5 ms·

Show HN: Open-Source AI Racing Harness

76 points by danAtElodin 4mo ago

Hi I'm Dan from Elodin, making an open source real-time capable flight software simulation. For AI Grand Prix contestants, the wait for the Round 1 virtual qualifier simulation has been grueling. If you’re competing, check out our simulation harness to tide you over, built to match the published competition constraints and message format. It runs against real Betaflight, which we learned requires at least 1000 sensor samples per second to run real-time correctly. The competition warranted introducing a new feature to generate the camera sensor directly in the simulation loop. Typically people connect to Unreal or similar game engine to create a camera sensor, which works well but is very heavy. For the simple needs of this challenge, creating sample directly in the loop is very handy and easy to use. Happy to hear your feedback on this! While it's not fancy looking currently, it uses the Rust Bevy game engine, which should allow us to improve the visual fidelity quickly. We all should easily be able to shift our implementation to the published competition sim once it lands. Hope you enjoy and good luck!

coin_artist 4mo ago
Looks cool! But why not just use Gazebo? Or Issac?
- danAtElodin 4mo ago
  Both great tools, optimized for slightly different needs. Gazebo is great for simulation and testing of higher level control, or for simulation that doesn't require 1000hz sensor simulation rate. Nvidia Isaac focuses on ML model training workflows, not ideal for interacting directly with your flight software for flight testing your code before you fly. This aims to be software CI/CD for your drone builds.
xspad3s 4mo ago
Does the starter kit include a simple baseline agent (like a basic line-follower) that I can run immediately to see how the simulator works?
- danAtElodin 4mo ago
  the included baseline just demonstrates that the Betaflight controller will indeed move to the hard-coded center positions of each gate. So the basic first solver task would be to replace that with a CV or ML inference based approach. We plan to add another demo solver into the sample set that shows this next, currently in progress.
anant914 4mo ago
[flagged]
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
FionaZhu 4mo ago
Wow.That's looks great.
- danAtElodin 4mo ago
  Thanks I appreciate it!
candizdar 4mo ago
[flagged]
nikhilpareek13 4mo ago
[flagged]
ok_dad 4mo ago
If you participate in this competition you’re effectively giving free research to a weapons company who will use it to improve their killer drones. I’m not judging but that’s what this is. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I only say this because technologists sometimes don’t think about the reasons behind things, they just see a fun problem to solve.
- danAtElodin 4mo ago
  Anduril is far ahead of anything we can produce here for this competition, but it's certainly a great method for them to identify potential talent who can bring needed skills to their team, hence the grand prize of a job offer. The terms of the competition is they get to use any submission for marketing purposes but the IP remains with the participants. Personally I'm in the camp that the world has bad guys, and they are building technology too. Smartest to make sure yours is better. Professionally we only work on defensive systems, which are in high demand these days.
  - ok_dad 4mo ago
    We can defend from drones without building our own autonomous drone killing machines. The real danger here is that we have bad guys at home who will use this tech on us if we give them the chance, so personally I’m opposed to building it. Not like I can do anything other than comment here and vote. I’m really not judging anyone who does, there’s a lot of nuance here that honestly makes it hard to argue you’re wrong or I’m right in this discussion.
    - danAtElodin 4mo ago
      Completely agree, details matter for sure. I just returned from a visit to Odessa Ukraine, and observed a maelstrom of drone on drone combat right outside my hotel window to booms and shaking glass. Those experiences make me want to help defend against the indiscriminate strikes however I can. But I concede there is danger in providing the tools.
  - folkrav 4mo ago
toksum 4mo ago
[dead]
AbhisumatK 4mo ago
Wow! Looks awesome!
- danAtElodin 4mo ago
  Thanks!
ParkRanger 4mo ago
I'm sure this will only be used for "racing"

76 points by danAtElodin 4mo ago

coin_artist 4mo ago

Looks cool! But why not just use Gazebo? Or Issac?

danAtElodin 4mo ago
Both great tools, optimized for slightly different needs. Gazebo is great for simulation and testing of higher level control, or for simulation that doesn't require 1000hz sensor simulation rate. Nvidia Isaac focuses on ML model training workflows, not ideal for interacting directly with your flight software for flight testing your code before you fly. This aims to be software CI/CD for your drone builds.

xspad3s 4mo ago

Does the starter kit include a simple baseline agent (like a basic line-follower) that I can run immediately to see how the simulator works?

danAtElodin 4mo ago
the included baseline just demonstrates that the Betaflight controller will indeed move to the hard-coded center positions of each gate. So the basic first solver task would be to replace that with a CV or ML inference based approach. We plan to add another demo solver into the sample set that shows this next, currently in progress.

anant914 4mo ago

[flagged]

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

FionaZhu 4mo ago

Wow.That's looks great.

danAtElodin 4mo ago
Thanks I appreciate it!

candizdar 4mo ago

[flagged]

nikhilpareek13 4mo ago

[flagged]

ok_dad 4mo ago

If you participate in this competition you’re effectively giving free research to a weapons company who will use it to improve their killer drones. I’m not judging but that’s what this is. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I only say this because technologists sometimes don’t think about the reasons behind things, they just see a fun problem to solve.

danAtElodin 4mo ago
Anduril is far ahead of anything we can produce here for this competition, but it's certainly a great method for them to identify potential talent who can bring needed skills to their team, hence the grand prize of a job offer. The terms of the competition is they get to use any submission for marketing purposes but the IP remains with the participants. Personally I'm in the camp that the world has bad guys, and they are building technology too. Smartest to make sure yours is better. Professionally we only work on defensive systems, which are in high demand these days.
- ok_dad 4mo ago
  We can defend from drones without building our own autonomous drone killing machines. The real danger here is that we have bad guys at home who will use this tech on us if we give them the chance, so personally I’m opposed to building it. Not like I can do anything other than comment here and vote. I’m really not judging anyone who does, there’s a lot of nuance here that honestly makes it hard to argue you’re wrong or I’m right in this discussion.
  - danAtElodin 4mo ago
    Completely agree, details matter for sure. I just returned from a visit to Odessa Ukraine, and observed a maelstrom of drone on drone combat right outside my hotel window to booms and shaking glass. Those experiences make me want to help defend against the indiscriminate strikes however I can. But I concede there is danger in providing the tools.
- folkrav 4mo ago

toksum 4mo ago

[dead]

AbhisumatK 4mo ago

Wow! Looks awesome!

danAtElodin 4mo ago
Thanks!

ParkRanger 4mo ago

I'm sure this will only be used for "racing"