rec.autos.simulators

rars-digest 19950827

Dave Gym

rars-digest 19950827

by Dave Gym » Wed, 30 Aug 1995 04:00:00

Robot Auto Racing Simulation (RARS) Mailing List Digest 19950827

The rars-digest is a compilation of choice cuts from the RARS mailing list.
It's published once a week to comp.ai.games, rec.autos.simulators, and to
individual subscribers. Send mail to dgy...@gdcarc.co.uk with a subject of
'subscribe rars-digest' to subscribe, or 'unsubscribe rars-digest' to
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Contents

  race report
  RARS for OS/2 now available

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:             "Mitchell E. Timin" <m...@cac.psu.edu>
Subject:          race report
To:               rars-l...@netcom.com (Rars- List)
Date sent:        Mon, 21 Aug 1995 04:28:59 -0400 (EDT)

RARS Bi-weekly Race Report
& News About Upcoming Races
August 21, 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
August 20 Competitors
August 20 Race Commentary
August 20 Race Report
solo speeds
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Expert Class Point standings
Randy Saint         49 pts         (U.S.A.)       Ramdu
Jussi Pajala        31 pts         (Finland)      WappuCar & Bubble
Safai Ma            31 pts         (Canada)       Burns
Mike Inman          22 pts         (U.S.A.)       Indretti
Jeremy Weatherford  14 pts         (U.S.A.)       JXBot
Nicole Greiber      11 pts         (Germany)      Marvin
Bill Benedict       10 pts         (U.S.A.)       Rusty
Tim Battersby       10 pts         (Canada)       Emily
Oscar Gustafsson    10 pts         (Sweden)       OscCar2
Muir Lee Harding     6 pts         (U.S.A.)       racer_X
Tony Cabe            4 pts         (U.S.A.)       Bacon
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:
Tristrom Cooke      13 pt          (Australia)    Bingo1
Grant Reeve         11 pts         (New Zealand)  Piranha
Carl Burke           8 pts         (U.S.A.)       Blender2
Patrick Tierney      5 pts         (Canada)       Heath2
Robert Skupinski     5 pts         (U.S.A.)       Carski
Dennis Lew           4 pts         (Canada)       Menace
Larry Ludwick        3 pts         (U.S.A.)       MyHearse
Thomas Rooney        2 pts         (U.S.A.)       goCART
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Next Three RARS Race Meets

September 3:
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.

September 17 and October 1:
Stock Car Races!
All entries will be variations of the file STOCKER.CPP which
will be on the ftp site within 24 hrs.  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.
(Carski in the Aug. 6 race was like that.)  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
Laps: 25 each race
Software version:   0.63b (or latest variant of 0.60)
Surface type:       0
default starting order system.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Competitors, August 20 Novice Class:
Robert Skupinski    U.S.A.       Carski
Tony Cabe           U.S.A.       Bacon
Daniel Ash          U.S.A.       Sarah
Dennis Lew          Canada       Menace
Larry Ludwick       U.S.A.       MyHearse

Competitors, August 20, Expert Class:
Safai Ma            Canada         Burns
Jussi Pajala        Finland        Bubble
Randy Saint         U.S.A.         Ramdu
Mike Inman          U.S.A.         Indretti
Bill Benedict       U.S.A.         Rusty
Nicole Greiber      Germany        Marvin
Jeremy Weatherford  U.S.A.         JXBot3
Daniel Ash          U.S.A.         Sarah     (made expert today)
Tony Cabe           U.S.A.         Bacon     (made expert today)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Race Commentary by M. Timin

The play-by-play description of each race is very time and space
consuming, so I will give that only for the 1st and 6th expert races.
In any case it's impossible to really describe all of the action.
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.

The expert races were dominated by Randy Saint's Ramdu robot.  When
luck gave him a favored starting position he could not be caught.
When he didn't start in front he was often able to catch and pass
the slower cars.  Ramdu took first place in 4 out of the 6 races.

For the most part the solo speed capabilities predicted the final
outcome.  (see solo speeds below)  Bubble was an exception, doing
much less well than his speed capability would predict.  He appears
to be an over-cautious driver.

Ramdu was surpisingly faster than the others.  Observing the cars it
was clear that Ramdu's technique was unique.  He appears to keep to
the extreme outside on the straights, then throw the car into a wild
skid when nearing the curve, diving toward the inner rail.  He would
stay close to the inner rail for a large part of the curve, but then
drift to the outside when nearing the straight.

The type 0 surface that we use for the oval track is supposed to
simulate a loose surface.  It is interesting to note that real drivers
who compete on loose surfaces use a similar driving technique.

1st Expert Race:

row 1 - Ramdu
row 2 - Rusty, Indretti, Sarah, JXBot
row 3 - Marvin, Bubble, Bacon, Burns

Surprisingly, Ramdu didn't take advantage of his favored starting
position as Indretti and Sarah dove into the turn inside of him.
Leaving the 1st turn it was Sarah in the lead, followed by JXBot,
Rusty, Ramdu and Indretti.  JXBot and Sarah tangled before the 2nd
turn and Sara went into the dirt on the inside, letting JXBot take
the lead, followed by Rusty.  Rusty held the other cars back during
the turn, letting JXBot increase his lead.   After one lap its JXBot,
Rusty, Ramdu, Indretti & Marvin.  A close fight for second ensues
with Rusty, Bacon, Indretti and Burns all within half a car length of
each other.  Burns manages to get the inside on the next curve and
finishes lap two in second spot, followed by Rusty, Bacon, Indretti
and Ramdu.  Bacon passes Rusty on the next turn, to reach 3rd.  Ramdu
works his way forward, dueling briefly with Indretti and Rusty before
snaring the 4th postition.  After 4 laps Burns has almost caught
JXBot, while Ramdu nips at Bacon's Bacon.  Ramdu grabs the inside
from Bacon and passes him as they near the end of lap 5.   After
another lap it's Burns, Ramdu and JXBot close together, with Bacon a
couple of lengths behind.  Indretti, Sarah, Bubble, Rusty and Marvin
are well back.  Ramdu can't be stopped, and eventually passes Burns
for the lead.  Burns slows way down for several seconds, allowing JX
and Bacon to pass him.  With one lap remaining it's Ramdu, JX, Bacon,
Burns, Indretti, Sarah, Bubble, Rusty and Marvin.  Bacon and JXBot
duel for 2nd during the lap, but JXBot keeps ahead by 1/2 a car
length to retain 2nd place.

6th Expert Race:

row 1 - Burns
row 2 - Sarah, Bubble, Marvin, Indretti
row 3 - Bacon, JXbot, Rusty, Ramdu

Burns grabbed the lead, making use of his lucky position.  Indretti,
not going straight at the start, caused a tangle.  Escaping into
second place was Bubble, followed by Marvin, Sarah and Bacon.  Coming
out of the 1st turn they are all very close.  Sarah slips by on the
inside to grab 2nd place in the 2nd turn.  Coming out of the turn
its Burns, Sarah, Bubble, Bacon, JXBot, Ramdu, Marvin, Indretti and
Rusty.  Bubble and JXBot slip behind in the traffic of the next turn
leaving Burns, Sara, Bacon and Ramdu in the lead.   Burns extends his
lead while Sara, Bacon and Ramdu fight for 2nd.  Indretti has pulled
into a strong 5th spot.  They continue this way for a couple of laps,
until Ramdu and Bacon slow each other down allowing Sarah a good grip
on second place.  Ramdu gets ahead of Bacon, but Sarah turns out to be
hard to pass.  As they complete the 6th lap its Burns, Sarah, Ramdu,
Bacon, Bubble, Indretti, JXBot3, Marvin and Rusty.  Sarah leads Ramdu
by only half a car length.  Bubble and Indretti are in a duel for
5th, passing and re-passing.  Although Ramdu's top speed is faster
than Sarah's, her trajectory seems to be just right to prevent Ramdu
from passing.  During the ninth lap he cuts ahead on the inside of a
turn, then goes wide and she re-passes coming out of the turn.  Bacon
is very close behind them until the finish, with Sarah only about 2
feet ahead of Ramdu.  The finishing order is Burns, Sarah, Ramdu,
Bacon, Indretti, Bubble, JXBot, Marvin and Rusty.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The August 20 Results:
NOVICES:
5 cars for 10 laps.  The track was oval2.trk.  The drivers were:
Carski, MyHearse, Bacon, Menace, and Sarah.

The initial RVG seed was 18737.

results of race 1:
starting positions:
Menace, MyHearse, Sarah, Carski, and Bacon.

1    Bacon  avg spd 72       10 laps      0 damage  139 fuel   10 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.54    10 laps    342 damage  138 fuel    6 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 69.89     9 laps   2598 damage  140 fuel    4 pts accum
4 MyHearse  avg spd 67.72     9 laps    960 damage  140 fuel    3 pts accum
5   Carski  avg spd 67.57     9 laps    669 damage  140 fuel    2 pts accum

results of race 2:
starting positions:
Bacon, Carski, Sarah, MyHearse, and Menace.

1    Bacon  avg spd 70.77    10 laps   3656 damage  139 fuel   20 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.36    10 laps   3133 damage  138 fuel   12 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 69.7      9 laps   2038 damage  140 fuel    8 pts accum
4 MyHearse  avg spd 67.82     9 laps    339 damage  139 fuel    6 pts accum
5   Carski  avg spd 67.7      9 laps    117 damage  140 fuel    4 pts accum

results of race 3:
starting positions:
MyHearse, Bacon, Menace, Sarah, and Carski.

1    Bacon  avg spd 71.91    10 laps    356 damage  139 fuel   30 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.2     10 laps   2680 damage  138 fuel   18 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 69.59     9 laps   3801 damage  140 fuel   12 pts accum
4   Carski  avg spd 67.66     9 laps    904 damage  140 fuel    7 pts accum
5 MyHearse  avg spd 67.77     9 laps    539 damage  139 fuel    8 pts accum

results of race 4:
starting positions:
Carski, Sarah, Menace, Bacon, and MyHearse.

1    Bacon  avg spd 71.94    10 laps    386 damage  139 fuel   40 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.6     10 laps   1258 damage  138 fuel   24 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 69.96     9 laps   3450 damage  140 fuel   16 pts accum
4 MyHearse  avg spd 67.76     9 laps   1189 damage  140 fuel   11 pts accum
5   Carski  avg spd 67.86     9 laps   1167 damage  140 fuel    9 pts accum

results of race 5:
starting positions:
Menace, MyHearse, Carski, Bacon, and Sarah.

1    Sarah  avg spd 70.6     10 laps      0 damage  138 fuel   34 pts accum
2    Bacon  avg spd 70.61    10 laps   3577 damage  139 fuel   46 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 69.38     9 laps   5686 damage  140 fuel   20 pts accum
4 MyHearse  avg spd 67.72     9 laps    627 damage  139 fuel   14 pts accum
5   Carski  avg spd 67.54     9 laps   1096 damage  140 fuel   11 pts accum

results of race 6:
starting positions:
Sarah, Bacon, Carski, MyHearse, and Menace.

1    Bacon  avg spd 72.04    10 laps    384 damage  139 fuel   56 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.62    10 laps    343 damage  138 fuel   40 pts accum
3   Menace  avg spd 70.01     9 laps    363 damage  140 fuel   24 pts accum
4 MyHearse  avg spd 67.82     9 laps    391 damage  139 fuel   17 pts accum
5   Carski  avg spd 67.62     9 laps    624 damage  140 fuel   13 pts accum

EXPERTS:
9 cars for 10 laps.  The track was oval2.trk.  The drivers were:
Indretti, Rusty, Marvin, Burns, Ramdu, Bubble, Bacon, Sarah,
and JXBot3.

The initial RVG seed was 36065.

results of race 1:
starting positions:
Burns, Bacon, Bubble, Marvin, JXBot3, Sarah, Indretti, Rusty,
and Ramdu.

1    Ramdu  avg spd 70.92    10 laps   6478 damage  136 fuel   10 pts accum
2   JXBot3  avg spd 70.27    10 laps   4706 damage  138 fuel    6 pts accum
3    Bacon  avg spd 70.57     9 laps   3669 damage  139 fuel    4 pts accum
4    Burns  avg spd 70.28     9 laps  15674 damage  140 fuel    3 pts accum
5 Indretti  avg spd 68.91     9 laps   7540 damage  137 fuel    2 pts accum
6    Sarah  avg spd 68.52     9 laps  23876 damage  138 fuel    1 pts accum
7   Bubble  avg spd 68.89     9 laps   3959 damage  139 fuel    0 pts accum
8    Rusty  avg spd 67.45     9 laps   3913 damage  142 fuel    0 pts accum
9   Marvin  avg spd 67.49     9 laps  13629 damage  139 fuel    0 pts accum

results of race 2:
starting positions:
Ramdu, Rusty, Indretti, Sarah, JXBot3, Marvin, Bubble, Bacon,
and Burns.

1    Burns  avg spd 72.47    10 laps   2594 damage  139 fuel   13 pts accum
2    Ramdu  avg spd 69.94    10 laps  16860 damage  136 fuel   16 pts accum
3 Indretti  avg spd 69.7      9 laps   3803 damage  137 fuel    6 pts accum
4    Bacon  avg spd 69.05     9 laps  18473 damage  139 fuel    7 pts accum
5    Sarah  avg spd 68.59     9 laps   9991 damage  138 fuel    3 pts accum
6   Bubble  avg spd 67.81     9 laps   7285 damage  139 fuel    1 pts accum
7    Rusty  avg spd 66.44     9 laps  18379 damage  142 fuel    0 pts accum
8   Marvin  avg spd 64.77     9 laps   5540 damage  139 fuel    0 pts accum
9   JXBot3  avg spd 66.33     8 laps  30277 damage  139 fuel    6 pts accum

results of race 3:
starting positions:
Indretti, JXBot3, Marvin, Sarah, Bacon, Rusty, Bubble, Burns,
and Ramdu.

1    Ramdu  avg spd 75.02    10 laps    580 damage  136 fuel   26 pts accum
2    Bacon  avg spd 71.87    10 laps    851 damage  139 fuel   13 pts accum
3    Sarah  avg spd 70.24     9 laps   5310 damage  138 fuel    7 pts accum
4    Burns  avg spd 70.28     9 laps  14390 damage  141 fuel   16 pts accum
5   JXBot3  avg spd 69.74     9 laps  10830 damage  138 fuel    8 pts accum
6 Indretti  avg spd 69.69     9 laps   7025 damage  137 fuel    7 pts accum
7   Marvin  avg spd 68.89     9 laps   1821 damage  139 fuel    0 pts accum
8   Bubble  avg spd 68.72     9 laps   3045 damage  140 fuel    1 pts accum
9    Rusty  avg spd 66.76     9 laps  11337 damage  143 fuel    0 pts accum

results of race 4:
starting positions:
Ramdu, Burns, Bubble, Rusty, Bacon, Sarah, Marvin, JXBot3,
and Indretti.

1    Ramdu  avg spd 73.21    10 laps  18723 damage  136 fuel   36 pts accum
2    Bacon  avg spd 71.56    10 laps    927 damage  139 fuel   19 pts accum
3 Indretti  avg spd 70.07     9 laps   1360 damage  137 fuel   11 pts accum
4   Bubble  avg spd 70.07     9 laps  16527 damage  139 fuel    4 pts accum
5    Sarah  avg spd 69.58     9 laps   6136 damage  138 fuel    9 pts accum
6    Burns  avg spd 69.65     9 laps  16535 damage  141 fuel   17 pts accum
7   Marvin  avg spd 68.66     9 laps   3861 damage  139 fuel    0 pts accum
8   JXBot3  avg spd 67.32     9 laps  11691 damage  138 fuel    8 pts accum
9    Rusty  avg spd 66.94     9 laps   5089 damage  143 fuel    0 pts accum

results of race 5:
starting positions:
Burns, Sarah, Bubble, Marvin, Indretti, Bacon, JXBot3, Rusty,
and Ramdu.

1    Ramdu  avg spd 73.95    10 laps   7596 damage  136 fuel   46 pts accum
2    Bacon  avg spd 71.73    10 laps   1802 damage  139 fuel   25 pts accum
3   Marvin  avg spd 69.7      9 laps    353 damage  139 fuel    4 pts accum
4   Bubble  avg spd 69.62     9 laps   1325 damage  140 fuel    7 pts accum
5    Burns  avg spd 69.62     9 laps  20480 damage  140 fuel   19 pts accum
6 Indretti  avg spd 69.18     9 laps   6823 damage  137 fuel   12 pts accum
7    Sarah  avg spd 68.88     9 laps  10036 damage  139 fuel    9 pts accum
8   JXBot3  avg spd 68.27     9 laps  22562 damage  138 fuel    8 pts accum
9    Rusty  avg spd 67.25     9 laps  10025 damage  143 fuel    0 pts accum

results of race 6:
starting positions:
Ramdu, Rusty, JXBot3, Bacon, Indretti, Marvin, Bubble, Sarah,
and Burns.

1    Burns  avg spd 72.45    10 laps   3061 damage  140 fuel   29 pts accum
2    Sarah  avg spd 70.57    10 laps   1445 damage  138 fuel   15 pts accum
3    Ramdu  avg spd 70.71    10 laps  19109 damage  136 fuel   50 pts accum
4    Bacon  avg spd 70.49     9 laps   6249 damage  139 fuel   28 pts accum
5 Indretti  avg spd 69.23     9 laps   3876 damage  137 fuel   14 pts accum
6   JXBot3  avg spd 69.07     9 laps  18449 damage  138 fuel    9 pts accum
7   Bubble  avg spd 68.92     9 laps   3694 damage  139 fuel    7 pts accum
8   Marvin  avg spd 68.23     9 laps  10604 damage  139 fuel    4 pts accum
9    Rusty  avg spd 67.48     9 laps   6770 damage  142 fuel    0 pts accum

Novice Points:
today     season pts
1   Bacon     56 pts       10
2   Sarah     40 pts        6
3   Menace    24 pts        4
4   MyHearse  17 pts        3
5   Carski    13 pts        2

Expert Points:
1    Ramdu   50 pts        10
2    Burns   29 pts         6
3    Bacon   28 pts         4
4    Sarah   15 pts         3
5 Indretti   14 pts         2
6   JXBot3    9 pts         1
7   Bubble    7 pts         0
8   Marvin    4 pts         0
9    Rusty    0 pts         0
--------------------------------------------------------------------
solo speeds:
Ramdu  avg spd 75.21     7 laps      0 damage  141 fuel
Burns  avg spd 72.56     7 laps      0 damage  143 fuel
Bubble  avg spd 72        7 laps      0 damage  142 fuel
Bacon  avg spd 71.98     7 laps      0 damage  142 fuel
Sarah  avg spd 70.58     7 laps      0 damage  141 fuel
JXBot3  avg spd 70.45     7 laps      0 damage  141 fuel
Indretti  avg spd 70.39     7 laps      0 damage  140 fuel
Menace  avg spd 70.28     7 laps      0 damage  143 fuel
Marvin  avg spd 69.84     7 laps      0 damage  142 fuel
Rusty  avg spd 67.98     7 laps      0 damage  144 fuel
Carski  avg spd 67.91     7 laps      0 damage  143 fuel
MyHearse  avg spd 67.91     7 laps      0 damage  142 fuel
--------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:             Nicole.Grei...@FernUni-Hagen.de (Nicole Greiber)
To:               rars-l...@netcom.com
Subject:          RARS for OS/2 now available
Date sent:        Sun, 20 Aug 1995 11:45:43 +0100

Hello all,

today I've uploaded the file raros2_1.zip into the directory
u4/pub/ijs/uploads on ftp.best.com. They should be moved soon
into an OS2 directory below the RARS directory.

For further information, please contact me or read the file
rars_os2.doc which is in the zipfile.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rars-digest is compiled and published by (Dave `Gizmo' Gymer)
                  dgy...@gdcarc.co.uk  http://www.mal.com/~dgymer

# Dave "Gizmo" Gymer  dgy...@gdcarc.co.uk  http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/
/* Plug and Play? More like Plug and Pray! */


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