Abstract
We use evolutionary computation techniques to create real-time reactive controllers for a race-car simulation game: RARS (Robot Auto Racing Simulator). Using genetic programming to evolve driver controllers, we create highly generalized game-playing agents, able to outperform most human-crafted controllers and all machine-designed ones on a variety of game tracks.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Butz MV, Lönneker TD (2009) Optimized sensory-motor couplings plus strategy extensions for the TORCS car racing challenge. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 317–324
Cardamone L, Loiacono D, Lanzi PL (2009) Learning drivers for TORCS through imitation using supervised methods. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 148–155
Cardamone L, Loiacono D, Lanzi PL (2009) On-line neuroevolution applied to the open racing car simulator. In: CEC’09: proceedings of the eleventh congress on evolutionary computation. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 2622–2629
Chaperot B (2005) Motocross and artificial neural networks. In: Game design and technology workshop
Chaperot B, Fyfe C (2006) Improving artificial intelligence in a motocross game. In: IEEE symposium on computational intelligence and games
Cleland B (2006) Reinforcement learning for racecar control. Master’s thesis, The University of Waikato
Coulom R (2002) Reinforcement learning using neural networks, with applications to motor control. PhD thesis, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble
Ebner M, Tiede T (2009) Evolving driving controllers using genetic programming. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 279–286
Eleveld D (2003) Douge1. http://rars.sourceforge.net/selection/douge1.txt
Floreano D, Kato T, Marocco D, Sauser E (2004) Co-evolution of active vision and feature selection. Biol Cybern 90(3): 218–228
Koza JR (1992) Genetic programming: on the programming of computers by natural selection. MIT Press, Cambridge
Langdon WB (2000) Size fair and homologous tree genetic programming crossovers. Genet Program Evol Mach 1(1/2): 95–119
Muñoz J, Gutierrez G, Sanchis A (2009) Controller for TORCS created by imitation. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 271–278
Ng KC, Scorcioni R, Trivedi MM, Lassiter N (1997) Monif: a modular neuro-fuzzy controller for race car navigation. In: IEEE international symposium on computational intelligence in robotics and automation, pp 74–79
Onieva E, Pelta DA, Alonso J, Milanés V, Pérez J (2009) A modular parametric architecture for the TORCS racing engine. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 256–262
Perez D, Recio G, Saez Y, Isasi P (2009) Evolving a fuzzy controller for a car racing competition. In: CIG’09: proceedings of the 5th international conference on computational intelligence and games. IEEE Press, Piscataway, pp 263–270
Pyeatt LD, Howe AE (1998) Learning to race: experiments with a simulated race car. In: Proceedings of the eleventh International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society conference. AAAI Press, pp 357–361
Sáez Y, Perez D, Sanjuan O, Isasi P (2008) Driving cars by means of genetic algorithms. In: Rudolph G, Jansen T, Lucas SM, Poloni C, Beume N (eds) Proceedings of the 10th international conference on parallel problem solving from nature (PPSN X). Lecture notes in computer science, vol 5199. Springer, pp 1101–1110. http://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/conf/ppsn/ppsn2008.html
Sipper M (2001) On the origin of environments by means of natural selection. AI Mag 22(4): 133–140
Stanley K, Kohl N, Sherony R, Miikkulainen R (2005) Neuroevolution of an automobile crash warning system. In: GECCO’05: proceedings of the 2005 conference on genetic and evolutionary computation. ACM, New York, pp 1977–1984
Tanev I, Joachimczak M, Shimohara K (2006) Evolution of driving agent, remotely operating a scale model of a car with obstacle avoidance capabilities. In: GECCO ’06: proceedings of the 8th annual conference on genetic and evolutionary computation. ACM, New York, pp 1785–1792
Togelius J, Lucas SM (2005) Evolving controllers for simulated car racing. In: Proceedings of the congress on evolutionary computation
Togelius J, Nardi RD, Lucas SM (2007) Towards automatic personalised content creation in racing games. In: Proceedings of the IEEE symposium on computational intelligence and games
Wloch K, Bentley PJ (2004) Optimising the performance of a formula one car using a genetic algorithm. In: In Proceedings of eighth international conference on parallel problem solving from nature, pp 702–711
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shichel, Y., Sipper, M. GP-RARS: evolving controllers for the Robot Auto Racing Simulator. Memetic Comp. 3, 89–99 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12293-011-0056-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12293-011-0056-9