The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) is the main and, as of July 2023, the only active racing series for autonomous race cars. The vehicles participating in the IAC are SAE level 4 autonomous as they are capable of completing circuit laps and overtaking manoeuvres without any human intervention.[1]
Each team participating in the competition uses the same vehicle, a custom-built Dallara AV21 single-seater derived from their IL-15 model with the addition of all the sensors, actuators and computing hardware necessary for fully autonomous driving.[2] The participating teams are constituted by university researchers by top universities worldwide, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, KAIST, Politecnico di Milano, TUM and ETH Zurich.
The first race took place on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in October 2021,[3] after an initial period of simulator-only challenges,[4] which started in November 2019 as a proving ground to allow the competing teams to demonstrate their ability to race autonomously before receiving the physical race car. Since then, the competition has raced in several notable oval circuits as Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, and in June 2023 in its first road course circuit, at the Monza Circuit.[5]
Motivations and achievements
As a successor of the DARPA Grand Challenge, the IAC aimed to provide a challenging environment for the development of autonomous vehicles. University teams were invited to develop software[6] for solving the autonomous driving task, but in the challenging environment of a racetrack.
During the competition, teams used simulation environments and cloud computing to test and prove the maturity of their algorithms.[7] As the IAC race cars were to drive on track up to 290km/h (180mph)[8] with high lateral and longitudinal accelerations, the software needed to plan a path in an adversarial environment and to drive safely and reliably with low computation times.[9]
Overall, three main goals were tackled in the IAC:[10]
Defining and solving edge case scenarios for autonomous vehicles;
Catalyzing new autonomous driving technologies and innovations;
Engaging the public in the competition to help ensure acceptance.
The efforts of the IAC were led by Energy System Network, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit.[11] The goal of the IAC was purely to focus on the development of a full autonomous driving software stack that enabled perception, planning and control on the racetrack.[12]
During its multiple years of operation, the IAC achieved a number of records and primates: other than the speed records for an autonomous vehicle on every racetrack the competition visited,[13][14] the most important was the Autonomous land speed record, obtained on April 28, 2022, on the Kennedy Space Center runway, where a Dallara AV-21 reached the speed of 309.3km/h (192.2mph)[15]
In order to qualify for the participation in the real championship, the participating teams had first to show their autonomous driving capabilities on a simulator, by completing a series of hackathon challenges of increasing difficulty, starting from a solo lap and simple obstacle avoidance[21] to 1-to-1 full races.[22] The simulation environment provided the teams with a perfect replica of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and of the Dallara AV-21 Racecar.
The simulation-only competition peaked with the IAC Simulation Race, which took place on June 30, 2021. It consisted of a qualification round, where the teams had to complete their fastest solo lap, with time penalties attributed for violating the track limits. Then, the teams were split into two 8-vehicle semifinal races in order to qualify for the final.[23]
In the semifinals and in the final, many vehicles were disqualified for causing collisions with other vehicles, with the race stopped and re-started every time a collision happened. The final times of the semi-finals were used to determine the running order of the final race, which concluded with the victory of team PoliMOVE,[4] which started from pole position and defended its place along the 10 laps.[23]
The winner team got awarded with US$100,000, while the second team (TUM Autonomous Motorsport) received US$50,000[4]
Indy Autonomous Challenge Simulation Race Final Standings
The teams at IMS with their racecars in October 2021
After the simulation race, 9 teams purchased the vehicle, and were admitted to the first physical race. Some of the teams participating in the simulation race merged in order to split the financial burden.[31]
The Indy Autonomous Challenge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) took place on October 23, 2021. Although in the original intentions of the organizers it should have been a full 10-vehicle traditional race[32] as it had been the case of the IAC Simulation Race, eventually the scope of the competition was reduced to a time trial event with an obstacle avoidance test.[33]
The race, together with its US$1,000,000 prize, was won by TUM Autonomous Motorsport[3] after many teams had to retire from the competition due to crashes,[34] with Euroracing on the second place of the podium, while PoliMOVE crashed against the wall but, as it had already scored its time, was granted the third place.
IAC at the Las Vegas CES, 2022
The next Indy Autonomous Challenge competition took place on January 7, 2022, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), as the final event of the 2022 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show. The event itself was limited to CES attendees but was live streamed. After the single-vehicle time trials of the Indianapolis event, it was decided to have another competition with the autonomous race cars, this time with more than a vehicle on the track.[35]
To simplify the task for the teams, the "Overtaking Game" format was chosen for the race, where a defender car had to keep a constant speed, while an attacker vehicle had to complete the overtake before the end of the lap. Once the overtake had been completed, the roles would swap and the defender speed would be increased. The teams had to perform a complete and safe overtake on track in the test days before the event in order to qualify for the race matches, which were held on a tennis-style elimination tournament. To further simplify the environment, the defender was forced to stay on the inside of the turns.[36]
After winning the semi-final race against KAIST,[37] PoliMOVE won the 2022 IAC Las Vegas Race[38] by successfully completing an autonomous overtake over TUM Autonomous Motorsport[39] defending at 150mph (240km/h). The German team spun out of control after performing an overly aggressive obstacle avoidance manoeuvre while car #5 (PoliMOVE) was ultimating its overtake.[40]
IAC 2022-2023 Season
IAC racecars in the garage of the Texas Motor Speedway
The success of the 2022 IAC competition in Las Vegas encouraged the series to expand towards new circuits. Consumer Technology Association renovated the IAC's contract to perform at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. After a summer break and a vehicle refresh, which included an increase of the engine power[41] and new sensors and computing equipment, the cars were brought to Fort Worth, Texas for the next challenge.
The Indy Autonomous Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) took place in November 2023. A major change in the rules with respect to the 2022 Las Vegas edition consisted in the increased freedom of the defender vehicle to choose its trajectory, although right of way and minimum longitudinal and lateral separation rules were introduced to increase the safety of the competition.[42]
The race took place on a cold and wet racetrack after a morning of heavy rain.[43] Similar to what had happened during the Simulation Race, many teams were disqualified due to either causing a collision or simply violating the minimum distance between the cars, as their algorithms could not safely handle the increased opponent freedom.[44] Team PoliMOVE won the final race against AI Racing Tech.[45]
The 2023 Indy Autonomous Challenge at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway took place on January 7, 2023,[46] following the same ruleset of the 2022 TMS Race. As the teams' software progressed, more advanced vehicle interaction and less incidents happened with respect to the TMS race.[47]
Team PoliMOVE won again, reaching a top speed of around 180mph (289.682km/h) during the event[48] and beating its own speed record from the previous year.
IAC at MIMO 2023
At the 2023 Las Vegas event, the IAC announced its intention of coming to Europe, at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy, as part of the 2023 MIMO event.[49] Five IAC teams participated in the event,[50] which took place on June 16–18, 2023.
Due to the increased difficulty of running on road course circuits with respect to ovals and the lack of complete GPS coverage of the track,[51] the event format was once again a single vehicle time trial competition. Team PoliMOVE scored the fastest lap, while TUM Autonomous Motorsport took second place and TII Unimore Racing (formerly Euroracing) was on the lowest step of the podium.[52]
IAC at Las Vegas CES 2024
At CES®2024, the Indy Autonomous Challenge unveiled the IAC AV-24- the next-gen autonomous vehicle platform in the racing series.[53][54][55] Teams PoliMOVE, TII Unimore Racing, and AI Racing Tech demonstrated autonomous laps with the AV-24 cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on January 11th, 2024.[56] The remaining teams with the AV-21 autonomous cars participated in the autonomous passing challenge. TUM Autonomous Motorsport faced Cavalier Autonomous Racing from University of Virginia in the final round.[57] The Cavalier race car accelerated as the defending car in the final round which is prohibited by the competition rules and the round had to end with TUM Autonomous Motorsport declared as the winner, and Cavalier Autonomous Racing finishing second.[58] The first Semi-Final took place between MIT-PITT-RW and Cavalier Autonomous Racing with Cavalier Autonomous Racing passing the MIT-PITT-RW car at 143 mph before the round ended.[59] The second Semi-Final saw TUM Autonomous Motorsport go head-to-head against KAIST with TUM emerging as the winner of the semi-final.
The Dallara AV-21 Prototype at Clemson UniversityDetail of the Dallara AV-21 Prototype showing the LiDAR, Radar and Camera sensors
For the IAC, a special autonomous race car has been developed by Clemson University[62] in the Deep Orange Project[63] and it has been presented at the CES 2021.[64] The race car was based on a DallaraIndy Lights chassis[65] which was enhanced with computation hardware, sensors and actuators[66] to enable full automation on the racetrack.
The vehicle was called "Dallara AV-21". It is rear-wheel drive, powered by an internal combustion engine that produces 335kW (449hp) and has a 6-speed sequential gearbox. To perceive the environment the vehicle was equipped with six mono cameras, four Radars, three LiDARs and an RTK GPS. The cars are assembled, serviced and maintained by an external company.[67]
The development of the physical vehicle was performed in parallel with the simulation challenges and race, in order to allow the teams to develop their software using the simulator without the need of the hardware.[68] The teams have been required to purchase the race cars to take part in the first IAC race at IMS in October 2021.
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