by Meeden and Alan
The contest will be held in a structure (the arena) that allows simulation of various degrees of a collapsed building. On one extreme, a flat floor with minimal debris (large obstacles) will be available for those with indoor type robots who want to highlight other parts of the task, like planning and vision. On the other extreme, part of the structure will consist of a complete debris and rubble field that is most suitable for robots that can handle 3D maze structures. A middle section of the arena will give a transition from one extreme to the other, and will include at least two levels, with stairs and ramps of various slopes to get to the upper sections. In addition, robots will be presented with progressively smaller spaces in which to work. The sections also allow for heterogeneous teams of robots to transition from one section to another, so, for example, a larger robot might enter the easy section and then release a smaller robot that can then reach back into the smaller sections.
The diagram below gives a general idea of the layout. The colors are just for referring to the drawing. The internal layout is only illustrative of what will be there; you can expect it to be different at the contest. The walls will be 4 feet tall, and 4 inches thick. They will be manufactured out of foamcore, but will be covered with normal interior finishes, such as wall paper and paint. Their may be doors. There will be windows in the walls. The yellow section is the easiest. The orange section is the medium difficulty area, which as described above will have multiple levels. The red area is the 3D maze and rubble field.
Click on the following links to find more detail on each section:
All sections of the arena, in addition to the victims to be saved, will have dangers to be avoided and to also be mapped to assist the human rescuers in avoiding them.
In all sections, the dangers include:
In the more difficult sections, the hazards will include:
The structure will not have any additional lighting, other than what is simulated to be coming from natural sources, or an occasional internal light source. The easy section can be assumed to have an adequate amount of light in the majority of its space. As the robots move into more difficult spaces, lighting may be nonexistent. Robots using the more difficult section of the structure should bring their own light sources, if needed.
During competition rounds, the victims will be simulated. To simulate a victim, we will use a combination of clothing and a heating pad within the clothes (in addition to possible sounds and possible movement). For example, some victims might be loudly calling for help while others are softly moaning. The sounds will be produced by a tape recording. The heading pad is the "Dunlap Dry Heat Heating Pad model BHC112" available for about $9.00 at WalMart. The assorted clothes will most likely be brightly colored, but this is not guaranteed.
The victims will be designed to be inexpensive to assemble, and complete details on assembling a victim will be posted here in the near future to allow teams to develop sensors and practice.