Kevin Kidd saw the ultimate dream when he watched the Tom Cruise racing flick Days of Thunder more than three decades ago.
The fast cars. The roaring crowds. The dramatic wins and, yes, even getting the girl.
It painted a picture of NASCAR life that was undeniably cool.
What he likely didn’t expect then was that decades later, his own career would be about making a less-glamorous, but equally vital, technology – the digital twin – just as thrilling, relevant, and key to victory.
“That’s what really brings them in,” Kidd said at a recent Orlando conference on digital twins. “They walk away from the conference and they digest the day. They will gravitate toward the things that were entertaining or interesting.”
The Reality Captures Network’s R-CON conference on digital twins brought in experts to speak on how the tech applies in industries like blockchain, energy and construction.
However, Kidd’s presentation highlighted how digital twins have helped NASCAR teams prepare for race day.
It was an illustration of the impact of digital twins beyond often traditional industry circles.
“To get the story out that you are trying to achieve, it has got to be fun,” Kidd said.
The pandemic’s digital push
The NASCAR adoption of digital twins offers an interesting glimpse into how the recent pandemic necessitated innovation.
Because of teams no longer being able to practice on speedways, they had to improvise.
What had been traditionally a tedious but important process of running the cars on the tracks physically was suddenly something teams could duplicate virtually.
In fact, because of COVID-related restrictions on in-person contact, the virtual approach became not just ideal but essential.
“We had to get really good at simulation,” Kidd said. “We had to make sure that when we unloaded off the truck, our cars were nearly perfect.”
The intricacies of the digital car
The intricacies of racecars, racetracks and conditions create a situation where the NASCAR digital twin had to be as intricate as the systems it was replicating.
That meant creating several interconnected systems for the tests.
For instance, a comprehensive vehicle model captures suspension, chassis and engine data while a track model might account for every bump and dip on its surface.
Even wind tunnel data is entered into the equation.
But all the data in the world cannot create “correlation,” Kidd said.
“The No. 1 problem for any race team engineer globally, if you ask them, is correlating from your digital world to the physical one,” he said.
As emerging technologies continue to improve, the impact, applicability and fidelity of digital twin simulations will increase.
But none of these matters if the accuracy and depth of simulation fails.
“If you miss even one system, the simulation goes off into left field pretty quickly,” Kidd said.
The next step, Kidd predicted, could be models based upon a driver’s behavior that could make decisions in real time during a simulation.
Kidd’s insights in Orlando painted a vivid picture of how digital twins push the very boundaries of performance and decision making in NASCAR and sports, in general.
The lessons learned from perfecting a digital racecar – from managing complex correlations to anticipating real-time changes – offer a preview of a future where advanced simulations are pervasive.
“I feel like in the next 10 years, these things are going to be informing us and making decisions for us in our day-to-day,” Kidd said.