<div dir="ltr">----------------------<br>Call for Participation<br>----------------------<br><br>RoboCup Rescue Robot League Competition 2014<br><br>July 19-25, 2014 in Joao Pessoa, Brazil<br><a href="http://www.robocup2014.org/">http://www.robocup2014.org/</a><br>
<br>The pre-registration for the RoboCup Rescue Robot League World Championship in Brazil is open. Please check the Rescue Robot League wiki [1] for the most current information.<br><br>Pre-registration procedure:<br><br>
* January 31, 2014: Submit via email (the very short) the Team<br> Participation Form [2] to <a href="mailto:rescue.robot.league@nist.gov">rescue.robot.league@nist.gov</a><br>* February 21, 2014: Submit your Team Description Paper [3]<br>
to <a href="mailto:rescue.robot.league@nist.gov">rescue.robot.league@nist.gov</a><br>* March 10, 2014: Announcement of Qualified Teams<br><br>We would like to encourage the submission of short demonstration <br>videos. In this video we like to see you demonstrate the skills of <br>
your system. The maximum duration of the video is 5 minutes. <br>The video should be supplied as a link, e.g. to YouTube.<br><br>A detailed description of the competition can be found at [4]. The<br>rules for the 2014 competition will be posted on the wiki page<br>
as soon as they are finalized.<br><br>Regards,<br> Johannes Pellenz (Exec Rescue Robot League)<br><br>[1] <a href="http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League">http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League</a><br>[2] <a href="http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2014_-Country_TeamName-_TPF.doc">http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2014_-Country_TeamName-_TPF.doc</a><br>
[3] <a href="http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2014_-Country_TeamName-_TDP.doc">http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/upload/Champ2014_-Country_TeamName-_TDP.doc</a><br>[4] <a href="http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League#Rules">http://wiki.robocup.org/wiki/Robot_League#Rules</a><br>
<br>---<br><br>Background information about the competition<br><br>Competition Overview:<br>The goal of the urban search and rescue (USAR) robot competitions is<br>to increase awareness of the challenges involved in search and rescue<br>
applications, provide objective evaluation of robotic implementations<br>in representative environments, and promote collaboration between<br>researchers. It requires robots to demonstrate their capabilities in<br>mobility, sensory perception, planning, mapping, and practical<br>
operator interfaces, while searching for simulated victims in<br>unstructured environments. As robot teams begin demonstrating<br>repeated successes against the obstacles posed in the arenas, the<br>level of difficulty will be increased accordingly so that the arenas<br>
provide a stepping-stone from the laboratory to the real world.<br>Meanwhile, the yearly competitions will provide direct comparison of<br>robotic approaches, objective performance evaluation, and a public<br>proving ground for field-able robotic systems that will ultimately be<br>
used to save lives.<br>Competition Vision:<br><br>When disaster happens, minimize risk to search and rescue personnel,<br>while increasing victim survival rates, by fielding teams of<br>collaborative robots which can:<br>
* Autonomously negotiate compromised and collapsed structures<br> * Find victims and ascertain their conditions<br> * Produce practical maps of their locations<br> * Deliver sustenance and communications<br> * Identify hazards<br>
* Emplace sensors (acoustic, thermal, hazmat, seismic)<br> * Provide structural shoring<br>allowing human rescuers to quickly locate and extract victims.<br><br>It is ideal for the robots to be capable of all the tasks outlined in<br>
the vision, with the first three directly encouraged in the current<br>performance metric. The remaining tasks will be emphasized in future<br>versions of the performance metric.<br><br>Search Scenario:<br>A building has partially collapsed due to earthquake. The Incident<br>
Commander in charge of rescue operations at the disaster site, fearing<br>secondary collapses from aftershocks, has asked for teams of robots to<br>immediately search the interior of the building for victims. The<br>mission for the robots and their operators is to find victims,<br>
determine their situation, state, and location, and then report back<br>their findings in a map of the building and a victim data sheet. The<br>section near the building entrance appears relatively intact while the<br>interior of the structure exhibits increasing degrees of collapse.<br>
Robots must negotiate the lightly damaged areas prior to encountering<br>more challenging obstacles and rubble. The robots are considered<br>expendable in case of difficulty.<br><br>Arenas and Simulated Victims:<br>The rescue arenas constructed to host these competitions are based on<br>
the Reference Test Arenas for Urban Search and Rescue Robots developed<br>by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).<br>Three arenas, named yellow, orange, and red to indicate their<br>increasing levels of difficulty, form a continuum of challenges for<br>
the robots. A maze of walls, doors, and elevated floors provide<br>various tests for robot navigation and mapping capabilities. Variable<br>flooring, overturned furniture, and problematic rubble provide obvious<br>physical obstacles. Sensory obstacles, intended to confuse specific<br>
robot sensors and perception algorithms, provide additional<br>challenges. Intuitive operator interfaces and robust sensory fusion<br>algorithms are highly encouraged to reliably negotiate the arenas and<br>locate victims.<br>
<br>The objective for each robot in the competition, and the incentive to<br>traverse every corner of each arena, is to find simulated victims.<br>Each simulated victim is a clothed mannequin emitting body heat and<br>other signs of life, including motion (shifting, waving), sound<br>
(moaning, yelling, tapping), and/or carbon dioxide to simulate<br>breathing. Particular combinations of these sensor signatures imply<br>the victim’s state: unconscious, semi-conscious, or aware.<br><br>Simulated Victim Signs of Life:<br>
Each victim is placed in a particular rescue situation: surface,<br>trapped, void, or entombed. The victims are distributed throughout<br>the environment in roughly the same situational percentages found in<br>actual earthquake statistics. Each victim also displays an<br>
identification tag that is usually placed in hard to reach areas<br>around the victim, requiring advanced robot mobility to identify. Once<br>a victim is found, the robot(s) must determine the victim’s location,<br>situation, state, and tag, and then report their findings on a human<br>
readable map.</div>