  Scientific competitions are important in robotics because they foster
knowledge exchange and allow teams to test their research in unstandardized
scenarios and compare result. In the field of service robotics its role becomes
crucial. Competitions like RoboCup@Home bring robots to people, a fundamental
step to integrate them into society.
  In this paper we summarize and discuss the differences between the
achievements claimed by teams in their team description papers, and the results
observed during the competition^1 from a qualitative perspective.
  We conclude with a set of important challenges to be conquered first in order
to take robots to people's homes. We believe that competitions are also an
excellent opportunity to collect data of direct and unbiased interactions for
further research.
  ^1 The authors belong to several teams who have participated in RoboCup@Home
as early as 2007
