HANDLING IMPROVEMENT OF MOTORCYCLES USING ACTIVE SEATS

The design of a control law for an active seat system to improve the motorcycle handling and stability is proposed. Active seats can automatically control the rider and the seat lean angle during every specific manoeuvre, which makes the driving of motorcycles much easier and safer. Initially, the linear and nonlinear motorcycle handling models are introduced and, using the optimal control theory, a seat control strategy that is based on the systems' state variables feedback and the input feed-forward is developed. The controller can control the applied moment to the seat about its longitudinal axis and consequently can control the seat/driver lean angle. The simulation results indicate considerable improvements of a motorcycle equipped with an active seat system when compared with a conventional one without an active seat.