TurtleBot Pursuit & Evasion Challenge - Tech Zephyr 4.0

The TurtleBot Pursuit & Evasion Challenge is an autonomous robotics competition testing participants' skills in robotics simulation, path planning, autonomous navigation, decision-making, and pursuit-evasion algorithms. Participants will develop two algorithms: a 'Catcher' to locate and capture a 'Runner', and a 'Runner' to evade capture.

The competition takes place in a simulated Gazebo environment using the TurtleBot 4 Lite as the robot platform. It consists of two rounds: Round 1 involves Catcher qualification against a standardized target, conducted online. Round 2 is a 1v1 knockout battle, conducted offline, with each team playing both Catcher and Runner roles for 3-minute innings. The arena is a 10m x 10m flat, enclosed 2D space with obstacles.