Estimate of the lean angle of motorcycles: Design and analysis of systems for measuring and estimating the attitude parameters of motorcycles

Nowadays, four-wheeled vehicles are equipped with many different active control systems which enhance driver and passengers safety. In the field of two- wheeled vehicles electronic systems for the control of vehicle dynamics are still in their infancy: only a few motorbikes are equipped with ABS systems, traction control, drive-by-wire, and semi-active suspensions. More specifically, the control systems today available on the market are expected to work at their best only in-plane conditions (zero roll angle). However, it is well known that a two-wheeled vehicle is characterized by large values of roll angle, which can reach the astonishing value of 50°- 55° using high-performance racing tyres. These large roll angles obviously play a major role in the overall vehicle dynamics, and make the motorcycle dynamics very different (and much more complicated to be modelled and controlled) from the car dynamics. Hence, to move a step further in active control systems for two-wheeled vehicle dynamics, the enabling technology comes from a system capable to estimate the roll angle in a reliable way and in real-time.

Ivo Boniolo received in 2010 the Ph.D. in Systems and Control Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. Sergio M. Savaresi is Full Professor in Automatic Control at Politecnico di Milano since 2006 and head of the ?mOve? research team (http://move.dei.polimi.it). He is author of more than 250 scientific publications at International level.