IUB Rescue Robot as Runner-up in the RoboCup US Open

On 27 April, 2004, IUB’s rescue robot team scored second in the RoboCup Rescue US Open in New Orleans. While developed with a comparatively small budget, the IUB robot is still the only rescue robot, which autonomously produces a map of its surroundings in a simulated disaster area.

[ May 05, 2004]  Nine teams registered for the contest to test the sensorial, motor and orientation skills of their mobile rescue robots in the disaster area simulating competition course. The first place went to the Korean Institute of Science and Technology team and their robot, which is also used for minesweeping by the South-Korean army. The IUB team, Andreas Birk, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and his colleagues Stefano Carpin and Holger Kenn, scored second after demonstrating a consistent good performance throughout preliminaries and finals. The team from Carnegie Mellon University, after a close chase, ended up on the third place.

“One of the main reasons for our success in this high-class competition is the as yet unique ability of our robot “Papa Gans” to map its surroundings autonomously, an important trait that later on may help to guide rescue workers to victims” says Birk. “Quite an achievement, if you bear in mind that our little 5000-euro-machine competed against a budget-giant like the Korean robot that has cost about ten times as much,” he adds. The American Open, held in conjunction with the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, is one of the main training events for all RoboCup teams before the world championship in Lisbon this June.