Roborace

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Roborace
Logo Roborace 2015.png
Vehicle type Autonomous vehicle
Country or region International
Current name Roborace
chassis Daniel Simon
Engines Electric motors
tires Michelin
Official website http://www.roborace.com/

Roborace will become the world's first racing series for autonomous electric vehicles . It is based on an idea by Denis Swerdlow and will use the same tracks that are used in the FIA Formula E Championship and are based on the championship's racing calendar. In September 2017, Lucas di Grassi was introduced as Roborace's CEO .

Ten teams, each with two vehicles, are to take part in a one-hour race as part of the events. Each racing team should be equipped with the same racing cars. However, the real-time algorithms and the artificial intelligence of the vehicles must be programmed independently.

vehicles

Robocar

Roborace show car at the Berlin ePrix 2017
Side view

In their first season, all teams compete with a standard vehicle , the Robocar , from Kinetik . The chassis was designed by Daniel Simon . Michelin delivers the tires, Nvidia provides high-performance computers for the AI. These are fed with information by five lidar , two radar , 18 ultrasonic and two optical speed sensors . The car also has six AI cameras and a GNSS device.

The driverless racing car weighs 975 kilograms, is 4.80 meters long and two meters wide. A total of four electric motors, each with a maximum output of 300 kW, drive the drive axle. The manufacturer announced that the battery will have a maximum power output of 540 kW (734 hp).

Torque distribution is allowed during the first Roborace season . Kinetik announced that the vehicles can reach a top speed of up to 320 km / h.

DevBot

The development of the Robocar began in winter 2015/16. A first shakedown of the specially developed test vehicle, the DevBot , followed in the summer of 2016. The test vehicle had the same internal units (battery, electric motor, electronics) as the Robocar, but these were installed in a Ginetta LMP3 chassis without an engine cover in order to Facilitate cooling.

The first public test drive of the DevBot took place as part of the Formula E test drives in Donington Park in August 2016. After problems with the battery prevented a demonstration drive in Hong Kong , the DevBot turned twelve driverless laps on the in the following Formula E race in Marrakech Circuit International Automobile Moulay el Hassan , before two DevBots competed for the first time at the following E-Prix in Buenos Aires .

Other test tracks were the Michelin test course in Ladoux (France) and the Stowe Circuit in Silverstone (Great Britain). Before the start of the championship, further test drives are planned as part of the following Formula E events.

Racing format

Roborace CEO Lucas di Grassi

The approximately one-hour Roboraces will take place as part of the Formula EE Prix. However, it is not yet known when the events will take place. The DevBot test drives at the E-Prix were previously located in the period between the free practice sessions.

The development team of the racing series plans not to simply let the vehicles compete against each other in "free driving", since in practice this would result in a pure optimization of the lap times. Instead, "road-relevant" aspects that pose a challenge to artificial intelligence should also be incorporated.

Teams

Ten teams with two vehicles each will compete in the first Roborace season. The names of these racing teams are not yet known. One of the ten teams will start as a crowd-sourced community team, supported by private investors and open to AI developers from all over the world.

Seasons

Beta season 2016/17

The series organizers only announced the start of the season in the first Roborace year "during the 2016/17 Formula E season". However, only test drives with two different DevBots took place during this period . These tests were called “beta season” in November 2016 by a Roborace spokeswoman. As part of the Buenos Aires E-Prix 2017 , both DevBot vehicles drove against each other on a racetrack for the first time . There were also DevBot demonstration trips in Marrakech , Berlin , New York City and Montreal .

In Paris , the developers also let a Robocar on the track for the first time, even though the vehicle only sighted the track at walking speed.

Beta season 2017/18

At the start of the 2017/18 Formula E season, the Roborace developers tested the DevBot again in a public time trial between Roborace AI and TV presenter Nicki Shields in Hong Kong . As part of a similar time trial in Rome , drift professional Ryan Tuerck also tested the DevBot .

The "Human and Machine Challenge" was launched for the Formula E race at the Berlin E-Prix . A team of doctoral students each from the Technical University of Munich and the University of Pisa programmed the software for the Devbot so that it could drive autonomously around the circuit in Berlin. Afterwards, both teams competed in a public time trial in combination with a human driver. The vehicle of the team from the Technical University of Munich finished the "Human and Machine Challenge" with an average lap time of 91.59 seconds, almost four seconds faster than that of the University of Pisa with 95.36 seconds and thus won the Roborace Challenge.

The Robocar was also demonstrated to the public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed . The vehicle completed the first official autonomous run as part of the event on July 13, 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Timo Pape: Formula E is revolutionizing motorsport: “Roborace” as a driverless frame series. e-Formel.de, November 27, 2015, accessed on January 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Dieter Rencken, Julia Spacek: Roborace: Lucas di Grassi is managing director. Motorsport-Total.com, September 13, 2017, accessed on September 13, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Roborace - the frame series from Formula E. e-Formel.de, accessed on January 3, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Roborace introduces Michelin as a tire partner. e-Formel.de, December 16, 2016, accessed on January 3, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: 24 trillion operations per second - Robocars can do that. e-Formel.de, April 6, 2016, accessed on January 3, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Timo Pape: GALLERY: Roborace reveals autonomous racing car revolution. e-Formel.de, February 27, 2017, accessed on March 4, 2017 .
  7. ^ Jack Stewart: Meet the Self-Driving Star of the World's First Human-Free Car Race. WIRED, February 27, 2017, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Alexandra Simon-Lewis: Roborace unveils Robocar, the world's first AI-powered, self-driving electric racer. WIRED, February 27, 2017, accessed on March 4, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Roborace: Inside Roborace - Episode 4. Roborace, December 16, 2016, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Roborace on Twitter: Roborace. Roborace, February 27, 2017, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Scott Mitchell (Haymarket): What we learned from Formula E test drives. Motorsport-Total.com, September 14, 2016, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Tobias Bluhm: Roborace: Successful test in Marrakech. November 12, 2016, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Steffen Iwan: Roborace developer Balcombe gives first insights into racing format. e-Formel.de, June 8, 2017, accessed June 8, 2017 .
  14. ^ Matthew Knight: World's first AI electric racer showcases driverless car future. CNN, October 14, 2016, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Chair of Vehicle Technology: Research Field Vehicle Dynamics, Roborace Project: Autonomous Motorsport . ( tum.de [accessed on January 30, 2019]).
  16. ↑ Laura Goudkamp, ​​Bayerischer Rundfunk: Robot racing car vs human: With an algorithm at the Roborace 2018 to victory? | BR.de . June 6, 2018 ( br.de [accessed August 17, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Fast and Driverless: Munich Roborace Victory | NVIDIA Blog . In: The Official NVIDIA Blog . June 29, 2018 ( nvidia.com [accessed August 17, 2018]).
  18. ↑ Matt Kew, James Newbold: Roborace car completes autonomous Goodwood hillclimb run. Autosport.com, July 13, 2018, accessed August 13, 2018 .