[robocup-worldwide] Call for Participation of RoboCup 2015 Rescue Robot League (Hefei, China)

Sören Schwertfeger soerensch at shanghaitech.edu.cn
Wed Jan 21 19:08:25 EST 2015


----------------------
Call for Participation
----------------------

RoboCup Rescue Competition 2015

July 17 - 22 2015 in Hefei, China

http://www.robocup2015.org/
http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League

Dear all,

The registration for the RoboCup Rescue World Championship in Hefei
(China) is open. Please check the Rescue web site [1] for the
most current information. The 2015 rules are announced in [2].

The important dates for the registration are:

* February 1, 2015: Submission of Team Participation Form [3].
   Please Submit to rescue.robot.league at nist.gov
* March 1, 2015: Submission of Team Description Paper [4].
   Please Submit to rescue.robot.league at nist.gov
* April 1, 2015: Announcement of Qualified Teams.

I am looking forward to seeing you all in Hefei!

Kind regards
  Sören Schwertfeger (on behalf of the OC and TC Rescue Robot League)

[1] http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League
[2] http://wiki.ssrrsummerschool.org/doku.php?id=rrl-rules-2015
[3] http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2015_-Country_TeamName-_TPF.doc
[4] http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2015_-Country_TeamName-_TDP.doc

---

Background information about the competition
(from http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League)

* Objective

The RoboCupRescue Robot League is an international league of teams with
one objective: Develop and demonstrate advanced robotic capabilities for
emergency responders using annual competitions to evaluate, and teaching
camps to disseminate, best-in-class robotic solutions.

* Approach

The league hosts annual competitions to 1) increase awareness of the
challenges involved in deploying robots for emergency response
applications such as urban search and rescue and bomb disposal,
2) provide objective performance evaluations of mobile robots operating
in complex yet repeatable environments, and 3) promote collaboration
between researchers. Robot teams demonstrate their capabilities in
mobility, sensory perception, localization and mapping, mobile
manipulation, practical operator interfaces, and assistive autonomous
behaviors to improve remote operator performance and/or robot
survivability while searching for simulated victims in a maze of terrains
and challenges. Winning teams must reliably perform 7-10 missions of 20-30
minutes each from various start points to find the most victims. As robots
continue to demonstrate successes against the obstacles posed in the
arenas, the level of difficulty will continually be increased so the
arenas provide a stepping-stone from the laboratory to the real world.
Meanwhile, the annual competitions provide direct comparison of robotic
approaches, objective performance evaluations, and a public proving ground
for capable robotic systems that will ultimately be used to save lives.

* Competition Vision

When disaster happens, minimize risk to search and rescue personnel while
increasing victim survival rates by fielding teams of collaborative mobile
robots which enable human rescuers to quickly locate and extract victims.
Specific robotic capabilities encouraged in the competition include
the following:

- Negotiate compromised and collapsed structures
- Locate victims and ascertain their conditions
- Produce practical sensor maps of the environment
- Establish communications with victims
- Deliver fluids, nourishment, medicines
- Emplace sensors to identify/monitor hazards
- Mark or identify best paths to victims
- Provide structural shoring for responders

These tasks are encouraged through challenges posed in the arena, specific
mission tasks, and/or the performance metric. Demonstrations of other
enabling robotic capabilities are always welcome.

* Search Scenario

A building has partially collapsed due to earthquake. The Incident
Commander in charge of rescue operations at the disaster site, fearing
secondary collapses from aftershocks, has asked for teams of robots to
immediately search the interior of the building for victims. The mission
for the robots and their operators is to find victims, determine their
situation, state, and location, and then report back their findings in a
map of the building with associated victim data. The section near the
building entrance appears relatively intact while the interior of the
structure exhibits increasing degrees of collapse. Robots must negotiate
and map the lightly damaged areas prior to encountering more challenging
obstacles and rubble. The robots are considered expendable in case of
difficulty.

* Field Description

The RoboCupRescue arenas constructed to host these competitions consist
of emerging standard test methods for emergency response robots developed
by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology through the
ASTM International Committee on Homeland Security Applications;
Operational Equipment; Robots (E54.08.01). They are repeatable test method
apparatuses that anybody can build and practice. The competition field is
divided into color-coded arenas that form a continuum of challenges with
increasing levels of difficulty for robots and operators and highlight
certain robotic capabilities:

- Simulated Victims: Simulated victims with several signs of life such as
   form, motion, head, sound and CO2 are distributed throughout the arenas
   requiring directional viewing through access holes at different
   elevations.
- Yellow Arena: For robots capable of fully autonomous navigation and
   victim identification, this arena consists of random mazes of hallways
   and rooms with continuous 15° pitch and roll ramp flooring.
- Orange Arena: For robots capable of autonomous or remote teleoperative
   navigation and victim identification, this arena consists of moderate
   terrains with crossing 15° pitch and roll ramps and structured obstacles
   such as stairs, inclined planes, and others.
- Red Arena: For robots capable of autonomous or remote teleoperative
   navigation and victim identification, this arena consists of complex
   stepfield terrains requiring advanced robot mobility.
- Blue Arena: For robots capable of mobile manipulation on complex
   terrains to place simple block or bottle payloads carried in from the
   start or picked up within the arenas.
- Black/Yellow Arena (RADIO DROP-OUT ZONE): For robots capable of
   autonomous navigation with reasonable mobility to operate on complex
   terrains.
- Black Arena (Vehicle Collapse Scenario): For robots capable of searching
   a simulated vehicle collapse scenario accessible on each side from
   the RED ARENA and the ORANGE ARENA.
- Aerial Arena (< 2 KG, VTOL sUAS): For small unmanned aerial systems
   under 2 kg with vertical take-off and landing capabilities that can
   perform station-keeping, obstacle avoidance, and line following tasks
   with varying degrees of autonomy.

--
Sören Schwertfeger, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Information Science and Technology
ShanghaiTech University
Shanghai, China
URL: http://sist.shanghaitech.edu.cn/StaffDetail.asp?id=172



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