Have you noticed quicker and improved decision making when it comes to incidents and crashes? Whilst much of the improvement in penalties has been put down to the new driver steward which was introduced in 2010, the FIA has revealed that they have been working on a system which automatically recognises an incident without any human input.
The software, developed by Racewatch, was introduced in 2008 but has steadily been improved upon over the seasons.
The system, as explained by developer Gareth Griffith below, links the video, audio and communications feed with the GPS data and timing software, to enable the stewards to make better-informed, real-time decisions.
“We tied in the cameras with the timing and the GPS, so we knew exactly where a car was on the track,” Griffiths explained in the latest In Motion magazine from the FIA.
“Then we started to analyse the data to pick out incidents. The software creates alerts and that automatically takes the Riedel technicians [in race-control] to the right cameras, instead of them having to find them, as used to happen. Within a few seconds Charlie can be looking at the incident: either for safety purposes or to refer it to the stewards. It is automated, using the data available and algorithms based on the interactions in that data.
“In the case of baulking, for example, the algorithms can analyse the proximity of two GPS signals to see how long it takes the car behind to close from five to two seconds behind the car in front. We can then measure how long the second car stays behind the first and if there is no time lost then there was no incident.”
The system can also monitor steering input and many other sources of telemetry to suggest who was at blame for an incident, though the final decision as to whether to investigate an incident is down to technical delegate Charlie Whiting and the race stewards.
“The data can show us when a car is not behaving as it should be behaving and so we can ascertain at what moment that changed and if there was another car in close proximity at that moment,” continued Griffiths.
“There are already automatic alerts for speeding under yellow flags, which is hard to spot by eye, and they now come up automatically using the data, but with all of this it is still Charlie’s decision whether to refer incidents to the Stewards and their decision as to whether the driver is penalised or not.”
