Announced in the aftermath of fatalities for teenage riders hit by following competitors during 𒐪2021, the brief given was to create 'automatic, near-instant warning systems for all following riders/motorcycles... [that] must be applicable to Championships of all levels, including Talent Cups.'

According toಞ Cecchinelli, the initial system “should be active next yea🤡r.”

But what exactly is it and how does it work?

The first clue came when MotoGP riders were asked to tryꦜ turning on their rear rain light in dry and sunny conditions during free practice at🌃 Portimao in Novꦍember 2021.

A change in the Moto3 technical rules in March this year then revealed that the standard IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit, made up of gyroscopes and accelerometers)168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: was being modified ‘to facilitate the introduction of an automatic warning sys🐻tem for riders approaching the scene of a crash’.

In an interview with ltxcn.top, Cecchinelli, who rose to Vice Director General of Ducati Corse before taking on the newly created role of MotoGP Director of Technology in 2011, fills in the pieces of the puzzle for what could be motorcycle racing’s biggest step in saf🧸ety since the introduction of airbags…

A ‘virtual drop switch’

An automatic warniꦰng system requires detecting, as soon as possible, that a rider has fallen, then transmitting a ‘rider down’ signal out from the bike and finally alerting following competitors.

Detecting the accident, Cecchinelli explained, w𝔍illౠ be done by means of a ‘virtual drop switch’, using data from the IMU to calculate when a rider is falling.

“The ba🌃sic principle is, on every machine in all classes, a system that is able to detect a crash. By system, I mean a hardware and a software, whꦕich then sends a signal to Race Direction," Cecchinelli said.

“The hardware is, at the moment, a ‘virtual drop switch’ that we build from the IMU signals. We don't have a [physical] drop switch, but we use signals from🐻 the IMU to build a virtual drop switch.”

‘Detecting a crash before touching the ground’

But wa🦹iting for the bike to physically ‘drop’ onto its side would, in some cases, takဣe too long.

As such, and in the same way 🐟that advanced algorithms are used to deploy airbags before a rider hits the ground, the crash detection software will measure the ‘rate of change’ for things like lean angle to spot the earliest sign of an accident.

“We also consider - this gets v🃏ery technical - the position of the bike and also the speed at which it is falling. Because one problem is that waiting for th🌟e bike to be on the ground was too long,” Cecchinelli confirmed.

“So we had to implement something which ෴is not a prediction, but it's a derivative [rate of change]. So, if you are leaning too fast compared to how fast you are lean🌸ing in normal conditions, then it triggers a ‘crash’ signal.

“It’s not really predicting, but it's detecting a crash before touching the ground. Which is also someth💦ing the airbag systems doꦓ; these work before you hit the ground.

"But you don't want false positives, so 🍌it's a bit tricky.”

‘Crash’ signal sent via timekeeping, ‘danger zone’ identified

Once the onboard hardware and software have detected an accident, the circuit timekeeping infr🔜astructure will be used to receive a signal from the fallen bike and then trigger a warning alert to the following machines.

“This is possible because now we will have a [new] device on a🧸ll machines that is a▨ble to send and receive [signals] continuously,” Cecchinelli said.

“The present device fitted to the bikes for lap timing and so on, only sends data wh﷽en the bike is crossing a [timing] loop. Which is not often enough for this [wa༒rning] system.

“You have to have something that is continually exchanging data with the track inf💛rastructure in real-time.

“So when an accident is detected on the bike, it will send a ‘crash yes’ signal to timekeeping. The timekeeping system then responds by sending a signal back to ꦏthe fallen bike as well as other bikes in ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚa given ‘danger zone’ around the crashed bike to activate a warning for following riders.

“It's clearly a two-stage project: Stage one is from detecting the crash and having a feedback signal from the timekeepཧing. Then stage two is what you do with this feedback signal."

A flashing rear rain light - for now

The initial method to alert following riders of an accident will be the flashing rear rain light, trigg🔯ered not only on the fallen bike but all bikes in the ‘danger zone’ around t👍he accident.

This is necessary because if only the fallen bike was illuminated, resulting in riders first on the scene braking hard or taking evasive action, there would still be a risk of secondary incidents caused by other riders further down the 𓃲field arriving at full speed.

“The type of warning method for fo𒁃llowing riders is split between what we are going to do immediately, and the plan for the future,” Cecchinelli continued. “As a first step, when you enter the danger zone, we will switch on the rear rain light, in flashing mode. This should be active next year.

“There's of course a lot of uncertainty on whether the rear light will be visible enough. We think it will be and anyway it's v🌊ery important to test all of the systeꦡm.

“But the rear rain light is not our final goal. It’s much better than nothing, but it's more or less a test of the whole system: crash detection, sending the signal to time🌊keeping and sending back a command."

‘Unlimited potential’ for improvements

Cecchinelli made cl🌠ear the rear rain light is only the starting point and, once the base system has been proven, a range of more hi-tech add-ons can be made.

“There is an almostಞ unlimited potential for 🐈improvements over the initial version, depending also on future technology,” Cecchinelli said.

“For instance, the principle is to avoid running over a crashed bike or rider. Therefore, we could add a second system on the rider, as well as the bike, and a🍎lso develop a way to monitor exactly where each of them are in relation to the track.

“Then you could move to a more refined system where if the bike or rider is on the ground and on track, you trigger the ‘danger zone🍬’ warning. But not if both the fallen rider and bike are 100 metres away from the track.

“Because what may happen with the initial version is you have a crashed bike completely out of danger - the bike could be off the track and maybe already in the hands of the marshals - but still it will be considered a ‘danger zone’ with r🥃ear lights flashing. So it’ll be safer than needed to start with, which is good, but excessive.

A beep, acoustic alarms, head-up display, flashing dashboard...

“Our final goal is not just to switch the rear light on, but to also do something to really catch the rider’s attention, which is a dangerous thing to do, so we are taking our time.: A beep, acoustic alarms, a head-up display, a flashing dashboard, or whatever you can imagine is the nex♔t step.

“For me, this will be the bigg🐻est improvement to the system for safety.

“The i🐭dea [in future] is to do a number of things so that at lea💧st one will be effective in getting the attention of the riders, because we are talking about trying to save their lives.

“The best chance of getting their attention is to implement many different⛄ kinds of warning methods at the same time, in the hope that one of them will be seen or heard.

“So if you flash the rear light, as we💜ll as sending a beep and also a message in the visor, maybe one of them will work and the rider wi💙ll realise the danger ahead. But I would not remove what has gone before, just add something else on. But this is all to come.

“Once you have the initial infrastructure in pla♛ce, there is no added complication as far as the signa⛎lling side to also switch on something in the helmet, for example, as well as the flashing rear light."

Once an accident has been cleared and the danger is over, 🐼a marshal is likely to manually switch off the initial version of the warning system.

“I think deciding which following bikes receive a warning will be GPS based. So it will trigger for bikes entering an area which is a certain distance bܫefore the crashed bike’s GPS position [the ‘danger zone’].

“Then, switching it off on the crashed bike could be manual, by a marshal for example. This is something to b🅰e decided and implemented, but I think for๊ the initial version there is no real alternative to switching it off manually.

“[In future] you could program the software to say; ‘when the bike i🔯s on the ground, on track, you switch the warning on. Off the tracꦏk, you switch it off’. But this is not the case at the moment.”

The next big step in safety? ‘We believe so, but…’

At present, waved yellow flags and light panels are the only way to warn riders of danger ahead. But wi༒th run-off areas becoming ever larger for 🐼safety reasons, the ability to catch a rider's attention from trackside has diminished.

While the ni🌟ghtmare scenario of a rider falling instantly into the path of another competitor will always exist, there have also been occasions where a clear ‘warning window’ has existed between the initial accident and a secondary impact from the following bike.

When Dani Pedrosa fell from twelfth place early in the 2021 Austrian MotoGP, roughly five seconds passed before an unsighted Lorenzo Savadori (in 21st)168澳洲幸运🔥5官方开奖结果历史: plou🌠ghed straight into his fallen KTM. Pedr𝓡osa was unharmed, but Savadori suffered ankle fꦯractures in the fiery impact, which stopped the race (pictured).

It is those kinds of situat🐭ions where the new warning system could make a real difference.

For Cecchinelli, belief in the potential of the system is reflected by the huge effort being made to develop it, but only time will tell i✅f it will be an airbag-type leap in safety:

“I can't say for ꦕsure yet, but of course, we b෴elieve so. It's a big project and the fact that we are doing it gives you your answer.

“Whenever you create something new, there’s a lot of 🌃unce𒁏rtainty in how you should do it.

“Let's say the answer for me is: ‘Yes, it should be a big step in safety, but we don’t know hಞow long it will take to perfect it’.”