This repository is used for the work in my (Luca Albinescu) dissertation project for Newcastle University.

Some files in this code were created using the code from the paper Evans et al., "Comparing deep reinforcement learning architectures for autonomous racing" that is available on GitHub [https://github.com/BDEvan5/f1tenth_drl.git] and from the official F1TENTH repository f1tenth_gym available at [https://github.com/f1tenth/f1tenth_gym.git].

This software was developed and run on an Apple MacBook Pro 14”, 2021 model, with the following hardware specifications: • Processor (CPU): Apple M1 Pro with 8 cores (6 performance cores + 2 effi- ciency) • Graphics (GPU): Apple M1 Pro 14-core • Memory (RAM): 16GB • Storage: 512GB SSD

After cloning the git repository on the machine the following commands need to be run in the terminal:

• Create and activate virtual environment:

python3.9 -m venv venv 

source venv/bin/activate 

• Install required packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

pip install -e .

• The main file that states what algorithm and what its hyperparameters are, is experiments/Experiment.yaml.
• After the algorithm wanted and its hyperparameters are set, the f1tenth/run_experiments.py file can be run to train an test the agent.
• Before choosing the BC algorithm, f1tenth/ImitationAlgorithms/GenerateDataSet.py file needs to be run to generate the data for the imitation learning agent. Inside experiments/GenerateDataSet.yaml it can be chosen how many laps are going to be created by the function.
• Before choosing BCTD3 as the algorithm, the BC agent should be trained first as BCTD3 relies on a pre-trained IL agent.

• All information gathered throughout training and also all the saved models can be found in the Data/Experiment_{set_n} folder.
• Before any other graphs can be created we first run the f1tenth/DataTools/Statistics/BuildAgentDfs.py, where exp_n should match the number of the experiment, file that will create a CSV file containing testing laps data for each algorithm.
• To create graphs for visualising MeanVelocity over Laps, Time over Laps or Progress over Laps the f1tenth/DataTools/Statistics/MeanVelocityAndTimeOverLaps.py file can be run. There are two arrays where the user can choose what algorithm from what experiment they want to plot.
• To create heatmaps that show Progress, Lap Number and Mean Velocity the file f1tenth/DataTools/Statistics/HeatMap.py can be run. Here as before the user can choose what algorithm from which experiment they want to visualise.
• To create Trajectory Heatmaps for each agent's test lap the function f1tenth/DataTools/Statistics/GenerateTrajectoryImgs.py is run. The user needs to only choose the experiment number they want to generate the images. The graphs are saved in an Imgs file inside the experiment folder.

• All maps should be placed inside the maps folder. New maps (i.e. from the f1tenth_gym) can be used for training our algorithms by just placing all necessary files inside maps and running the custom maps/map_reformat.py to correctly format them. Different maps can be chosen by changing the map_name variable inside experiments/Experiment.yaml.