& News About Upcoming Races
June 12, 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. For more information e-mail to m...@cac.psu.edu.
Contents
Authors Point Standings
Upcoming Races
June 11 Competitors
June 11 Race Commentary
June 11 Race Report
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Expert Class Point standings
Jussi Pajala 22 pts (Finland)
Randy Saint 13 pts (U.S.A.)
Tim Battersby 10 pts (Canada)
Safai Ma 10 pts (Canada)
Bill Benedict 9 pts (U.S.A.)
Mike Inman 6 pts (U.S.A.)
Muir Lee Harding 6 pts (U.S.A.)
Novice Class Points:
Oscar Gustafsson 14 pts (Sweden)
Grant Reeve 8 pts (New Zealand)
Tristrom Cooke 7 pt (Australia)
Carl Burke 6 pts (U.S.A.)
Patrick Tierney 5 pts (Canada)
Thomas Rooney 2 pts (U.S.A.)
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The Next Six RARS Race Meets
For the next twelve weeks we will have the oval track races three
times and the road races on the June 11 tracks three times. This is
to give the authors time to master passing, collision avoidance and
the geometry of the two road race tracks, S1.TRK and S2.TRK.
There is live race commentary on IRC channel #RARS, 5:00 PM EDT.
June 25, July 23, August 20:
No. of races: 6 novice and 6 expert
Track: oval2
Laps: 10 each race
Software version: 0.62 (or latest variant of 0.60)
Surface type: 0
no practice on race day, practice at home all you want!
The default starting order system will be used, i.e. alternating
random and reversed.
July 9, August 6, 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: 0.62 (or latest variant of 0.60)
Surface Type: 1
no practice, random starting order.
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June 11 Race Report:
Competitors, Novice Class:
Grant Reeve New Zealand Piranha
Oscar Gustavsson Sweden OscCar2
Tristrom Cooke Australia Bingo1
Carl Burke U.S.A. Blender2
Competitors, Expert Class:
Bill Benedict U.S.A. Rusty
Safai Ma Canada Burns
Jussi Pajala Finland WappuCar
Randy Saint U.S.A. Ramdu
Mike Inman U.S.A. Indretti
The novices found S1.TRK to be too much for them! None could finish
more than 5 laps. Piranha was clearly the fastest car by far, but
this race was determined by distance completed, not speed. The novices
did better on S2.TRK, with all but Piranha able to go the distance.
There was no clear winner on the S1 races, but OscCar2 dominated the
races on S2. Point totals gave first place for the day to OscCar2.
After the novices races were over it seemed to me that none of the
novices were ready to be advanced to expert. Accordingly, I did not
enter OscCar2 in the expert races. I now feel that that was a
mistake, because now that the races are over, it seems that OscCar2
compares favorably with some of the expert drivers. Only WappuCar
and Ramdu, among the experts, were able to complete 25 laps on both
tracks. If Oscar Gustavsson wishes to move into the expert class, I
will do that. OTOH, he may prefer to stay a novice a little longer
in order to (maybe) take a first place in the novice class.
The expert races were dominated by WappuCar, which worked its way into
the lead early in every race, and kept it. Ramdu had to fight with
Burns for 2nd place, but only for a while, as Burns was prone to
contact the walls and damage himself. Ramdu and WappuCar were the
only robots capable of learning, and they were both able to increase
their average speed by over one mph during the 200 lap practice
session, on each track. The robot Burns was very fast, and held the
lead briefly, and 2nd place for considerable time in several races.
But it couldn't avoid contact with the walls of the track, and was
therefore eventually damaged beyond repair.
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Novice Races
4 cars for 25 laps. The track was s1.trk. The drivers were:
Blender2, Bingo1, Piranha, and OscCar2.
The initial RVG seed was 2834.
results of race 1:
starting positions:
Bingo1, Blender2, Piranha, and OscCar2.
1 Piranha avg spd 71.11 5 laps 30090 damage 131 fuel 10 pts accum
2 Bingo1 avg spd 63.32 5 laps 30318 damage 127 fuel 6 pts accum
3 OscCar2 avg spd 67.25 3 laps 30262 damage 137 fuel 4 pts accum
4 Blender2 avg spd 0 0 laps 30968 damage 148 fuel 3 pts accum
results of race 2:
starting positions:
OscCar2, Piranha, Blender2, and Bingo1.
1 Bingo1 avg spd 63.35 5 laps 30197 damage 127 fuel 16 pts accum
2 Piranha avg spd 71.26 4 laps 30043 damage 134 fuel 16 pts accum
3 OscCar2 avg spd 67.1 3 laps 30566 damage 137 fuel 8 pts accum
4 Blender2 avg spd 0 0 laps 30191 damage 148 fuel 6 pts accum
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4 cars for 25 laps. The track was s2.trk. The drivers were:
Blender2, Bingo1, Piranha, and OscCar2.
The initial RVG seed was 17486.
results of race 1:
starting positions:
Piranha, OscCar2, Blender2, and Bingo1.
1 OscCar2 avg spd 60.13 25 laps 768 damage 62 fuel 10 pts accum
2 Blender2 avg spd 59.28 25 laps 222 damage 58 fuel 6 pts accum
3 Bingo1 avg spd 57.07 24 laps 211 damage 55 fuel 4 pts accum
4 Piranha avg spd 63.45 1 laps 30146 damage 142 fuel 3 pts accum
results of race 2:
starting positions:
Bingo1, Blender2, OscCar2, and Piranha.
1 OscCar2 avg spd 59.82 25 laps 10247 damage 62 fuel 20 pts accum
2 Blender2 avg spd 59.28 25 laps 5155 damage 59 fuel 12 pts accum
3 Bingo1 avg spd 57.05 24 laps 752 damage 55 fuel 8 pts accum
4 Piranha avg spd 63.03 1 laps 30123 damage 143 fuel 6 pts accum
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Overall Results of Novice Races:
day pts season pts
1st place OscCar2 28 10
2nd place Bingo1 24 6
3rd place Piranha 22 4
4th placd Blender2 18 3
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Expert Races
5 cars for 25 laps. The track was s1.trk. The drivers were:
WappuCar, Ramdu, Burns, Rusty, and Indretti.
The initial RVG seed was 30850.
200 practice laps were requested.
results of race 1:
starting positions:
Rusty, Indretti, Ramdu, Burns, and WappuCar.
1 WappuCar avg spd 74.03 27 laps 6996 damage 71 fuel 10 pts accum
2 Ramdu avg spd 68.13 25 laps 4416 damage 66 fuel 6 pts accum
3 Indretti avg spd 67 24 laps 5263 damage 76 fuel 4 pts accum
4 Burns avg spd 71.96 12 laps 30099 damage 114 fuel 3 pts accum
5 Rusty avg spd 62.15 1 laps 30152 damage 145 fuel 2 pts accum
results of race 2:
starting positions:
WappuCar, Burns, Ramdu, Indretti, and Rusty.
1 WappuCar avg spd 74.27 27 laps 654 damage 71 fuel 20 pts accum
2 Ramdu avg spd 68.17 25 laps 6147 damage 67 fuel 12 pts accum
3 Indretti avg spd 67.03 24 laps 1154 damage 76 fuel 8 pts accum
4 Burns avg spd 71.91 10 laps 30466 damage 119 fuel 6 pts accum
5 Rusty avg spd 62.25 1 laps 30468 damage 145 fuel 4 pts accum
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5 cars for 25 laps. The track was s2.trk. The drivers were:
WappuCar, Ramdu, Burns, Rusty, and Indretti.
The initial RVG seed was 28777.
200 practice laps were requested.
results of race 1:
starting positions:
WappuCar, Indretti, Ramdu, Burns, and Rusty.
1 WappuCar avg spd 67.29 26 laps 192 damage 63 fuel 10 pts accum
2 Ramdu avg spd 62.36 25 laps 11998 damage 60 fuel 6 pts accum
3 Indretti avg spd 59.66 7 laps 30029 damage 121 fuel 4 pts accum
4 Burns avg spd 61.58 2 laps 30278 damage 140 fuel 3 pts accum
5 Rusty avg spd 60.01 2 laps 30288 damage 142 fuel 2 pts accum
results of race 2:
starting positions:
Rusty, Burns, Ramdu, Indretti, and WappuCar.
1 WappuCar avg spd 67.29 27 laps 3581 damage 63 fuel 20 pts accum
2 Ramdu avg spd 62.31 25 laps 14766 damage 60 fuel 12 pts accum
3 Indretti avg spd 59.6 6 laps 30050 damage 124 fuel 8 pts accum
4 Burns avg spd 61.59 2 laps 30008 damage 140 fuel 6 pts accum
5 Rusty avg spd 58.23 1 laps 30094 damage 145 fuel 4 pts accum
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Overall Results of Expert Races:
day pts season pts
1st place WappuCar 40 10
2nd place Ramdu 24 6
3rd place Indretti 16 4
4th placc Burns 12 3
5th place Rusty 8 2
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