Overview
This is a paper.js sketch that allows users to draw a race track and then simulates cars driving around it.
It does a very basic modeling of tire-wear around the turns, visualized per car with 4 rectangles ranging from green (fresh tires) to red (wore out tires).
Also, there is an approximation of maximum turning velocity, limiting the cars (and virtual drivers) to ~ 4 Gs. If they exceed that, they ‘spin out’ (noted in Javascript console).
Two equations:
- Centripetal Force
F = m * v ^ 2 / r - Force due to Acceleration
F = m * a
Allowing for a maximum acceleration of 4 Gs and solving for v yields:
- Max-turn velocity :
v = (4 * g * r) ^ 0.5
In future versions, hope create a Race Engineer simulation, where they decide in race-strategy. Thus add concepts of:
- Pit lane with placement of the team’s paddock.
- Commands to tell the driver to pit.
- Model a race with N-number of laps.
- Unique driver characteristics like braking behavior, turn consistency, turn precision, etc.
- Car characteristics like acceleration, top-speed, brakes, max-cornering speed, etc.
- Data tracking over multiple laps so as Race Engineer, you can make pitting strategy.
Controls
Mouse+Click & Drag- Draw the initial track.- After drawing a track, before adding cars, it can be modified via:
s- Simplify the track a bit removing some of the points.m- Smooths the track a bit by rounding out curves.
r- Adds a new car to the race track at the starting point.c- Clear any track (and cars added) allowing you to draw a new track.ESC- Pauses the simulation.\- Toggles Pause on/off.
References:
paper.js getCurvatureAt(...)- This function is used to obtain the intensity of the curve and the direction (eg. left or right relative current heading), which is used in the tire-wear and max-cornering speed calculations.
- List of F1 Track Lengths
- Used in regards to determining an approximate average length around: 5 km; used in translating the pixel-track length to re-world units.
- G-Forces
- Noting that drivers experience 4-6 Gs in turns.
Links:
Screenshot:
