With only five days to spare let’s see all the events of this week’s racing.
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
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: 2021-04-25 19:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 105 (+5) Total submission attempts: 50468 (+24017) Best total time: 00:57.133 (-00:00.453) by JJ Mean total time: 02:55.373390476 (-00:08.079209524) Best lap: 00:18.578 (-00:00.081) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:52.654733333 (-00:02.029956667) Mean average lap: 00:58.457514286 (-00:02.693085714)
Five new racers have joined but we’re still missing the NYCU students so I’m pretty sure it’s not an end list. JJ has improved a little and the rest of the racers have improved by much more but still there’s a big gap here.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-04-25 19:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 32488 (+12956) Best total time: 00:57.133 (-00:00.453) by JJ Mean total time: 01:10.078250 (-00:08.035550) Best lap: 00:18.578 (-00:00.081) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:21.947850 (-00:01.990950) Mean average lap: 00:23.359100 (-00:02.678600)
The gap is getting noticeably smaller in the top 20. We have a single debut this week with Matt in 13th.
Here are the current standings:
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (↔0) | JJ | 00:57.133 (-00:00.453) | 00:19.044 (-00:00.151) | 00:18.578 (-00:00.081) | 0 (-0) | 2562 (+1601) |
| 2 (↔0) | Karl-NAB | 00:57.860 (-00:00.000) | 00:19.286 (-00:00.000) | 00:18.819 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 2687 (+1579) |
| 3 (↔0) | RogerRabbit | 00:58.075 (-00:04.763) | 00:19.358 (-00:01.588) | 00:18.789 (-00:01.935) | 0 (-0) | 2075 (+1219) |
| 4 (↔0) | dartjason | 01:02.903 (-00:00.000) | 00:20.967 (-00:00.000) | 00:20.129 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 1972 (+946) |
| 5 (↔0) | JPMC-DriftKing | 01:03.111 (-00:00.000) | 00:21.037 (-00:00.000) | 00:20.901 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 155 (-0) |
| 6 (↔0) | Ernesto | 01:04.614 (-00:00.114) | 00:21.538 (-00:00.038) | 00:20.936 (-00:00.071) | 0 (-0) | 2079 (+990) |
| 7 (↔0) | Duckworth | 01:04.768 (-00:01.215) | 00:21.589 (-00:00.405) | 00:21.262 (-00:00.351) | 0 (-0) | 1932 (+1178) |
| 8 (↔0) | PolishThunder | 01:04.865 (-00:06.152) | 00:21.621 (-00:02.051) | 00:20.752 (+00:00.070) | 0 (-1) | 5459 (+1692) |
| 9 (⬆1) | AJM-Model-1 | 01:05.672 (-00:07.402) | 00:21.890 (-00:02.468) | 00:21.677 (-00:00.485) | 0 (-1) | 3854 (+1548) |
| 10 (⬇1) | GT-DevelopersIO | 01:06.338 (-00:04.895) | 00:22.112 (-00:01.632) | 00:21.191 (+00:00.427) | 0 (-1) | 789 (+659) |
| 11 (↔0) | Rober | 01:06.558 (-00:09.876) | 00:22.186 (-00:03.292) | 00:21.809 (-00:01.897) | 0 (-1) | 569 (+407) |
| 12 (⬆2) | RobinCastro-DBS | 01:06.829 (-00:19.037) | 00:22.276 (-00:06.346) | 00:21.521 (-00:03.015) | 0 (-2) | 1971 (+1382) |
| 13 (–) | Matt | 01:14.877 (–:–.—) | 00:24.959 (–:–.—) | 00:22.659 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 289 (–) |
| 14 (⬇1) | AIDeepRacer | 01:15.230 (-00:03.911) | 00:25.076 (-00:01.304) | 00:24.771 (+00:00.379) | 0 (-1) | 288 (+209) |
| 15 (↔0) | Jochem | 01:16.671 (-00:10.003) | 00:25.557 (-00:03.334) | 00:23.601 (-00:01.111) | 1 (-1) | 932 (+694) |
| 16 (⬇4) | S-P- | 01:17.904 (-00:00.000) | 00:25.968 (-00:00.000) | 00:23.366 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 150 (-0) |
| 17 (⬆11) | Maikel | 01:20.793 (-00:44.107) | 00:26.931 (-00:14.702) | 00:23.053 (-00:13.900) | 2 (-7) | 211 (+129) |
| 18 (⬆24) | Penguin-DNPds | 01:23.616 (-01:19.939) | 00:27.872 (-00:26.646) | 00:22.384 (-00:21.624) | 3 (-13) | 167 (+166) |
| 19 (⬇3) | Mungi | 01:25.076 (-00:09.724) | 00:28.358 (-00:03.242) | 00:24.092 (+00:00.576) | 2 (-2) | 93 (+63) |
| 20 (↔0) | kimwooglae | 01:28.672 (-00:16.635) | 00:29.557 (-00:05.545) | 00:28.667 (-00:03.806) | 0 (-4) | 4254 (+1397) |
Interestingly top 10 had only a small exchange of places in 9th and 10th but the racers haven’t been idle – we’ve seen some significant time improvements and it’s less than 10 seconds from the first to the tenth. RogerRabbit has joined the under-one-minute club. Current Finale time is at 1:23.616. I’m please to see Penguin-DNPds impressively half the total time. I suspect his colleague Fumiaki will also join in a bit. We still have AIDeepRacer who qualified to the Pro Division this month in the top 16 zone (Remember JJ and Karl-NAB already have qualifications).
Only three new names in the top twenty, let’s have a look at qualifying time improvements this month:
I can see three groups in here: the ultimate leaders (two of whom don’t count in the fight for Finale), a strong chase group and a few outlier who have made really impressive improvements but are a long way from being certain of their qualifications, staying at the mercy of NYCU students. Will they have models to jump right to the top like they have last month? They are really good but then the competition isn’t idle either. That will be an interesting week.
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: 2021-04-25 19:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 906 (+234) Total submission attempts: 8524 (+3381) Best total time: 01:08.596 (-00:07.169) by alexk Mean total time: 03:50.265044150 (-00:07.830722219) Best lap: 00:22.203 (-00:00.527) by alexk Mean best lap: 01:09.878237307 (-00:02.325582634) Mean average lap: 01:16.754683223 (-00:02.610240884)
234 new racers this week are a pretty impressive influx for this late in a month. We’re only 66 racers behind compared to March and with a few days remaining we might even see a 1K racing group. Still not the largest race so far but impressive nonetheless. Current qualifying count is at 90, we’ll have a more detailed look at this below.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-04-25 19:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-04-18 22:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 2216 (+694) Best total time: 01:08.596 (-00:07.169) by alexk Mean total time: 01:20.115200 (-00:13.372550) Best lap: 00:22.203 (-00:00.527) by alexk Mean best lap: 00:24.998600 (-00:03.608550) Mean average lap: 00:26.704700 (-00:04.457500)
Alexk has topped the leaderboard AND taken over the best lap statistic as expected last week. With a sweet improvement of seven seconds compared to his time last week he stil has over eight seconds to break the one minute barrier. Five days to go!
In top twenty we have a twelve-second gap between the mean total time and the best time. We also have five racers who have gone below last week’s leading time. These results are even more impressive if you look at the submission counters this month. To get so close with so few tries usually means that the models are quite performant in their mean results. If the racers tried using some automated submission to their benefit it would get even more competitive.
We have seven new names in top 20:
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (⬆3) | alexk | 01:08.596 (-00:12.583) | 00:22.865 (-00:04.194) | 00:22.203 (-00:04.656) | 0 (-0) | 111 (+64) |
| 2 (⬆7) | xiaojuruo | 01:12.209 (-00:17.547) | 00:24.069 (-00:05.849) | 00:23.676 (-00:04.193) | 0 (-4) | 69 (+28) |
| 3 (⬇2) | BestGTR | 01:12.344 (-00:03.421) | 00:24.114 (-00:01.141) | 00:23.602 (-00:00.978) | 0 (-0) | 1480 (+660) |
| 4 (–) | ThanhHoaChienThang | 01:12.444 (–:–.—) | 00:24.148 (–:–.—) | 00:23.817 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 13 (–) |
| 5 (–) | NewBeginning-Xuq | 01:13.266 (–:–.—) | 00:24.422 (–:–.—) | 00:23.469 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 26 (–) |
| 6 (⬇4) | Sydney-Uni-CompSci-2020-Qualify | 01:16.074 (-00:00.000) | 00:25.358 (-00:00.000) | 00:22.730 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 23 (+3) |
| 7 (–) | IVE | 01:17.690 (–:–.—) | 00:25.896 (–:–.—) | 00:25.069 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 18 (–) |
| 8 (⬆33) | CuBinh-VNN | 01:18.700 (-00:47.845) | 00:26.233 (-00:15.948) | 00:24.403 (-00:10.198) | 1 (-9) | 6 (+4) |
| 9 (–) | SumoBoy | 01:19.589 (–:–.—) | 00:26.529 (–:–.—) | 00:26.064 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 24 (–) |
| 10 (⬇3) | badger | 01:20.780 (-00:03.358) | 00:26.926 (-00:01.120) | 00:23.497 (-00:00.640) | 2 (-0) | 227 (+51) |
| 11 (⬇8) | AndrewMarsh | 01:20.909 (-00:00.000) | 00:26.969 (-00:00.000) | 00:26.395 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 68 (+4) |
| 12 (⬇7) | kim | 01:21.719 (-00:00.000) | 00:27.239 (-00:00.000) | 00:27.024 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 11 (+6) |
| 13 (⬇7) | Holden-Grapes | 01:22.032 (-00:00.708) | 00:27.344 (-00:00.236) | 00:26.996 (-00:00.368) | 0 (-0) | 49 (+17) |
| 14 (⬆13) | Racer-Leo | 01:23.640 (-00:30.414) | 00:27.880 (-00:10.138) | 00:25.946 (-00:08.017) | 1 (-5) | 14 (+9) |
| 15 (–) | hab | 01:23.875 (–:–.—) | 00:27.958 (–:–.—) | 00:24.213 (–:–.—) | 2 (–) | 4 (–) |
| 16 (⬇8) | test0123 | 01:24.532 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.177 (-00:00.000) | 00:27.197 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 38 (-0) |
| 17 (⬆73) | PauloLosse | 01:27.717 (-01:06.271) | 00:29.239 (-00:22.090) | 00:24.075 (-00:27.176) | 3 (+3) | 15 (+1) |
| 18 (–) | AnBinh-VNN | 01:27.986 (–:–.—) | 00:29.328 (–:–.—) | 00:24.214 (–:–.—) | 3 (–) | 3 (–) |
| 19 (⬇9) | Can-AS | 01:28.691 (-00:04.997) | 00:29.563 (-00:01.666) | 00:27.413 (-00:00.249) | 1 (-1) | 12 (+3) |
| 20 (–) | Monkey-King | 01:29.511 (–:–.—) | 00:29.837 (–:–.—) | 00:27.969 (–:–.—) | 4 (–) | 5 (–) |
The 90th racer elecman has the total time of 2 minutes and 18.609 seconds This is a 2.5 second improvement from last week but already means that aura6-3-9 who was in the last qualifying spot is out without any improvements. A fun fact: in 100th we’ve got Paul-NAB who was racing in 2019, we’ve met in Las Vegas at the finals. Great to see him, I’ll be keeping an eye on his improvements. And in 57th we’ve got our AWS Hero Alex Schultz who is organising a DeepRacer Meetup this Wednesday.
I’m positively surprised that the mean times in Open Division still keep going down. My experience so far was that many would simply submit a model as a quick try and that’s it, now it’s pretty clear that racers are staying and keep improving from their first submission.
Let’s see how much changes in the last five days. Will Paul-NAB manage to remove the resets and squeeze into the Pro Division? I’m sure Karl-NAB will be cheering for him.
As for the racing updates I’m hoping to introduce some racer profiles before the April Finale race to present more information before the Twitch live stream. Stay tuned and be sure to return upcoming weekend for an end of month special.