A steering control system for motorcycles

Abstract

In this paper, a new active steering system for motorcycles, which may be thought of as a steer-by-wire system, is proposed together with a controller design method. One of the features of the system is to use a single motor to keep the system as safe as possible in case of system failure, while two motors are used in most steer-by-wire systems to provide reaction torque to a driver (rider). However the reduction of control freedom makes it more difficult to improve the maneuverability and safety simultaneously. With this mechanism, therefore, two kinds of operation modes; 1) normal driving, 2) emergency assist are realized. In this paper we discuss controller design only for the normal driving mode by using the idea of output zeroing or regulation together with sliding mode control.