Assessment of an Autonomous Racing Controller: A Case Study From the Indy Autonomous Challenge ’ s Simulation Race

Abstract

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) was a competition among universities from around the world created to showcase fully autonomous operations under the extreme circumstances encountered in high-performance racing. The pinnacle of the virtual portion of the competition occurred on June 30,2021, during the IAC Simulation Race that consisted of a series of qualifying events followed by a head-to-head race. The objectives of this paper are to present a team’s controller and demonstrate its performance throughout the IAC until the final simulation race. The results presented in this paper were obtained by testing the team’s controller within a simulated environment. The final controller is capable of sustaining speeds of nearly 300 kph (186 mph) with an average speed of 280 kph(174 mph) and a maximum speed of 298 kph (185 mph). The final steering proportional-integral-derivative controller yielded cross-track errors no more than 4.7 meters from the desired waypoint. Analysis of the simulated vehicle’s G-G diagram reveals that the vehicle could sustain operations while experiencing over 2.5 Gs of lateral force as it navigated the turns of the track, and there is evidence to suggest that future work can be performed to tap into the full potential of the tires’ grip capabilities.The results presented in this report are indicative that the race team’s controller can perform safe high-speed operations in the presence of seven additional script-controlled opponents within a simulated environment.