Motivated by experiences such as the severe earthquake in Kobe, Japan, the RoboCup Rescue League was launched in 2001 to support emergency services in their difficult tasks of rescuing and protecting lives and property. Rescue robots are intended to locate victims in simulated disaster scenarios, map the environment and buildings and at the same time deliver important reports. This technology could be invaluable in emergencies such as natural disasters. Competitions take place with real (Rescue Robot) and simulated (Rescue Robot Simulation) robots.
The robots have to find survivors and create maps in a recreated disaster scenario. They mostly move on tracks and are equipped with a variety of sensors, such as laser scanners and thermal cameras. The intuitive control interface for the tele-operator is important.
The RoboCup rescue simulation league has two sub-leagues.On the one hand, simulators should be developed that can recreate the infrastructure, for example of a city, and realistic phenomena that prevail during disasters.On the other hand, intelligent agents and robots should be developed that have the skills of the main actors in a disaster response scenario.