RoboCupJunior Rescue

RoboCupJunior Rescue is an educational initiative focused on elementary, middle and high school students, as well as university students to work with a robot that must overcome various obstacles in an autonomous way to carry out rescue activities.

The scenario is based on an area that is too dangerous for humans to rescue the victims of a natural disaster; so the most difficult task has been given to a robot. He must be able to carry out the rescue mission in a totally autonomous manner without human intervention. The robot must be strong and smart enough to navigate through dangerous terrain with hills, uneven terrain and debris without getting stuck.

There are three subcategories:

  • Rescue Line (Line Rescue) [Face-to-face and Virtual]: An autonomous robot must follow a black line while overcoming various problems in a modular arena made up of squares with different patterns. The floor is white and the paintings are on different levels connected by ramps. When the robot finally finds the victims, they have to transport them very carefully to the evacuation point so that humans can take care of them.

  • Rescue Maze (Rescue in Labyrinth) [Face-to-face and Virtual]: The robot needs to search for victims through a maze, so it should not find the fastest way to go through the maze, if not to explore it as much as possible while avoiding areas with black ground. When the robot finally finds the victims, it has to provide them with a help team and a locator, so that humans can locate them and take them to a safe place.

  • Rescue Simulation: In difficult or dangerous environment navigation situations, robots can be used for search and rescue operations to minimize putting humans at risk. In this challenge, a virtual autonomous robot must be developed to search and identify victims in a simulated dangerous scenario. The robot must navigate through challenging terrain without getting stuck, locating disaster victims and pinpointing their location to the human rescue team. The open source wiki for its development is available at https://erebus.rcj.cloud/

MODALITIES

This year the RCJ Rescue subcategories will offer both virtual and face-to-face modalities, increasing the availability of participation for the teams. It is important to note that each modality offers different opportunities and the rules may vary, please read this section carefully and ask if you have any questions. The available modalities are:

  • RCJ Rescue Line On-site:
      • The established rules will be followed as they are stipulated in RoboCup.
      • Grants pass to the international competition RoboCup 2022 Thailand.
      • Compete only against registered teams within RCJ Rescue Line On-site.
  • RCJ Rescue Line Virtual:
      • The competition is based on technical challenges to assess the skills required to solve the RoboCup challenge.
      • NO Grants pass to the International RoboCup 2022 Thailand competition. This is a national competition.
      • Compete only against registered teams within RCJ Rescue Line Virtual.
  • RCJ Rescue Maze Face-to-face:
      • The established rules will be followed as they are stipulated in RoboCup.
      • Grants pass to the international competition RoboCup 2022 Thailand.
      • Compete only against registered teams within RCJ Rescue Maze On-site.
  • RCJ Rescue Maze Virtual:
      • The competition is based on technical challenges to assess the skills required to solve the RoboCup challenge.
      • NO Grants pass to the International RoboCup 2022 Thailand competition. This is a national competition.
      • Compete only against registered teams within RCJ Rescue Line Virtual.
  • RCJ Rescue Simulation:
    • The established rules will be followed as they are stipulated in RoboCup.
    • Grants pass to the international competition RoboCup 2022 Thailand.
    • Compete against registered teams within RCJ Rescue Simulation. This includes teams participating in person and virtually.

In case there are less than 3 teams in virtual or face-to-face mode, said modality will be closed for that sub-league. For example, if 6 teams sign up for RCJ Rescue Maze in face-to-face mode and 2 in virtual mode, the sub-league will only be offered face-to-face. If 1 team registers in RCJ Rescue Line in face-to-face mode and 3 in virtual mode, the sub-league will only be offered virtually. If 3 teams register in RCJ Rescue Simulation in face-to-face mode and 3 in virtual mode, the category will continue to be hybrid.

 

RESTRICTIONS

Since RoboCupJunior encourages teamwork and collaboration among members, RCJ Rescue teams will need to make do with at least 2 members and up to a maximum of 4.

The age is considered on July 1 of each year for the RoboCup World Cup, and therefore also for the Mexican Robotics Tournament.

Each contestant can only be enrolled in 1 unique team, sub-league and league in all RoboCupJunior.

 

RULES

The rules for the RoboCupJunior Rescue competition are posted on the international RoboCupJunior website. The rules for the 2022 tournament are already published, which will be the same in force for the Mexican Robotics Tournament.

These rules can be consulted in https://junior.robocup.org/rescue/. Take into account that the international committees are in the process of reviewing the rules, so it is advisable to pay attention to the comments of the international forum https://junior.forum.robocup.org/. To clarify the rules and share knowledge in the Mexican Robotics Tournament, you can create an account at https://comunidad.femexrobotica.org/ and start a new conversation within the RoboCupJunior Rescue forum.

The RCJ Rescue Line Virtual and RCJ Rescue Maze Virtual subcategories will have their rules adapted to accommodate such a situation. The spirit, objective and points to be evaluated will continue to be supported by the rules, however, adaptations to the way of qualifying the performance of the robots will be made. Said methodology will be shared before the tournament publicly on the community site. Any questions please let us know by said means.

 

TECHNICAL CHALLENGES

The RCJ Rescue Line Virtual and RCJ Rescue Maze Virtual subcategories will have additional challenges that will allow them to obtain points for the general table. These challenges are related to each of their sub-leagues respectively. For robots that can participate with the international rules, such challenges will not mean significant modifications to their robots or programming algorithms. The technical challenges are designed to simplify participation and allow more teams to demonstrate their knowledge and progress in the category. Thanks to the simplification of the same, they will help to present them in a virtual configuration. These challenges may be carried out with robots in the design phase, digitized robots, virtual/simulated robots or physical autonomous robots. As long as the same robot is used for the entire competition, as stipulated by international regulations.

For more information on the additional technical challenges by subcategory, as well as their evaluation process, visit https://comunidad.femexrobotica.org/t/tmr-2021-retos-tecnicos-rescue-line-y-maze/215

 

TEAM LIMITS PER INSTITUTION

Each institution can register the following number of teams for each Junior Category:

  • Maximum 2 teams per sub-league in Rescue Line and Rescue Maze.
  • Maximum 2 teams per sub-league in all Soccer and OnStage sub-leagues.
  • The number of teams in Rescue Simulation Simulation will not be limited.
  • The institution that has obtained the first place in each subcategory of the last tournament (TMR2021) and has sent its participation report in RoboCup 2021 obtains the right to register one more team in that same subcategory. You must register the additional team and its members, and before concluding the pre-registration send an email to regtmr@femexrobotica.org indicating the name of the team that wishes this right to be applied.

 

AGE RESTRICTION BY SUB-LEAGUES

Age is considered July 1 of each year for RoboCup, and therefore for the Mexican Robotics Tournament.

  • Face-to-face line: All team members must have members between 14 and 19 years of age (inclusive). This implies having been born between 02/Jul/2002 and 01/Jul/2008.
  • Virtual line: All team members must have members between 11 and 19 years of age (inclusive). This implies having been born between 02/Jul/2002 and 01/Jul/2011.
  • Face-to-face Maze: All team members must have members between 14 and 19 years of age (inclusive). This implies having been born between 02/Jul/2002 and 01/Jul/2008.
  • Virtual Maze: All team members must have members between 14 and 19 years of age (inclusive). This implies having been born between 02/Jul/2002 and 01/Jul/2008.
  • Simulation: All team members must have members between 14 and 19 years of age (inclusive). This implies having been born between 02/Jul/2002 and 01/Jul/2008.

 

TECHNICAL RESPONSIBLE

Rescue technical manager
Diego Garza
e-mail: diego.garza.rdz@gmail.com

Rescue Line technical co-responsible
Daniel Valdez
e-mail: danielvaldezbarron@gmail.com
Javier Bautista
e-mail: javierbautistacoghlan@gmail.com

Rescue Maze Technical Co-Responsible
Ernest Cervantes
e-mail: neto.cervantes@outlook.com
Edward Alvarado
e-mail: edd.ag33@gmail.com

Technical co-responsible Rescue Simulation
Gerardo Camarillo
e-mail: gerardocamarillodl@gmail.com

 

LOCAL MANAGER

Martha Karina Butron
e-mail: mbutronb@upv.edu.mx