Photo/Illutration A robotic exploration vehicle rushes to “rescue” a mannequin on a mountain. (Provided by the Japan Innovation Challenge steering committee)

KAMI-SHIHORO, Hokkaido--The fifth annual Alpine Rescue Contest was held here, featuring the latest robots, drones and exploration vehicles that could be used to save people lost or stranded on mountains.

“Technologies have steadily been accumulated through our contest,” said Tatsufumi Kamimura, head of the event’s steering committee. “We will build a system someday in which robots can quickly discover and rescue anyone and protect as many lives as possible.”

The Alpine Rescue Contest 2022 was held in a forested mountain area in Kami-Shihoro on Oct. 8 to 10.

Four teams from in and outside Hokkaido were tested on their abilities to quickly find and rescue a mannequin representing a missing hiker.

Organizers of the contest included a robot service provider in Tokyo and the town of Kami-Shihoro, which offered a 300-hectare forest area for the competition.

In the scenario of the contest, a man picking edible wild plants goes missing, and contestants must complete a three-stage mission: discovery, delivery and rescue.

The teams were tasked with first discovering the mannequin using drones and reporting its location and image to the contest organizer within 80 minutes of the “missing report.”

They then had to deliver a 3-kilogram rescue kit to the mannequin in 30 minutes, and finally bring the rescued victim to the starting point of the contest within 300 minutes.

Prize money is awarded for each successfully completed stage.

The first time the discovery process was accomplished in time, and 3 million yen ($20,600) was awarded, was in 2016. (The bounty is shared when multiple contestants win.)

The delivery goal was first met in 2017, and 2 million yen was given out.

The missions in the fifth contest were more difficult.

In the previous four contests, drones had been operated at the starting point located at the foot of the mountain. This time, however, contestants operated them at a disused elementary school about 5 kilometers away.

Participants deployed a variety of techniques to locate the mannequin, including use of thermal images taken by drones with artificial intelligence.

Some teams developed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft with fixed wings that can fly longer and carry heavier loads.

But only one contestant, Team ArduPilot Japan (TAP-J) from Tokyo, succeeded in locating the mannequin amid the bad weather and repeated communications failures.

A margin of error of just 6 meters was reported, underscoring the team’s precision in finding the mannequin.

No team was able to deliver the rescue kit.

As for the final rescue process, no team in the history of the contest has collected its award of 20 million yen.

Using a rover, TAP-J became the first team to reach the mannequin on a steep slope below a hiking course 2 kilometers from the starting point.

But the machine’s battery voltage lowered when it tried to lift the mannequin’s legs, and the team gave up on the procedure.

“The sloping ground conditions were difficult to confirm at some points through the images sent from the rover,” said Hiroshi Kitaoka, 37, who headed TAP-J. “Our positive response to the slope, a fallen tree and the rough weather gave us confidence, though.”

The competition aims to establish certain rescue technologies, including remote controlled drones that can promptly search for missing individuals and rovers that can rush to the scenes when personnel cannot be dispatched, such as at night or amid danger of secondary accidents.

A drone-based night search service called Night Hawks, which was born from the contest, was put into practical use last year in Hokkaido, the northeastern Tohoku region and elsewhere.

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