May 2, 2012 at 11:18The use of computers in formula 1 (Part 1)
Some time ago on Habré there was already an article about electronics in Formula 1, I would like to show a more detailed analysis of this aspect of the royal races.
In 1950, the first Formula 1 World Championship was held, it was won by Italian Giuseppe Farina at Alfa Romeo. He had a fast but heavy and slow car. Years passed and the weight of the car decreased, they began to turn better, slow down, and look too. Although, this is a matter of taste. Along with the machines of Formula 1, the field of information technology also developed, computers began to appear, capable of performing more and more operations per second, and this contributed to their implementation in various spheres of human life. Computers and Formula 1 did not go around, they began to use them everywhere: to record lap times (at first it was done by special people who wrote time with a stopwatch in the log for each pilot, each lap), to design a car (by the way, an interesting fact, still there’s only one engineer left in the paddock of formula 1,Adrian Newey ), to check the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, telemetry processing, to control the engine, ignition, gearbox and control the car in general. The first article I would like to devote to electronics, which is located in the car.
So, I will start in 2006, when the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile - the International Federation of Motorsport) chose one of the participants in the Formula 1 world championship circuit racing as a manufacturer and supplier of an electronic car control unit. They became the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, and more specifically, the McLaren electronics division. And already in 2008, on all Formula 1 cars, an ECU appeared.
ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is the main computer in the Formula 1 machine. It consists of three main parts - sensors, a small information output unit and the main computer itself, its characteristics will be written below. During the movement of a Formula 1 car, a huge number of different characteristics change, affecting each other and most importantly, the speed of movement. It is not difficult to guess that the sensors are used to collect information, they measure such characteristics as tire pressure, rubber temperature, fuel consumption mode, temperature of the fuel mixture, lubricants, hydrodynamic characteristics and much more. All this information, of the order of several hundred parameters, is collected by ECU sensors and supplied to the TAG-310B or TAB-320, the so-called two versions of this unified unit. Let us dwell on the latter.
All devices with ECU TAG-310V are connected by the principle of a star .
Technical characteristics:
Operating voltage 7.5-16V DC.
The TAGOS 32-bit operating system is a real-time operating system that responds to changes in any parameters and instantly processes them.
CPU speed - 1700 MIPS
Memory - 1 Gb Flash, 16Mb SRAM.
Operating temperature from -10 ° C to + 85 ° C.
Vibrations from 100 to 1000 Hz, in any direction, within 24 hours.
This is what the McLaren Electronics ECU is all about. This thing, which weighs only 1.5 kg, drives the car from and to. And it allows not only to record information, but also to transfer it to the command bridge once per lap, while driving past the pit lane. There is also a secondary translation system of certain parameters of the car, working in the "online" mode. It serves for television broadcasts and the regulation of the actions of riders and transmits information about DRS , KERS , current gearbox transmission and some other parameters of the car. This information is transmitted from the car constantly to the technical bridge of the stewards (judges) of the race and from there to the broadcast. Because little data, it uses a slower data channel.
Unfortunately, I could not find the exact information about the transmission technology, but apparently it is done through a wireless data transfer technology with a speed of about 10-15 Mbit for the main system. ECU software is developed by Microsoft .
The story turned out to be short, but there is not much information in this area, because Formula 1 is a battle not only on the track, but also a technology race. And, alas, no one wants to reveal their secrets.
If you have any questions, I am ready to answer them in the comments. In the future, if the community is interested in this topic, I want to talk about CFD - a system of computational fluid dynamics and the company Nick Wirth - Wirth research.
In 1950, the first Formula 1 World Championship was held, it was won by Italian Giuseppe Farina at Alfa Romeo. He had a fast but heavy and slow car. Years passed and the weight of the car decreased, they began to turn better, slow down, and look too. Although, this is a matter of taste. Along with the machines of Formula 1, the field of information technology also developed, computers began to appear, capable of performing more and more operations per second, and this contributed to their implementation in various spheres of human life. Computers and Formula 1 did not go around, they began to use them everywhere: to record lap times (at first it was done by special people who wrote time with a stopwatch in the log for each pilot, each lap), to design a car (by the way, an interesting fact, still there’s only one engineer left in the paddock of formula 1,Adrian Newey ), to check the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, telemetry processing, to control the engine, ignition, gearbox and control the car in general. The first article I would like to devote to electronics, which is located in the car.
So, I will start in 2006, when the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile - the International Federation of Motorsport) chose one of the participants in the Formula 1 world championship circuit racing as a manufacturer and supplier of an electronic car control unit. They became the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, and more specifically, the McLaren electronics division. And already in 2008, on all Formula 1 cars, an ECU appeared.
ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is the main computer in the Formula 1 machine. It consists of three main parts - sensors, a small information output unit and the main computer itself, its characteristics will be written below. During the movement of a Formula 1 car, a huge number of different characteristics change, affecting each other and most importantly, the speed of movement. It is not difficult to guess that the sensors are used to collect information, they measure such characteristics as tire pressure, rubber temperature, fuel consumption mode, temperature of the fuel mixture, lubricants, hydrodynamic characteristics and much more. All this information, of the order of several hundred parameters, is collected by ECU sensors and supplied to the TAG-310B or TAB-320, the so-called two versions of this unified unit. Let us dwell on the latter.
All devices with ECU TAG-310V are connected by the principle of a star .
Technical characteristics:
Operating voltage 7.5-16V DC.
The TAGOS 32-bit operating system is a real-time operating system that responds to changes in any parameters and instantly processes them.
CPU speed - 1700 MIPS
Memory - 1 Gb Flash, 16Mb SRAM.
Operating temperature from -10 ° C to + 85 ° C.
Vibrations from 100 to 1000 Hz, in any direction, within 24 hours.
This is what the McLaren Electronics ECU is all about. This thing, which weighs only 1.5 kg, drives the car from and to. And it allows not only to record information, but also to transfer it to the command bridge once per lap, while driving past the pit lane. There is also a secondary translation system of certain parameters of the car, working in the "online" mode. It serves for television broadcasts and the regulation of the actions of riders and transmits information about DRS , KERS , current gearbox transmission and some other parameters of the car. This information is transmitted from the car constantly to the technical bridge of the stewards (judges) of the race and from there to the broadcast. Because little data, it uses a slower data channel.
Unfortunately, I could not find the exact information about the transmission technology, but apparently it is done through a wireless data transfer technology with a speed of about 10-15 Mbit for the main system. ECU software is developed by Microsoft .
The story turned out to be short, but there is not much information in this area, because Formula 1 is a battle not only on the track, but also a technology race. And, alas, no one wants to reveal their secrets.
If you have any questions, I am ready to answer them in the comments. In the future, if the community is interested in this topic, I want to talk about CFD - a system of computational fluid dynamics and the company Nick Wirth - Wirth research.