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Fair Play in the Fast Lane: Integrating Sportsmanship into Autonomous Racing Systems

2025/03/04 by Huang, Zhenmin, Ce Hao, Wei Zhan +6 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Engineering · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Safety #Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Reinforcement Learning in Robotics #Robotic Path Planning Algorithms #Robotics (cs.RO) #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #electronic engineering #information engineering

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.03774

openalex publication_date 2025/03/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Autonomous racing has gained significant attention as a platform for high-speed decision-making and motion control. While existing methods primarily focus on trajectory planning and overtaking strategies, the role of sportsmanship in ensuring fair competition remains largely unexplored. In human racing, rules such as the one-motion rule and the enough-space rule prevent dangerous and unsportsmanlike behavior. However, autonomous racing systems often lack mechanisms to enforce these principles, potentially leading to unsafe maneuvers. This paper introduces a bi-level game-theoretic framework to integrate sportsmanship (SPS) into versus racing. At the high level, we model racing intentions using a Stackelberg game, where Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is employed to derive optimal strategies. At the low level, vehicle interactions are formulated as a Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problem (GNEP), ensuring that all agents follow sportsmanship constraints while optimizing their trajectories. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in enforcing sportsmanship rules while maintaining competitive performance. We analyze different scenarios where attackers and defenders adhere to or disregard sportsmanship rules and show how knowledge of these constraints influences strategic decision-making. This work highlights the importance of balancing competition and fairness in autonomous racing and provides a foundation for developing ethical and safe AI-driven racing systems.

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