With seven days left in May it’s time to look at where we are in the races.
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
DeepRacer Underground
Time for a June DeepRacer Underground: a race where you can submit your model and have it raced live on a physical track in AWS’ London Office with David Smith as the host and me as the throttle-tablet operator.
To have better chances we have two categories this time. You need to submit your model to a community race and top five participants will have their models loaded on a DeepRacer and put on a track. Races will be run until the 4th of June:
- Pro Division (for those in the League Pro Division): Join the race
- Open Division (for everyone else): Join the race
After you finish in the top five, make sure you get in touch with David on the Community Slack to hand him your model (he cannot download your models from the race).
The live stream will take place on the 8th of June at 16:00 BST/17:00 CET on https://www.twitch.tv/awsdeepracer
DeepRacer Open-Sourced
AWS DeepRacer car software is now open source. This means you can learn more than before about how the car software is working but not only that: you can also modify it to build your own project on top of the device, not just race! You can see the code in DeepRacer repo on GitHub.
On top of all that you can also purchase new accessories for your car. Sample projects include works by Community’s Chris Miller, Jochem Lugtenburg and Martin Paradesi. Read more about them on the AWS DeepRacer Robotics Project Page.
Pro Division
Race info:
- Track named after Kuei-NCTU-CGI from Taiwan who finished third in 2021 DeepRacer Championship
- 60.74 meters long
- 107 centimeters 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
I have started racing a little more and am currently in the 36th spot. There are a few gotchas in this track:
- if you train for speed, you’ll struggle at the turns section
- if you train for stability, you’ll be very slow on the great straights
- waypoints are sparse which makes it much more difficult to train relying on waypoints (if that’s your go-to strategy). Joined with sharp turns the car can easily exit a turn going in the wrong direction
- turns are quite close to each other which means the car can see sections of the track which aren’t the road the car currently is on
Now that I finished explaining my mediocre results with how difficult the track is, let’s have a look at how the real Pros are doing:
All submissions Update time: 2021-05-24 21:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-05-17 21:00:00 UTC Racers: 114 (+9) Total submission attempts: 33736 (+14916) Best total time: 01:04.294 (-00:00.384) by JJ Mean total time: 03:38.917482456 (-00:12.510184211) Best lap: 00:20.846 (-00:00.234) by JJ Mean best lap: 01:03.843508772 (-00:03.007262657) Mean average lap: 01:12.972157895 (-00:04.170089724)
Only a few more racers joined the battle this month. I’m beginning to wonder what’s behind this state. Would it be that some of the Open Division racers are not interested in participating? Or maybe they had limited credits and moved on? Hard to tell. Still, we have much more activity in the whole group than we used to have in the past. Almost half of the submissions happened this week. JJ unsurprisingly improved his times slightly but many other racers have also. Let’s have a look at the mean times for the top 20.
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-05-24 21:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-05-17 21:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 20229 (+3254) Best total time: 01:04.294 (-00:00.384) by JJ Mean total time: 01:27.781700 (-00:15.916100) Best lap: 00:20.846 (-00:00.234) by JJ Mean best lap: 00:27.233800 (-00:04.709100) Mean average lap: 00:29.260250 (-00:05.305400)
What is pretty surprising is that it’s only today that worst time in the top 20 has gone under two minutes. Sure, two minutes is a really good time but it is within reach of many of the drivers. Perhaps it will be the upcoming seven days that will bring us more rivalry for the top 16 places (currently 19th driver qualifies into the finale). The mean total time has gone down by almost 16 seconds. I’m wondering whether JJ or Karl-S will manage to get under 60 seconds with their times. One thing is sure though, this week they have earned a new kid in their time range. Let’s have a look at the top twenty standings:
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (↔0) | JJ | 01:04.294 (-00:00.384) | 00:21.431 (-00:00.128) | 00:20.846 (-00:00.234) | 0 (-0) | 2804 (+1619) |
| 2 (↔0) | Karl-NAB | 01:04.776 (-00:00.214) | 00:21.592 (-00:00.071) | 00:21.219 (-00:00.091) | 0 (-0) | 3487 (+1695) |
| 3 (–) | JPMC-DriftKing-Houston | 01:05.544 (–:–.—) | 00:21.848 (–:–.—) | 00:21.266 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 112 (–) |
| 4 (⬆2) | Ernesto | 01:10.558 (-00:08.246) | 00:23.519 (-00:02.749) | 00:22.866 (-00:02.116) | 0 (-0) | 817 (+652) |
| 5 (↔0) | Duckworth | 01:11.706 (-00:05.791) | 00:23.902 (-00:01.930) | 00:23.150 (-00:01.856) | 0 (-0) | 1314 (+998) |
| 6 (⬇3) | dartjason | 01:12.016 (-00:02.801) | 00:24.005 (-00:00.934) | 00:23.908 (-00:00.621) | 0 (-0) | 1258 (+497) |
| 7 (↔0) | Jochem | 01:12.501 (-00:07.720) | 00:24.167 (-00:02.573) | 00:23.606 (-00:00.885) | 0 (-1) | 71 (+63) |
| 8 (⬇4) | rosscomp1 | 01:16.213 (-00:00.000) | 00:25.404 (-00:00.000) | 00:24.179 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 1416 (+552) |
| 9 (⬇1) | Matt | 01:20.075 (-00:03.287) | 00:26.691 (-00:01.096) | 00:26.365 (-00:00.831) | 0 (-0) | 1917 (+1193) |
| 10 (–) | Yi-LI-NYCU-CGI | 01:24.742 (–:–.—) | 00:28.247 (–:–.—) | 00:25.478 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 197 (–) |
| 11 (⬆21) | GT-DevelopersIO | 01:25.754 (-01:24.358) | 00:28.584 (-00:28.120) | 00:27.657 (-00:16.484) | 0 (-18) | 272 (+270) |
| 12 (⬆57) | Joffe | 01:29.783 (-02:34.392) | 00:29.927 (-00:51.464) | 00:24.409 (-00:52.671) | 3 (-26) | 59 (+58) |
| 13 (⬇4) | alexj | 01:36.117 (-00:04.517) | 00:32.039 (-00:01.505) | 00:31.159 (-00:01.265) | 0 (-0) | 64 (+36) |
| 14 (–) | Penguin-DNPds | 01:41.174 (–:–.—) | 00:33.724 (–:–.—) | 00:31.868 (–:–.—) | 4 (–) | 143 (–) |
| 15 (–) | ZhengYi-NYCU-CGI | 01:45.788 (–:–.—) | 00:35.262 (–:–.—) | 00:34.397 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 41 (–) |
| 16 (⬆39) | AIDeepRacer | 01:47.508 (-01:47.032) | 00:35.836 (-00:35.677) | 00:31.146 (-00:37.222) | 2 (-23) | 22 (+16) |
| 17 (⬇7) | PolishThunder | 01:49.222 (-00:00.000) | 00:36.407 (-00:00.000) | 00:30.706 (-00:00.000) | 5 (-0) | 3978 (+1326) |
| 18 (–) | JPMC-HandsFree-London | 01:49.620 (–:–.—) | 00:36.540 (–:–.—) | 00:27.151 (–:–.—) | 5 (–) | 159 (–) |
| 19 (⬇8) | SorinB | 01:52.120 (-00:00.000) | 00:37.373 (-00:00.000) | 00:35.092 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 1993 (+377) |
| 20 (⬆14) | Si | 01:56.123 (-00:56.990) | 00:38.707 (-00:18.997) | 00:38.208 (-00:08.500) | 0 (-12) | 105 (+65) |
JPMC-DriftKing-Houston has been racing since April 2020 and has taken part in both finale races this season but the times haven’t been this close to the lead before. That’s really interesting. Since we’re mentioning JPMC, it’s time to welcome JPMC-HandsFree-London to the top 20. JPMC are serious about training their employees and an internal DeepRacer league is one of the ways they do this. JPMC-HandsFree-London has been around since September 2019. And that’s not all from their side, read on for more.
The NYCU students have drawn conclusions from their last-minute entry in April and this time they started earlier. Their times are pretty good and it’s still seven days left so I’m expecting Yoway-NYCU-CGI to join them at some higher spots.
Penguing-DNPds has returned after finishing 14th in the finale, so has GT-DevelopersIO who lost the qualification in the second round last week, a superb race that was and I’m expecting another show in June.
The usual group of Ernesto, Duckworth, dartjason and Jochem are forming the chase party with a 5-8 second gap to the leaders. They are all candidates for a dark horse of the finale but we have many racers with an appetite for that room at MGM Grand and a time on the track at the Arena, and only three spots a month.
Open Division
Race info:
- 45193 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 more forgiving with a milder turns section but still brings many challenges to the racers.
Let’s start with overall stats:
All submissions Update time: 2021-05-24 21:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-05-17 21:00:00 UTC Racers: 477 (+123) Total submission attempts: 3903 (+1445) Best total time: 01:06.983 (-00:16.856) by JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires Mean total time: 04:44.008916143 (+00:05.694198628) Best lap: 00:21.737 (-00:05.341) by JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires Mean best lap: 01:20.840716981 (+00:00.748434495) Mean average lap: 01:34.669320755 (+00:01.898069342)
123 new racers suggests a bit of a slow down with new entries but it’s still pretty decent. Racers activity is pretty good. Unsurprisingly, racers in the Open Division are not as active with their submissions as the Pros – usually this comes from the fact that they don’t know what options there are to do more without contributing more time to their activity and from the focus on learning over competing.
Mean total time has increased considerably. Usually a major contributing factor are one-time submissions without any more learning and submitting.
Currently there would be 47 new Pro racers next month which means that the worst time to qualify is 2:37.239 from kjk20.
Let’s have a look at top 20:
Top 20 submissions Update time: 2021-05-24 21:00:00 UTC Comparing to 2021-05-17 21:00:00 UTC Racers: 20 Total submission attempts: 756 (+279) Best total time: 01:06.983 (-00:16.856) by JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires Mean total time: 01:52.467150 (-00:09.764500) Best lap: 00:21.737 (-00:05.341) by JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires Mean best lap: 00:34.060700 (-00:02.576550) Mean average lap: 00:37.488750 (-00:03.254900)
There’s a pretty good improvement on the mean time but the new leader has outpaced the group. As mentioned before, there’s more to say about JPMC racers this week. JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires has been racing since June 2020. In the qualifying zone we’ve also got the 2020 finalist JPMC-Vega-Hyderabad and a rookie, JPMC-Ann-NJ. DNPds also have their Aurora and Polaris in the top 20.
There’s one more 2020 finalist in the group at the moment: Svenus who has been with us since June 2019 is in the fourth. Let’s see the full top 20 table:
| Rank | Racer | Total Time | Avg Lap | Best Lap | Resets | Submissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (–) | JPMC-TeamOne-BuenosAires | 01:06.983 (–:–.—) | 00:22.327 (–:–.—) | 00:21.737 (–:–.—) | 0 (–) | 62 (–) |
| 2 (⬇1) | Otaboroid | 01:19.119 (-00:04.720) | 00:26.373 (-00:01.573) | 00:25.335 (-00:02.200) | 0 (-0) | 128 (+20) |
| 3 (⬆1) | edxtore | 01:20.398 (-00:19.378) | 00:26.799 (-00:06.459) | 00:26.290 (-00:06.892) | 0 (-0) | 31 (+28) |
| 4 (⬇2) | svenus | 01:26.118 (-00:00.000) | 00:28.706 (-00:00.000) | 00:27.078 (-00:00.000) | 1 (-0) | 62 (+8) |
| 5 (⬇2) | mz-sin | 01:29.450 (-00:00.000) | 00:29.816 (-00:00.000) | 00:29.722 (-00:00.000) | 0 (-0) | 25 (-0) |
| 6 (⬇1) | Dzmitry | 01:42.717 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.239 (-00:00.000) | 00:30.816 (-00:00.000) | 5 (-0) | 58 (-0) |
| 7 (⬆4) | Aurora-DNPds | 01:45.972 (-00:21.850) | 00:35.324 (-00:07.283) | 00:32.944 (-00:03.212) | 4 (-2) | 37 (+31) |
| 8 (⬇2) | Polaris-DNPds | 01:58.540 (-00:00.000) | 00:39.513 (-00:00.000) | 00:38.203 (-00:00.000) | 3 (-0) | 3 (-0) |
| 9 (⬇2) | BrilliantDragon | 01:58.584 (-00:00.000) | 00:39.528 (-00:00.000) | 00:34.399 (-00:00.000) | 3 (-0) | 1 (-0) |
| 10 (⬇1) | phu | 02:00.733 (-00:01.278) | 00:40.244 (-00:00.426) | 00:37.600 (+00:01.145) | 1 (-1) | 71 (+47) |
| 11 (⬇3) | mansoor | 02:01.525 (-00:00.000) | 00:40.508 (-00:00.000) | 00:30.999 (-00:00.000) | 7 (-0) | 37 (-0) |
| 12 (–) | Hyderabad-3-Vega | 02:09.454 (–:–.—) | 00:43.151 (–:–.—) | 00:40.675 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 4 (–) |
| 13 (⬇2) | THE-REAL-GODZILLA | 02:02.244 (-00:00.000) | 00:40.748 (-00:00.000) | 00:37.324 (-00:00.000) | 2 (-0) | 91 (+50) |
| 14 (–) | Kapricosky | 02:02.794 (–:–.—) | 00:40.931 (–:–.—) | 00:35.592 (–:–.—) | 3 (–) | 1 (–) |
| 15 (–) | myfirstcar | 02:06.022 (–:–.—) | 00:42.007 (–:–.—) | 00:37.002 (–:–.—) | 13 (–) | 39 (–) |
| 16 (–) | JennerBrandon | 02:07.606 (–:–.—) | 00:42.535 (–:–.—) | 00:40.316 (–:–.—) | 8 (–) | 16 (–) |
| 17 (–) | JPMC-Vega-Hyderabad | 02:09.454 (–:–.—) | 00:43.151 (–:–.—) | 00:40.675 (–:–.—) | 1 (–) | 10 (–) |
| 18 (–) | testmiya | 02:09.590 (–:–.—) | 00:43.196 (–:–.—) | 00:36.729 (–:–.—) | 7 (–) | 28 (–) |
| 19 (⬆37) | 1first | 02:11.192 (-00:51.649) | 00:43.730 (-00:17.217) | 00:41.918 (-00:08.008) | 4 (-17) | 26 (+21) |
| 20 (⬇3) | T-Matsu | 02:15.056 (-00:05.942) | 00:45.018 (-00:01.981) | 00:41.066 (-00:00.487) | 5 (-1) | 8 (+3) |
To finish off, a round of applause goes to 1first who has gone up by 37 spots into the 18th.
That’s it for this week. Next report will be the End of Month Special. Be sure to return next week!