RoboCupJunior USA Rescue
Photo by Albert van Breemen
RoboCupJunior USA Rescue mirrors the real life use of robots to rescue people from life-threatening situations. Teams of two to four students design and program a rescue robot to complete the rescue mission in fully autonomous mode with no human assistance. The robots use all types of sensors to navigate through debris and obstacles, to sweep through rooms, to go up and down ramps, and to look for the victim to save. Teams may use any technologies (materials, controllers, sensors, etc.) they choose, as long as the robot does not violate RoboCupJunior USA Rescue rules.
Rescue Sub-Leagues
The rescue competition is composed of four sub-leagues: Rescue Line, Rescue Maze, Rescue Simulation and Rescue Simulation Entry Level (USA only).
Depiction of a Rescue Line environment.
RESCUE LINE
In the Rescue Line sub-league, robots navigate the mission environment by following a 1-2 cm wide black line that winds through multiple rooms in the environment. At the end of its rescue run, the robot must "rescue" a victim by moving the victim to an area called the Evacuation Zone. The Rescue Line sub-league is divided into two age brackets: Rescue Line Primary is for teams in which all members are 8-13. Rescue Line Open is for teams in which all members are 14-19. All ages are determined as of July 1, 2024.
Depiction of a Rescue Maze environment.
RESCUE MAZE
In the Rescue Maze sub-league, the robot must use sensors navigate a maze. There is no line to follow and the robot must find multiple victims throughout the environment. And finding the victims is no easy feat because they are represented by heat sources located near the floor of the environment. Rescue Maze team members must be 14-19 as of July 1, 2024.
RESCUE SIMULATION
RoboCupJunior Rescue Simulation provides exciting new learning opportunities with a newly developed platform, Webots-Erebus. Webots is an open-source and multi-platform 3D simulation development environment used to model, program, and simulate robots. It has been designed for professional use and is widely used in industry, education, and research.
In the Rescue Simulation challenge, the RoboCupJunior Rescue Committee creates a simulated world and robot with noise that is similar to real-world noise levels. The virtual robot is tasked with exploring and mapping the virtual world’s maze environment, similar to the Rescue Maze competition. The rule set for RoboCupJunior Rescue Simulation closely resembles the RoboCupJunior Rescue Maze sub-league grid-based system and that has been the case since 2020. This year will also include an exciting additional area with a non-grid-based system to simulate an irregular and more challenging terrain. These new elements are conceptually similar to elements used in the college and university level RoboCup Rescue competition (i.e. the “majors”). Going forward, RoboCupJunior will continue to look for opportunities to incorporate elements from the RoboCup Rescue majors into the Rescue Simulation Sub-League, so things are surely going to get even more interesting and challenging in the future.
The long-term goal of the Rescue Simulation sub-league is to provide exciting learning opportunities for teams to explore more sophisticated mapping algorithms for path planning, visual recognition, and obstacle avoidance. The Rescue Simulation Sub-league is open to all ages. Given the advanced starting threshold, however, the competition is more suitable for ages 14-19.
RESCUE SIMULATION ENTRY LEVEL (USA ONLY)
The Rescue Simulation Sub-league requires a high starting threshold in terms of algorithmic software development skills. Henceforth, RoboCupJunior USA has created a new USA-only Simulation Entry Level Environment. This Entry Level competition is a fantastic initiative that offers an accessible entry point for aspiring participants with a passion for algorithms and software development in the robotics realm, but without the cost of hardware development.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a US initiated competition and will be held ONLY in the USA.
rescue Team Size
Each Rescue team should have 2 to 4 members.
Competition Rules
Competition rules are posted in the Rescue Team Resources section of this site.