The goal of the urban search and rescue (USAR) robot competitions is to increase awareness of the challenges involved in search and rescue applications, provide objective evaluation of robotic implementations in representative environments, and promote collaboration between researchers. It requires robots to demonstrate their capabilities in mobility, sensory perception, planning, mapping, and practical operator interfaces, while searching for simulated victims in unstructured environments. As robot teams begin demonstrating repeated successes against the obstacles posed in the arenas, the level of difficulty will be increased accordingly so that the arenas provide a stepping-stone from the laboratory to the real world. Meanwhile, the yearly competitions will provide direct comparison of robotic approaches, objective performance evaluation, and a public proving ground for field-able robotic systems that will ultimately be used to save lives.
For more information about USAR robots please check their homepage at NIST or their wiki.
