rec.autos.simulators

RARS Road Race Results

Mitchell E. Tim

RARS Road Race Results

by Mitchell E. Tim » Tue, 05 Sep 1995 04:00:00

           RARS Bi-weekly Race Report
           & News About Upcoming Races
               September 3, 1995

RARS is the Robot Auto Racing Simulation, a competition for
programmers and an on-going challenge for practicioners of Artificial
Intelligence and real-time adaptive optimal control.  It consists of
a simulation of the physics of cars racing on a track, a graphic
display of the race, and a separate control program (robot "driver")
for each car.  All RARS software and activities are free and open to
the public.  It runs on DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX, Linux, and several
other platforms.  For more information e-mail to m...@cac.psu.edu.

                 Contents

          Authors Point Standings
          Upcoming Races
          September 3 Competitors
          September 3 Race Commentary
          September 3 Race Report
          solo speeds
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      Expert Class Point standings
Randy Saint         49 pts         (U.S.A.)       Ramdu
Jussi Pajala        33.5           (Finland)      WappuCar & Bubble
Safai Ma            32 pts         (Canada)       Burns
Mike Inman          24.5           (U.S.A.)       Indretti
Oscar Gustafsson    20 pts         (Sweden)       OscCar2
Nicole Greiber      15 pts         (Germany)      Marvin
Jeremy Weatherford  14 pts         (U.S.A.)       JXBot
Bill Benedict       10 pts         (U.S.A.)       Rusty
Tim Battersby       10 pts         (Canada)       Emily
Tony Cabe           10 pts         (U.S.A.)       Bacon
Muir Lee Harding     6 pts         (U.S.A.)       racer_X
Daniel Ash           3 pts         (U.S.A.)       Sarah
George Doster        2 pts         (U.S.A.)       JayMan1
Nathaniel Thurston   2 pts         (U.S.A.)       Phase

          Novice Class Points:
Dennis Lew          14 pts         (Canada)       Menace
Tristrom Cooke      13 pt          (Australia)    Bingo1
Grant Reeve         11 pts         (New Zealand)  Piranha
Robert Skupinski    11 pts         (U.S.A.)       Carski
Carl Burke           8 pts         (U.S.A.)       Blender2
Larry Ludwick        7 pts         (U.S.A.)       MyHearse
Patrick Tierney      5 pts         (Canada)       Heath2
Thomas Rooney        2 pts         (U.S.A.)       goCART
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            The Next Three RARS Race Meets

September 17 and October 1:     Stock Car Races!

     All entries will be variations of the file STOCKER.CPP which
     is on the ftp site.  The only permissible variations are
     changes to the value of any numbers appearing in the source
     file, both integers and floating point.  The driver is
     essentially the Arelys robot with the passing code from
     JackBot.  The present set of experts will continue as the
     expert class.
     No. of races: 4 novice and 4 expert
     Track:  V03.TRK and TIMIN.TRK, 2 races each (for each class)
     Laps: 25 each race
     Software version:   0.63b (or latest variant of 0.60)
     Surface type:       0
     default starting order system.

October 15:
     No. of races        2 novice and 2 expert
     Tracks:             S1.TRK and S2.TRK, one race on each
     Laps: 80 each race
     Software version:   0.63b (or latest variant of 0.60)
     Surface Type:       1
     no practice, random starting order.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Competitors, September 3, Novice Class:
Dennis Lew          Canada       Menace
Larry Ludwick       U.S.A.       MyHearse
Robert Skupinski    U.S.A.       Carski

Competitors, September 3, Expert Class:
Daniel Ash          U.S.A.         Sarah  
Bill Benedict       U.S.A.         Rusty
Tony Cabe           U.S.A.         Bacon  
Nicole Greiber      Germany        Marvin
Oscar Gustafsson    Sweden         OscCar2  
Mike Inman          U.S.A.         Indretti
Safai Ma            Canada         Burns
Jussi Pajala        Finland        WappuCar
Randy Saint         U.S.A.         Ramdu
Jeremy Weatherford  U.S.A.         JXBot3        
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               Race Commentary by M. Timin

OscCar2, by Oscar Gustafsson of Sweden, was the overall winner in the
expert class, taking first place on the S1 track, and second place on
the S2 track.  A new version of Bacon, by Tony Cabe took 1st on S2.
Four weeks ago OscCar2 took first place on both of these tracks. We
wonder, will he continue to dominate S1 and S2 when we again race on
these tracks, on October 15?

Success went to the steady in today's long road races, but ability to
quickly pass a slower car was also very important.  There was a lot
of passing and re-passing during all of the expert races, and many
duels for a spot near the front.  Sometimes a fast driver will get
confused by the traffic and go into the dirt briefly, losing a
position or two, and accumulating damage.  Damage defeated most
of the competitors.  Of the ten experts competing, only three
finished the race on S1, and only two on S2!  

WappuCar held the lead for many laps in both expert races.  His
problems began when he began to lap the slower cars.  He seemed
unable to pass two slower cars that were staying close together.  In
the second race Bacon was able to pass Wappucar while the latter was
held back by slower cars.  WappuCar spent so many laps behind two
slow cars that he couldn't catch up to Bacon, even with his substantial
solo speed advantage.

For the most part the solo speed capabilities did not predict the final
outcome.  (see solo speeds below)  

It appears that for very long races on complex tracks like S1 and S2,
High speed is not the most important attribute.  The ability to avoid
damage and to quickly pass slower cars are the most important.  We
note that Marvin, the slowest of the expert drivers when alone on the
track, managed a third place overall among the ten experts.  OscCar2,
the overall winner, was right in the middle in solo speed ability.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Novice Races:

3 cars for 80 laps.  The track was s1.trk.  The drivers were:
Carski, MyHearse, and Menace.
The initial RVG seed was 47875.
 1   Menace  avg spd 67.93    80 laps   4641 damage   34 fuel   10 pts
 2   Carski  avg spd 67.24    80 laps   6262 damage   65 fuel    6 pts
 3 MyHearse  avg spd 58.75    19 laps  30497 damage   63 fuel    4 pts

3 cars for 80 laps.  The track was s2.trk.  The drivers were:
Carski, MyHearse, and Menace.
The initial RVG seed was 59940.
 1   Menace  avg spd 57.74    14 laps   8611 damage   94 fuel   10 pts
 2   Carski  avg spd 57.33     3 laps  30297 damage  136 fuel    6 pts
 3 MyHearse  avg spd 48.69     1 laps  30266 damage  142 fuel    4 pts

Expert Races:

10 cars for 80 laps.  The track was s1.trk.  The drivers were:
Indretti, Rusty, Bacon, Marvin, JXBot3, Ramdu, OscCar2, Burns,
Sarah, and WappuCar.
The initial RVG seed was 10603.
starting positions: JXBot3, Burns, WappuCar, Rusty, Indretti, Marvin,
OscCar2, Ramdu, Bacon, and Sarah.
 1  OscCar2  avg spd 68.83    82 laps  23067 damage   44 fuel   10 pts
 2 Indretti  avg spd 66.93    80 laps  24176 damage   63 fuel    6 pts
 3   Marvin  avg spd 66.87    79 laps  28018 damage   79 fuel    4 pts
 4    Burns  avg spd 71.51    47 laps  30121 damage    3 fuel    3 pts
 5 WappuCar  avg spd 70.98    35 laps  30170 damage   44 fuel    2 pts
 6    Rusty  avg spd 69.14    32 laps  30044 damage   68 fuel    1 pts
 7   JXBot3  avg spd 72.9     22 laps  30090 damage   81 fuel    0 pts
 8    Sarah  avg spd 68.73    16 laps  30432 damage   85 fuel    0 pts
 9    Bacon  avg spd 69.59     3 laps  30327 damage  139 fuel    0 pts
10    Ramdu  avg spd 67.35     1 laps  30052 damage  143 fuel    0 pts

10 cars for 80 laps.  The track was s2.trk.  The drivers were:
Indretti, Rusty, Bacon, Marvin, JXBot3, Ramdu, OscCar2, Burns,
Sarah, and WappuCar.
The initial RVG seed was 62962.
starting positions: Ramdu, Marvin, Indretti, Burns, Bacon,
JXBot3, OscCar2, WappuCar, Sarah, and Rusty.

 1    Bacon  avg spd 64.31    83 laps  29354 damage   11 fuel   10 pts
 2  OscCar2  avg spd 61.7     80 laps  23201 damage   12 fuel    6 pts
 3 WappuCar  avg spd 61.62    49 laps  30273 damage  126 fuel    4 pts
 4   Marvin  avg spd 59.09    48 laps  30399 damage    0 fuel    3 pts
 5    Rusty  avg spd 59.04    37 laps  30091 damage   33 fuel    2 pts
 6    Ramdu  avg spd 67.07    24 laps  30121 damage   61 fuel    1 pts
 7    Burns  avg spd 65.17    21 laps  30128 damage   79 fuel    0 pts
 8    Sarah  avg spd 61.38    14 laps  30316 damage   94 fuel    0 pts
 9   JXBot3  avg spd 64.76    11 laps  32150 damage  113 fuel    0 pts
10 Indretti  avg spd 59.53     5 laps  30096 damage  128 fuel    0 pts
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Novice Points:
               today     season pts
 1   Menace    20 pts       10
 2   Carski    12 pts        6
 3   MyHearse   8 pts        4

Expert Points:                        
 1    OscCar2 16 pts        10
 2    Bacon   10 pts         6
 3   Marvin    7 pts         4
 4&5 WappuCar  6 pts         2.5
 4&5 Indretti  6 pts         2.5
 6    Burns    3 pts         1
 7    Rusty    3 pts         0
 8    Ramdu    1 pts         0
 9    Sarah    0 pts         0
 10  JXBot3    0 pts         0
--------------------------------------------------------------------
solo speeds on S1.TRK:
    Ramdu  avg spd 77.08     7 laps   1474 damage  128 fuel
 WappuCar  avg spd 76.14     7 laps      0 damage  131 fuel
    Bacon  avg spd 75        7 laps      0 damage  129 fuel
   JXBot3  avg spd 73.28     7 laps      0 damage  128 fuel
    Burns  avg spd 71.55     7 laps      0 damage  127 fuel
    Rusty  avg spd 69.81     7 laps      0 damage  132 fuel
  OscCar2  avg spd 69.07     7 laps      0 damage  127 fuel
    Sarah  avg spd 68.91     7 laps      0 damage  123 fuel
   Menace  avg spd 68.04     7 laps      0 damage  126 fuel
   Carski  avg spd 67.39     7 laps      0 damage  129 fuel
   Marvin  avg spd 67.1      7 laps      0 damage  130 fuel
 Indretti  avg spd 67.02     7 laps      0 damage  128 fuel
 MyHearse  avg spd 58.76     7 laps      0 damage  118 fuel

solo speeds on S2.TRK:
 WappuCar  avg spd 71.86     7 laps      0 damage  128 fuel
    Ramdu  avg spd 67.37     7 laps      0 damage  124 fuel
    Burns  avg spd 65.62     7 laps      0 damage  126 fuel
   JXBot3  avg spd 65.24     7 laps   5460 damage  127 fuel
    Bacon  avg spd 64.61     7 laps      0 damage  125 fuel
  OscCar2  avg spd 61.7      7 laps      0 damage  124 fuel
    Sarah  avg spd 61.65     7 laps      0 damage  122 fuel
    Rusty  avg spd 60.62     7 laps      0 damage  127 fuel
 Indretti  avg spd 59.64     7 laps  28033 damage  124 fuel
   Marvin  avg spd 59.03     7 laps      0 damage  127 fuel
   Menace  avg spd 57.9      7 laps      0 damage  122 fuel
   Carski  avg spd 57.81     4 laps  30360 damage  132 fuel
 MyHearse  avg spd 50.13     1 laps  30338 damage  141 fuel
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