Novel rule set for the RoboCup rescue robot league

The RoboCup rescue robot league is part of RoboCup since 2000. Although there were minor adaptations in the rules, the basic testing concept of finding simulated victims in a mockup disaster scenario remained the same. Recent observation of events outside RoboCup such as the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) showed that it is important to evaluate the specific skills of the robot individually. Therefore, the TC and OC of the league decided on a drastic change in the rule set towards a more systematic evaluation. In preparation to the 2016 RoboCup a league workshop was organized in Koblenz, Germany where a new set of test methods, a new scoring system and a new rule book were specified and tested on newly built test methods. The setup was successfully applied during the RoboCup 2016 in Leipzig, Germany.