The dynamics of a high-performance motorcycle are greatly influenced by the rider's weight and movements especially when the power-to-weight ratio is very high. Generally in motor vehicles, the driver's/rider's weight is a significant fraction of the entire system. This work is about ADAMS/View multibody modelling of a motorcycle and virtual rider who simulates handlebar interaction and saddle sliding. In the literature, the rider's influence is unrealistic being limited to considering him as a concentrated mass or in other cases as a fixed passive system. Even vehicle modelling is often inaccurate, referring at best to simplified models of rigid bodies. In this work, the vehicle and rider have been accurately modelled to most realistically reproduce the dynamic behaviour of the system. The motorcycle was modelled with 12 bodies incorporating concentrated flexibility for the two suspension units and considering the chassis as a flexible body using modal synthesis. The virtual rider is made up of 15 rigid bodies and has 28 degrees of freedom. To study the effects on the motorcycle of the rider's movements as well as the motorcycle's dynamics and performance, a monitoring system similar to that in the literature was used to read handlebar torque and engine and braking torque. Furthermore, in the literature there are simulations of standard manoeuvres whereas in this work an entire lap of Monza was simulated. There were simulations of a fixed and mobile rider validating the model in advance and thereafter monitoring the most significant dynamic parameters. The multibody model provides useful results at the design phase and insights into the whole vehicle/rider dynamic to setup all the reference parameters for immediately evaluating system effects.
The present work aims at the development of an advanced control system implemented through Adams/View-Matlab/ Simulink co-simulation for a high-performance motorcycle dynamics study. In particular, the purpose of this study is to create a model able to consider several aspects of the rider-motorbike dynamic simulation and its control system, generally treated separately in the literature, making also use of an original and accurate modelling of the rider. From a previous multi-body model of motorcycle/virtual rider, developed by the authors, a flexible tool is created to simulate system dynamics to follow any trajectory at a prescribed velocity profile. Considering high-performance motorcycle dynamics are greatly influenced by the rider's weight, his movements have been accurately replicated to obtain the most realistic results. To simulate the passive impedance of rider's arms, a torque was applied to the steering as per the literature. The aerodynamic force was modelled as a function of kinematics variables and rider's posture. The control system is very flexible and adaptable to different manoeuvres realistically reproducing engine and braking performance, steering torque and rider movements. Numerical results show that the control system can accurately direct the motorcycle/rider system along an entire lap of the Monza circuit, following a desired path at a given velocity profile. The model developed allows a complete view of the motorbike-rider dynamic behaviour thus being useful during both design phase and setup , with a considerable saving in terms of both cost and time; it can also evaluate the influence on the system dynamics of riders with different anatomical characteristics and driving styles.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.