Genetic Algorithms, Formula 1 Cars, And Speculations...
An interesting post on the possibility of Formula 1 teams are using genetic algorithms to aerodynamically design their cars.
Another researcher had already done something similar, but completely from scratch! Even though the final result should not be expected to win a championship.
Another researcher had already done something similar, but completely from scratch! Even though the final result should not be expected to win a championship.
Labels: Aerodynamics, Artificial Design, Evolutionary Algorithm, Evolutionary Computation, Evolutionary Design, Evolutionary Optimization, Formula 1, Genetic Algorithm, Peter Bentley
posted by Marcelo at 6:09 PM
5 Comments:
Anyway CFD+GA isn`t something far from reality, but if it works in the most competitive motosport champ in the world - that is really great!
You will need to build it first!
10 years ago, F1 cars changed radically in appearance. They went from straight-edged skinny things into very strange shapes. Their curled spoilers and leafy vortex generators could only have been designed by an intricate computer program that knew fluid dynamics; no human would have figured out such specific shapes.
The neat thing about GA products is that they often resemble living things: antennas that look like coral, vibration-damping truss booms that look like leg bones, solar mirror arrays that end up looking like chrome flowers....
Look at the way the slits in the body where the air exiting the radiator looks like a shark's gills. Oh yes. I'm betting an evolutionary algorithm came up with that!
Hi, cinndave!
I always have had the curiosity to know what were the reasons for the aerodynamic shape modification F1 cars have underwent along the years. I don't know if it was due to a logical design evolution (evolution here is not in the sense of evolutionary computation, but modification through traditional methods of past designs) or some use of intelligent algorithms (or even if engineers designed according to the rules).
Looking at F1 cars' pictures from 1990 until 2009, you realize that the design that changed the way those cars should be was Benetton B194 and its iconic "shark nose". I don't think it was needed some kind of intelligent algorithm to design that. Benetton was experimenting with such a "shark nose" design since late 1980s.
For example, look at 1994 F1 cars' pictures and compare them with their 1995 versions. Few maintained the traditional designs (that is, no "shark nose", nose close to the ground, upper back wing, etc.)
Therefore, I think the nowadays F1 cars' designs are logical evolutions of those past cars. Surely, engineers may very well use evolutionary computation and other intelligent systems to help them designing better cars. But I don't know if those systems play a major role in that.
Marcelo
You will need to build it first!
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