Positek Sponsors Student Racing Team in Spain

As part of their sponsorship of a student racing team from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Positek supply linear position sensors; Find out more here.

Linear Position Sensors in Formula 1?

In keeping with our ethos of innovation and working closely with our clients to achieve better sensor feedback in many fields, we are pleased to announce that we are sponsoring a student race team in Spain. Part of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, EEBE e-Tech Racing is a team of engineering students, working on Formula 1 type race cars and competing in Formula Student Spain, a league that runs worldwide for engineering students to pit their designs against each other. The competitive aspect encourages improvements and the development of new technology, creating the racing engineers of tomorrow. The league accepts both traditional combustion and electric engines.

Our sponsorship of this team, is the supply of our linear non-contact position sensors to monitor the suspension dampers on each corner of the chassis. They are mounted parallel to the suspension and feedback data about the location of the suspension damper at any given moment while the car is in motion. Without our sensors the students would not be able to accurately measure the travel of the four suspension dampers, but they need this data to make improvements to the chassis and balance of the car as it is, as well as for future projects.

The data is presented in graphs, plotting the travel of each damper from a baseline height against the time, and shows clearly which part of the suspension is working hardest at any given moment, and whether this is balanced with the action in the rest of the chassis. This data enables the students to see exactly what is happening to the shock absorbers, and this can then be used in collaboration with the driver feedback and race track data to identify where improvements to the suspension can be made in order to improve performance on the track.

This same data, along with the feedback from the sensors after changes have been made, is being used by the students to develop a torque vectoring system for the current season and those in the future. Torque vectoring, for those who aren't au fait with the cutting edge of race car technology, is the next stage of AWD (all-wheel drive), which is itself a development of earlier 4WD technology. AWD uses three differentials (one central, to split the power between the front and rear wheels, and one at each end of the car to split the power between the left and right hand wheels) to send different signals to all four wheels of the car. It does this by applying brakes to some wheels and forcing others to turn, depending on the feedback from position sensors at each wheel to the engine control unit (ECU), which in turn decides which of the wheels has the most traction at that time. Power is then sent to the wheels that have the best grip, and cut to the wheels that will just spin.

Torque vectoring enables the same thing to take place, i.e. the split of the power to the combination of wheels that have the most traction, but without cutting power to the others. Re-designed differentials direct the power where it is needed but does not stop all power going to the other wheels while this is happening. What this means is that when the obstacle has been overcome, or in a racing scenario when a fast corner turn has been completed, the power returns to all wheels instantly, without any lapse of power and subsequent slowing down. It may only make a fraction of a second of difference, but on the race track every split second counts.

We look forward to seeing our team's performance this season and how their torque vectoring project comes along as well, and we will keep you updated.