International search and rescue robots compete in NIST-designed reference test arenas. (General Developments).

The RoboCupRescue League hosted its first annual competition in Fukuoka, Japan, June 20-23, 2002, using Japanese versions of NIST's "Reference Test Arenas for Autonomous Mobile Robots" that they built and installed at Fukuoka Dome Stadium. This robotic urban search and rescue competition augments RoboCup's leagues of autonomous soccer playing robot teams (small size, mid-size, four-legged, humanoid, and simulation leagues), which have evolved considerably over the past 6 years of competition. The goal of the RoboCupRescue competition, and others using the NIST arena design, is to provide a proving ground for fieldable robots such as those used at the World Trade Center collapse. A NIST researcher is a co-chairman of the RoboCup Rescue League Organizing Committee.

The overall RoboCup-2002 event (http://www.robocup2002.org/) attracted 188 robot teams (over 1000 researchers) from 29 countries, cheered on by 117 000 spectators over 5 days of competition. Ten teams (over 40 researchers) participated in the RoboCupRescue competition from countries such as Japan, Iran, Germany, New Zealand, and the United States. Several different robot implementations competed, including tracked vehicles, wheeled vehicles, and a small blimp. The performance metric used for scoring encourages multiple robot teams, minimal operators and generation of practical maps showing the location of simulated victims throughout the arenas. Two teams from Iran and Japan scored above the minimum threshold required to earn an award, with the Iranian team taking the top honors.

The Japanese versions of NISTs arenas will reside year-round at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology in Tokyo. They follow the NIST design, with changes to materials and furnishings to be representative of those typically found in Japanese buildings. Next year's RoboCupRescue competition will be held in Padova, Italy, and discussions are under way to fabricate Italian versions of the arenas for year-round use. Additional arenas are being discussed for Japan, Germany, Portugal, and the United States. Proliferation of these arenas around the world supports research in this critical domain by providing venues for practice, objective evaluation, direct comparison of performance, and international collaboration among robot researchers. It also helps raise awareness of the challenges involved in robotic search and rescue applications and encourages new researchers to enter the field. Funding support for development of the arenas has been provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (D ARPA).

CONTACTS: Elena Messina, [phone]; [e-mail] or Adam Jacoff, [phone]; [e-mail].