Custom AI in cars

Hello.

I wanted to do develop some AI algorithms on how to make a car drive itself, so I found BeamNG engine and it seems perfect for me. But I really have no idea on how to do that. I asked on the FB page and they told me I can use Lua scripting, but still didn't understand where I should write code and how it would interprete with the game. Can you help me understand where to start?

I should notice that I study Computer Science, so I know how to write code. I'm just stuck on how I can use my code on the game.
*I don't know if it's a problem, but I only have the demo version and if I find a way to do my job I might buy the game for more capabilities.

Thanks for your help!

 

You might be forced to buy the full game because I don't believe the AI is a 'thing' at all in the trial version, I'm guessing it would be much easier to modify the existing AI rather than to create in completely from scratch. Also, I don't believe you can install mods on the trial version of the game, which would be how you implement your custom features into the game.

EDIT: I suppose you could create a AI controller, as in the AI decides which keyboard controls to send to the game, this would be a way of possibly creating AI, outside of the game, not sure.

 

Well, I cannot buy the game if I don't have reassurance that it will do what I want...
And yes, I think it's impossible to install mods in trial.

That was one of my thoughts, but still I need some guidance on how to do it. For example, how would the AI controller read data about speed, obstacles etc so as to decide its moves?

 

Speed might be simple to get, you could provide some information to the code by manually driving the car and working out an acceleration time to speed ratio, possibly, or you might be able to get it from the game, not too sure about obstacles, you might find the program has to use a trial and error system, trying a variety of controls, and then another, until it finally works out a route to not hit obstacles, could be a way, I'm not 100% sure.

 

Well, that's a way to see it and make it work, but not what I intended. I would like my car to see the road (this could be done by knowing the curves etc or read obstacles realtime with some sort of sensor) and decide how to behave based on that! So yes, it's kinda tricky and quite possibly it won't be doable without the full version.

EDIT: I mean, the AI has to drive the car by knowing what curves are next and not by memorising the route. Of course there can be some sort of trial and error but that's for different factors, like determining the amount of friction, acceleration power etc. So, if you know the car's handling and the next curves, then you can tell it when to brake and how much to steer with "simple" algorithms.