One major application of RoboCup technologies is search and rescue in large scale disaster situations. RoboCup initiated RoboCupRescue project to specifically promote research in socially significant issues. RoboCupRescue includes real robot and simulation leagues.

In the Rescue Robot league, robots explore a specially constructed disaster site about the size of a small house. The disaster site includes mannequins with various signs of life, such as waving hands, shouting noises and heat, hidden amongst stairs, platforms and building rubble. The robots, some under human control, must find and approach the victims, identify their signs of life and produce a map of the site showing where the victims are located. The aim is to provide human rescuers with enough information to safely perform a rescue. Each team is scored based on the quality of its maps, the accuracy of the victim information and the number of victims found.

The Virtual Robots competition expands the disaster site to a city block-sized disaster area. To explore such a large area, teams of cooperative robots must now be deployed. These robots will face similar challenges and scoring metrics to those in the physical league. In addition, the simulated environment allows for additional hazards and challenges that would not be possible in a physical competition environment.

RoboCup@Home focuses on real-world applications and human-machine interaction with autonomous robots. The aim is to foster the development of useful robotic applications that can assist humans in everyday life.

The league consists of a series of independent tests. The test scenario will be a home environment. The tests will change over the years to become more advanced. Performance measurement is based on a score derived from competition rules and evaluation by a jury.

RoboCupJunior is a robotics event for elementary and high school students that provides a consistent challenge from year to year, with very open ended rules. RoboCupJunior includes three challenges: Soccer, Rescue, and Dance.

The soccer division has teams of two robots on a special playing field. The object of the game, as in real soccer, is to put the ball in the other teams goal and keep it out of yours.

In the rescue challenge, teams build a robot to follow a line through an obstacle course and find stranded victims scattered throughout. The robot with the most accuracy in finding the people wins.

The dance event is the most open of all the challenges. It lets teams express their creativity by creating a robot that dances to music. Robots are judged on programming, construction, costume, choreography, creativity, originality, and entertainment value.