Introduction to the Simulation Disaster Challenge of World Robot Summit Harsh Environment F-REI Challenge Pre-Tournament Event

This report presents the design and results of the Simulation Disaster Challenge held at the Fukushima Robot Test Field in October 2024 as part of the World Robot Summit Harsh Environment F-REI Challenge Pre-tournament event. In this challenge, a novel simulation environment was developed that enables safe and repeated evaluation of tasks under extreme conditions that are difficult to reproduce in the real world, while simultaneously simulating the complex and harsh environments of debris scattering and poor visibility that can be expected in actual plant disasters. This report first provides an overview of the history of major disaster-response robot simulation competitions conducted to date. Next, we report on the design of the competition course and results of the pre-tournament event. Furthermore, the competitive environment is examined as an educational resource based on real-world challenges, highlighting its applicability to STEM education. Finally, the current status of preparations for the main competition, scheduled for October 2025, is described.