components and algorithms are suited for reconnaissance in current disaster-relief scenarios. The basic idea is to make use of some of the most common sensors and deploy some widely used algorithms in a disaster situation, and to evaluate how well the components work for these scenarios. We acquired the sensor data from two field experiments, one from a disaster-relief operation in a motorway tunnel, and one from a mapping experiment in a partly closed down motorway tunnel. Based on these data, which we make publicly available, we evaluate state-of-the-art and off-the-shelf mapping approaches. In our analysis, we integrate opinions and replies from first responders as well as from some algorithm developers on the usefulness of the data and the limitations of the deployed approaches, respectively. We discuss the lessons we learned during the two missions. These lessons are interesting for the community working in similar areas of urban search and rescue, particularly reconnaissance and search.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{LimpertSchifferFerrein2015,
  author    = {Limpert, Nicolas and Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {A Local Planner for Ackermann-Driven Vehicles in ROS SBPL},
  series = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech), 2015},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics (PRASA-RobMech), 2015},
  doi       = {10.1109/RoboMech.2015.7359518},
  pages     = {172 -- 177},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NiemuellerLakemeyerFerrein2015,
  author    = {Niemueller, Tim and Lakemeyer, Gerhard and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {The RoboCup Logistics League as a Benchmark for Planning in Robotics},
  series = {Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob-15); Jerusalem, Israel 7-8/6/2015},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob-15); Jerusalem, Israel 7-8/6/2015},
  editor    = {Finzi, Alberto},
  pages     = {63 -- 68},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@incollection{NiemuellerReuterEwertetal.2015,
  author    = {Niemueller, Tim and Reuter, Sebastian and Ewert, Daniel and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard},
  title     = {Decisive Factors for the Success of the Carologistics RoboCup Team in the RoboCup Logistics League 2014},
  series = {RoboCup 2014: Robot World Cup XVIII},
  booktitle = {RoboCup 2014: Robot World Cup XVIII},
  publisher = {Springer},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-18615-3},
  pages     = {155 -- 167},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{KrueckelNoldenFerreinetal.2015,
  author    = {Kr{\"u}ckel, Kai and Nolden, Florian and Ferrein, Alexander and Scholl, Ingrid},
  title     = {Intuitive visual teleoperation for UGVs using free-look augmented reality displays},
  series = {2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, WA},
  booktitle = {2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, WA},
  doi       = {10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139809},
  pages     = {4412 -- 4417},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{AlhwarinFerreinGebhardtetal.2015,
  author    = {Alhwarin, Faraj and Ferrein, Alexander and Gebhardt, Andreas and Kallweit, Stephan and Scholl, Ingrid and Tedjasukmana, Osmond Sanjaya},
  title     = {Improving additive manufacturing by image processing and robotic milling},
  series = {2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Aug 24-28, 2015 Gothenburg, Sweden},
  booktitle = {2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Aug 24-28, 2015 Gothenburg, Sweden},
  doi       = {10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294217},
  pages     = {924 -- 929},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{SchifferFerrein2015,
  author    = {Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {Decision-Theoretic Planning with Linguistic Terms in Golog},
  series = {FLinAl 2015 - Fuzzy Logic in Artificial Intelligence : Proceedings of the Workshop on Fuzzy Logic in AI (FLinAI-15) co-located with the 24th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015) Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25, 2015.},
  booktitle = {FLinAl 2015 - Fuzzy Logic in Artificial Intelligence : Proceedings of the Workshop on Fuzzy Logic in AI (FLinAI-15) co-located with the 24th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015) Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25, 2015.},
  issn      = {1613-0073},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0074-1424-4},
  pages     = {7 Seiten},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@incollection{RebelHueningScholletal.2015,
  author    = {Rebel, S{\"o}ren and H{\"u}ning, Felix and Scholl, Ingrid and Ferrein, Alexander},
  title     = {MQOne: Low-cost design for a rugged-terrain robot platform},
  series = {Intelligent robotics and applications : 8th International Conference, ICIRA 2015, Portsmouth, UK, August 24-27, 2015, Proceedings, Part II (Lecture notes in computer science : vol. 9245)},
  booktitle = {Intelligent robotics and applications : 8th International Conference, ICIRA 2015, Portsmouth, UK, August 24-27, 2015, Proceedings, Part II (Lecture notes in computer science : vol. 9245)},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Cham},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-22875-4 (print) ; 978-3-319-22876-1 (E-Book)},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-22876-1_19},
  pages     = {209 -- 221},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Rugged terrain robot designs are important for field robotics missions. A number of commercial platforms are available, however, at an impressive price. In this paper, we describe the hardware and software component of a low-cost wheeled rugged-terrain robot. The robot is based on an electric children quad bike and is modified to be driven by wire. In terms of climbing properties, operation time and payload it can compete with some of the commercially available platforms, but at a far lower price.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchifferFerreinLakemeyer2015,
  author    = {Schiffer, Stefan and Ferrein, Alexander and Lakemeyer, Gerhard},
  title     = {Abstracting Away Low-Level Details in Service Robotics with Fuzzy Fluents},
  series = {Model-Driven Knowledge Engineering for Improved Software Modularity in Robotics and Automation. Workshop at European Robotics Forum 2015 Vienna, Austria, March 11-13, 2015.},
  journal   = {Model-Driven Knowledge Engineering for Improved Software Modularity in Robotics and Automation. Workshop at European Robotics Forum 2015 Vienna, Austria, March 11-13, 2015.},
  pages     = {1 -- 4},
  year      = {2015},
  language  = {en}
}
@incollection{AlhwarinFerreinScholl2014,
  author    = {Alhwarin, Faraj and Ferrein, Alexander and Scholl, Ingrid},
  title     = {IR stereo kinect: improving depth images by combining structured light with IR stereo},
  series = {PRICAI 2014: Trends in artificial intelligence : 13th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence : Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, December 1-5, 2014 : proceedings. (Lecture notes in computer science ; vol. 8862)},
  booktitle = {PRICAI 2014: Trends in artificial intelligence : 13th Pacific Rim International Conference on Artificial Intelligence : Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, December 1-5, 2014 : proceedings. (Lecture notes in computer science ; vol. 8862)},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {M{\"u}nchen},
  isbn      = {978-3-319-13559-5 (Print) ; 978-3-319-13560-1 (E-Book)},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-319-13560-1_33},
  pages     = {409 -- 421},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {RGB-D sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect or the Asus Xtion are inexpensive 3D sensors. A depth image is computed by calculating the distortion of a known infrared light (IR) pattern which is projected into the scene. While these sensors are great devices they have some limitations. The distance they can measure is limited and they suffer from reflection problems on transparent, shiny, or very matte and absorbing objects. If more than one RGB-D camera is used the IR patterns interfere with each other. This results in a massive loss of depth information. In this paper, we present a simple and powerful method to overcome these problems. We propose a stereo RGB-D camera system which uses the pros of RGB-D cameras and combine them with the pros of stereo camera systems. The idea is to utilize the IR images of each two sensors as a stereo pair to generate a depth map. The IR patterns emitted by IR projectors are exploited here to enhance the dense stereo matching even if the observed objects or surfaces are texture-less or transparent. The resulting disparity map is then fused with the depth map offered by the RGB-D sensor to fill the regions and the holes that appear because of interference, or due to transparent or reflective objects. Our results show that the density of depth information is increased especially for transparent, shiny or matte objects.},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{NeumannFerreinKallweitetal.2014,
  author    = {Neumann, Tobias and Ferrein, Alexander and Kallweit, Stephan and Scholl, Ingrid},
  title     = {Towards a mobile mapping robot for underground mines},
  series = {7th Conference of Robotics and Mechatronics : RobMech 2014 : 27th and 28th Nov. 2014, Cape Town},
  booktitle = {7th Conference of Robotics and Mechatronics : RobMech 2014 : 27th and 28th Nov. 2014, Cape Town},
  organization    = {Conference of Robotics and Mechatronics <7, 2014, Cape Town, South Africa>},
  pages     = {1 -- 6},
  year      = {2014},
  language  = {en}
}
@incollection{NiemuellerEwertReuteretal.2014,
  author    = {Niem{\"u}ller, Tim and Ewert, Daniel and Reuter, Sebastian and Ferrein, Alexander and Jeschke, Sabina and Lakemeyer, Gerhard},
  title     = {RoboCup logistics league sponsored by festo: A competitive factory automation testbed},
  series = {RoboCup 2013: Robot World Cup XVII : Eindhoven; Netherlands; 1 July 2013 through 1 July 2013. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 8371)},
  booktitle = {RoboCup 2013: Robot World Cup XVII : Eindhoven; Netherlands; 1 July 2013 through 1 July 2013. (Lecture notes in computer science ; 8371)},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Berlin},
  organization    = {RoboCup International Symposium <17, 2013, Eindhoven>},
  isbn      = {978-3-662-44467-2 (Print) 978-3-662-44468-9 (Online)},
  pages     = {336 -- 347},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {A new trend in automation is to deploy so-called cyber-physical systems (CPS) which combine computation with physical processes. The novel RoboCup Logistics League Sponsored by Festo (LLSF) aims at such CPS logistic scenarios in an automation setting. A team of robots has to produce products from a number of semi-finished products which they have to machine during the game. Different production plans are possible and the robots need to recycle scrap byproducts. This way, the LLSF is a very interesting league offering a number of challenging research questions for planning, coordination, or communication in an application-driven scenario. In this paper, we outline the objectives of the LLSF and present steps for developing the league further towards a benchmark for logistics scenarios for CPS. As a major milestone we present the new automated referee system which helps in governing the game play as well as keeping track of the scored points in a very complex factory scenario.},
  language  = {en}
}