7 replies to this topic

[perfectelise]

Do F1 cars use gyroscopes or accelerometers (as used in inertial guidance in aero/astronautics)?
Knowing the acceleration forces in 3-d and having a fixed frame of reference could be useful....no?

[Ali_G]

TO be quiet honest I can't see what good a gyrascope would do to an F1 car. A plane needs one as it moves in a 3D environment but an F1 car only moves in a 2D plane.

Niall

[blkirk]

A gyroscope will only give you info about the two axes that are not parallel to its own axis, so a plane actually needs a minimum of two. I wouldn't be surprised if some planes used three.

In the car world, why wouldn't you want 3-D info? I would love to have the transient pitch and roll response of the car. The only info that might have limited usefulness is vertical acceleration. I imagine any actual useful data would be burried in a mass of noise from the bumpy track surface.

[Amadeus]

Originally posted by Ali_G
TO be quiet honest I can't see what good a gyrascope would do to an F1 car. A plane needs one as it moves in a 3D environment but an F1 car only moves in a 2D plane.

Niall

Not neccasaraly - they do 'dive' under braking and 'nose up' (apologies for the techie expressions - I have a hangover Changes to suspension setup alter these movements and a precise gyro could be used to capture them

[dhc]

Inexpensive accelerometers are available for street cars that measure acceleration, braking and cornering forces. With all of the money in F1 I can't imagine they wouldn't have it if they wanted it.

David

[random]

And the inexpensive accelerometers used in things like the Gtech are just cheaper versions of the military level products that have been around for years.

I'd guess that if any F1 engineers have felt the need for that technology, they've used it.

[perfectelise]

If you measured cornering forces generated and combined this with data from steering angle and/or differential slip then the computer would know how the car was sliding in a corner and could make adjustments (where legal) to throttle, differential, brake balance.

I understand that the car cannot be steered electronicly, only power assisted. This assistance must be variable. Information about cornering forces and steering angle could be used to adjust the strength of power assistance and so produce a certain amount of correction of the drivers input.

Any thoughts??

perfectelise

[Yelnats]

Modern computerised race setup displays output 2d maps of the circuit for plotting speeds, g-forces etc. This at minimum requires an two accelerometers. If accelerometers are located known distances from the center of mass, comparing the differences between these devices will derive yaw pitch etc. rendering Gyroscopes superfluous. Gyroscopes are delicate and expensive devices and I doubt they would be required with the sensitivity and accuracy of the modern accelerometer.

Post # 1000, does this give me an automatic entry to the Padock Club? I don't like the idea of begging from Pit Babe!