With a tiny delay we’re pleased to share an update from the AWS DeepRacer League 2021 April races. Let’s see what happened last week.
AWS DeepRacer
AWS DeepRacer is a 1/18th scale autonomous race car but also much more. It is a complete program that has helped thousands of employees in numerous organizations begin their educational journey into machine learning through fun and rivalry.
Visit AWS DeepRacer page to learn more about how it can help you and your organization begin and progress the journey towards machine learning.
Join the AWS Machine Learning Community to talk to people who have used DeepRacer in their learning experience.
DeepRacer News
Cool projects
Cyrus Wong together with his students have shared another cool project: how to control DeepRacer with Amazon Chime SDK
AWS DeepRacer Women’s League India 2021
A great event took place in India, you can read the summary in this post.
AWS DeepRacer League 2021 March Finale
You can read the summary of last month’s Pro Division Finale in this post.
First in-person meetup of 2021
If you’re from Indiana or generally close to Fort Wayne, do join the AWS Hero Alex Schultz for the first in-person DeepRacer meetup of the year on the 28th of April. Read more in a separate blog post.
Pro Division
Race info:
- 59.233 meters long
- 107 centimetres wide
- Head-to-bot format with four bot cars cruising at 1 m/s without lane changes
- Racers are trying to complete three laps
- Each collision and each driving off the track results in a five seconds penalty
- Top 16 go on into a live race which will be streamed on Twitch to fight for places in the League Finals and AWS DeepRacer EVOs
Let’s see the stats for the whole group:
All submissions Update time: 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-11 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 100 (+20) Total submission attempts: 26451 (+15925) Best total time: 00:57.586 (-00:02.668) by JJ Mean total time: 03:03.452600 (-00:02.375937500) Best lap: 00:18.659 (-00:00.762) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:54.684690 (-00:00.339235) Mean average lap: 01:01.150600 (-00:00.791937500)
We’ve gone above 50% pro racers submissions. Racers are pretty active, mean total time is going down but not by much just yet. I expect more improvement next week.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-11 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 19532 (+12054) Best total time: 00:57.586 (-00:02.668) by JJ Mean total time: 01:18.113800 (-00:23.543450) Best lap: 00:18.659 (-00:00.762) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:23.938800 (-00:06.104650) Mean average lap: 00:26.037700 (-00:07.847650)
Much more crowded in the top 20. Congratulations to JJ for breaking the one minute barrier. Unsurprisingly, Karl-NAB followed him. Still no sign of NYCU students so I’m expecting at least three new entries in the top 20 in the remaining days of April.
Here are the current standings:
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (↔0) | JJ | 00:57.586 (-00:02.668) | 00:19.195 (-00:00.889) | 00:18.659 (-00:00.762) | 0 (-0) | 961 (+741) |
| 2 (⬆23) | Karl-NAB | 00:57.860 (-01:19.725) | 00:19.286 (-00:26.575) | 00:18.819 (-00:21.830) | 0 (-10) | 1108 (+1106) |
| 3 (⬆2) | RogerRabbit | 01:02.838 (-00:22.985) | 00:20.946 (-00:07.661) | 00:20.724 (-00:00.809) | 0 (-4) | 856 (+854) |
| 4 (⬇2) | dartjason | 01:02.903 (-00:17.898) | 00:20.967 (-00:05.966) | 00:20.129 (-00:04.974) | 0 (-2) | 1026 (+997) |
| 5 (–) | JPMC-DriftKing | 01:03.111 (–:–.—) | 00:21.037 (–:–.—) | 00:20.901 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 155 (–) |
| 6 (⬇2) | Ernesto | 01:04.728 (-00:20.441) | 00:21.576 (-00:06.813) | 00:21.007 (-00:05.058) | 0 (-1) | 1089 (+883) |
| 7 (⬇4) | Duckworth | 01:05.983 (-00:16.881) | 00:21.994 (-00:05.627) | 00:21.613 (-00:03.703) | 0 (-1) | 754 (+742) |
| 8 (⬆2) | PolishThunder | 01:11.017 (-00:31.600) | 00:23.672 (-00:10.533) | 00:20.682 (-00:11.478) | 1 (-3) | 3767 (+1562) |
| 9 (–) | GT-DevelopersIO | 01:11.233 (–:–.—) | 00:23.744 (–:–.—) | 00:20.764 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 130 (–) |
| 10 (⬇3) | AJM-Model-1 | 01:13.074 (-00:13.781) | 00:24.358 (-00:04.593) | 00:22.162 (-00:00.760) | 1 (-2) | 2306 (+1559) |
| 11 (⬇3) | Rober | 01:16.434 (-00:18.517) | 00:25.478 (-00:06.172) | 00:23.706 (-00:04.407) | 1 (-1) | 162 (+153) |
| 12 (⬆2) | S-P- | 01:17.904 (-00:34.793) | 00:25.968 (-00:11.597) | 00:23.366 (-00:06.743) | 1 (-4) | 150 (+138) |
| 13 (⬆4) | AIDeepRacer | 01:19.141 (-00:43.045) | 00:26.380 (-00:14.348) | 00:24.392 (-00:13.429) | 1 (-6) | 79 (+44) |
| 14 (⬆9) | RobinCastro-DBS | 01:25.866 (-00:42.748) | 00:28.622 (-00:14.249) | 00:24.536 (-00:05.728) | 2 (-8) | 589 (+557) |
| 15 (⬇9) | Jochem | 01:26.674 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.891 (-00:00.000) | 00:24.712 (-00:00.000) | 2 (-0) | 238 (+7) |
| 16 (–) | Mungi | 01:34.800 (–:–.—) | 00:31.600 (–:–.—) | 00:23.516 (–:–.—) | 4 (–) | 30 (–) |
| 17 (⬇8) | kimmizian | 01:36.861 (-00:00.000) | 00:32.287 (-00:00.000) | 00:31.466 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 2242 (+732) |
| 18 (⬇7) | nalbam-me | 01:44.218 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.739 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.412 (-00:00.000) | 3 (-0) | 858 (+439) |
| 19 (⬇1) | ABaykov | 01:44.738 (-00:18.199) | 00:34.912 (-00:06.067) | 00:30.737 (-00:04.733) | 2 (-4) | 175 (+99) |
| 20 (⬇1) | kimwooglae | 01:45.307 (-00:19.553) | 00:35.102 (-00:06.518) | 00:32.473 (-00:05.020) | 4 (-4) | 2857 (+1407) |
This table looks pretty similar to last month’s Great Finale. Three new racers in top twenty this week. Most racers improved their times quite significantly (and who hasn’t dropped in the ranking quite significantly). Since we have two finalists in the top 16, let’s have a look at top 18 racers’ time improvements since the beginning of the month:
Open Division
Race info:
- 41.551 meters long
- 107 centimetres wide
- Simpler and shorter than the pro track but still pretty challenging with a variety of straights and turns
- Time Trial format
- Competitors need to complete three laps and total time counts for their classification
- Each off-track results in five seconds penalty.
- Racers fight for qualification to the Pro group which is won by the top 10%
- They will also receive a Pro Welcoming Kit which is a bit of a mystery (We will hopefully know soon as the prize notifications have been sent out for the March races)
Let’s take a look at the overall stats:
All submissions Update time: 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-11 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 672 (+308) Total submission attempts: 5143 (+3234) Best total time: 01:15.765 (-00:06.639) by BestGTR Mean total time: 03:58.095766369 (-00:11.218307807) Best lap: 00:22.730 (-00:03.479) by Sydney-Uni-CompSci-2020-Qualify Mean best lap: 01:12.203819940 (-00:03.453638851) Mean average lap: 01:19.364924107 (-00:03.739422047)
Racers count has almost doubled which is pretty nice, interestingly mean lap time has improved by quire a lot, but then comparing to BestGTR’s laps there’s quite some room for improvement. Interestingly we have a new holder of the fastest lap but it’s still not the leader. Despite the efforts egRacer hasn’t managed to improve the time this week.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-11 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 1522 (+1043) Best total time: 01:15.765 (-00:06.639) by BestGTR Mean total time: 01:33.487750 (-00:15.012600) Best lap: 00:22.730 (-00:03.479) by Sydney-Uni-CompSci-2020-Qualify Mean best lap: 00:28.607150 (-00:04.323400) Mean average lap: 00:31.162200 (-00:05.004100)
In the top 20 racers are closing in nicely on BestGTR. In Pro Division we’ve seen times below 60 seconds already and it’s a significantly longer track so there is a potential for improvement in the Open Division. But do the racers know what needs improving?
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (↔0) | BestGTR | 01:15.765 (-00:06.639) | 00:25.255 (-00:02.213) | 00:24.580 (-00:02.426) | 0 (-0) | 820 (+748) |
| 2 (–) | Sydney-Uni-CompSci-2020-Qualify | 01:16.074 (–:–.—) | 00:25.358 (–:–.—) | 00:22.730 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 20 (–) |
| 3 (–) | AndrewMarsh | 01:20.909 (–:–.—) | 00:26.969 (–:–.—) | 00:26.395 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 64 (–) |
| 4 (⬆13) | alexk | 01:21.179 (-00:39.369) | 00:27.059 (-00:13.123) | 00:26.859 (-00:13.062) | 0 (-0) | 47 (+26) |
| 5 (⬇3) | kim | 01:21.719 (-00:01.233) | 00:27.239 (-00:00.411) | 00:27.024 (-00:00.319) | 0 (-0) | 5 (+4) |
| 6 (⬆16) | Holden-Grapes | 01:22.740 (-00:46.211) | 00:27.580 (-00:15.403) | 00:27.364 (-00:10.499) | 0 (-6) | 32 (+24) |
| 7 (⬇3) | badger | 01:24.138 (-00:06.240) | 00:28.046 (-00:02.080) | 00:24.137 (-00:05.755) | 2 (-1) | 176 (+47) |
| 8 (⬇5) | test0123 | 01:24.532 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.177 (-00:00.000) | 00:27.197 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 38 (-0) |
| 9 (⬆36) | xiaojuruo | 01:29.756 (-01:02.473) | 00:29.918 (-00:20.825) | 00:27.869 (-00:17.677) | 4 (-11) | 41 (+31) |
| 10 (–) | Can-AS | 01:33.688 (–:–.—) | 00:31.229 (–:–.—) | 00:27.662 (–:–.—) | 2 (–) | 9 (–) |
| 11 (⬇4) | AS | 01:37.322 (-00:07.761) | 00:32.440 (-00:02.587) | 00:32.191 (-00:00.956) | 0 (-1) | 37 (+26) |
| 12 (⬇7) | egRacer | 01:38.186 (-00:00.000) | 00:32.728 (-00:00.000) | 00:26.209 (-00:00.000) | 3 (-0) | 99 (+7) |
| 13 (⬆6) | HaNoiChienThang | 01:39.301 (-00:26.178) | 00:33.100 (-00:08.726) | 00:25.193 (-00:09.070) | 5 (-5) | 8 (+5) |
| 14 (⬇1) | MING-CHUN | 01:42.318 (-00:13.376) | 00:34.106 (-00:04.458) | 00:28.536 (-00:05.794) | 4 (+1) | 12 (+11) |
| 15 (⬆349) | cktim852 | 01:43.198 (-13:07.924) | 00:34.399 (-04:22.641) | 00:33.807 (-04:08.729) | 0 (-130) | 4 (+3) |
| 16 (⬇10) | Georgio | 01:45.059 (-00:00.000) | 00:35.019 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.267 (-00:00.000) | 3 (-0) | 12 (-0) |
| 17 (⬇9) | SCH-ZARIF-ZA | 01:46.175 (-00:00.000) | 00:35.391 (-00:00.000) | 00:32.734 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 41 (+8) |
| 18 (⬆216) | mxd | 01:48.142 (-02:12.583) | 00:36.047 (-00:44.194) | 00:32.342 (-00:40.916) | 2 (-6) | 26 (+25) |
| 19 (⬇9) | Awaken | 01:49.501 (-00:01.530) | 00:36.500 (-00:00.510) | 00:36.197 (-00:00.321) | 0 (-0) | 10 (+4) |
| 20 (⬇11) | Kairos | 01:50.053 (-00:00.000) | 00:36.684 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.850 (-00:00.000) | 4 (-0) | 21 (+3) |
We have three new racers in top 20 and a mixture of strong improvements and stagnation. A gold star goes to cktim852 who reduced the time by 13 minutes. I’m both impressed by this improvement and by the ability to clock a 15 minute lap.
The last racer to qualify as of 18th of April is aura6-3-9 with time of 2:21.380 – this is an improvement of just over 9 seconds compared to week before – this shows that it’s not just enough to submit a single model around the qualifying time, you also need to track progress and improve to ensure you stay in the qualifying range.
Let’s close the update with a view of time improvements in the group of top 67 racers:
That’s it for today. Join us for the next update as we are getting closer to end of month and await more participants to fight for the Pro Division Finale and Pro Division qualifications.