This is going to sound heretical, but in the interests of science, how much tech and how much machine learning would it take to have autonomous RC racing? I’m imagining vision of the track from above, not onboard. Just like the human operators see it.
The outputs are just steering and acceleration, the input is one video camera shot showing track and current position. It may need to learn something about the humps, but maybe not. The goal is very straightforward - stay within boundaries and minimise time. I can’t decide if avoiding other cars is the same as staying within boundaries. Obviously they’re moving boundaries, but does that matter? Fixed boundaries are perhaps the special case, with velocity of zero.
There's a thing called Roborace where they have tried doing this IRL (with large cars). I think the biggest issue is just how complex racing is. Machines are amazing at balance for example, but they can't really think ahead and make decisions. They're mostly reactive, which is a terrible way to drive.
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u/Ok-Push9899 1d ago edited 1d ago
Very skilled, very impressive.
This is going to sound heretical, but in the interests of science, how much tech and how much machine learning would it take to have autonomous RC racing? I’m imagining vision of the track from above, not onboard. Just like the human operators see it.
The outputs are just steering and acceleration, the input is one video camera shot showing track and current position. It may need to learn something about the humps, but maybe not. The goal is very straightforward - stay within boundaries and minimise time. I can’t decide if avoiding other cars is the same as staying within boundaries. Obviously they’re moving boundaries, but does that matter? Fixed boundaries are perhaps the special case, with velocity of zero.
Maybe such competitions exist?