Robot pitcrews and hydrogen – is DTM's concept plausible?

November 2019. The original Blade Runner film's opening flash yields to a depiction of a sprawling Los Angeles metropolis, barely illuminated by dull spotlights and neon signage.

Within the dystopian LA streets, the city is partially populated by a group of synthetic humans known as replicants. In essence, they amount to highly advanced robots, able to assume the roles of humans without the infinite list of flaws that us mere meatbags are cursed with.

In the real November of 2019, LA remains a much brighter and sunnier locale, while robotic research is nowhere near as advanced.

Automatic machinery can only be described as pragmatic - and, for our purposes, that's all we need it to be. Programmable arms, triggered by a carefully defined stimulus, are able to automate a multitude of tasks in industries such as manufacturing where accuracy above a human's ability is often required.

But in sport? In a field that celebrates human endeavour, sport and robotics have not cross-pollinated. If anything, the two seem completely incongruous at best.

Regardless, the ITR, the Gerhard Berger-led promoter of the DTM, has unveiled its new vision of a possible all-electric touring car series for the future.

In the concept, the ITR suggests that pitstops will be revolutionised by "large industrial robots", which would replace the pitcrew in charge of tyre changes. The robots would also be responsible for changing batteries or hydrogen tanks, tasks that would be dangerous for team members to carry out.

Certainly that seems like an inevitable development of pitstop systems. That's not to say we'll watch some C3PO-esque android bumble its way around a tyre change - ITR's vision suggests a pair of wheelguns on a rail-mounted turntable that can undo, replace and reattach wheels. Meanwhile, the provision to replace batteries or fuel cells is supplied by "large industrial" mechanisms to lift the car and the heavy cells inside.

While the ITR's vision is not supposed to supplant the DTM, but rather become its counterpart, there is the opportunity to make immediate comparisons in pitlane etiquette.

Currently, DTM teams are allowed only to change tyres during a pitstop, and each period spent stationary is usually within the 10-second bracket.

"Motorsport has been lacking a truly new and inspiring concept until now" Gerhard Berger

For comparison, Formula 1 teams regularly achieve pitstops of just over two seconds, but more pitcrew members are allowed compared with the DTM.

A fully automated stop could bring DTM closer to that level, but crucially without the human expense. And if the wheelgun robots can move longitudinally as well as laterally, then a driver failing to hit the marks in a pitstop receives less of a punishment, depending on the level of sensors involved.

An automated pitstop does bring something of a contradiction in terms; currently, DTM elects not to provide in-race refuelling to reduce the costs of lugging around race-ready refuelling rigs, but any series planning to use robotic tools must accept that the cost of adding them to the mix may be somewhat exorbitant.

But that can be offset quite easily with astute marketing. Any company involved in the field of robotics would have a slam-dunk opportunity to showcase its products on the world stage, and the draw of watching automatic pitstops would create a genuine interest - or at least attract people through sheer novelty value.

Robots aside, there's plenty more areas of interest in ITR's concept. An electric drive system is underpinned by the option of both batteries or hydrogen fuel cells to provide the energy required to drive the twin motors, uprated to enjoy a peak performance of 1000bhp overall.

That's certainly within the realms of possibility, and NIO's EP9 - the car that held the electric record around the Nordschleife before Volkswagen's ID.R - managed to frequently attain that level of power with a quartet of motors.

As more racing series follow Formula E's lead and use battery technology - MotoE and E TCR are the newest additions to the all-electric family - the automotive world is surely crying out for an alternative. Berger concurs, suggesting that current concepts for more sustainable forms of racing have become somewhat derivative.

"We need to be open-minded about what's happening in the automotive world," Berger says.

"Although hybrid and electric vehicles have established something of a foothold, I think motorsport has been lacking a truly new and inspiring concept until now.

"We're now talking with a significant number of automotive manufacturers and suppliers who would like to become more involved in motorsport. This proposal offers them a first look at something tangible - and exciting."

While the ITR's concept does permit battery technology to power the motors in a conventional electric vehicle arrangement, it also suggests that hydrogen fuel cells could also be used to propel the range of cars - a vein into which international motorsport has yet to tap.

After Honda's FCX Clarity concept car burst onto the scene in 2008, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have since taken a back seat to battery powered EVs as the cost of batteries has dropped sharply.

Hydrogen, meanwhile, is highly reactive, as its primary isotope consists of one proton - but rarely exists in that form alone and prefers to exist as a diatomic molecule. H2 is rarely alone, however, and readily forms covalent - when electron pairs are shared - bonds with other molecules.

While batteries continue to evolve and become less expensive, the amount of automotive interest in fuel cells remains distinctly tepid

What this impromptu chemistry lesson means is that hydrogen is incredibly difficult to break away from the compounds it produces.

With electrolysis, the H2 molecules - needed for use in hydrogen fuel cells - can be sprung from water, but the infrastructure to do so on a large scale doesn't yet exist. And while batteries continue to evolve and become less expensive, the amount of automotive interest in fuel cells remains distinctly tepid.

That's not to say fuel cells won't have their break-out moment, much like the electric car did with the rise of Tesla, but it ultimately requires the investment to collect and store hydrogen gas securely for use in cars.

But once the technology is perfected, it is emission-free; as the fuel produces its power from the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, the only byproduct is water.

By creating a battery and fuel-cell hybrid, any excess energy produced in combustion can be stored - improving the overall efficiency, while the electric motors can also generate further energy through regenerative braking.

According to the ITR, the concept cars can theoretically reach speeds of 185mph - around the same level as the current breed of DTM cars. And while it is touted as complementary to DTM, future concepts involving alternate fuels will eventually take over - and so it makes sense to run the two together to ease the transition between the categories.

But is it possible?

"Obviously, that depends on a number of factors," Berger says. "First of all, technical feasibility. But we've been investigating this area quite intensively, and now need to draw on the expertise of specialists as we continue to evaluate its feasibility.

"This includes battery and robot manufacturers, for example, when you consider the ambitious and ground-breaking technology for the pitstops. Naturally, financing the development also plays a major role - you have to get that properly balanced.

"As in DTM, the costs have to be kept under control - they can't spiral upwards. And that's only possible if large parts of the development are managed centrally, with key technical components such as the electrical drive system with electric motors, power electronics and the battery or fuel cell all standardised.

"We already have an efficient standardised parts concept for the DTM, so that enables us to judge the situation very effectively."

It may prove difficult to implement within the next decade or two, as neither EV nor fuel cell vehicles are at the current level required to do so.

Current robotics are certainly capable of carrying out the pitstop tasks, but the systems would need to be rigorously tested - bordering on ad infinitum - to troubleshoot every possible issue.

While it seems now like nothing more than a pipe dream, there will come a day when motorsport is dominated by all-electric championships, hydrogen technology and robotic pitstops.

As for petrol-guzzling vehicles, internal combustion engines and pitstop lollipops? All of those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.