DriftBit Live Drift Telemetry Solution for D1Nz 

Preliminary Proposal

Overview:

Battleist currently offers a Drift telemetry data capture device “DriftBit”. This proposal is for Battleist to provide an additional technology solution to enable this device’s data to be transmitted and digested in a “live” environment for a wider audience consumption.

Battleist has begun fundamental works on this solution, however the solution is not currently in a  complete commercial state. The scope of this project is to expedite it’s development so as it can be trialed, integrated and and potentially implemented into D1Nz’s program offering beginning on January 23. (51 days of writing this document)

This is a preliminary proposal designed as a working copy so as to minimise time overhead and lead time. Alterations, additions, and subtractions are to be expected. 

Doc Outline:

• Solution overview
• DriftBit – Data capture unit
• Data Transmit unit 
• Data Receive/Process unit
• Data Output
• Data consumption/Visualization/Admin
• Features/Options
• Costs

Solution Overview

Battleist is able to provide a live telemetry system, based on the data captured via it’s core product DriftBit. Battleist.com   DriftBit

Data from multiple DriftBits are transmitted via a custom hardware data transmitter, and received by a custom data receiver. The data receiver will process the live data and generate desired visualisations. The whole system is essentially “hands off” besides an operator who will “focus” on vehicles in which they want to view their live data from. 

This whole ecosystem does not require any further trackside infrastructure, such as sensors, network communications, internet, etc. It is self contained & scalable.

Attention has been given to the vehicle install – which the driver/team is capable of doing (no need for technical staff).

DriftBit – Data Capture unit

DriftBit is in it’s 2nd major iteration, with over 3 years of development, supported with two Australian government industry grants. HERE

DriftBit at its core, is a Drift focused, data telemetry capture device. DriftBit has the ability to store up to 20 hours of data, then transmit that data for user consumption in an ad-hoc manner.

Currently, users consume the data via a mobile app known as “DriftLab”, which presents data back to the user for analysis. Checkout DriftLabs Ios App HERE and Android App HERE.

DriftBit captures data at 8hz (8 times a section) with the following data points:

-GPS synchronized Date/Time

-GPS Signal quality

-Vehicle Location Latitude/Longitude

-Vehicle Speed

-Vehicle Course over ground, (Direction of travel)

-Vehicle heading (Direction vehicle is facing)

-Vehicle Drift Angle

-Vehicle line (see Output data section for more info)

-Vehicle proximity (see Output data section for more info)

With this data, we are able to digitally recreate, and view a vehicle Drifting around any course without the need for any additional infrastructure and or data capturing.

The DriftBit device is able to be installed by the user/team without the need for a 3rd party. Installation takes approximately 30 minutes. A video of an installation can be found HERE.

Here is an example of the data accuracy ability. We overlay captured DriftBit data VS Drone data. As you can see, the captured data overlays with reality very closly.

Data Transmit unit

To transmit DriftBit’s data, we are developing an “Add-on” transmitter unit, which plugs directly into the DriftBit’s data port. It is also powered off the DriftBit, so no further power infrastructure is needed. 

The transmitter utilizes the 900MHz frequency band, transmitting at 1Watt (To be confirmed & this may change from region to region)

The data is end to end encrypted, and has a potential maximum latency of approximately 20ms (.02 of a second) (impacted by environment, however ample for current solution)

The transmitter has a range of 10km +  (impacted by environment, however ample for current solution)

The transmitter unit has 2x antenna’s attached to the body of the unit.

Data receive unit

To receive the data, a similar device is utilized (900MHz, 1 Watt etc), with the ability to receive and process the data.

Minor data processing done on this receiver unit to normalize the data for consumption.

The receiver can service up to 60 vehicles via custom channel switching technology, with the potential to service more if required.

The receiver will turn on/off the vehicle’s transmitter as required. i.e The receiver will only receive data from vehicles that are on track/in focus (i.e battling or qualifying cars)

This device is powered via a power brick that we provide. 

Data Output

The data we output is essentially the same output as DriftBit + calculated values.

Vehicle line:

We can draw historical lines of where the vehicle has been on track by calculating PolyLines between each captured location point. We can also colour code these lines to show how the drift angle changes, eg a darker line represents a higher drift angle. Have a look at our DriftLab app for an example. 

Proximity: (Two vehicle’s in focus)

We can calculate the proximity of two vehicles by determining the distance between two DriftBit receiver modules/antennas, minus the vehicle’s body dimensions. This will allow us to resolve the proximity of the two vehicles, with a reasonable level of confidence. 

This is a current area of development to with improvements to be continually implemented. 

Note* this is a rudimental calculation, with the potential for further sophistication to be added to create a better overview of “proximity”. This current representation of proximity most likely sufficient for your use case. 

Data consumption Raw & Visualisation/Admin

Admin:

The receiving device has a built in web hosted Admin portal. It’s main objective is to enable the operator to focus on single or multiple vehicles to receive data from, and then display that data.

The portal can be accessed via its inbuilt wired or wireless network. 

The device will maintain a list of all available vehicles/ devices, and then the operator can select which single or pair of vehicles to focus from.

Consumption

Without intimate knowledge of your specific video production environment we are unable to offer an exact best fit solution to integrate with, however here are some options, with the possibility to tailor a bespoke solution.

Raw:

Data from the focused vehicle/s can be consumed raw via a defined protocol, API or bespoke output – i.e text streamed into a cloud based AWS service for instance.

We can tailor these if this is the preferred integration into your production environment. Obviously consideration needs to be taken for complexity vs time.

Visualisation: 

We can to provide visualisation of the data in multiple formats, with a variety of options.

A “green screen” style output with overlay may be easiest to integrate 

We can overlay specific data metrics and style to suit your production.

These can be in a streamed via dynamic / live web page

Or HDMI video output from the receiving device 

Features / Options

To provide a working solution within the timeframe, a level of service will define the scope of works needed to be undertaken by us.

We feel it’s best to deliver a partial solution initially (option 1) and to develop/evolve and feature add as required and appetite increases. (evolve to options 2 & 3)

.

Option 1

8x Vehicles Transmitting Live data

Basic Live data visualisation 

Costs:
Hardware
Support

Delivery rnd1 

Option 2

16x Vehicles Transmitting Live data

Intermediate Live data visualisation 

Costs:
Hardware TBC
Support  TBC

Delivery Rnd2

Option 3

32x Vehicles Transmitting Live data

Advanced Live data visualisation 

Costs:
Hardware TBC
Support  TBC

Delivery Rnd3