Evaluating USARSim for use in fire search and rescue

Replacing humans with robots, or at least assist them, in the search and rescue operations is a necessity given the risks and dangers human rescue forces might be exposed to. Indoor fire situations are among the demanding fields for aid of specialized robots for assisting in the operations. The major risk to fire victims is smoke inhalation and its consequences, not the fire itself. Due to the high density of the smoke in indoor fires, visibility is very likely to be extremely limited making it highly hazardous for fire personals to explore. Other dangerous factors are possible leakage of poisonous gases and structural collapse. Devising a solution for this class of SAR operations require repeated testing and verification of the exploration solutions in the existence of smoke and fire. Due to the difficulties of constructing real life scenarios a 3D simulator need to be adopted. USARSim is presented as the best candidate for this scenario. Its a high-fidelity simulator that supports the development of multi-robot systems. USARSim can add realistic effects that are necessary to simulate indoor fire scenarios, such as fire and smoke. In this paper we present an overview of existing 3D simulators and present USARSim architecture, components and features and compare it to other existing simulators.