IWatkins

Hi All,

Could be of interest to many. All about man-machine interface with reagrds to motor racing. More blurb at:

AWD

I saw a trailer for this programme. It said "With all the advances in technology has the human become the weak link in the system?". I would have thought that this is obviously the case personally. It did look quite interesting so I'll probably watch it if I remember.

SDB

Well spotted Ian!!

looks superb.

Hos

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure if i am fully on the correct topic here but Humans are definately the weak link in most situations involving computers. The trouble is, humans are so advanced that no computer is capable of doing the same job that we can do.
For instance, Airlines... The FMS/autopilot these days is probably the most important thing on an aeroplane - apart from the pilot of course. The auto pilot is used near all the flight time , except for take-off and finals on landing. This improves sector time, range, edndurance' Specific fuel consumption' (general all round performance). It also allows planes to fly more smoothly and alot more precisely- more than any human could possibly ever do.
But if this system fails at any time, (and it can!) then the human needs to be there to sort it out. and fly the plane like he is taught to in the beginning. In all, the human may be the weakest link, but he or she is certainly possibly one of the strongest at the same time!

In cars , the human will probably only be the weakest link as no computer can drive a racecar around a rally track yet i think as (exceptions for weather etc are just too great)

CharlieWhiskey

Aircraft control systems have lot's of inputs and fair margin of error (at least when they are up in the sky).

A car/driver has too many random inputs and the output is critical. A human driver is the only thing that can handle such a system at present.

No doubt this programme will examine research into driverless cars, but this is only really suited to Motorway systems (reduced number of inputs). I know they are trying to get artificial inteligence and machine vision to work in cars - but until they can get one that will beat RB or Colin on a rally stage then it's not practical to consider replacing the driver.

I think all these people who 'don't want to drive' should get off the roads and leave them free for those of us who do!

Chris
(BEng(Hons) Control Engineering)

RichS

Good programme.

Interesting points made about how far behind F1 is in terms of electronic driver assistance.

I know these things were banned in order to maintain a certain 'purity' within the sport, but perhaps the rules should be reconsidered if invites greater competition...

Rich

gizmo71

Definite thumbs down for that show. Some interesting science obscured by a load of nonsense about how F1 cars should have the maximum of driver aids. Why not dispense with the cars altogether and just have the "drivers" play Grand Prix Legends on a PC instead? Pfff.

Gizmo555

Program was cack, supposed to be about technology in F1.

Only horrifying point was that formula one drivers in Jackie Stewarts era had more chance of dying that a battle of britain pilot.

SDB

I found some of it really good, other bits dissapointing...

It is interesting to note though, that the deep meaningful things they were coming out with about the psychology of driving is absolute childs play compared to the things Don and Colin are using at MIRA (wetter the better course).

It was also interesting that the fantastic discoveries the scientist was making about the direction of the eyes, completely missed some valuable data....

I spent some time with Colin Scott (driver coaching God) where he studied every aspect of my being whilst driving on the limit, so he could build a complete modal of how I did it. It was both strange and fascinating to be a part of....

We found that when I put the car sideways, my eyes de-focus (they still point roughly forward, but my focus soften so I am effectively focussing on an imaginary point in the air in front of the car) so that my brain is able to analyse the information in my entire visual scope, not just the sharp bit in the middle. This enables me to build a more accurate modal of the spatial information (which is incredibly handy when sideways) being presented by my periferal vision. This information is almost TOTALLY feedback information. They said that racing drivers don't use this and only need feedforward information.

I didn't even know this was happening until he pointed it out!

Maybe this is a difference with rallying, but I can't be the only one!

Cheers

Simon