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In NASCAR racing, pit crews play an integral role. Like competitors in other sports, they also need years of training to analyze every move of the repair process through video. In fact, many pit crews used to be professional or college athletes. At North Carolina headquarters, the Michael Waltrip team is training two pit crews who have served two-time Daytona 500 winners. Four other pit crews were on the North Carolina track preparing for the NASCAR Spring Cup Series.
This week, the Michael Waltrip team will begin using Zebra’s real-time location system (RTLS) to better train these pit crews by tracking the movements of each individual and equipment. Zebra’s MotionWorks software analyzes and manages data collected by battery-operated ultra-wideband (UWB) RFID tags and readers, allowing fleets to better analyze maintenance crew and equipment movements and reduce time spent watching videos. Tom, Waltrip Racing’s technical director, said the new solution would enhance the use of video in pit crew training.
During the race, the Waltrip team averaged a pit stop of 12.5 seconds. For each pit stop, six pit crews need to add 20 gallons of gas and change all four tires. When the car is pitted, pit crews are required to jump over the fence with all the necessary equipment to provide a carefully planned service. Dropping a tool, running in the wrong place or moving slowly can affect the final result of the racer.
In order to ensure that the task is completed quickly on the field, the maintenance team needs to carry out weight-bearing, endurance training and watch and analyze every action during each maintenance process. With this solution from Zebra, they can reduce the time they spend watching, analyzing videos and working to fix deficiencies.
Zebra’s MotionWorks motion solution includes DartTag to identify maintenance members, equipment location, DartTag badge tags, and Dart Reader, which are accurate to 6 inches. During training, Dart tags will be attached to maintenance crews’ uniforms (shoulders, backs, pants) to identify their every movement, according to Gill, president of Zebra’s location solutions manager. At the same time, equipment and tools will also be equipped with Dart labels. In this way, the Waltrip fleet can analyze not only the movements of its members, but also the location and usage of the work.
The tag emits UWB signals from 6.35 GHz to 6.75 GHz 25 times per second and has a read and write range of up to 325 feet. Up to 4 years of battery life per tag.
Zebra intends to install 1 or 2 UWB readers in the pit stop area to receive all tag signals. These signals will be transmitted to a local server, where staff can analyze the data through MotionWorks. Gill said Zebras have configured the software based on fleet needs to filter out useful data such as wall crossing time, allocation and execution time. When an abnormal situation occurs, the software also sends real-time alerts to instructors or managers.
Gill explained: “Training will be better if mistakes are corrected in time. We want to give these two drivers more victories by improving their performance in the pits.”
Tom said that in the future, the team will work with Zebra to use the Dart label,ReaderAs well as MotionWorks software, additionally, this data is also open to NASCAR fans. However, the team has yet to make any special plans.
(The exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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