Speed is going up, times are going down. Let’s see what’s up on the fastest AWS DeepRacer League track so far.
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Pro Division
Race info:
- 62.24 meters long
- 107 centimeters wide
- Head-to-bot format with four bot cars cruising at 2 m/s with lane changes every 4-6 seconds
- 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
All submissions Update time: 2021-06-20 11:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-06-14 19:00:00 UTC Racers: 113 (+13) Total submission attempts: 26701 (+16684) Best total time: 00:58.871 (-00:06.906) by JJ Mean total time: 02:50.963486726 (-00:10.176063274) Best lap: 00:19.177 (-00:01.978) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:51.716079646 (-00:02.720170354) Mean average lap: 00:56.987495575 (-00:03.392014425)
Lucky thirteen racers have joined this month including JJ who appears to have held his model in training until he could break the one minute barrier which has been a challenge in previous months. Soon other racers with Las Vegas qualification, RogerRabbit and Karl-S joined JJ near the top and PolishThunder also jumped into top 20. This means that everybody else in top 20 is currently on the finale list.
As I’ve already mentioned this track is much faster than the previous ones and with faster bot cars it’s easier to get decent lap times. This means that the times will be improving significantly and it will be harder to get a time good enough for the finale – throughout this week the slowest qualifying time went from 1:38.097 to 1:23.401, and TonyJ who was the owner of that time last week managed to get it down to 1:14.136 (and still has one reset to eliminate from his lap so I’m expecting further improvement).
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-06-20 11:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-06-14 19:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 17383 (+8571) Best total time: 00:58.871 (-00:06.906) by JJ Mean total time: 01:12.697900 (-00:12.311200) Best lap: 00:19.177 (-00:01.978) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:23.252150 (-00:03.501700) Mean average lap: 00:24.232200 (-00:04.103850)
In the top 20 we have a 14 second difference between the mean and best total time. That’s not much and despite JJ presenting his (model’s) impossible shape again, I’m expecting others to get closer to his shape then ever before.
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (–) | JJ | 00:58.871 (–:–.—) | 00:19.623 (–:–.—) | 00:19.177 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 585 (–) |
| 2 (⬆1) | RogerRabbit | 01:04.175 (-00:02.323) | 00:21.391 (-00:00.775) | 00:20.995 (-00:00.273) | 0 (-0) | 1783 (+901) |
| 3 (⬇2) | ZhengYi-NYCU-CGI | 01:05.777 (-00:00.000) | 00:21.925 (-00:00.000) | 00:21.155 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 113 (+19) |
| 4 (⬇2) | dartjason | 01:05.942 (-00:00.000) | 00:21.980 (-00:00.000) | 00:21.627 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 2022 (+871) |
| 5 (–) | Karl-NAB | 01:06.386 (–:–.—) | 00:22.128 (–:–.—) | 00:20.943 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 1103 (–) |
| 6 (⬇1) | Ernesto | 01:08.752 (-00:03.621) | 00:22.917 (-00:01.207) | 00:22.757 (-00:00.450) | 0 (-0) | 1020 (+811) |
| 7 (⬆3) | GT-DevelopersIO | 01:08.810 (-00:12.563) | 00:22.936 (-00:04.188) | 00:21.090 (-00:02.475) | 1 (-1) | 908 (+816) |
| 8 (⬇4) | RobinCastro-DBS | 01:08.975 (-00:00.365) | 00:22.991 (-00:00.122) | 00:22.570 (+00:00.019) | 0 (-0) | 2383 (+1245) |
| 9 (⬆3) | AJM-Model-1 | 01:10.088 (-00:17.931) | 00:23.362 (-00:05.977) | 00:22.847 (-00:05.701) | 0 (-0) | 1454 (+1260) |
| 10 (–) | rosscomp1 | 01:13.448 (–:–.—) | 00:24.482 (–:–.—) | 00:21.603 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 359 (–) |
| 11 (⬆6) | TonyJ | 01:14.136 (-00:23.961) | 00:24.712 (-00:07.987) | 00:22.158 (-00:08.207) | 1 (-3) | 317 (+295) |
| 12 (⬇6) | Rober | 01:15.596 (-00:04.357) | 00:25.198 (-00:01.453) | 00:24.798 (-00:00.932) | 0 (-0) | 214 (+155) |
| 13 (–) | alexj | 01:16.055 (–:–.—) | 00:25.351 (–:–.—) | 00:25.011 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 68 (–) |
| 14 (⬆36) | Breadcentric | 01:16.145 (-01:27.367) | 00:25.381 (-00:29.123) | 00:24.695 (-00:24.124) | 0 (-13) | 1260 (+998) |
| 15 (⬇7) | Matt | 01:16.824 (-00:03.790) | 00:25.608 (-00:01.263) | 00:25.015 (-00:00.822) | 0 (-0) | 1044 (+947) |
| 16 (⬇9) | Duckworth | 01:16.974 (-00:03.628) | 00:25.658 (-00:01.209) | 00:23.732 (-00:02.001) | 1 (+1) | 967 (+472) |
| 17 (⬆6) | Maikel | 01:19.455 (-00:35.619) | 00:26.485 (-00:11.873) | 00:25.959 (-00:00.032) | 0 (-7) | 515 (+506) |
| 18 (⬇9) | AIDeepRacer | 01:20.823 (-00:00.000) | 00:26.941 (-00:00.000) | 00:24.701 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 121 (+108) |
| 19 (⬆11) | PolishThunder | 01:23.325 (-00:48.550) | 00:27.775 (-00:16.183) | 00:27.263 (-00:12.461) | 0 (-9) | 898 (+897) |
| 20 (–) | SorinB | 01:23.401 (–:–.—) | 00:27.800 (–:–.—) | 00:26.947 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 249 (–) |
We’ve got five new-joiners in top 20 this week and I can’t help but wonder how many we will get at the end of the month. Yoway and YiLi from NYCU have not submitted their models yet, also ZhengYi has not been very active this week. I suspect all three will submit good models in the next ten days.
I (Breadcentric) have improved my results quite significantly this week but then my previous submission model was not trained for this track. Also I was pretty happy with my time of 1:16.145 but at the moment I am not at all sure this will be sufficient to qualify for the finale.
Apart from ZhengYi, dartjason’s and AIDeepRacer’s models have not improved this week. While dartjason is in a pretty comfortable position at the moment, AIDeepRacer is in the danger zone and may have to look for some improvement to keep the chances for Finale.
Open Division
Race info:
- 26.18 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
The Open Division track is slightly easier with a whole section removed but still brings many challenges to the racers. Especially the sharp turn introduced in place of that section is interesting and might prove challenging.
All submissions Update time: 2021-06-20 11:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-06-14 19:00:00 UTC Racers: 748 (+200) Total submission attempts: 4904 (+1468) Best total time: 00:48.043 (-00:26.012) by JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad Mean total time: 04:07.560486631 (-00:01.572159354) Best lap: 00:15.481 (-00:06.515) by JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad Mean best lap: 01:16.383096257 (-00:00.516392794) Mean average lap: 01:22.519826203 (-00:00.524047884)
200 racers joined this week – pretty impressive number. Shorter track brings an opportunity for faster times, it’s therefore unsurprising that we have seen the top time go down by over a third. Even more unsurprising is who brought this time: Rogue of JPMC has been a finalist in 2020 AWS DeepRacer League and has some good skills to show. Best lap time is held by his colleague, Ace but clearly the stability is not quite there to challenge Rogue (well, it’s only 0.168 s difference). Interestingly, majority of improvement for Ace comes from eliminating the resets. Both Ace and Rogue are members of the group of racers within JPMC who support and motivate each other to learn and improve.
We’re expecting around 75 racers to qualify to the Pro Division now: Currently 75th SergeBot1 has the time of 2:28.538 which is only 5 seconds slower then the last qualifying time from last week’s update. Most names in this division are new to me but then we have members of four groups there that stand out: JPMC, DNPds, DevelopersIO and IVECloud. Until now we haven’t paid that much attention to the last group despite some of the racers having been present in past months and years but I started noticing them more recently. IVECloud is a South African hosting provider. We’ve had South African racers and community members before with Jarrett Jordaan who helped us get started with our community cloud infrastructure.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-06-20 11:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-06-14 19:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 578 (+129) Best total time: 00:48.043 (-00:26.012) by JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad Mean total time: 01:29.620150 (-00:15.017600) Best lap: 00:15.481 (-00:06.515) by JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad Mean best lap: 00:27.929600 (-00:03.345300) Mean average lap: 00:29.873 (-00:05.005950)
Top 20 times follow the pattern of previous weeks for the Open Division – once you’re in top 20 you are likely qualified for the Pro Division so then there is less activity. Therefore average improvement for total time is lower than the one at the top, at least for now. Seven racers in top 20 have not improved their times. This speaks volumes about how competitive it is in the Pro Division – without improvement this week you would have had to be in top 10 to not fall down to the third ten.
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (–) | JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad | 00:48.043 (–:–.—) | 00:16.014 (–:–.—) | 00:15.578 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 18 (–) |
| 2 (↔0) | JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad | 00:48.208 (-00:33.440) | 00:16.069 (-00:11.147) | 00:15.481 (-00:06.515) | 0 (-6) | 24 (+23) |
| 3 (⬇2) | Sing-1-Chetak | 01:05.788 (-00:08.267) | 00:21.929 (-00:02.756) | 00:20.868 (-00:01.927) | 0 (-1) | 63 (+41) |
| 4 (⬆460) | baldder | 01:18.524 (-03:57.601) | 00:26.174 (-01:19.201) | 00:25.243 (-01:17.749) | 0 (-19) | 17 (+15) |
| 5 (⬇2) | edxtore-com-team1-yang | 01:23.590 (-00:04.468) | 00:27.863 (-00:01.489) | 00:25.324 (-00:01.605) | 1 (-0) | 20 (+2) |
| 6 (–) | Alpha-KK | 01:28.921 (–:–.—) | 00:29.640 (–:–.—) | 00:29.508 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 26 (–) |
| 7 (⬆4) | Pedro-Santos | 01:29.394 (-00:21.599) | 00:29.798 (-00:07.199) | 00:25.807 (-00:05.056) | 2 (-4) | 65 (+55) |
| 8 (⬇4) | HBeserra | 01:30.258 (-00:00.000) | 00:30.086 (-00:00.000) | 00:26.454 (-00:00.000) | 2 (-0) | 6 (+5) |
| 9 (⬇4) | USJT-LIGHT-YEAR-TR00P | 01:33.121 (-00:00.000) | 00:31.040 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.453 (-00:00.000) | 2 (-0) | 19 (-0) |
| 10 (⬇4) | My1stDR-Model | 01:34.322 (-00:00.000) | 00:31.440 (-00:00.000) | 00:31.001 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 75 (+9) |
| 11 (⬇4) | Michael-IVECloud | 01:35.683 (-00:00.000) | 00:31.894 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.727 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 86 (-0) |
| 12 (–) | BIL-yonsei-first | 01:35.734 (–:–.—) | 00:31.911 (–:–.—) | 00:31.594 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 19 (–) |
| 13 (⬆82) | ssm-DevelopersIO | 01:35.999 (-01:14.652) | 00:31.999 (-00:24.884) | 00:31.871 (-00:24.530) | 0 (-0) | 5 (+4) |
| 14 (–) | Hennessey911 | 01:36.866 (–:–.—) | 00:32.288 (–:–.—) | 00:30.316 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 26 (–) |
| 15 (⬆12) | AgentS | 01:40.784 (-00:24.160) | 00:33.594 (-00:08.054) | 00:33.395 (-00:00.996) | 3 (-7) | 29 (+9) |
| 16 (⬇8) | DeepRacerDemo | 01:41.714 (-00:00.000) | 00:33.904 (-00:00.000) | 00:30.136 (-00:00.000) | 2 (-0) | 4 (-0) |
| 17 (⬇8) | Error-IVECloud | 01:43.788 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.596 (-00:00.000) | 00:32.929 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 22 (-0) |
| 18 (⬇8) | mayumi-nakagawa | 01:43.923 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.641 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.252 (-00:00.000) | 4 (-0) | 34 (+13) |
| 19 (⬆2) | D-Racer | 01:45.875 (-00:15.257) | 00:35.291 (-00:05.086) | 00:32.199 (-00:05.732) | 2 (-3) | 2 (+1) |
| 20 (–) | ShowCry | 01:51.868 (–:–.—) | 00:37.289 (–:–.—) | 00:35.456 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 18 (–) |
Congratulations to baldder for going from the 100th spot from the bottom to 4th from the top in a week. Quite some improvement! ssm from DevelopersIO has also improved significantly almost halving the time and jumping up by 69 spots to 13th. It’s good to iterate on the model and keep learning and improving as in the Pro Division the learning curve is pretty steep. Let’s hope we see some of these racers near the top in there too.
As were heading towards the end of the month I’m expecting some exciting new circumstances. Return next week to see who manages to race qualify for the finale.