Racelogic

Racelogic Ltd is an automotive technology company based in Buckingham, United Kingdom.

The company develops a range of GPS, CAN bus, Inertial navigation system and video recording equipment. Racelogic also design applications for use in vehicle testing, motorsport, marine, defence, aviation, and GNSS device testing.^{[citation needed]}

History[]

The company was founded in 1992 by Julian Thomas after graduating from Durham University^[1] with a degree in Physics and Electronics.

The company started developing electronic control systems for the 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 ^[2] and enhances vehicle acceleration,^[3] with Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce Limited being two of the first car manufacturers to use the system.^{[citation needed]}

With the US government's decision to turn off GPS selective availability in 2001, GPS signal accuracy went from 100m to 3m overnight.^[4] 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, Recelogic launched its first Velocity Box (a.k.a. VBOX) in 2001. In 2008 it launched its first video VBOX, a product that combined multi-camera video with GPS data logging and graphic overlay.^{[citation needed]}

The company now sells to more than 100 countries around the world and supplies its products to just about every automotive OEM and Tier One supplier globally.

Operations[]

Racelogic specialise in the development of GPS, CAN-bus, Inertial and video based equipment,^[5][6] designing applications for use in vehicle testing, motorsport, marine, defence, aviation, and GNSS device testing.^[7][8]

The company now manufactures GPS data loggers,^[9][10][11] GPS simulators,^[12][13][14] in-car video systems and indoor positioning systems.^[15][16][17]

The company employs 97 staff in the UK, Germany and United States with a small office in Sweden.

Racelogic Ltd provide products and services which fall into three 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.^[18]

Motorsport - Racelogic supply amateur and professional motorsport enthusiasts with performance meters and data logging devices.^[19] The VBOX Video HD2, allows users to record and replay video footage 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.^[20]

Indoor Positioning System - Launched in 2019 Racelogic's VBOX Indoor Positioning System, VIPS, allows companies to measure speed and position indoors using an in-house designed UWB and IMU system.

Products[]

Racelogic design and develop high accuracy GPS data loggers, speed sensors, video data loggers, and GNSS simulators, suitable for vehicle testing, motorsport, marine and mining applications, defense, aviation, as well as the testing of GNSS enabled devices.

VBOX GPS data logging products vary from the 10 Hz VBOX Mini, an easy to use but highly capable unit for simple testing and lap timing to the VBOX 3i which logs at a 100 Hz, is available in single and dual antenna variants, 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.

Video VBOX Lite camera system with predictive lap timing display was designed for motorsport, track day and vehicle testing. 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, the Video VBOX Lite, Video VBOX Pro and VBOX Video HD2 also record GPS time synchronised video. This footage can be enhanced with a 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 is a 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.

PerformanceBox Touch is a GPS based performance meter that allows you to measure G-forces, speed, lap & split times, 0-60, 0-100, braking distance and many more. The Predictive Lap Timing function (live comparison to best lap) gives instant feedback on the driving, and all parameters are logged to an SD memory card ten times per second for later review and comparison.

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.

References[]