The first race took place with the participation of unmanned racing cars. But to Formula 1 it is far

Auto racing is one of the most spectacular views.sport There are many subspecies of races like the same rally races or NASCAR competitions, but if you like to watch high-speed car competitions, then it is quite possible that a surprise is waiting for you. Indeed, in addition to the usual cars driven by man from the inside, full-scale races involving unmanned vehicles are not far off. And the first such race in the framework of the Roborace competition has already taken place on the Spanish track Monteblanco.

What is Roborace

Roborace is a subclass of a recruiting latetime the popularity of Formula E competition. In Formula E, it is only allowed to use electric race cars. But Roborace goes further and besides the condition that the car should work on an electric motor, it demands that the car be autonomous. The purpose of the new competition is to demonstrate the capabilities of artificial intelligence and robotics in sports and the development of high technologies. The idea of ​​creating a new championship appeared in 2015 and since then the organizers have presented many prototypes of unmanned racing cars.

What machines are involved in Roborace

Currently race cars are taking part in the race.DevBot 2.0. They are able to accelerate to 320 kilometers per hour and have a very good engine with a capacity of 300 kilowatts. For navigation and orientation on the track, each DevBot 2.0 has five lidars, two radars, eighteen ultrasound sensors, a GNSS satellite navigation system, six cameras, two optical speed sensors, and Nvidia Drive PX2 processors.

This is interesting: Who is faster: an unmanned car or a professional racer?

That is, each car has exactly the samespecifications and no additional details. But then what is the point? The uniqueness of each car is not in the installed modules, but in properly configured algorithms of the behavior of cars on the road. Each racing team develops its own algorithms, sets the settings and “teaches” the car to behave on the track. The one who succeeds best of all will win. In essence, the team works in the same way as when preparing for a race with a real person, it only trains artificial intelligence.

How was the first race with the participation of unmanned cars

On the Spanish track Monteblanco there are twoteams - a team from the Technical University of Munich and Team Arrival. The race included 8 laps in the race track. Moreover, some restrictions were imposed on overtaking and maneuvering in order to reduce the risk of accidents and test the algorithms of AI operation.

UAVs DevBot 2.0 make overtaking as follows: if the car is close to the leading one in one of the parts of the road ahead of the straight road (in the figure above it is marked as Trigger Zone), then it requests the possibility of overtaking. The other car after overcoming the Trigger Zone should step aside and skip the car on the section of the road intended for overtaking (indicated as Overtaking Zone).

As a result, DevBot 2 won.0 from Team Arrival, but this is only the first and in many ways a test run. Since there were no special excesses on the track, other teams will be able to participate in the races in the future, and the cars, quite possibly, will behave more aggressively, which, without a doubt, will add entertainment. After all, what was now difficult to call these races. In fact, we have careful driving at more or less high speeds without any heat of the elders and the spirit of competition. But it is for this that we love car racing.

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