The goal of the Virtual Robot Simulation competition is to increase awareness of the challenges involved in search and rescue applications, provide an objective evaluation of robotic implementations in representative environments, and promote collaboration between researchers. A generic urban disaster simulation environment is constructed on network computers. Heterogeneous intelligent agents such as firefighters, commanders, victims, volunteers, etc. conduct search and rescue activities in this virtual disaster world. Real-world interfaces such as helicopter image synchronize the virtuality and the reality by sensing data. Mission-critical human interfaces such as PDA support disaster managers, disaster relief brigades, residents and volunteers to decide their action to minimize the disaster damage.
