Vision-aided Bloodhound supersonic car makes official debut

After eight years of research, design, manufacturing, and testing, the Bloodhound Project’sBloodhound SSC supersonic car was unveiled at a public show on September 23.

More than 350 companies and universities have been involved in thedevelopment of the vehicle, which has an ultimate goal of attaining a 1,000 mph world land speed record. The 13.5m streamliner uses jet and rocket motors to produce a thrust horsepower that is more than seven times the power output of all of the cars in Formula 1 combined, making it the world’s most powerful land vehicle. Specifically, the vehicle has a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine and a supercharged Jaguar V8 engine that is used to pump oxidizer into the Nammo rocket.

Visitors at the September 23 event were able to take a look inside of the finished cockpit, as well as inside the car, as carbon fiber panels were partially removed on one side in order to show the technology inside of the vehicle.

In previous Vision Systems Design articles, we’ve covered a number of articles in whichvision systems were used to test multiple functions of the vehicle during development. STEMMER IMAGING supplied these industrial cameras, including 12 aboard the vehicle, as well as those used for a number testing procedures during the development of the car. Three ADLINK EOS embedded vision systems, which feature Intel multi-core processors, can each accept up to four independent HD feeds from the cameras while each system also provides an H.264 video stream from any of its four inputs for live transmission to the control center.

Recent testing in the desert at Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, where video from the vision system installed on a Jaguar F-type vehicle was transmitted to a jet aircraft, have shown successful video and audio communication transmissions at closing speeds of up 650 mph, in readiness for the next phase, which is integration of the system into car itself, according to STEMMER.

Additional testing included rocket plume imaging tests, which involved the use of aJAI CM-140 GE-UV camera and a high-speed camera from Optronis.

Cameras aboard the vehicle are located atstrategic points on the car, with in-car recording and streaming technology. When the team races the car for its first record next year in South Africa, audiences will be able to see the same view as driver Andy Green, while viewing the same information. They will be able to know how the car is balanced, the temperatures in the engines, and the speed through the measured mile.

Sharing the experience in this way, according to the Bloodhound Project, is a core principle of the entire project, and central to its mission of inspiring a future generation about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"Public interest in The Project is incredible and thanks to the generous support of our partners we are delighted to able to bring BLOODHOUND SSC to London and put it on show," said Project Director Richard Noble. "With the car now built and the track in South Africa prepared, our focus is on racing in 2016. That part of the adventure starts with runway tests at Newquay Aerohub next Easter."

View more information onthe Bloodhound project.
View the STEMMER IMAGING project page.

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