Professor Malcolm Smith has been interviewed on YouTube about his invention of “the inerter” – a device which came to prominent attention following its use in Formula One motor racing.
A collaboration between the University of Cambridge and McLaren Racing led to the inerter’s first use in Formula One at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2005 with McLaren achieving its first of 10 victories in the season. The device subsequently became a standard component in high-end motorsport.
In an interview with Dr Giordano Scarciotti of Imperial College London, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial’s Faculty of Engineering, Professor Smith explains the Engineering background and origin of the idea, as well as fielding questions on the “Spygate controversy” from 2007 when the device first came to public attention under the codename “J-damper”.
Professor Smith’s inerter concept and device arose from a fundamental study of performance limits in passive suspension systems. A collaboration between the University of Cambridge and McLaren Racing led to the inerter’s first use in Formula One at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2005 with McLaren achieving its first of 10 victories in the season. The device subsequently became a standard component in high-end motorsport.
The range of possible applications of the inerter continues to expand and now includes: vibration mounts and absorbers, building suspensions for earthquake mitigation, rail suspensions, pantographs, aircraft landing gear, bridge cables and bipedal robots.
