Feature

I/O at 200 miles per hour

It’s not controversial to suppose that Formula One (F1) is a sport of extremes. The drivers are the best, the cars are the fastest and the races the most intense. Another aspect that pushes boundaries is the data collection, handling and manipulation infrastructure that enables car condition monitoring, race timing and much more.

01/05/2020 15:38:22

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Here, Stephen Hayes, Managing Director of Beckhoff Automation UK, describes what goes into the impressive systems that keep F1 running.

F1 cars regularly race at truly dizzying speeds, often reaching 200mph on fast tracks like the Italian
Monza or Belgian Spa Francorchamps circuits. That’s over 88m, or the length of an entire football field, every second.

Radio transponders are fitted to the cars to locate them as they speed around the course, as well
as keep time of their progress. These emit a signal that is picked up by timing devices built into the track surface as the cars pass over, as well as timing the cars to one-thousandth of a second
(0.001 seconds).

You might be able to see the input/output (I/O) challenge here as, to be accurate, these devices must be discrete and compact. When cars are moving across them at 200mph, the device has potentially less
than a millisecond to recognise the incoming signal, identify the vehicle and timestamp the log, all before feeding that information back to the racing teams, race directors and spectating audiences around the world.

Read the full article in the May issue of DPA

Written By Sophia Bell

Sophia Bell is the Group Editor of DPA, Connectivity, and PBSI. She joined the team in 2020 as Assistant Editor after achieving a First-Class Honours BA in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her current role, she leads the editorial strategy, driving digital growth and ensuring each title continues to deliver trusted, relevant insight for engineering and manufacturing professionals.