Nascar Used Robotics To Crash Test Next Gen Car

Nearing the end of the regular season for NASCAR’s Cup series there are a great deal of takeaways: a near record number of first-time winners, better parity, and memorable races. Much of that can be attributed to NASCSC
AAR
R’s new Next Gen car which, for the most part, has performed flawlessly.

Through it all, NASCAR has had confidence in the new car.

Delayed for a season thanks to Covid, NASCAR had plenty of time to test, and retest the new machine which features a great deal of updated tech, as well as safety improvements. And those safety improvements have been on very public display thanks to several hard crashes notably at Daytona, Auto Club Speedway, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

NASCAR also had a great deal of confidence in those safety innovations as they tested them as well. And that testing used new, innovative ways unimaginable not long ago.

NASCAR partnered with AB Dynamics to autonomously crash test its Next Gen vehicle using robots.

Last October during a test at Talladega Superspeedway, AB Dynamics outfitted a Next Gen car with electric motors, robots essentially, and a crash test dummy then programmed it to crash into a wall at 130 mph.

“The challenge was trying to get this extremely complex machine to do a very precise test without a human driver piloting the car,” said Craig Hoyt, AB Dynamics business development manager. “A major hurdle NASCAR faced was finding a crash test facility which could conduct such high-speed crash testing. AB Dynamics robots allowed NASCAR to use a fully running race car and conduct the test at a real racetrack, at real race speeds. There is no better data than replicating crash tests in a real environment and our robots enable us to do that accurately and repeatedly.”

But this was not a car that was operated remotely, instead using what Hoyt calls “serious GPS connectivity” a pre-programmed route was used to get to the level of accuracy and precision NASCAR needed to get within a pre-determined set of parameters. At Talladega those parameters meant sending the car from pit road into the outside wall at 130 mph.

AB Dynamics was confident their robotics would perform flawlessly; they have plenty of experience in robot operated vehicles.

“Our typical customers are OEMs or testing bodies, such as NHTHT
SA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration),” Hoyt said. “OEMs for sure will use this technology for durability testing as well as accident-avoidance system testing and even occasionally crash testing.”

No longer are cars simply strapped onto a sled and sent headfirst into a wall. With robotics engineers can get more precise parameters, and better test results.

The NASCAR crash test at Talladega last October was actually a culmination of tests. Much of that testing involved artificial intelligence (AI) teaching the robots to learn how to drive a racecar.

“We did have a bunch,” Hoyt said. “When we install the robot system in the car, we had to teach the robot how to drive. By teach I mean, we do a bunch of tests where the robot learns the different characterizations of the car; how it accelerates, how fast things that you would do naturally when you drive a car, right? Similar to PID tuning: how much rattle is too much, when to shift all those kinds of things.

“A NASCAR vehicle is not the same as just hopping in your car, it’s a precision vehicle; those guys are pros and It’s a precision vehicle. So, we had numerous tests that led up to the crash.”

Using AI to drive a racecar leads to the obvious question: Could a ‘race’ be held using nothing but robots behind the wheel?

“That’s a good question,” Hoyt said laughing. “Yeah, absolutely. Our typical use case with these robots is we’ll have driving target robots, we’ll have vehicles under tests, and we’ll have human drivers all interacting at a proving ground.

“That can be up to a dozen or more different vehicles, all performing in, choreographed movements, That’s the core of our business.”

For the testing with the Next Gen car however, there were no multi-car tests.

“I think the primary goal for this test was to verify their (NASCAR’s), simulation efforts,” Hoyt said adding that they were wanting to test within a narrow set of parameters,” Because they were trying to match a simulated effort and then verify that in the real world.”

Hoyt worked in racing for almost 30 years in CART and IndyCar. He moved to the Charlotte, North Carolina area about 20 years ago and is still a fan of all motorsports.

“It’s been a love of mine since I was small,” he said.

And like the engineers at NASCAR, when he sees a crash during a race with the Next Gen car, he’s confident that the driver will walk away. Thanks in large part to the testing by AB Dynamics, robots, and dedicated people like Craig Hoyt who ensure racing is as safe as possible.

“You know, that’s a source of pride,” he said. “That’s ingrained with everybody that’s in racing; I think that’s everybody from the decal guy all the way to the crew chief, to NASCAR themselves, everybody’s concerned with that. I’m glad to be a part of it.”