Originally Posted by
Alastor
But in that case isn’t the car just taking the X that the driver chose and plugging it into an equation and finding the correct Y. That is relatively easy even with very complex equations. The problem is when you have some Y (output) and want to know what the correct X (input) is to get generate that output. Then you have to find the inverse function and that can be very tricky. Without the driver the car only knows what the next correct position of the vehicle should be, it must then calculate backwards to find the right input. Or does the car just guess and check itself down the track? I ask because I never studied ‘controls’.
The bulk of the work to do this(the optimum drving around a track) is done relatively accurately nowadays, without actually having a computer doing the driving on the actual track of course. The work flow nowadays for top level racing simulation(ie, not simulation as in games, but simulation to determine setup and whatnot). Know the track layout(GPS, laser scanned...blah blah), know the car layout(all the physics variables, tire data, downforce map...etc), have historic data available from previous years(if available). And its just thousands of iteration in sim, to derive the optimum setup, run the car in 7 post rig to validate on the bench. Run the sim with corelated windtunnel data, and when you get to the track let the driver drive it to fine tune the setup, while at the same time, collect new data, put into the sim back at base, and continue to refine the process. The new data will give them updated info like bump, grip level, weather condition and so on. There are very little "guess work" left in this.
Computer will lack the ability to make "decision" on the fly, and all its work will be to compensate for what it can't do compare to the ideal line. In the control theory there is the whole overshoot/undershoot vs a target and how to mathematically correct it, thats a whole different thing in itself, but its a well developed science and based on the level of information/technology/processing power available, they can get close to it.
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca