Pendulum-Based Simulator for Bicycle Motion Analysis and Control

Metropolitan Police Department revised the legislation to traffic rules, and permitted people to ride a bicycle with two children sitting in both front and rear seats 2009 in Japan. On the other hand, biking with two children increases instability, and may cause shaky riding and fall. The authors have proposed a power-steering system for electrically-assisted bicycles in our previous works. Although the power steering system is originally designed to support the steering of riders, it has the possibility to stabilize a bicycle with two children semi-automatically. In this paper, we aim to design a semi-automati stabilizing control for the bicycle as the long-term purpose. As the first-step to the purpose, a mechanical simulator to simulate circling bicycles is developed with a pendulum system, and effectiveness of a stabilizing control is verified with the simulator.Copyright © 2012 by ASME