Train without a robot: develop your Rescue Line logic in the browser

The biggest barrier to Rescue Line is not the code. It is the cost: a practice field runs into the hundreds of euros, a competitive robot into the thousands. That keeps a lot of schools out. So we built something that costs nothing to try.

What you can do in the browser

Our free Rescue Line Simulator runs entirely in a browser tab, no install, works on a school Chromebook:

• Build courses: straights, curves, junctions with green markers, gaps, obstacles, ramps, seesaws, and an evacuation zone with victims. Courses share via a link.
• Program a robot in JavaScript or Python, with an API modeled on how real Rescue Line robots perceive the world: a line sensor bar, color sensors, a distance sensor, a gripper, and a zone camera.
• Score your runs, with automatic lack-of-progress exactly like a real tournament.

What it will not do

A simulator will never replace a real robot. Motors stall, sensors drift, batteries sag, and none of that happens in a browser. But the hard thinking transfers one to one: the control loop that follows the line, the state machine that handles intersections and obstacles, the strategy that clears the evacuation zone. A team can arrive at its first real field with working logic instead of a blank file.

Start now

Open it at sim.washingmachine.click, load a map, press Run, and read the example robot. Then build your own. It is free and open source: use it, break it, send improvements.

More on our resources page.