Racing Line Following for Race Car Models

[ninoguba]

My latest creation for the Mindstorms Robot Inventor set is a model of a Formula 1 race car.

 

I've integrated it with the color sensor facing downward to track a line:

And the distance sensor facing forward in the front to detect obstacles:

 

But rather than simply implementing the usual line following which works for small ordinary mobile robots, I'm envisioning something geared more for race car models.   I believe this video explains the concept of racing lines concisely and this is what I want my race car model to follow.

 

So how?   I'm thinking, first we would still use the black line on a white surface to draw the outline of our desired race track.   The idea is the bot will first follow this line and "store" the coordinates to build a model of the track virtually.  Assumption is these coordinates form the median/center of the race track and the boundaries can be 10-15cm from center to each opposite direction.   Once the virtual track is modeled, the actual race can begin where the bot will analyze and determine the optimal racing line to follow to yield the best lap times.    Object avoidance for stationary obstacles or other race cars on the track will add more complexity and surely will add to the fun of this all! 

 

This concept, in some way, is very similar to Anki Overdrive's AI-driven race cars.

 

Who else here wants to meet this coding challenge?

 

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by ninoguba