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Bots Compete in Rescue Competition

 The finals of the 10th Rescue Robot Contest is happening in Kobe, Japan this weekend. Twelve teams and their robots that made through the preliminaries on July 4th will be competing on time and skill to "rescue" silicon rubber dolls from rubbles.

 GetRobo was fortunate enough to be in Kobe to see the preliminaries and wanted to share some photos.  

 The competition field is a 1/6 size mock-up of a disaster stricken area. (As many will recall, Kobe was hit by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 which claimed more than 6,000 people. The contest initiated to raise awareness of disaster prevention and the hope that robotics will be of help in future undesirable events.) At the preliminaries, one doll was laid under wooden pillars and another was situated inside a house. Each team was given 8 minutes for the robots to remove the rubbles, roof and/or walls of the house and then carry the dolls safely to the goal without causing too much negative impact onto their bodies.

 

(Photo1: A robot by Team Kobe City College of Technology pulls out the injured.)

 Since there are no restrictions on how many robots you can use, all teams had multiple robots which had different roles.

 

(Photo2: Two robots from Team Rescue Gorilla B of Osaka Electro-Communication University each carrying a doll)

 

(Photo3: Team Rescue Gorilla B's 3rd robot laid out a carpet over the bumps so that it can reduce vibration which may have a negative impact on the dolls while being carried by the other 2 robots.)

 The robots are remotely controlled using WiFi. Team members were allowed to look directly at the field to control the robots during the preliminaries.

 

(Photo4: Team Rescue Gorilla S, also of OECU tries to figure out how to rescue the doll inside the house.)

 Although, the finals will be more difficult because teams are only allowed to use the visions of the cameras on the robots and one set up from above by the contest organizer. So some teams practiced trying to set up an extra camera in the field to obtain additional visual data.

2009 Rescue Robot Contest Video

 An official video of the most recent Rescue Robot Contest is now up.

 In the long version below, from around 5:00 minutes you can see the various tactics that the robots use to handle the dolls.

 In the next shorter version of the introduction video, at around 50 seconds you'll get a glimpse of the wearable device that one of the teams used to control the robot.

 Thank you Prof. Masutani!

  

Bring your rescue robots to Kobe next summer

 The 10th Rescue Robot Contest will be held in Kobe, Japan next August. It will be 15 years since the city was hit by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which was the motive that started this competition. 

　Contestants will remotely operate their robots to rescue dummies buried under rubble within a 1/6 scale model of a disaster-stricken area. The operators can not see the robots directly but through a camera on the robot and another from above (meant to be from a helicopter).

 
(Photos:Rescue Robot Contest Executive Committee)

 You will not only compete in speed but also by how gently you handle the dummies. The dummies have built in sensors that check how much pressure and impact is being applied to the body and neck and the data is sent wirelessly to the score board.

 
 Although the website and rules are only in Japanese at this point, the organizers are hoping to get some participants from overseas. Two teams will be invited to SICE2010 in Taiwan to give demos. If you are interested, please contact office@rescue-robot-contest.org or GetRobo.

 This year's competition is not up on YouTube yet, but here is a video from 2008.

Rescue robot after the quake - Interview with tmsuk CEO

  Robot manufacturer tmsuk Co. announced its newest rescue robot T-53 Enryu on July 17, a day after a major earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture of central Japan.

  Three weeks later, the company dispatched the robot to the devastated area so that it can help with cleaning up the debris. You can read a recent post on Engadget about T-53 Enryu – which name means the “helping dragon” in Japanese.

  The voluntary mission is important to tmsuk which wants to prove to the local governments that Enryu indeed is helpful so that they would decide to buy the robots.   

I got to talk with Yoichi Takamoto, founder and CEO of tmsuk, at his company in southern Japan in the end of July. Takamoto started tmsuk back in year 2000 thinking he wanted to develop robots that were not just fun and entertaining - which he thought too many Japanese companies were already focusing on - but that were useful. He thought robots foremost should be able to replace humans working on life-threatening tasks and since he wasn’t interested in working on military robots, he decided to develop robots that can be used in relief efforts.

Thus Enryu. T-53 Enryu can be operated both onboard and remotely and it’s two arms can pick up 100 kg each.

The Japanese government is trying to nurture and promote the country’s robot industry and has been increasing its funding into the research and development of related technologies.

But interestingly enough, Takamoto says the main obstacle right now is the fact that the Japanese government is reluctant to buy Enryu because “there is no precedent.” “No on has ever bought a rescue robot before and nobody wants to take the responsibility of being the first to do so,” explains Takamoto.

So now Takamoto is thinking of first selling his robot abroad. He has received inquiries from several Asian countries which are interested in either purchasing T-53 Enryu or teaming up with tmsuk to develop their own rescue robots. But ironically, says Takamoto, he is hearing rumors that the Japanese government is a bit demurred about his company spilling out the technology to countries abroad.

Takamoto is perplexed. “I need a precedent to be able to sell within Japan and now the government is trying to prevent me from making that precedent.”  Figuring out a way to break out of this dilemma is of course his primary occupation.

  Meanwhile, tmsuk’s robot will make its first landing in the U.S.in September. The biped samurai robot Kiyomori can be seen at the WIRED NextFest in Los Angeles.

(Photo: Takamoto with Kiyomori being prepared to be shipped to the U.S.)