Data Analysis Fundamentals: Track Maps and Sectors
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Track Maps and Sectors
04.33
| 00:00 | - One of the most powerful aspects of a modern logging system is the ability to create a track map in the analysis software and reference your data to a specific location on the track while you're performing your analysis. |
| 00:13 | This makes it much easier to visualise what's going on and where you can make improvements in your driving. |
| 00:20 | Of course before we can do any analysis, we first of all need to generate a track map and there are two options available for doing this. |
| 00:28 | The first is to use a timing beacon coupled with a wheel speed sensor and a lateral G force sensor. |
| 00:34 | After the first lap of the track has been completed, the log file will then have everything necessary to generate a track map. |
| 00:40 | There are however a few things to keep in mind when using this technique. |
| 00:44 | First of all it's important to have your lateral G sensor orientated correctly. |
| 00:49 | While it doesn't specifically matter if the G sensor shows a positive G force in a left or right hand corner, normal convention for data analysis is that positive lateral G occurs in a left hand corner. |
| 01:03 | This will trip you up if you generate a track map with the lateral G channel inverted because the track map will show a right hand corner where the track turns left. |
| 01:12 | This can be fixed relatively easily though and some analysis packages will offer the option to invert the lateral G force channel when you generate the track map. |
| 01:21 | Alternatively you can choose to scale your lateral G force channel by multiplying it by negative 1 which has the effect of giving us the inverse of the logged value. |
| 01:32 | The other issue with this technique occurs on racetracks with heavily banked corners. |
| 01:37 | In this situation some of the forces that would usually be lateral G force end up becoming vertical G forces. |
| 01:45 | So if the analysis package only accounts for lateral G force, we could end up with corners that don't show the true radius or worse still, corners may even be drawn as straight sections of track. |
| 01:57 | A solution to this problem is to create a math channel that essentially adds lateral and vertical G forces together and then use this channel to generate the track map. |
| 02:07 | If this is all starting to sound a little bit daunting, don't worry because there's a much simpler way of generating track maps that doesn't require any math channels and that's the use of GPS location. |
| 02:19 | As you'll see as we move through this course, GPS has become a cost effective and popular way of expanding our capabilities when it comes to data analysis. |
| 02:29 | Not only can it be used to provide lap timing data, but because the GPS antennae constantly updates the vehicle's position on track, it can be used to generate a track map with no other inputs and very little work from us. |
| 02:43 | As we will discuss in upcoming modules, seldom is anything perfect and there are some drawbacks to GPS in terms of accuracy. |
| 02:51 | Unless you're competing at a professional level of motorsport though, GPS is going to be more than sufficient for our purposes. |
| 02:59 | Regardless of what method you're using to generate a track map, it's important to understand that we are generating a map based off the line the car drove around the track rather than the specific radius of each corner. |
| 03:12 | Some analysis packages go a step further, allowing you to drive a lap on the inside edge of the racetrack and then the outside edge of the racetrack to essentially define the track limits. |
| 03:24 | The theory being that this will then allow analysis of the driving lines. |
| 03:28 | While the theory is sound, the accuracy provided by GPS can make this a questionable technique and if you want to study driving lines in detail, then you're better to consider adding video into your logging package. |
| 03:41 | Once we have the track map generating in our software package, we can use it to break down the track into sectors which allows more in depth analysis. |
| 03:50 | If we look at a software package like MoTeC's i2 software, the track is automatically broken down into straights and corners and the user can define a factor that will determine what the software considers to be a corner and what is considered to be a straight. |
| 04:04 | The idea behind this is that with a little work we can generate a track map that breaks the track down into the same number of corners and straights as the official track map for your racetrack. |
| 04:16 | This can be helpful because now when you're referencing turn 10 in your data, it actually corresponds to turn 10 on the real racetrack. |
| 04:24 | This is helpful when you're discussing the data with the other engineers or drivers familiar with the track. |
