AWS DeepRacer League Update #31 Finale Special

Let’s review the events of the last AWS DeepRacer League 2021 finale.

Time flies when (you have outstanding league update blog posts and) are having fun! It feels like we’ve just started racing this year and here we are, right after the last finale. We still have the finals ahead of us and AWS re:Invent so make sure you come back for updates.

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.

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AWS DeepRacer News

Last chance to qualify into the championships

You can still take part in the Wildcard racer to win one of 5 places in the championships. Read more here.

Student league finals

The day before the finale AWS DeepRacer Student League finished, determining the three Student participants:

AWS DeepRacer Student league winners (Source: twitch.tv)

You can watch the whole event here:

The race format

Expedition Super Loop track (Source: AWS DeepRacer Console)

Race info:

69.96 meters long
107 centimeters wide
Object avoidance format with five boxes on the track
Racers are trying to complete as many laps as possible, the fastest lap counts
Each collision and each driving off the track results in three seconds penalty
Top 3 qualify into the championships during the AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas
Top 10 (who haven’t won it just yet) win an AWS DeepRacer EVOs (if my calculations are correct, the last person to win a car was in 42nd spot in September)
The track is divided into three sectors and in the stream they have colours assigned: green means the fastest time for a given racer so far, purple is the fastest time across all racers and yellow means slower than the fastest time for that sector for a given racer

Stream recording

You can watch the whole race recording with a commentary and interviews by Blaine Sundrud and Ryan Myrehn:

Round one

CGS-on-your-12-hopefully started with a reset on the first, seemingly easy box. Another set of collisions with box three have lead to a lap time of 1:06.390. Second lap brought improvement with a time of 41.942 seconds. Third lap was narrowly slower and then the time has run out.

Matt returned to the finale and started cautiously but did not avoid a collision with box three. Still managed to clock a time of 36.924. There was another reset in lap two but a slight improvement lead to a time of 35.859s. Two more laps had some resets and weren’t fast enough.

JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad did not submit a model.

Deepak-dpk has opened the race with a purple sector one but 7 resets were too many to take the lead and the lap time was 56.337. Unfortunately stability was missing in this model and the second lap was even slower.

CGS-BigBoson started rather unluckily by getting stuck on box one. The car consistently smashed it for three minutes, leading to no laps completed.

ADA has returned for the second finale and clearly learned a lot, starting with a clean lap of 27.495 seconds. The next laps were pretty impressive with purple sectors here and there but resets in others made it impossible to improve.

TonyJ struggled with resets throughout his run. His first lap completed in unimpressive 53.121s and second in over two minutes.

JPMC-HYD-CircuitBreaker completed the first lap in 41.525 after four resets, then second in 65s after ten resets.

AJM-Model-1 had a promising lap one until the soul crashing sequence of turns with two resets and a time of 36.514s. Next lap was cleaner with a time of 33.005s and was followed by another better time of 31.115s.

GT-DevelopersIO completed first lap in 1:34.357 due to numerous resets. Second lap was slightly better time of 01:08.484.

SorinB opened up with a relatively slow lap of 45.061s after which he got stuck in the third sector, not being able to get past box 5 for much too long. Lap two completed in 1:40s. Even though the car looked promising in early sectors, it struggled towards the end.

Penguin-DNPds started nicely but first had an off track, then a few resets and clocked 44.777s. A few resets less in lap two have given him a lap of 32.060s but then came a stable, clean lap with a time of 27.754s, putting him in second. The laps that followed had a few resets and Penguin-DNPds went for a break in a second spot.

Fumiaki, another racer from DNP and a runner-up of the 2019 Championship joined us for a second or third finale. Fumiaki started cautiously. Did not avoid a reset but started with a lap time of 34.22s. Lap two was clean and with 28.114s put him in third. Third lap had a reset and a time of 34 seconds again. That’s a stable performance. Lap four completed in 32 seconds and lap five took 37 seconds. Just a note – not many racers managed to complete five laps today.

Ernesto started nicely before running into box three and completing the lap in 33.507s. In lap two he had an unfortunate off-track in the last section and completed the lap in 32.669. Lap three – another reset and no improvement. Lap four was similar but he did improve with 32.004s. A replay of the scenario in lap five and Ernesto completed round one with a time of 31.861s.

Ghost-Rider-007 has not submitted a model.

JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad started promising but collected two resets on box three and completed a lap in 35.126s. Second lap was clean and with a best time in second sector in the competition giving a time of 25.604s. Two more resets have lead to a time of 33 seconds in lap three. In lap four after a few resets Rogue got stuck in an inconvenient reset spot and lost all the remaining time without a lap.

Let’s see the standings at the end of the round:

Place	Racer	Time 1
1	JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad	25.604
2	ADA	27.495
3	Penguin-DNPds	27.754
4	Fumiaki	28.114
5	AJM-Model-1	31.115
6	Ernesto	31.861
7	Matt	35.859
8	JPMC-HYD-CircuitBreaker	41.525
9	CGS-on-your-12-hopefully	41.942
10	SorinB	45.061
11	TonyJ	53.121
12	Deepak-dpk	56.337
13	GT-DevelopersIO	01:08.48
14	CGS-BigBoson	DNF
15	JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad	DNS
16	Ghost-Rider-007	DNS

AWS DeepRacer League 2021 October Finale standings after round one

Round two

CGS-BigBoson hasn’t managed to find a better behaviour in the model, completing zero laps.

Deepak-dpk started cautiously but that did not prevent three resets leading to a time of 49.172s. I think he switched to a more stable model. Second lap completed in around 56 seconds. In third Deepak was very close to improving but went just a little slower. That was the end of finale participation for him.

TonyJ returned to better his behaviour on track. He started promising, completing a lap in 34.728s despite two resets. Lap two had more resets and brought no improvement but he managed to improve in lap three with a time of 31.103s.

SorinB started eagerly but took a break or two near box three. Furthermore, the car had another reset in a very inconvenient location losing a lot of time trying to start again, having a lap of 1:35.252s. Unfortunately same problems affected the car in lap two which did not complete.

CGS-on-your-12-hopefully started carefully and it brought results, one reset and a time of 37.428s. Lap two had more resets and a time around 50 seconds. Lap three started a little slower but pretty smooth, sadly box three caused too many problems for an improvement.

JPMC-HYD-CircuitBreaker started with a few resets too many. To be specific, 35 resets too many, meaning no laps got completed in round 2.

Matt started with a time of 36.041s after a single second. It seems to be a slower run in general. In lap two he managed to cut a fraction of a second with a time of 35.998s. Lap three, another reset but a noticeable improvement to 35.212s. He was slightly slower in laps four and five. Five laps are pretty good result in three minutes on this track.

Ernesto started by hitting the first box 43 times and ended round 2 with a risk that did not pay off.

AJM-Model-1 started with a clean lap but rather slow at 28.444s – that’s right behind Fumiaki who’s holding on to his fourth spot. Lap two was slower and then an off track in laps three and four ruined those attempts. In last lap AJM-Model-1 went steady, clean and faster and completed a lap in 27.987s which was just behind the third at a time.

Fumiaki started cautiously with a single reset and a time of 33.424s. Lap two had both speed and stability improvements and completed in 28.337s. Third and fourth lap completed in 32 seconds after a reset in each. Two resets in lap five closed Fumiaki’s chances and locked the podium.

Penguin-DNPds started with a solid time of 29.568s in lap one, too slow in lap two, In lap three a purple sector two was followed by resets which gave no improvement again. Similarly laps four and five had problems.

ADA started pretty fast and clean in lap one and managed to improve their time with 26.730s. Lap two had two resets and no improvement. Lap three was really good and fast until there was an off track right before the finish line. Lap four had a few resets and lap five had a single reset meaning ADA has ended second.

JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad has started with a time of 36.704s and then improved to 35.113s in second lap. There were many resets but results weren’t important any more.

Let’s have a look at the final standings:

Place	Racer	Time 1	Time 2	Final
1	JPMC-Rogue-Hyderabad	25.604	35.113	25.604
2	ADA	27.495	26.73	26.73
3	Penguin-DNPds	27.754	29.568	27.754
4	AJM-Model-1	31.115	27.987	27.987
5	Fumiaki	28.114	28.337	28.114
6	TonyJ	53.121	31.103	31.103
7	Ernesto	31.861	DNF	31.861
8	Matt	35.859	35.212	35.212
9	CGS-on-your-12-hopefully	41.942	37.428	37.428
10	JPMC-HYD-CircuitBreaker	41.525	DNF	41.525
11	SorinB	45.061	01:35.25	45.061
12	Deepak-dpk	56.337	49.172	49.172
13	GT-DevelopersIO	01:08.48	DNS	01:08.48
14	CGS-BigBoson	DNF	DNF	DNF
15	JPMC-Ace-Hyderabad	DNS	DNS	DNS
16	Ghost-Rider-007	DNS	DNS	DNS

AWS DeepRacer League 2021 October Finale standings after round two

Congratulations to Rogue, ADA and Penguin for making it, and to all racers for a great show. Stay tuned for the updates from a wildcards race coming early next week and then from the finals!