Modeling of a Motorcycle in Dymola/Modelica

Abstract

This thesis introduces a new and freely available Modelica library for the purpose of simulation, analysis and control of bicycles and motorcycles (single-track vehicles). The library is called MotorcycleLib and focuses on the modeling of virtual riders based on automatic controller design. For the vehicles, several models of different complexity have been developed. To validate these models and their driving performance, virtual riders are provided. The main task of a virtual rider is to track either a roll angle profile or a pre-defined trajectory using path preview information. Both methods are implemented and several test tracks are also included in the library. Regarding the stability of uncontrolled vehicles, an eigenvalue analysis is performed in order to obtain the self-stabilizing area. A key task for a virtual rider is to stabilize the motorcycle. To this end, the controller has to generate a suitable steering torque based on the feedback of appropriate state variables (e.g. lean angle and lean rate). One major problem in controlling two-wheeled (single-track) vehicles is that the coefficients of the controller are strongly velocity dependent. This makes the manual configuration of a controller laborious and error-prone. To overcome this problem, an automatic calculation of the controller's coefficients is desired. This calculation requires a preceding eigenvalue analysis of the corresponding uncontrolled vehicle. This enables a convenient controller design, and hence several control laws that ensure a stable driving behavior are provided. The corresponding output represents a state feedback matrix that can be directly applied to ready-made controllers which are the core of virtual riders. The functionality of this method is illustrated by several examples in the library.


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Last modified: September 23, 2009 -- © François Cellier