SDE (Social Distancing Edition)
9th – 13th August 2021
The FIRA Autonomous Cars League is inviting interested teams to apply for participation in the FIRA 2021 SDE competitions.
The Autonomous Cars League will host competitions in the following categories:
- Virtual Autonomous Cars Race Challenge (ACRC)
- Virtual Autonomous Cars Urban Challenge Demonstration (ACUC)
For more detailed about the Autonomous Cars League, please refer to the FIRA Autonomous Cars league home page at https://acc.firaworldcup.org/ and join the autonomous cars league Instagram page at: https://www.instagram.com/fira.autnomouscars
1. Introduction
Autonomous cars are one of the most interesting research topics nowadays. Developing a robust and stable autonomous car which can operate in an unknown environment can be a challenging task in both hardware and software. The goal of FIRA Autonomous Cars League is to encourage researchers to design and implement an autonomous car and finally build this long-lived human imagination.
A virtual autonomous cars competition will be organized to resemble the physical autonomous cars challenges as closely as possible, both in terms of the realism of the provided game environment as well as the rules of the game. Since the Virtual Autonomous Cars Competition will be held entirely online, all teams registering for the competition will be admitted. Details on the setup and implementation have been published on the FIRA RoboWorld Cup Website.
2. Simulator and Rules of the game
Gazebo will be used as a simulator for the FIRA Autonomous Cars SDE, vehicle dynamics and control are being handled by Robotic operating system (ROS).
A version of the simulator including a model of a possible race track according to the rules has been released on FIRA Autonomous cars GitHub, the details on installation and implementation are available there. Teams can also develop their own model for the car and use their own, instead of using the default standard car model. There are also rules and limitations on changes that can be made on the model and the project files according to the rules. The most recent official version of the rules of the FIRA Autonomous Cars Race Challenge is always available here.
3. Competition structure
The competition consists of two preliminary and final stages, and according to the scores obtained in the preliminary stage, some teams will advance to the final stage. The scores obtained in the preliminary stage will be eliminated by entering the final stage, and the teams that are selected will enter the final stage with zero scores.
The car will start from the starting line and must pass the checkpoints to the end of the track. More checkpoints passed in a shorter period of time, the greater the score will be.
Before each match and at the time set by the referee, the teams are required to send their final project file to the technical committee. The teams’ evaluation in each competition will be based on the latest files submitted until the appointed time. The received files will not be accepted after this time.
All of the competitions will be broadcast live on the league’s official social media, and teams can watch the competitions.
Details on how to hold the tournament will be announced to the teams in the upcoming days. Please follow the next announcements on the official FIRA RoboWorld Cup Website.
4. Registration
Participants need to register their team via the FIRA 2021 SDE Registration form and provide general information about their team on FIRA 2021 Autonomous Cars SDE Team registration form.
More information on registration is already available on general FIRA 2021 SDE – Call for Participation
5. Submission of Car Model File
Initial requirements for the car models have been published by the Technical Committee and can be found on the Autonomous Cars League website. Please note that the released document is still preliminary and some minor changes may be made within the next few weeks. Teams need to provide car model files ahead of the tournament to allow the Technical Committee to check whether it is according to the laws of the game. Teams who do not have their own car model or who would like to attempt playing with the model of another team have the possibility to use the car models published open source by other teams.
A first version of the car model needs to be submitted by Aug. 3rd. Teams will then be assigned car models of TCs to peer-review. An updated version of the car model needs to be submitted by Aug. 7th. Later changes to the car model file need to be sent to the Technical Committee with a written statement of what has changed and why the change is required.
Teams are highly encouraged to make their car model available to the research community with an open-source license. This is, however, not a requirement for participation. In order for the Technical Committee to ensure the car models being according to the laws of the game, the full car file needs to be made available to the Technical Committee during the qualification process.
6. Deadlines
Deadline for submission: August 1st, 2021
Initial submission of car model file: August 3rd, 2021
Updated submission of robot model file: August 7th, 2021
7. Publication
Please note that after the announcement of the qualified teams the qualification material of the qualified teams will be made publicly available. Teams applying for participation, therefore, grant the right of publication of their qualification material to the FIRA Autonomous Cars league.
8. Workshops and events
The technical committee of the Autonomous Vehicles League has planned a workshop for the participants, in which the following subjects will be covered.
- An introduction to the FIRA Autonomous Cars League and the related scenario
- An Introduction to the competition simulation simulator
- An overview to the autonomous vehicles
- The method of using the simulator
This workshop is also a good opportunity for teams to communicate with the technical committee and raise concerns and questions.
With Best Regards
Technical Committee of FIRA Autonomous Cars League 2021