Hinomiyagura 2015 TDP for RoboCup 2015 Rescue Infra Structure League A realistic RoboCup Rescue Simulation based on Gazebo

More than a decade has passed since RoboCup Virtual Robot competition based on the USARSim interface started. During that time, the underlying simulation platform, Unreal Engine, has seen three major upgrades (UT2004, UT3 and UDK). The interface to USARSim has not been modified, so member of virtual robot league have concentrated on their control and perception algorithms. The Robot Operating System (ROS) has been steadily gaining popularity among robotics researchers as an open source framework for robot control. The community of USARSim is smaller than the community of ROS. Gazebo, the simulation environment native to ROS, is a much better choice for the future. This paper describes a new prototype of the USARSim interface; implemented as plugin to Gazebo, the simulation environment native of ROS. This plugin would attract new teams to the Virtual Robot competition.