RoboCup Rescue League

Rescue Robot League

In the rescue robot league robots from international teams operate in a simulated disaster area. The arena is resembling a scenario that can be found in an urban environment after, for example, an earth-quake or a tsunami.

Using different sensors like video-, infrared-, or 3D-cameras, laser scanners (LIDAR), ultra-sound sensors, gas sensors and microphones, the robots have to operate in the rescue arena and find the simulated victims hidden in the scenario. Doing so with an increased level of autonomy (less remote-control) is desired. In order to create more realistic victims, dolls are placed on heating blankets, which are simulating the body temperature of a human. For additional signs of live of the dolls are moving, making sounds and emit carbon dioxide (respiration).

The research foci include:

• the construction of mobile and robust robots,
• the development of algorithms for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM),
• the automatic analysis of the sensor data,
• the improvement of the autonomous capabilities of the robots,
• the research on efficient mobile manipulation, and
• the development of intuitive human machine interfaces supporting the operator of the robot.

The rescue robot league thus emphasizes the increased emphasis of RoboCup towards practical robotic applications.

Official league’s wiki
http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League