Heat Generation - POC

Proof of Concept code for generating heats for a Pinewood Derby. The idea here is to put together a working system to place into my Derby application. This will be what generates the heats in the back end and makes the competitions run. The classes in the POC are as close to the actual derby code as I can get without actually loading or saving data to a database. It also takes out some small properties that are just fluff in the overall scope of the heats (car weight, number, and points).

This ties in with my thoughts on a gist. Hoping to make this more clear to figure out.

I'm taking ideas and contributions to this as well. Hell I'll even cough up with some of my own money to get this solved.

Another train of thought would be to think of this as a schuduler for staff like so:

####Goal: Create a random schedule of Staff#### Data given:

• List Of staff: staffList
• Total number of days in a work week: totalDays
• Total number of days allowed to work, per week, per staff member: allowedDays
• Total number of Staff per day: staffPerDay

Item counts:

• staffList: 5
• totalDays: 5
• allowedDays: 4
• staffPerDay: 4

Idea: Loop Days filling in each position in staffPerDay. Each staff member must work the maximum number of days. Each day should have as many positions filled as possible.

So what does this mean for racing

Following the rules for a "Chaotic-Rotation Method"

1. Add a Race per Den (POC will deal with generating only 1 race to build the algorithm)
2. Get number of heats based on LaneCount and RacerCount: totalHeats
3. Select random racers for the lineup
4. Each Racer must race at least 1 time in each lane - A 4 lane track each racer would compete in 4 heats
   - A 6 lane track each racer would compete in 6 heats
5. Each racer must race the same number of times
6. Racers should be held in a race through as many heats as possible
7. Racers cannot compete against themselves
8. Racers should compete against as many different opponents as possible

###Given data:####

• Den (Id: 1, Name: Tigers)
• List of Racers (Id, Name)
  • Id = 1, Name = "aaaa"
  • Id = 2, Name = "bbbb"
  • Id = 3, Name = "cccc"
  • Id = 4, Name = "dddd"
  • Id = 5, Name = "eeee"
• Number of Lanes (4 lanes is the easiest)
  • This is a static numbe rand will not change for the lifetime of the heat generation

###Conceptual Workflow###

• Build the list of Racers
• Calculate the Number of heats bassed on this formula:
  (racers * lanes) / desired number of races = heat count
• Loop each Heat to build list on Contestants
  • First heat should be the first N racers to fill the track
    • If there are not enough racers to fill the track, fill with an empty racer
  • Additional heats should start filling with remaining racers
    • If racer A, B, C, D filled the previous heat, racer E should start in lane 1, filling in lanes 2-4 with racers A-C
    • If the previous heat did not have enough racers to fill the track, fill lane 1 with an empty racer
      • Each racer must race in each lane per rule 4
  • Heats should build following above rules until all racers have competed the required number of times

###Example Data### ####4 Lanes, 5 Racers####

	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3	Heat 4	Heat 5
Lane 1	aaaa	eeee	dddd	cccc	bbbb
Lane 2	bbbb	aaaa	eeee	dddd	cccc
Lane 3	cccc	bbbb	aaaa	eeee	dddd
Lane 4	dddd	cccc	bbbb	aaaa	eeee

| | BYE | eeee | dddd | cccc | bbbb | aaaa ####4 Lanes, 3 Racers####

	Heat 1	Heat 2	Heat 3	Heat 4
Lane 1	aaaa		cccc	bbbb
Lane 2	bbbb	aaaa		cccc
Lane 3	cccc	bbbb	aaaa
Lane 4		cccc	bbbb	aaaa

| | BYE | | | |

####Additional assumptions for 4 lanes#### With 4 lanes and 5 racers there should be 5 heats and each should have all 4 lanes filled, and one racer with a BYE for each heat. That racer should be in the next heat.

With 4 lanes and 6 racers there should be 6 heats and each should have all 4 lanes filled, and two racers with a BYE for each heat.

With 4 lanes and 7 racers there should be 8 heats and each should have all 4 lanes filled for 4 heats, and 3 lanes filled for the other 4, and no racers with a BYE for any heat.

With 4 lanes and 8 racers there should be 8 heats and each should have all 4 lanes filled, and no racer with a BYE for each heat.

With 4 lanes and 9 racers there should be 9 heats and each should have all 4 lanes filled, and one racer with a BYE for each heat. That racer should be in the next heat.

###Heat Count Assumptions### Things get complicated with figuring out 6 lane races and may need to be preset based on number of racers. Rounding things out to even numbers helps.

Here are some assumptions for Heat Counts (All lanes used unless otherwise marked)

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Lanes: 3		3		10	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	15
Lanes used				ac
Lanes: 4		4	4	5	6	8	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Lanes used
Lanes: 6			4	5	6	7	9	9	10	12	12	15	16
Lanes used			abcd	abcde

The list goes on from here if you have a large group of racers. But by deviding them up into smaller groups by Den, it becomes easier to manage.