Robot Auto Racing Simulation (RARS) Mailing List Digest 19950730
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
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Contents
WinRARS 06b is on the ftp site
jly23bot.zip
Race Report
comp.progamming.contests
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Date sent: Fri, 21 Jul 95 11:33:30 PDT
From: Muir Lee Harding <[email hidden]>
Subject: WinRARS 06b is on the ftp site
To: [email hidden]
Hello All,
I have updated winrars with the RARS 63b code fixes, and uploaded it to
ftp.best.com\pub\ijs\uploads. Included are some minor bug fixes, the
addition of drag-and-drop driver loading (pretty cool!), and the 'options'
menu now includes and couple of functional items (I've 'greyed out' what
isn't implemented yet).
I have also uploaded new versions of the standard driver dlls. These
versions don't use the static init_flag, so they can be run multiple times
in one session. WappuCar and Indretti have been left out due to thier
size.
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From: "Mitchell E. Timin" <[email hidden]>
Subject: jly23bot.zip
To: [email hidden] (Jivko Koltchev),
[email hidden] (Rars- List)
Date sent: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 17:22:20 -0400 (EDT)
Hello,
The file jly23bot.zip, now in uploads, should be placed in the
robots subdirectory. It has the robots from yesterdays races, plus
the CARZ.CPP file and the race report.
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From: "Mitchell E. Timin" <[email hidden]>
Subject: Race Report
To: [email hidden] (Rars- List)
Date sent: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 17:14:47 -0400 (EDT)
RARS Bi-weekly Race Report
& News About Upcoming Races
July 24, 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 [email hidden].
Contents
Authors Point Standings
Upcoming Races
July 23 Competitors
July 23 Race Commentary
July 23 Race Report
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Expert Class Point standings
Randy Saint 37 pts (U.S.A.) Ramdu
Jussi Pajala 25 pts (Finland) WappuCar & Bubble
Safai Ma 22 pts (Canada) Burns
Mike Inman 20 pts (U.S.A.) Indretti
Jeremy Weatherford 12 pts (U.S.A.) JXBot
Bill Benedict 10 pts (U.S.A.) Rusty
Tim Battersby 10 pts (Canada) Emily
Nicole Greiber 7 pts (Germany) Marvin
Muir Lee Harding 6 pts (U.S.A.) racer_X
George Doster 2 pts (U.S.A.) JayMan1
Nathaniel Thurston 2 pts (U.S.A.) Phase
Novice Class Points:
Oscar Gustafsson 22 pts (Sweden) OscCar2
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
Thomas Rooney 2 pts (U.S.A.) goCART
Daniel Ash (not yet raced) (U.S.A.) Sarah
Robert Skupinski (not yet raced) (U.S.A.) Carski
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The Next Four RARS Race Meets
August 6, and again on 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.
August 20:
No. of races: 6 novice and 6 expert
Track: oval2
Laps: 10 each race
Software version: 0.63b (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.
September 17:
To Be Announced.....
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Competitors, July 23, Novice Class:
Daniel Ash U.S.A. Sarah
Robert Skupinski U.S.A. Carski
(no novice races were run due to insufficient entries)
Competitors, July 23, Expert Class:
Safai Ma Canada Burns
Jussi Pajala Finland Bubble
Randy Saint U.S.A. Ramdu
Mike Inman U.S.A. Indretti
Nicole Greiber Germany Marvin
Jeremy Weatherford U.S.A. JXBot3
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Race Commentary by M. Timin
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 usually able to catch and pass
the slower cars without serious damage. In fact Ramdu took first
place in 5 out of the 6 races.
There was a lot of passing and re-passing during all of the races,
and many duels for a spot near the front. These mostly did not
involve Ramdu, who was usually well out in front. In one race,
however, Burns was ahead with Ramdu on his tail. Three times Ramdu
dove for the inside at the start of the curve, momentarily gaining
the lead, but each time Ramdu would go wide leaving the turn and
Burns would re-pass on the inside. Ramdu persisted however, and
eventually wrested the lead from Burns.
Most of the cars were able to handle the traffic well enough that raw
speed was the dominant factor. Here are the speed capabilities of all of
today's entrants, as measured for 7 laps on an empty track:
Ramdu - 75.25
Burns - 72.56
Bubble - 72.00
Indretti - 70.41
JXBot3 - 70.3
Sarah - 70.12 (novice, did not compete)
Marvin - 69.84
Carski - 66.71 (novice, did not compete)
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.
Mostly the drivers did about as one would expect after observing the
above speed capabilities. There were two exceptions, however.
Bubble was a bit timid in traffic, and would often lose speed when
near other cars. This led him to do less well than his 72 mph
capability would indicate. JXBot3 on the other hand seemed to thrive in
the traffic, and managed a third place overall although his speed was
fifth among the competing experts.
There were no novice races held, due to a lack of competitors. This
was probably due to the re-submission requirement that was recently
announced.
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The July 23 Results:
There were six expert races on the oval2 track. All races were ten
laps. The output files were lost for the first two races, due to
human and computer screw-ups. However, two IRC observers and
myself agreed that these were the results of the first two races:
1 Ramdu 10 pts
2 Indretti 6 pts
3 JXBot3 4 pts
4 Bubble 3 pts
5 Burns 2 pts
6 Marvin 1 pts
1 Ramdu 10 pts
2 Burns 6 pts
3 Bubble 4 pts
4 Marvin 3 pts
5 Indretti 2 pts
6 JXBot3 1 pts
We do have the computer output for the last four races:
6 cars for 10 laps. The track was oval2.trk. The drivers were:
Marvin, Bubble, Ramdu, Burns, JXBot3, and Indretti.
The initial RVG seed was 59447.
results of race 1: (note: actually race 4)
starting positions:
JXBot3, Ramdu, Indretti, Marvin, Bubble, and Burns.
1 Ramdu avg spd 74.67 10 laps 1766 damage 136 fuel 10 pts
accum 2 Burns avg spd 71.64 10 laps 8953 damage 140 fuel 6
pts accum 3 JXBot3 avg spd 69.65 9 laps 9592 damage 140 fuel
4 pts accum 4 Bubble avg spd 69.28 9 laps 4024 damage 139 fuel
3 pts accum 5 Indretti avg spd 69.13 9 laps 8327 damage 137
fuel 2 pts accum 6 Marvin avg spd 68.99 9 laps 3250 damage
139 fuel 1 pts accum
results of race 2:
starting positions:
Burns, Bubble, Marvin, Indretti, Ramdu, and JXBot3.
1 Ramdu avg spd 70.88 10 laps 9500 damage 136 fuel 20 pts
accum 2 JXBot3 avg spd 69.57 10 laps 10251 damage 139 fuel 10
pts accum 3 Marvin avg spd 68.84 9 laps 7756 damage 139 fuel
5 pts accum 4 Indretti avg spd 67.92 9 laps 5124 damage 137 fuel
5 pts accum 5 Burns avg spd 67.65 9 laps 22266 damage 140
fuel 8 pts accum 6 Bubble avg spd 67.44 9 laps 6113 damage
139 fuel 4 pts accum
results of race 3:
starting positions:
Ramdu, Marvin, Indretti, JXBot3, Bubble, and Burns.
1 Burns avg spd 72.56 10 laps 0 damage 140 fuel 18 pts
accum 2 Bubble avg spd 71.81 10 laps 527 damage 139 fuel 10
pts accum 3 Indretti avg spd 70 9 laps 3044 damage 137 fuel
9 pts accum 4 Ramdu avg spd 69.74 9 laps 18254 damage 136 fuel
23 pts accum 5 JXBot3 avg spd 69.38 9 laps 27017 damage 140
fuel 12 pts accum 6 Marvin avg spd 69.2 9 laps 1393 damage
139 fuel 6 pts accum
results of race 4:
starting positions:
Burns, Bubble, JXBot3, Indretti, Marvin, and Ramdu.
1 Ramdu avg spd 73.47 10 laps 4562 damage 135 fuel 33 pts
accum 2 Marvin avg spd 67.29 10 laps 4944 damage 139 fuel 12
pts accum 3 JXBot3 avg spd 66.39 9 laps 29976 damage 139 fuel
16 pts accum 4 Indretti avg spd 65.98 9 laps 9458 damage 136 fuel
12 pts accum 5 Burns avg spd 65.84 9 laps 29795 damage 140
fuel 20 pts accum 6 Bubble avg spd 66.02 9 laps 7147 damage
139 fuel 11 pts accum
Adding the points for the first two races, we get these point totals:
season pts
1 Ramdu 53 pts 10
2 Burns 28 pts 6
3 JXBot3 21 pts 4
4 Indretti 20 pts 3
5 Bubble 19 pts 2
6 Marvin 16 pts 1
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From: "Mitchell E. Timin" <[email hidden]>
Subject: comp.progamming.contests
To: [email hidden] (Rars- List)
Date sent: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 17:44:49 -0400 (EDT)
comp.programming.contests exists now, and I put our race report there. It
looks like a lot of people are reading it, because I am getting maybe 20
requests per day for RARS info from it.
m
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The rars-digest is compiled and published by (Dave `Gizmo' Gymer)
[email hidden] http://www.mal.com/~dgymer
# Dave "Gizmo" Gymer [email hidden] http://www.mal.com/~dgymer/
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