For students in their first year of entering the Rescue Line
https://www.robocupjunior.org.au/resources/rescue-resources/
https://www.robocupjunior.org.au/riley-rover-rescue-line-handbook/
A beginner’s guide to getting started with the RoboCup Junior Rescue Line competition, produced by RoboCup Australia.
This presentation will take you through all the basics of getting set up for Riley Rover Rescue Line. For specific topics:
Obstacle Avoidance - Page 37
Single Line Following: Basic Principals - Page 50
Two-sensor Line Following: White/Black Line Following - Page 60
Proportional Control Line Following - Page 82
Problem Solving: Some Simple Checks - Page 105
The Scenario
A terrible disaster has hit the city and caused a large chemical storage unit to rupture spilling thousands of litres of toxic chemicals in the centre of the city. There is a Victim trapped in a sinking Rescue Capsule in the chemical spill. Rescue crews are having trouble entering the city with the amount of rubble around, and rescue from the air has also been ruled out due to the noxious gases rising from the toxic chemicals directly above the spill. It has been decided that the best form of rescue is the deployment of an autonomous robot that can navigate to the chemical spill, rescue the victim, and exit the chemical spill.
Your team has been asked to design, make, and appraise a robot to complete this challenge.
The following is a simple guide to completing the task. Full Rescue rules are available here: RCJA-Rescue-Line-Rules_ 2025
Riley Rover Rescue (beginners): The robot must start from the city limits and navigate the scene to find and then rescue the victim by pushing or dragging the Rescue Capsule out of the chemical spill. It will do this by following a continuous black line on a white background. It may include inclines that do not to exceed 10° from the horizontal, the bridge tile or ramp or tiles with an obstacle.
The Riley Rover course will consist of:
Tiles with a continuous black lines with white background.
Inclines i.e the Bridge Tile and the ramp. Inclines not to exceed 20° from the horizontal.
Doorways that are 180 mm wide and 180 mm high.
Obstacle (bottle) on one tile.
Green Rescue Tile with silver strip.
No speed bumps or debris.
The following posts on David's Robotics Portal are useful:
#Robotics Handling water tower or obstacles #Robotics Finding objects with an Ultrasonic sensor
Build and program your robot to achieve each of the following steps.
Follow a black line with two sensors. On the EV3 these should be mounted about 1 Lego beam width (approx. 7mm) from the surface.
2. Water tower. Add a touch sensor to the front of the robot. Program the robot to navigate its way around an obstacle. The robot detects the obstacle with the touch sensor, reverses, then navigates around the object. A Robot is expected to navigate around obstacles and reacquire the line within 30 cm of the obstacle.
You can use either the ultrasonic sensor or the touch sensor for this task. Try both to see what works best.
3. The Bridge. Fixed sensors may lose the line at the top of the slope. This can be overcome by build a “floating sensor” where the sensors move up and down with the contours of the mat. Make sure they don't get stuck on the speed bumps.
You can also use the gyro sensor to detect when the robot reaches the top of the slope and program it to move forward for a few cms to find the line. The gyro sensor (built into the Spike robot) measures pitch, roll, and yaw, allowing you to determine the hub's orientation. Pitch is the up-and-down movement around the Y-axis.
4. The See-Saw. Fixed light sensors too close to the surface can cause problems. If the centre of balance is too far forward the robot may overbalance.
5. Ramps, elevated tiles and doorways. Tiles may be elevated and connected with ramp tiles. Doorways may be 180 mm wide and 180 mm high. Robots must be able to pass through the Doorway without moving it significantly from its original position.
7. Chemical Spill & Ultrasonic Sensor. Program the Ultrasonic Sensor to look for the victim and rescue it. Robots must demonstrate a search algorithm to the Rescue Capsule.
Primary Rescue Line robots must not increase in size, extend or use a device intended to sweep the Victim.
A Chemical Spill will be green in colour and be distinguishable from the background colour of the tile by the light sensors. It may be any shape and size.
At the point where the black line meets a Chemical Spill, there will be a piece of smooth reflective tape (the Spill Access Point) to indicate that the robot is entering the Chemical Spill. The Spill Access Point will have a minimum size of 70 mm x 20 mm.
Note: In the Riley Rover challenge your robot will not be required to turn left or right when it detects green or exit the green square after rescuing the victim.