Reference Datasets

Special versions of NIST's Reference Test Arenas for Urban Search and Rescue Robots have been developed to provide the research community with an efficient way to test their algorithms without having to incur the costs associated with maintaining functional robots and traveling to one of the permanent arena sites for validation and practice. These special arenas consist of real sensor datasets and simulated environments.

Sensor Datasets The sensor datasets allow programmers anywhere to access and use a variety of actual sensor data readings gathered inside the NIST arenas. A systematic grid under the yellow arena allows precise placement of sensors over grid nodes to represent robot sensor views facing north, east, south, and west inside the arena. These sensor readings are compiled into a database allowing easy extraction for perception, planning, or other sensor-based algorithms. So far one sensor has been used - a line-scan LADAR, but other advanced (even developmental) sensors are being considered such as the so-called "flash LADAR". In this way, a single sensor can produce situational datasets for anybody interested in algorithm testing, even before the sensors are widely available or cost effective. The resulting sensor-based algorithms, when shown to be effective in navigating the virtual datasets, should have a high likelihood of success when the actual sensor is deployed in the real arenas. This may occur during competitions or other testing opportunities in a permanent arena.

Two separate datasets namely discrete and continuous are posted below. The discrete datasets contain data corresponding to fixed sensor data locations whereas in the continuous case, data was collected as the robot traversed the environment. The full ground truth for a particular arena configuration is released several weeks after the data are made available.

Discrete Dataset in the Yellow Arena

Figure 1:The yellow arena maze for the discrete dataset consists of non-flat flooring and maze walls. Future datasets in this arena will include intermittent pitch/roll ramps and open face/top box stacks containing simulated victims, and continuous pitch and roll ramps.

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Continuous Datasets from RoboCup German Open 2007
Robot Sensor and Command Stream Recordings

Access to data that was collected in the competition arena of the Rescue Robot League during the RoboCup German Open at Hannover Fair in April 2007 is available from http://robotics.iu-bremen.de/datasets/RoboCupGermanOpen2007. It consists of recorded streams of raw sensor data and motor commands of a so-called Jacobs rugbot (“rugged robot”). The data and the related software can be freely used for academic purposes. Please use references to the Jacobs robots when you generate own work based on this data. Please contact Robotics at Jacobs University (http://robotics.jacobs-university.de) if you want to use the data or the related software for non-academic purposes. We thank the German Research Foundation / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for their support to the project 3D Mapping in Unstructured Environments during which parts of the recording and play back software for this data were developed.

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Continuing and Future Work

Yellow Arena

• ultrasonic range sensors (absorptive ceiling tiles and reflective corner angles),
• laser range sensors (absorptive dark felt, reflective mirrors, and transparent plexiglass),
• victim identification sensors (false sources of heat, motion, and/or sound).

Orange Arena

The Orange arena maze will include continuous 15-degree pitch/roll ramps and half-cubic (orange) stepfields (see below).

Figure 2: Orange arena maze with more complex non-flat flooring contains A) continuous pitch/roll ramps, B, C) half-cubic stepfields and box stacks with simulated victims that require directed perception and variable illumination to see inside.

Red Arena

The Red arena maze will include continuous full-cubic (red) stepfields as flooring. There will also be elevated floors accessible by stairs (40 degree incline, 20cm step heights, 5 steps total) and a steep ramp (35-45 degree incline with carpet for traction) to challenge power and center of gravity issues. Each elevated floor section will be separated by a 20cm step/pipe combination to challenge robots reliant on the sharpness of step edges for traction and reward robots that can change their shape to reliably surmount curbs of any condition. Confined spaces under the elevated floors will have stalactites hanging down and may be placed over ramps or stepfields.

Figure 3: Red arena maze includes A,B) full-cubic (red) stepfield “hills,” “flats” and “diagonals,” along with C) elevated floor sections accessible via stairs or a steep ramp, with stalactites hanging underneath to form confined spaces.

Figure 4: Other Red arena elements include A) stairs with 40 degree incline and 20cm step heights, a 35-45 degree ramp with carpet to access the elevated floors (not shown), B) 20cm step/pipe combinations to minimize corner traction divide elevated floor sections, and C) confined spaces under elevated floors (also used with ramp flooring).