Avoiding Pitfalls in Motorsports Data Acquisition

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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2008-01-2987
Avoiding the Pitfalls in Motorsports

Data Acquisition
Steve Southward and Holley Conner
Virginia Tech
Motorsports Engineering Conference

Concord, North Carolina
December 2-4, 2008
400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-0790 Web: www.sae.org
Author:Gilligan-SID:13182-GUID:48300327-149.171.67.164
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2008-01-2987
Avoiding the Pitfalls in Motorsports Data Acquisition

Steve Southward and Holley Conner
Virginia Tech
Copyright © 2008 SAE International
ABSTRACT Virtually all data acquisition systems record signals that

begin as analog voltages from an array of sensors,
Restrictions on track testing, combined with advances in however, the data is stored as digital information in on-
technology, have contributed to an increased board memory such as a flash drive. Thus, the data
dependence on sensors and data acquisition for acquisition system converts analog waveforms into
diagnosing problems and improving performance in digital data through what is known as a sampling
motorsports vehicles. This dependence has created a process.
new set of challenges for race engineers to collect
quality data from a vehicle at the track. Successful 7- or This sampling process requires the race engineer to
8-post shaker rig testing is highly dependent on the make a number of important decisions about the
quality of the data acquired at the track. An improperly sampling process itself. For example, the engineer must
configured data acquisition system can actually be select a sample rate for each sensor channel (the
worse than a faulty sensor. This paper highlights a few frequency at which digital data is acquired), calibration
of the most common problems in motorsports data data (to scale the data to have engineering units), event
acquisition: aliasing and sample rate selection. The markers (to reference specific locations on the track),
effects of these problems are described for typical filtering (to focus on particular frequency information in
suspension sensors such as accelerometers, shock the data), and logging (to select how long to collect
potentiometers, load cells, and laser ride height sensors. data). In addition to these decisions, most data
An experimental case study is presented to explain the acquisition systems offer some form of software tools to
implications of these problems. Based on this analysis, aid in the analysis of data.
a set of guidelines is provided to help race engineers
avoid the pitfalls and obtain quality data from the track. Most data acquisition systems offer reasonable default
settings for many of these configuration decisions and
INTRODUCTION some suppliers offer basic guidance, by way of user
manuals, for how to make these decisions [4].
Sensors, wiring harnesses, and data acquisition systems Oftentimes, race engineers are not well informed of the
are common tools in the motorsports engineering toolbox consequences of some of the more critical decisions that
today. Even many formula SAE teams utilize some form must be made. The purpose of this paper is to highlight
of data acquisition system in order to understand and common pitfalls associated with several of the key
improve vehicle performance [1, 2]. Because of their decisions in motorsports data acquisition. In particular,
utility and the advantages they bring to race teams, the paper will address sample rate selection and
many data acquisition systems are commercially aliasing, which are intimately related. Practical
available to meet this need. A few of the more guidelines are provided to help the race engineer make
prominent motorsports data acquisition system suppliers informed decisions regarding their data acquisition
are: Race Technology, Pi Research, Mclaren Electronic configuration in order to obtain high quality data.
Systems, Dataspares, Competition Systems, Aim, Stack,
and MoTeC [3]. All of these systems serve the same COMMON SENSORS AND SIGNALS
basic purpose of collecting data from one or more
vehicle sensors during a track test outing, and storing it A number of sensors are commonly used in race
for processing and analysis after the outing. vehicles to monitor dynamic motions and transmitted
forces during track testing. Analog signals from these
1
sensors provide valuable information about what the different vehicle or on a different track, the sensor PSD
vehicle, or a vehicle subsystem, is doing at any point in a responses will look different; however, certain trends will
particular lap. Although the information and be consistent. When analyzing the spectral content or
recommendations in this paper will apply to many types PSD of a signal, there are three primary regions along
of sensors, this discussion will be focused on the subset the frequency axis to consider. The first region is at 0
of sensors that are more common to 7- or 8-post shaker Hz, which is also known as DC. On a logarithmic
rig testing. This means that the sensors considered here frequency plot, as in Figure 1, the DC frequency will not
are commonly found on or near the suspension. exist; however, a linear frequency scale will show the DC
Transducers such as accelerometers, shock content of a signal.
potentiometers, and laser ride height sensors provide
measurements of chassis and suspension motions, The second region to consider along the frequency axis
whereas spring mount load cells and damper load cells is known as the “pass-band”. Note that this region may
provide measurements of transmitted forces. not exist for certain sensors. In the pass-band, the PSD
magnitude may vary a small amount, but it generally
While it is clear that each of these sensor types measure remains constant. The wheel hub accelerometer PSD in
different quantities of interest, it is not always known Figure 1 has a pass-band from about 0.5 - 40 Hz,
what the frequency content is for each sensor. The whereas the other signals in Figure 1 have a pass-band
frequency content of a signal, also called the signal from about 1 - 5 Hz.
spectrum, indicates which frequencies are present in the
signal as well as the relative magnitudes. The spectrum The third region to consider is known as “roll-off”. In this
is typically plotted as a Power Spectral Density (PSD) region, the PSD magnitude generally trends downward.
graph versus frequency as shown in Figure 1 below. On a decibel vs. log-frequency plot, as in Figure 1, the
roll-off generally follows a straight line with different
slopes depending on the sensor type.
Notice from Figure 1 that the vehicle heave frequency is

present around 4 Hz, and is more prominent in the
accelerometer data. The wheel-hop frequency is also
showing up around 30 Hz, and is seen in all sensors
except the chassis ride height. The wheel hub
accelerometer has the highest “bandwidth” because it
does not begin to roll off until about 40 Hz whereas the
other sensors begin to roll off around 5 Hz.
BASIC DATA ACQUISITION
Figure 2 shows an example diagram of a typical data

acquisition system. Although this figure shows sensors,
wiring harness, and a PC, the focus of this discussion is
on the details of the data acquisition system itself.
Figure 1. Example frequency content of four First, analog signals are passed into devices known as
common chassis & suspension sensors. “anti-aliasing” filters. Unfortunately, data acquisition
suppliers rarely ever discuss the details of the anti-
Three factors contribute to the signal spectrum shape for aliasing in their products, but the presence of these
any given sensor: the excitation, the vehicle dynamics, filters is absolutely essential for proper sampling.
and the sensor type. The excitation is the set of all
inputs that can create a sensor response such as the Once the analog signal has been anti-aliased, it is ready
track surface and/or driver inputs. The dynamics of the for sampling with an analog-to-digital converter at a rate
vehicle itself act to shape the spectral response of most prescribed by the engineer. The function of anti-aliasing
sensors and vehicle dynamics modes can often be will be described in detail below. This entire process is
“seen” in the response data. Lastly, the spectrum of a orchestrated by a digital processor that stores the data
signal is dependent on the type of sensor as can be into memory for later retrieval with a PC.
seen in Figure 1 above.
Many data acquisition systems allow an engineer to
Figure 1 shows an example PSD plot of four common select different sample rates for each sensor. If all
suspension sensors. All signals were normalized to signals are sampled at the highest available sample rate,
have unity magnitude (0 dB) at 2 Hz in order to more then more memory is required to store all the data for
clearly visualize the spectral content. Note that on a
2
long periods of time. If all of the signals are sampled at content above a frequency known as the Nyquist
the lowest available sample rate, then valuable frequency, which is defined to be half of the sample rate.
information will be lost from the higher-bandwidth With appropriately designed anti-aliasing filters, the
signals. A race engineer must select an appropriate analog signal should really only have spectral content up
sample rate for each sensor based on the known to 0.3fs0.4fs as indicated in Figure 3.
spectral content of the analog signal.
In other words, if a signal has frequency content up to 40
Hz, as in the hub accelerometer data from Figure 2, and
it is desired to keep this information in the resulting
sampled data, then the sample rate must at least be
40/0.4 = 100 Hz. Although Shannons sampling theorem
only requires a minimum factor of 2.0, and the practical
rule-of-thumb above is a factor of 2.5, it is always better
to sample data at higher rates such as a factor of 10.0.
Anti-aliasing filters are low-pass filters that will allow all

frequency content from DC up to the filter break
frequency, also known as “cut-off” frequency. Signals
greater than the break frequency are rejected due to the
roll-off of the anti-aliasing filter. Signals near the break
frequency are only altered slightly in both magnitude and
phase. A high quality data acquisition system will
typically adjust the anti-aliasing break frequency,
depending on the sample rate that is selected, to be
somewhere in the 0.3fs0.4fs range, and the anti-alias
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of a typical data
acquisition system with sensors, harness, and PC. filter order is such that there is at least 20 dB of rejection
at the Nyquist frequency. Data acquisition systems that
As mentioned above, data acquisition system suppliers do not have anti-aliasing filters built-in should be
may provide guidance for selecting appropriate sample avoided. Anti-aliasing filters are often omitted as a cost
rates [4]; however, this is usually without explanation. A saving means; however, this is an unacceptable risk.
general understanding of the sampling process will help
the race engineer make an informed decision. ANALYTICAL ALIASING STUDY
To illustrate the importance of anti-aliasing and sample

rate selection, an analytical study was performed in
Matlab. An analog test signal a(t) was constructed from
two sinusoidal waveforms, both at the same amplitude
and at frequencies of 5 Hz and 37.5 Hz.
a(t ) = sin(2 5 t ) + sin(2 37.5 t ) (1)
This test signal represents the response of a sensor on a

vehicle. The signal was digitally sampled at two different
sample rates: 1000 Hz and 50 Hz, but with no anti-
aliasing filters used on either data set. The Nyquist
frequency for the high sample rate is 500 Hz and the
Figure 3. Graphic description of allowable spectral
Nyquist frequency for the low sample rate is 25 Hz. The
content relative to the sampling frequency.
5 Hz component in the test signal is well below either of
the two Nyquist frequencies; however, the 37.5 Hz
The frequency axis in Figure 3 indicates a sampling
component is above the 25 Hz Nyquist frequency. From
frequency of fs, which usually has units of Hz or
Figure 3, we see that the 37.5 Hz frequency is in the
samples/second. In 1948, Claude Shannon published a
“Not Allowed” region because it is greater than the
paper describing an important consequence of selecting
Nyquist frequency. Without any anti-aliasing filters, the
the sampling frequency [5]. This result is known as the
37.5 Hz component appears to be noise that will be
Shannon Sampling Theorem or also the Nyquist
aliased by the sampling process. In this example,
Sampling Theorem. The basic idea is that if an analog
aliasing means that a phantom waveform will be
signal is digitally sampled at a rate of fs, then the analog
generated at 5037.5 = 12.5 Hz as indicated in Figure 3.
signal being sampled must have very little spectral
3
Generation of this phantom signal is the consequence of data at the 50 Hz rate therefore the best that can be
not using anti-aliasing in the sampling process. done is to not allow much of the 37.5 Hz frequency to
pass through. Notice from Figure 5 that the 12.5 Hz
alias frequency is more than 30 dB down from the
original 37.5 Hz magnitude, which indicates a very
reasonable amount of anti-aliasing.
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
As a means of demonstrating the importance of proper

sample rate selection and anti-aliasing, a series of
experimental tests were created and evaluated. For
these tests, an accelerometer sensor was mounted to
the right front wheel hub as shown in Figure 6 below.
This sensor type was chosen because it has the highest
bandwidth response of the available sensors, and it also
senses the wheel hop frequency of a vehicle, which is
around 30 Hz.
Figure 4. Time and PSD response of the analytic

test signal demonstrating aliasing in the data.
The PSD plot in Figure 4 shows the two correct

frequencies of 5 Hz and 37.5 Hz for the 1000 Hz
sampled data; however, for the 50 Hz sampled data, the
two frequencies appear to be at 5 Hz and 12.5 Hz.
Figure 6. Accelerometer located on the right front

wheel hub for the experimental case study.
Figure 7 is a photo of a retired NASCAR Sprint Cup car

on the VIPER 8-post test rig. For this test, the right front
wheel loader was excited at 5 Hz and at 37.5 Hz
simultaneously. The excitation amplitudes were selected
to achieve the same spectral magnitudes in the
accelerometer response, matching the analytic study.
Figure 5. Time and PSD response of the analytic

test signal demonstrating anti-aliasing in the data.
The same sampling experiment was repeated in Matlab,

but this time, appropriate anti-aliasing filters were used
for both sampling processes. The PSD plot in Figure 5
again shows that the 5 Hz frequency is correctly
represented for both sample rates, and the 1000 Hz
sample rate correctly represents the 37.5 Hz frequency.
Because the 37.5 Hz frequency is still in the “Not
Allowed” region (from Figure 3), there is absolutely no
Figure 7. Test vehicle on VIPER 8-post shaker rig.
way to properly obtain this waveform by sampling the
4
The analog accelerometer signal was connected into two sufficiently rejected in the 50 Hz sampled data, therefore
channels of a PI Research data acquisition system as we can safely conclude that the PI Research data
shown in Figure 8 below. Both PI channels received the acquisition system has anti-aliasing filters present.
same analog signal; however, one channel was sampled
at 50 Hz and the other was sampled at 1000 Hz. A second experimental study was performed to
characterize the anti-aliasing filters in the PI Research
data acquisition system. For this experiment, a normally
distributed random noise signal with a constant, or flat,
spectrum was generated in Matlab and played out using
a Tektronix AFG3022 Arbitrary Function Generator
(shown in the top center of Figure 8). This
approximately “white” noise signal was simultaneously
applied to three input channels in the PI Research
sensor harness. One channel was sampled at 50 Hz,
the second at 200 Hz, and the third at 1000 Hz.
Assuming that the data acquisition system selects an

anti-alias filter that is specific to the chosen sampling
frequency, then that filter characteristic should be visible
in the sampled response data. All three signals were
recorded and uploaded to Matlab where the PSD of each
Figure 8. PI Research data acquisition system used sampled data set was then computed as an estimate of
during the experimental case study. the magnitude of the anti-aliasing filter. This is a very
reasonable estimate given that all three signals had the
EXPERIMENTAL TEST RESULTS same white noise input signal applied to them.
The experimental test with a wheel hub accelerometer

was set up to mimic the analytic study. Because of
nonlinearities in the actual vehicle suspension, the
accelerometer response contained a large number of
harmonics as indicated by the 1000 Hz PSD data in
Figure 9. Even with all the harmonics present, the 5 Hz
frequency and the 37.5 Hz frequency dominated the
response with the highest energy.
Figure 10. Experimental characterization of anti-alias

filter magnitude at three different sample rates.
The PSD results are plotted in Figure 10 above as thin

solid lines. These results clearly indicate the presence
of a different anti-alias filter for each sampling frequency,
as expected. Next, using trial-and-error to determine the
order and the break frequency, low-pass filters were
manually “fit” to the PSD data. Based on the magnitude
Figure 9. Time and PSD response of the results plotted in Figure 10, the PI Research data
experimental test signal acquisition system uses 2nd order anti-aliasing filters.
The fitted break frequency data suggests that both the
Without anti-aliasing filters, we would expect to see a 50 Hz and 200 Hz sample rates are 4.5 times their
signal in the 50 Hz sampled PSD data at 12.5 Hz, much corresponding anti-alias filter break frequencies,
like the result in Figure 4. Instead, Figure 9 clearly whereas the 1000 Hz sample rate is 7.0 times its
indicates that the 37.5 Hz component has been corresponding anti-alias filter break frequency.
5
While evaluating the time series data from the SUMMARY

experiment, an anomaly was discovered in the PI data.
This anomaly warranted further study so an additional Teams who are considering the purchase of a new or
experiment was set up. For this test, a single 5 Hz upgraded data acquisition system, are strongly urged to
waveform was generated by the Tektronix AFG3022 request information about the anti-aliasing provided with
Arbitrary Function Generator. This analog waveform the hardware. In fact, it is probably a good idea for
was passed into three channels of the PI Research data teams who already own a data acquisition system to
acquisition system. Like the former experiment, all three request the same information from their supplier. In
channels received the same analog signal, and again, particular, you need to first ask if any anti-aliasing is
one channel was sampled at 50 Hz, one at 200 Hz, and present, and then ask how the anti-aliasing break
one at 1000 Hz. frequency is adjusted based on the selected sample
rate. It is also important to ask for channel-to-channel
variation information. Systems without anti-aliasing or
with inadequate anti-aliasing should be avoided.
Race engineers who are faced with the decision of

selecting sample rates for each channel often have to
trade off the integrity of the sampled data for the length
of recording time. If a particular sensor has frequency
content which is relatively high (i.e. > 15 Hz), then the
engineer must be aware of this fact and make a
conscious an informed decision to either retain this
information (using a higher sample rate), or ignore this
information (using a lower sample rate with appropriate
anti-aliasing). Whenever possible, it is always preferable
to sample at a higher rate to maximize the data integrity.
A good rule of thumb is to sample at least 2.5 times the
highest frequency of interest in the signal, but higher
data integrity will result from a sample rate that is 10
Figure 11. PI time response measurements of the times the highest frequency of interest.
same signal at three different sample rates.
REFERENCES
For this particular experiment, there was no possible
chance of aliasing, nor should there have been any 1. White, D., McKisson, J.E., and Barott, W.,
significant phase or magnitude distortion of the “Organization of a multi-disciplinary Capstone design
waveforms caused by an anti-aliasing filter. The plot in project for the SAE formula hybrid competition,”
Figure 11 clearly shows a distinct time shift between the 114th ASEE Conf. & Expo, 2007.
three signals. The blue curve shows data sampled at
1000 Hz; the green curve shows data sampled at 200 2. Capitani, R., Rosti, D.G., and Tozzi, P., “Multibody
Hz; and the red curve shows data sampled at 50 Hz. performance optimization of a formula SAE car,” 8th
Biennial ASME Conf. on Eng. Sys. Design and
This result is identical when data from PI Toolbox is
Analysis, ESDA, 2006.
written out to a Matlab file format. The time shift for the
50 Hz sampled data is slightly more than one 50 Hz 3. http://www.autosportsensors.com/Content/data_acq
sample period, and the time shift for the 200 Hz sampled uisition_systems.htm
data is slightly more than one 200 Hz sample period as
well. This result has serious implications if multiple 4. “Pi V6 Training Logging Rates.” Pi Research USA. 8
signals that were sampled at different rates are to be September 2000. Indianapolis, IN.
compared with each other. Unfortunately, this is
precisely what is done in a 7- or an 8-post test. 5. Shannon, C.E., and Weaver, W., “The Mathematical
Theory of Communication,” Univ. of Illinois Press,
1963.
6

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Avoiding the Pitfalls in Motorsports

Motorsports Engineering Conference

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For multiple print copies contact:

SAE Customer Service

Avoiding the Pitfalls in Motorsports Data Acquisition

Copyright © 2008 SAE International

ABSTRACT Virtually all data acquisition systems record signals that

Notice from Figure 1 that the vehicle heave frequency is

BASIC DATA ACQUISITION

Figure 2 shows an example diagram of a typical data

Anti-aliasing filters are low-pass filters that will allow all

To illustrate the importance of anti-aliasing and sample

a(t ) = sin(2 5 t ) + sin(2 37.5 t ) (1)

This test signal represents the response of a sensor on a

As a means of demonstrating the importance of proper

Figure 4. Time and PSD response of the analytic

The PSD plot in Figure 4 shows the two correct

Figure 6. Accelerometer located on the right front

Figure 7 is a photo of a retired NASCAR Sprint Cup car

Figure 5. Time and PSD response of the analytic

The same sampling experiment was repeated in Matlab,

Assuming that the data acquisition system selects an

The experimental test with a wheel hub accelerometer

Figure 10. Experimental characterization of anti-alias

The PSD results are plotted in Figure 10 above as thin

While evaluating the time series data from the SUMMARY

Race engineers who are faced with the decision of

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