NIST arenas used for urban search and rescue robot competition. (News Briefs).The NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. reference arenas for evaluating the performance of search and rescue robots A rescue robot is a robot that has been designed for the purpose of aiding rescue workers. [1] Common situations that employ rescue robots are mining accidents, urban disasters, hostage situations, and explosions. were shipped to Seattle, WA, in early August for use in the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (or IJCAI) a meeting of researchers from the different areas of artificial intelligence (AI). It is organized by the IJCAI, Inc. mobile robot A Mobile Robot is an automatic machine that is capable of movement in a given environment. Overview Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. rescue competition, which was held jointly with RoboCup Rescue. The competition is meant to stimulate progress in robot research by providing concrete, repeatable, measurable challenges in sensing, navigation, planning, human-robot interaction, mobility, and other technologies required for successful mobile robots. Robots explore the three different sections that simulate a collapsed building, locate as many victims and hazards as possible, and communicate their findings (preferably with a map) to a human supervisor within 25 min. Victims are represented by mannequin parts, clothing, movement, sound (cries for help, banging), and heat signatures. The arenas provide three different levels of difficulty in navigation, traversability, and spatial layout. Over the course of 3 days, four teams competed officially and half a dozen different organizations gave demonstrations of their robots going through the arenas. None of the teams accumulated enough points to place, but two qualitative awards were given out. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Award was given to Swarthmore College Swarthmore College, at Swarthmore, Pa.; coeducational; founded 1864 by the Society of Friends. It maintains a cooperative program with Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and the Univ. of Pennsylvania. for demonstrating the most AI functionality. The platform award was given to Sharif sha·rif n. Variant of sherif. University of Iran for their original tracked vehicle. The main designer of the arenas, a NIST engineer, was asked to chair the RoboCup Rescue event next year, which will be held in June in Japan. The RoboCup organizers plan to recreate the NIST arenas at each country where the competition is held and leave them behind permanently to stimulate progress. RoboCup Rescue is a new event within the overall RoboCup competition framework. RoboCup is an international effort to foster artificial intelligence and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be examined and integrated. The first problem focus area has been robotic soccer. Wildly popular world-wide, there are more than 3000 researchers from 35 countries participating in robotic soccer matches currently. Due to the Kobe earthquake, Oklahoma City bombing See Terrorism "The Oklahoma City Bombing" (Sidebar); Venue "Venue and the Oklahoma City Bombing Case" (Sidebar). , and other disasters, the RoboCup community selected the search and rescue mission Noun 1. search and rescue mission - a rescue mission to search for survivors and to rescue them deliverance, rescue, saving, delivery - recovery or preservation from loss or danger; "work is the deliverance of mankind"; "a surgeon's job is the saving of lives" as their second application domain, one with significant potential societal benefits. CONTACT: Elena Messina, (301) 975-3510; elena.messina@nist.gov. |
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