Racelogic

Last updated
RACELOGIC Ltd
IndustryElectronic Measuring & Testing
Founded1992
Headquarters Buckingham, UK
Key people
Julian Thomas (Founder) Graham Mackie (CEO)
ProductsVBOX, VBOX Video, VIPS, LabSat, Performance Box
ServicesVehicle Testing, Motorsport, Motion Capture, Defence, GNSS Device Testing
Number of employees
100+ (2022)
Website racelogic.co.uk

RACELOGIC Ltd is a technology company based in Buckingham, United Kingdom.

Contents

The company specialise in the development of GPS, CAN-bus, Inertial and video based equipment, designing applications for use in vehicle testing, motorsport, marine, defence, film, and GNSS device testing. [1]

RACELOGIC manufacture GPS data loggers, [2] [3] [4] GNSS simulators, [5] [6] [7] in-car video systems and indoor positioning systems. [8] [9] [10]

The company employs more than 100 staff at its head office in the UK and satellite offices in Germany and the USA.

History

The company was founded in 1992 by Julian Thomas after graduating from Durham University with a degree in Physics and Electronics.

Julian started developing electronic control systems for vehicles, launching a Traction Control device in 1993. Car manufacturers were quick to adopt the Electronic stability control device, which reduces the chance of an accident occurring [11] and enhances vehicle acceleration, ⁣ [12] with Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce Limited being two of the first car manufacturers to use the system.

With the US government's decision to turn off GPS selective availability in 2001, GPS signal accuracy went from 100 m to 3 m overnight. [13] Using the effectiveness and flexibility now offered by GPS technology, and the opportunity for high speed, high accuracy GPS devices within the vehicle testing market, RACELOGIC launched its first Velocity Box (a.k.a. VBOX) in 2001. In 2008, it launched its first video data logger, a product that combined multi-camera video with GPS data logging and graphic overlay.

In 2009, RACELOGIC launched LabSat. With the ability to record, replay, and simulate GNSS RF data, it was originally designed to calibrate VBOX units. However, its potential for use in wider applications prompted the commercial launch to manufacturers of GPS devices. Since its launch, LabSat has carved out a successful place in markets as diverse as mobile phone development, aerospace, defence, health and agriculture.

Using the technology RACELOGIC developed in-house for indoor positioning, the company have broken into the film and gaming market in 2020.

Operations

RACELOGIC Ltd provide products and services which fall into four broad categories:

Automotive Testing - Serving the three major automotive manufacturing markets (i.e. Germany, America, Asia), RACELOGIC systems are used to test new designs and vehicle concepts. [14]

Motorsport - RACELOGIC supply all levels of motorsport teams, competitors and engineers with performance meters and data logging devices. [15] The VBOX Video HD2, allows users to record, replay and analyse video footage with synchronised data from their time on track.

GPS Simulation - Launched in 2009 RACELOGIC's LabSat allows companies to repetitively test GNSS equipment from a stationary location by simulating live satellite signals. [16]

Indoor Positioning System - Launched in 2019 RACELOGIC's VBOX Indoor Positioning System, VIPS, [17] allows companies to measure speed and position indoors using an in-house designed Ultra-wideband and Inertial measurement unit.

Products

RACELOGIC design and develop high accuracy test and positioning systems for a wide range of industries.

VBOX GPS data logging products vary from the 10 Hz VBOX Mini, a rugged unit for simple testing to the VBOX 3i which logs at a 100 Hz, and which forms the basis of the VBOX Advanced driver-assistance systems testing packages. Differential GPS and RTK (Real Time Kinematic) solutions allow for high positional accuracy, and inertial measurement unit integration increases the testing scope further. VBOX systems are employed in many types of testing: automotive, marine, open-cast mining, motorsport, aviation, and collision forensics.

VBOX Speed Sensors provide high accuracy speed signals at between 5 Hz and 100 Hz for those that require speed, position, braking distance, or acceleration data without the need for internal logging. VBOX Speed Sensors connect via CAN, digital, or analogue interface to a third-party data logging equipment. All Speed Sensors are compatible with a DGPS Base Station for increased positional accuracy, and the dual antenna variant adds slip and pitch/roll output at 100 Hz.

RACELOGIC video systems combine a digital video recorder with camera and stereo audio inputs, a real-time graphic overlay, and a GPS data logger. As well as capturing GPS and CAN data in the same way as a standard VBOX data logger, video systems like the VBOX Video HD2 also record GPS time synchronised video. This footage can be enhanced with a fully customisable data driven graphic overlay, allowing you to add bar graphs, rotary gauges, text elements, pictures and track maps, showing parameters such as G-force, speed, split times, lap times, etc.

LabSat 3 GNSS simulator gives the ability to record and replay real RF data from up to three satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou) simultaneously. LabSat also integrates seamlessly with the Video VBOX to record and playback videos, which is tightly synchronised with the GPS data, allowing you to see the exact conditions experienced during the GPS recording. LabSat recording works with almost any kind of GNSS, including survey grade engines. With high fidelity 2 or 4 bit sampling, LabSat is ideal for testing GPS receiver sensitivity.

LabSat 3 Wideband is a GPS simulator with a 56 MHz bandwidth, allowing multiple GNSS signals to be recorded, replayed and simulated. Multiple signals from GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo can also be simulated using the RACELOGIC SatGen software.

Performance Box Touch is the successor to the original RACELOGIC PerformanceBox [18] which can be considered to be the first performance meter and became an industry standard. Performance Box Touch is a based performance meter with colour touch screen that allows you to measure G-forces, speed, lap & split times, 0-60, 0–100, braking distance and many more.

VBOX Indoor Positioning System is a UWB and Inertial based position and velocity measurement system designed to be a direct replacement for GPS when testing vehicles indoors. It also has uses in other industries where access to GNSS satellites is not possible. It is different to most UWB solutions in that the positional accuracy is 2–3 cm with an update rate of 100 Hz.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global Positioning System</span> American satellite-based radio navigation service

The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radio navigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It does not require the user to transmit any data, and operates independently of any telephone or Internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the GPS positioning information. It provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. Although the United States government created, controls and maintains the GPS system, it is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galileo (satellite navigation)</span> Global navigation satellite system

Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that went live in 2016, created by the European Union through the European Space Agency (ESA), operated by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), headquartered in Prague, Czechia, with two ground operations centres in Fucino, Italy, and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. The €10 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GLONASS</span> Russian satellite navigation system

GLONASS is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the second navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pseudolite</span> Terrestrial GPS transceiver

Pseudolite is a contraction of the term "pseudo-satellite," used to refer to something that is not a satellite which performs a function commonly in the domain of satellites. Pseudolites are most often small transceivers that are used to create a local, ground-based Global Positioning System (GPS) alternative. The range of each transceiver's signal is dependent on the power available to the unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automotive navigation system</span> Part of the automobile controls

An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on a road. When directions are needed routing can be calculated. On the fly traffic information can be used to adjust the route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satellite navigation</span> Use of satellite signals for geo-spatial positioning

A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). As of 2024, four global systems are operational: the United States's Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and the European Union's Galileo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Differential GPS</span> Enhancement to the Global Positioning System providing improved accuracy

Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPSs) supplement and enhance the positional data available from global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). A DGPS for GPS can increase accuracy by about a thousandfold, from approximately 15 metres (49 ft) to 1–3 centimetres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradford Parkinson</span> American engineer

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A navigation system is a computing system that aids in navigation. Navigation systems may be entirely on board the vehicle or vessel that the system is controlling or located elsewhere, making use of radio or other signal transmission to control the vehicle or vessel. In some cases, a combination of these methods is used.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indoor positioning system</span> Network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects inside a building

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guidance, navigation, and control</span> Branch of engineering

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satellite navigation device</span> Device that can calculate its geographical position based on satellite information

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inertial navigation system</span> Continuously computed dead reckoning

An inertial navigation system is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity of a moving object without the need for external references. Often the inertial sensors are supplemented by a barometric altimeter and sometimes by magnetic sensors (magnetometers) and/or speed measuring devices. INSs are used on mobile robots and on vehicles such as ships, aircraft, submarines, guided missiles, and spacecraft. Older INS systems generally used an inertial platform as their mounting point to the vehicle and the terms are sometimes considered synonymous.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inertial measurement unit</span> Accelerometer-based navigational device

An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers. When the magnetometer is included, IMUs are referred to as IMMUs.

Hybrid navigation is the simultaneous use of more than one navigation system for location data determination, needed for navigation. By using multiple systems at once, the accuracy as a whole is improved. It also allows for a more reliable navigation system, as if one system fails, the other can kick in and provide accurate navigation for the user. Especially for self-driving cars, the exact and continuous knowledge of the navigating object's location is essential.

References

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  8. ↑ "Irish Times". Irish Times. 2010-03-03. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
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  10. ↑ "Rally Buzz". Rally Buzz. 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  11. ↑ "howsafeisyourcar.com" . Retrieved 2011-09-07.
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  13. ↑ "About.com". Geography.about.com. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  14. ↑ "Car and Driver". Car and Driver. 2011-09-08.
  15. ↑ "Worldbook and News". worldbookandnews.com. 2011-09-08.
  16. ↑ "GPS World". GPS World. 2011-09-08.
  17. ↑ Events, UKi Media & (2019-10-03). "Racelogic invites guests to opening of its new positioning system". Automotive Testing Technology International. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  18. ↑ "Racelogic launch stand alone predictive lap-timer". Source Sensors. 2011-01-09. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
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