Optimization of the Driving Line on a Race Track

An optimization tool is presented which allows to compute an ideal driving line on a given race track. The ideal line is determined from a number of possible lines by an iterative selection procedure. The lines are varied in each iteration step by applying a combination of several optimization techniques. The simulated lap time for each line is used as a criterion for the quality of the results in each iteration step. The dependence of the simulated ideal line on several physical and vehicle parameters is also investigated. It can be shown that different types of cars respectively sets of parameters require significantly different trajectories to follow.