Motorcycle Steering Control by

Road Preview
The main objectives of the work described are to devise an effective path-based motor-
cycle simulation capability and to add to understanding of how riders control motor-
cycles. Optimal linear preview control theory was previously applied to the tracking of a
roadway by a car, using a simple car model operating in fixed control. Similar theory is
applied to path control of motorcycles. The simple car previously employed is replaced by
a much more elaborate motorcycle. The steering angle control used previously is changed
into steering torque control. Rider upper body lean torque is also allowed as a control
input. The machine speed is considered constant but is a parameter of the motion. The
objective of the optimal control is to minimize a weighted sum of tracking errors, rider
lean angle and control power. The time-invariant optimal control corresponding to a
white noise disturbance and to an infinite optimization horizon is found for many situa-
R. S. Sharp tions, involving variations in machine speed and performance priorities. Tight controls,
Department of Electrical and Electronic corresponding to high weightings on performance, and loose controls, corresponding to
Engineering, high weightings on control power, are identified. Results show the expected pattern for
Imperial College, preview control, that information well into the future is of limited value in determining
London SW7 2AZ, UK the present control inputs. Full system performance is achievable with only finite preview.
e-mail: robin.sharp@imperial.ac.uk The extent of the preview necessary for full performance is determined as a function of
machine speed and performance priorities. This necessary preview is found to be in
accord with conventional wisdom of motorcycle riding and rider training. Optimal path
tracking preview controls are shown to represent the inverse dynamics of the motorcycle.
New light is shed on the relative effectiveness of steering torque and body lean torque
controls. Simulations of an optimally controlled motorcycle and rider combination are
conducted. A typical lane change path and an S-shaped path from the literature are used.
For a chosen speed, optimal controls are installed on the machine for which they were
derived and simulation results showing tracking performance, control inputs, and other
responses are included. Transformation of the problem from a global description, in
which the optimal control is found, to a local description corresponding to the rider’s
view, is described. It is concluded that a motorcycle rider model representing a useful
combination of steering control capability and computational economy has been estab-
lished. The model yields new insights into rider and motorcycle behavior.
关DOI: 10.1115/1.2745842兴

Keywords: motorcycle, steering, optimal control, tracking, preview, road

1 Introduction
Research on the steering control of cars has been reviewed by
Guo and Guan 关1兴 and MacAdam 关2兴. The latter also considered
speed control. Some research is aimed at replicating the actions of
human controllers, complete with their imperfections, including
time delays and lack of skill but the main objective here is to
devise a control scheme, representing the driver’s function to
some extent, which is both simple and effective. Simplicity im-
plies ease and speed of computation in simulations. Effectiveness
implies accurate path following and speed maintenance through-
out the operating range of the car, in the manner of a skilled
driver. The main applications area of interest is virtual prototyp-
ing, which is growing in importance in vehicle manufacturing
industries on a regular basis.
The preoccupation in published work has been with improving
path following control by increasingly elaborate use of the “path
error” at a single preview point ahead of the vehicle, but the view
taken here is that single-point preview, with no memory, is ex-
tremely limiting and multipoint preview opens up substantial pos-
sibilities for improved tracking performance. It is surmised that
Contributed by the Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control Division of
ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CON-
TROL. Manuscript received September 26, 2005; final manuscript received December
14, 2006. Review conducted by Hemant M. Sardar.
real drivers need knowledge of the whole of the road lateral pro-
file within a certain preview distance in order to control a vehicle
well. Multipoint preview is presumed in 关3–10兴. Unless the con-
trol strategy is learned by copying a human driver, the great dif-
ficulty in this context is devising a strategy and deriving a set of
control parameters, although notably in 关8兴 complex nonlinear op-
timization was used. In more recent work, it has been shown how
road profile and vehicle dynamics models can be assembled into a
discrete-time system, to which the theory of the linear quadratic
optimal regulator 共LQR兲 can be applied 关11,12兴. The objective
function, to be minimized by the optimal control, is a sum of
squares of path errors and possibly other road/vehicle metrics,
together with the control power. Weighting parameters determine
the relative importance to be attached to the cost components
included. The optimal control, under the terms specified, can then
be found easily. Model predictive control methods have been
shown to reproduce the results of LQR theory with preview, when
the problem is set up in a corresponding way 关13兴.
The control is found to consist of a state-feedback part and a
preview part. The state-feedback part is the same regardless of
whether or not preview is included in the problem. It desensitizes
the plant to disturbances in general. The preview part can be ob-
tained by recursive use of the state-transition-matrix of the closed-
loop system and it consists of sets of gains, one for each control

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 and closely related to the closed-loop system dynamics, to be
applied to the previewed path errors, the products to combine
linearly to yield the control inputs.
An apparently effective but rather complex motorcycle steering
controller for path tracking has been devised by Frezza et al.
关14,15兴. This nonlinear-feedback steer-angle controller was de-
signed based on a very simple motorcycle model but has been
applied to a full multibody simulation model. A rider control with-
out preview has also been described in 关16兴. The absence of pre-
view must be compensated by unrealistically high bandwidth in
the assumed controller. Nevertheless, it is expected that, without
path preview, the performance will not be competitive against
models with preview. Single-point preview is utilized in the com-
mercial package, BikeSim 共see http://www.carsim.com兲, together
with a gain-scheduled PID roll angle to steer torque roll-tracking
control and a user-selectable path-preview-error to target-roll-
angle gain. The user also needs to select the preview distance to
be employed.
2 Outline of Optimal Linear Preview Regulator
Theory
The detailed development of the application of optimal linear
preview control theory to vehicle steering control can be found in
关11–13兴, as stated above. In the interests of completeness, an out-
line is included here. The relevant linear vehicle model is trans-
lated to the discrete-time form,
xv共k + 1兲 = Avxv共k兲 + BvT共k兲
y v共k兲 = Cvxv共k兲 + DvT共k兲
and the lateral profile of the road is considered in discrete sample
value form, with sample values from past observations of the road
ahead being stored as states of the full vehicle/road system. As the
system moves forward in time, a new road sample value is read in
and the oldest stored value is discarded, corresponding to the ve-
hicle having passed the point on the road to which this oldest
value refers. All the other road sample values are shifted through
the time step, nearer to the vehicle. The dynamics of this shift
register process are represented mathematically by
y r共k + 1兲 = Ary r共k兲 + Bry ri共k兲
where Ar is of the form
y共k兲 = Cz共k兲 + Du共k兲 共4兲
If y ri is a sample from a white-noise random sequence, the time-
invariant optimal control minimizing a cost function J, given that
the pair 共A, B兲 is stabilizable and the pair 共A, C兲 is detectable
关17兴, is
u*共k兲 = − Kz共k兲
with
K = 兵R + BT PB其−1BT PA 共5兲
where the objective function to be minimized by the control, J
= limn→⬁兺k=0
n
兵zT共k兲Qz共k兲 + TT共k兲RT共k兲其 and P satisfies the matrix-
difference-Riccati equation,
P = AT PA − AT PB兵R + BT PB其−1BT PA + Q 共6兲
Q = CTqC, containing the diagonal weighting matrix,
diag关q1 , q2 , q3兴, with terms corresponding to the number of per-
formance aspects contributing to the cost function, and R
= diag关r1 , r2兴, corresponding to the two control inputs, steering
torque and rider upper body lean torque. q1 is set to represent the
importance of tracking errors, q2 relates to the absolute lean angle
of the rider’s upper body, while q3 relates to the lean angle of the
rider’s upper body relative to the motorcycle. r1 and r2 are set to
reflect the costs associated with steering torque and rider lean
torque respectively. High values of q2 promote the rider upper
body leaning in opposition to the motorcycle, while high values of
q3 restrict the rider leaning relative to the machine.
共1兲 From 关12兴, it is also known that the time-invariant optimal con-
trol given by 共5兲 remains optimal if the white-noise sequence rep-
resenting the road lateral profile is low-pass filtered, to make it
more realistic, and “full” preview of the road 关11,12兴 is available.
It is implied that the white-noise disturbance assumption is not as
restrictive as it might appear to be.
As in 关11兴, the optimal control is found by partitioning the
problem into non-preview and preview parts. First, the nonpre-
view, standard LQR optimal control is found. Then, the state-
transition-matrix of the closed-loop system is applied recursively
to the non-preview partition of the solution to the matrix-
difference-Riccati equation to find the preview gains.
共2兲 For path tracking, the optimal control solutions can be trans-
formed from a ground-based framework into a vehicle-based one,
as explained in 关11兴. The ground-based solution uses small angle

冤 冥
0 1 0 ... ... 0 theory, which requires that the path to be followed remains close
to the fixed line of the x-axis. The transformation allows the track-
0 0 1 ... ... 0 ing of paths for which small angle theory applies only within the
0 0 0 1 ... 0 envelope that contains the vehicle and the part of the path imme-
... ... ... ... ... ... diately in front of the vehicle used for preview. After the transfor-
mation, the tracking potential of the controlled vehicle is much
0 0 0 0 ... 0 less restricted than before. Paths which change direction mark-
and Br is of the form edly, even circular paths, can be followed without special difficul-

冤冥
ties, provided that small angle theory applies over the preview
0 distance. Such a condition will normally be satisfied naturally,
0 since high path curvature implies restricted vehicle speed which,
in turn, implies the need for only limited preview.
0
Tracking is simulated by installing the state-feedback and pre-
... view controls to the vehicle, initializing so that the road states in
1 the memory of the shift register correspond to the vehicle having
traveled a straight path up to the present time, and designing a
Combining vehicle and road equations together, we obtain the full road lateral profile which starts with a straight section at least as
dynamic system description

冋 册 冋 册冋 册 冋 册 冋 册
long as the preview distance. As the system steps through one
xv共k + 1兲 Av 0 xv共k兲 Bv 0 time increment, the road profile sample values within the preview
= + T共k兲 + y ri共k兲 distance are observed in the ground-based frame in which they are
y r共k + 1兲 0 Ar y r共k兲 0 Br defined, including a new value that was previously in front of the
共3兲 previewed path, and the position and attitude of the vehicle are
The complete problem is now in a standard form, updated. The vehicle position and orientation are used to trans-
form the road samples into a vehicle-based reference frame, so
z共k + 1兲 = Az共k兲 + Bu共k兲 + Ey ri共k兲 that they represent the driver’s view of the road. The closed-loop

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 system is then completely defined and the next discrete simulation
step is taken. The process continues until a predefined number of
discrete time steps has been taken.
For paths which follow the general direction of the earth x-axis,
the transformation of the tracking problem from global-view to
local-view is unnecessary. The MATLAB function DLSIM can be
employed straightforwardly to carry out tracking simulations. This
provides a useful check on the accuracy of the more elaborate
local-view code.
3 Motorcycle Model Outline
Modeling of motorcycle handling is now a mature technology
关18–23兴. Especially, the advent of automated multibody mechani-
cal systems software has enabled the construction of high-fidelity
models, which reproduce the behavior of real machines over a
wide range of normal operating conditions. Measurements with
instrumented vehicles have confirmed the capabilities of properly
conceived and executed models to mimic real behavior 关24–36兴.
The model to be used here is considered to represent the state-of-
the-art and it is fully documented in 关22兴, with background mate-
rial in 关19兴. The model has provided the basis for the commercial
virtual motorcycle, BikeSim, which is routinely now used in prod-
uct and component development, see http://www.carsim.com. The
symbolic multibody software system AutoSim 关37兴, soon to be
relaunched as VehicleSim, see http://www.carsim.com, was em-
ployed for the model building task and the code, a commented and
understandable text file, is available at the web site http://
www.ic.ac.uk/controlandpower/motorcycles.
The mathematical motorcycle model is considered representa-
tive of modern high-performance, road-going machines, traveling
on flat and level road surfaces. The model parameters, see 关22兴,
are based on those of the Suzuki GSX-R1000, which is fitted with
the common telescopic front fork suspension and a swinging arm
rear suspension with monoshock spring/damper arrangement. It is
of tree-structure, except for one kinematic-loop-closure in the
monoshock description. Alternative ways of representing the ki-
nematics of the monoshock suspension are examined in 关23兴.
The main frame is allowed unrestricted motion, while the rid-
er’s upper body and the rear swing arm are pin-jointed to it. Tor-
sional compliance at the steering head is allowed by the inclusion
of a massless frame with roll freedom and spring/damper restraint
to the main frame, the twist angle being treated as small. The
steering system is pin-jointed to the massless twisting frame at the
steering head. The lower front forks and front wheel can translate
along the line of the forks, relative to the upper forks, and each
road wheel is presumed axisymmetric and allowed to spin. Each
tire has width and the contact points migrate, in general both
circumferentially and laterally, so that the lowest point on each
tire is taken to be the contact center. For each tire, the motion state
of the contact center, the compression of the tire from the nominal
static equilibrium state and the wheel camber angle are used in the
“Magic Formula” tire model 关20,22兴 to work out the steady state
tire force and moment system. The lateral force and aligning mo-
ment, in each case, are lagged to allow for the tire carcass lateral
compliance, with a relaxation length which is a function of speed.
Suspension springs and dampers are defined as linear but sus-
pension and steering limit stops are included. A proportional/
integral speed controller giving a rear wheel spin torque in re-
sponse to a speed error is included, so that target speed profiles
can be followed. The speed controller has fixed gains, which are
non-critical. In particular, the speed controller allows equilibrium
“trim” states to be found via straight-running simulations in which
conditions change only very slowly. Steering control inputs can be
considered to consist only of handlebar torque or to also include
rider upper body lean torque. The model is considered valid, in a
generic sense, for the full range of feasible speeds, wheel loads
and lean angles, tire slip angles less than 8 deg, and vibration
frequencies less than about 18 Hz.
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The AutoSim model file can be loaded in either of two ways,
linear or nonlinear. In the latter case, a ready-to-compile-and-link
simulation program can be obtained. In the former 共linear兲 case,
the system is symbolically linearized, for small perturbations
about a general trim condition, and a MATLAB “M” file is written
automatically, to set up the linear model in state space form. The
symbolic MATLAB file can be used for the complete range of
linear system operations encompassed by the MATLAB software.
Such operations include automated conversion of the linear model
to discrete-time form and discrete linear quadratic regulator opti-
mization. The linear model generated by AutoSim has 27 states,
including the longitudinal displacement from the origin and the
wheel spin angles. For the optimal control calculations, it is nec-
essary to reduce the model by the omission of those parts that
relate to these ignorable coordinates. Thus 24 state variable values
are used for feedback. When the trim condition involves straight
running, symmetry demands that all the feedback gains associated
with in-plane states are zero, which naturally turns out to be true.
4 Application of the Control Theory to Motorcycles
The theory of the discrete-time linear quadratic regulator with
road preview, as described above, is now applied to steering con-
trol of motorcycles. According to the conclusions of 关38兴, in
which it was established that a motorcycle with fixed steering
system has very unattractive stability properties in comparison
with one having free steering, see also 关18兴, primary control is
assumed to be through steering torque 共not steer angle, as with a
car兲 and rider upper body lean torque may also be included as a
control.
Solution of the optimization problem requires that a road
model, of shift-register form, is appended to the motorcycle model
as described in Sec. 2. Then, the standard linear quadratic regula-
tor theory will yield time-invariant optimal tracking controls, if
the road lateral disturbance is treated as white noise 关11兴 or as
low-pass filtered white noise 关12兴 with full preview being avail-
able. The optimal control has feedback and preview parts, in each
case. The feedback part is the same as if no preview were consid-
ered. The preview part represents an inversion of the closed-loop
system dynamics. It can be found conveniently by recursive ap-
plication of the closed-loop system’s state-transition-matrix
关11,12兴.
Even for a motorcycle of fixed design, there are several param-
eters needed to define the control optimization problem. First, it
can be presumed that the rider has only one control, the steering
torque, or two, the steering torque and the rider’s upper body lean
torque. Secondly, the machine speed is variable. Thirdly, we can
choose different balances in the cost function between steer
torque, represented by r1, rider lean torque 共if included兲, repre-
sented by r2, tracking error, represented by q1, absolute rider up-
per body lean angle, represented by q2, and relative rider body
lean angle, represented by q3. Fourthly, the extent of the rider’s
preview can be varied but, since the control is only optimal if the
preview is sufficient for full performance 关11,12兴, we will deal
only in cases in which the gains fall to near zero within the pre-
view distance.
5 Optimal Control Results
In the first instance, let us consider the single control case,
using 500 preview points. Figure 1 shows optimal preview gain
sequences relating to steer torque for the nominal motorcycle/rider
combination in straight-running at 10, 40, and 70 m / s speeds with
q1 = 104, q2 = 4 ⫻ 104, q3 = 0. This selection of weights is informed,
to some extent, by simulation results to be shown later. In each
case, the linearization uses the appropriate trim state determined
by simulation to equilibrium of the nonlinear system, and a set of
optimal motorcycle state-feedback control gains applies. As ex-
pected, the only nonzero state-feedback gains are associated with
out-of-plane state-variables. Symmetry of the straight-running
condition implies zero gains for all in-plane states. Feedback gains
JULY 2007, Vol. 129 / 375
 Fig. 1 Optimal preview steer torque gains for tight single-
control system with 500 preview points, q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104,
q3 = 0, r1 = 1, and three speeds, as functions of the distance
ahead

are numerous and not so interesting, and they are not shown. The
largest gains in the state-feedback control relate to roll angle and
frame twist angle. The preview gain sequences are shown as con-
tinuous curves, although they are in fact discrete values corre-
sponding to the fixed discrete-time step of 0.02 s. The feedfor- Fig. 3 Optimal preview gains for tight dual-control system
ward gains show convergence to zero as the preview distance with 500 preview points and with equal weights on the two con-
increases, which is a well-known feature of preview control 关39兴. trols, q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0, r1 = r2 = 1, and three speeds, as
This convergence confirms that the 500 preview points assumed functions of the distance ahead
are sufficient.
The relatively high values of q1 and q2 correspond to tight
cies and that should be remembered in interpreting results. A new
control 关12兴 and the preview gains are high. With this tight con-
issue is the relative weighting of the two control torques, as re-
trol, at 10 m / s speed, a view of the road extending about 30 m
flected in the value of the ratio of r2 to r1. In Fig. 3, these values
forwards is all that is needed. Corresponding necessary preview
are equal and the control is tight, as given by q1 = 104, q2 = 4
distances for 40 and 70 m / s are 150 and 450 m, respectively. In
terms of time, the necessary preview for full performance in- ⫻ 104, q3 = 0. The steering torque gains are almost the same as for
creases significantly with speed. The most useful information in the single-control case of Fig. 1 and the body lean torque gains are
relatively small. The same pattern is clear in Fig. 4, corresponding
the path ahead is about 8 m in front of the motorcycle at 10 m / s,
to Fig. 2, in which the control is loose.
35 m ahead at 40 m / s and at 65 m ahead at 70 m / s, a little under
The use of body lean torque control can be encouraged by
1 s ahead in time, in each case.
reducing r2 to lower its cost. Figures 5 and 6 show the optimal
Figure 2 shows the contrasting results when the control is loose
control results. Again the steering torque gains are almost un-
as represented by q1 = 100, q2 = 400, q3 = 0. The preview gains are
changed, while the body lean torque gains vary roughly in inverse
reduced roughly in proportion to the change in the performance
proportion to the r2 value.
index weightings and, at each speed, the most useful path infor-
Preview distances necessary for full performance can be quan-
mation is further ahead of the vehicle than with the tighter control
tified crudely by using a criterion introduced in 关12兴. According to
of Fig. 1, at 15, 80, and 170 m for 10, 40, and 70 m / s, respec-
this criterion, we consider the preview information ineffective be-
tively. The inverse dynamics of the motorcycle and rider are ap-
yond the point where, with a very long preview, 99% of the area
parent in the preview gain sequences, especially for 70 m / s
under the total gain curve is enclosed. Results are shown in Figs.
speed. At this high speed, the weave mode of the machine is very
lightly damped 关19兴, having a natural frequency of 3.2 Hz. The
oscillations in the preview gain sequence, converted to a time
basis, are at this same frequency. If the corresponding control is
within the rider’s control bandwidth, it is implied that he/she will
utilize control economically to excite a lightly damped mode to
obtain a desired response, exactly as demanded in the optimiza-
tion problem.
Let us now allow rider upper body lean torque as a second
control, running in parallel with steering torque. It can be sur-
mised at the outset that most real riders will find it difficult to
realize body lean torque controls at other than quite low frequen-

Fig. 4 Optimal preview steer torque and upper body lean

torque gains for loose dual-control system with 500 preview
Fig. 2 Optimal preview steer torque gains for loose single- points and with equal weights on the two controls, q1 = 100, q2
control system with 500 preview points, q1 = 100, q2 = 400, q3 = 400, q3 = 0, r1 = r2 = 1, and three speeds, as functions of the dis-
= 0, r1 = 1, and three speeds, as functions of the distance ahead tance ahead

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Fig. 5 Optimal preview steer torque and upper body lean
torque gains for tight dual-control system with 500 preview
points and with unequal weights on the two controls, q1 = 104,
q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0, r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1, and three speeds, as functions
of the distance ahead
7 and 8, for tight and loose controls, respectively, with five cases
in each figure. As is clear from the inspection of the gain se-
quences, the necessary preview for full tracking performance in-
creases more than in proportion to speed, with most cases being
very similar to each other. However, for tight control, there are
some curious differences between the requirements for body lean
torque and for steering torque at high speeds. This result is
thought not to be of any great significance and no real understand-
ing of it is claimed. The necessary preview distances are much
greater than for a typical car at similar speeds 关11,12兴, as is well
known to skilled motorcycle riders and riding instructors 关40–42兴.
6 Path Tracking Simulations
The simplest approach to path tracking is to use the optimal
controls developed in a fixed reference frame, as described above,
to close the loop around the motorcycle/road system and to update
Fig. 6 Optimal preview steer torque and upper body lean
torque gains for loose dual-control system with 500 preview
points and with unequal weights on the two controls, q1 = 100,
q2 = 400, q3 = 0, r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1, and three speeds, as functions of
the distance ahead
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Fig. 7 Required preview distances „99% criterion… for tight
controls, q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0. Circles show steer torque
and crosses show lean torque for r1 = r2 = 1. Pluses show steer
torque and stars show lean torque for r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1. The
squares are for the single-control system.
the state through time by repeatedly multiplying it by the closed-
loop system’s state-transition-matrix. At each update, a new road
sample, from the furthest point along the preview distance, enters
the problem as input. The MATLAB function DLSIM contains the
process. This simple approach implies that the restriction to small
angles in the linear theory of the control generation carries over
into the tracking simulation. Paths which diverge substantially
from the starting direction will be followed with imprecision, and
not followed at all if the path direction changes by 90 deg or
more. A better approach is to transform the problem to a vehicle
basis. In such a basis, the reference axes are relocated to align
with the motorcycle and the roadway is described relative to the
motorcycle at each time step 关11,12兴. The small-angle theory now
requires only that the path direction does not change radically
over the preview distance. Bearing in mind the relationships be-
tween vehicle speed, feasible path curvature and required preview
distance, it can be appreciated that this lesser need is likely to be
satisfied in practical circumstances.
The defined path is designed to start with a straight section and
the preview states of the combined roadway/motorcycle system
are loaded initially with zeros, to correspond with the vehicle
having traveled along a straight path, before the simulation com-
mences, for the duration of the preview. The path profile is then
“seen” in the distance first, as with a rider with a full view of the
road ahead. The simulation proceeds by stepping through time,
using the step length 0.02 s employed for the discrete-time opti-
mal control calculations, until a specified number of steps has
been completed. At each step, the absolute position and orienta-
tion of the motorcycle are updated and an account of the distance
traveled from the start is kept. By comparison of the distance
traveled by the motorcycle and the distance along the road from
the start, it is known how the road relates to the machine at any
time. The road data in front of the machine, covering the preview
distance, is read in, transformed to the local view of the rider and
used to replace the old values in that part of the system state
vector that corresponds to the road profile. Spline interpolation is
Fig. 8 Required preview distances „99% criterion… for loose
controls, q1 = 100, q2 = 400, q3 = 0. Circles show steer torque and
crosses show lean torque for r1 = r2 = 1. Pluses show steer
torque and stars show lean torque for r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1. The
squares are for the single-control system.
JULY 2007, Vol. 129 / 377
 Fig. 9 Lane change to the right at 30 m / s, with the upper
graph showing the roadway and the motorcycle path and the
lower graph showing the steering torque and the rider’s upper
body lean torque applied. The controls presume 180 m rider
preview and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0, and r1
= r2 = 1.
used to obtain the local lateral road profile at the proper preview
points. At the same time, the motorcycle states representing its
lateral position and its attitude angle are set to zero, corresponding
to the reference axes being relocated to align with the machine.
Many maneuvers have been studied, including randomly gen-
erated, low-pass-filtered lateral profiles as in 关11兴, lane changes
with geometry from 关43兴, sudden direction changes as in 关11,12兴
and an S-path maneuver devised in 关14兴. Exemplary results are
shown next, first for the lane change, then for the S-path.
Figures 9 and 10 show a lane change at 30 m / s speed. Both
steering torque and rider upper body lean torque controls are in-
cluded with equal weights as indicated by r1 = r2 = 1, with 300
preview points corresponding to 180 m rider preview being as-
sumed and tight control deriving from the high relative cost of
tracking errors and rider total lean angle implied by q1 = 104, q2
= 4 ⫻ 104, q3 = 0. Despite the tight control, some corner-cutting
occurs, the extent being controllable through the choice of the
Fig. 10 Lane change to the right at 30 m / s, showing various
aspects of the motions, scaled for clarity. The controls pre-
sume 180 m preview and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3
= 0, and r1 = r2 = 1.
378 / Vol. 129, JULY 2007
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Fig. 11 Lane change to the right at 30 m / s, with the upper
graph showing the roadway and the motorcycle path and the
lower graph showing the steering torque and the rider’s upper
body lean torque applied. The controls presume 180 m preview
and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0 and r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1.
weights. Figures 11 and 12 show similar results obtained for a
reduced cost on rider lean torque in the control design, given by
r1 = 1, r2 = 0.1. As should be expected, much more lean torque is
utilized but the tracking accuracy is substantially unchanged and
the steering torque history is nearly the same as in the previous
case. Apparently, the tracking is hardly improved, even by the
application of large rider lean torques. The main difference is in
respect of the rider upper body relative rolling motion, which is in
opposition to that of the motorcycle.
The same maneuver performed with equal weights on the two
controls and much looser control 共r1 = r2 = 1, q1 = 100, q2 = 400,
q3 = 0兲 is shown in Figs. 13 and 14. With the higher priority on
reducing the control power, the control activity starts earlier and
the levels of steering torque and rider body lean torque used are
much reduced. The lean torque is near zero, in fact. The corner-
cutting behavior is exaggerated and the maximum roll angle
achieved is only about one third of its previous value. In general
form, the time-histories of the motions shown agree with experi-
Fig. 12 Lane change at 30 m / s, showing various aspects of
the motions, scaled for clarity. The controls presume 180 m
preview and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 4 Ã 104, q3 = 0, and r1 = 1,
r2 = 0.1.
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 13 Lane change at 30 m / s, with the upper graph showing
the roadway and the motorcycle path and the lower graph
showing the steering torque and the rider’s upper body lean
torque applied. The controls presume 250 m preview and
weightings of q1 = 100, q2 = 400, q3 = 0 and r1 = r2 = 1.
mental results for lane change maneuvering shown in 关43–45兴.
The steer angles here are noticeably smaller than in the references,
but that is likely to be a feature of the particular machine and tires
simulated. When this trial is repeated with a lower cost associated
with the use of body lean control 共r2 = 0.1兲, the only significant
change is that rider lean torque is increased roughly by a factor of
10. Other changes of behavior are small, reinforcing the idea that
body lean torque control is ineffective. These results are not
shown for brevity. Clearly, within the optimal preview control
theory framework, there is much scope for varying the rider’s
strategy and actions according to his/her priorities.
Figures 15–17 contain S-path results, again for a speed of
30 m / s, at which the maneuver is a severe challenge to a motor-
cycle. Tight controls as given by q1 = 104, q2 = 0, q3 = 105 and r1
= r2 = 1 are utilized, thereby keeping the necessary preview quite
short at 90 m. Substantial control torques are applied and the mo-
torcycle roll angle reaches about 50 deg in each direction. The roll
Fig. 14 Lane change to the right at 30 m / s, showing various
aspects of the motions, scaled for clarity. The controls pre-
sume 250 m rider preview and weightings of q1 = 100, q2 = 400,
q3 = 0 and r1 = r2 = 1.
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Fig. 15 S-maneuver simulation at 30 m / s, with the upper
graph showing the roadway and the motorcycle path and the
lower graph showing the steering torque and the rider’s upper
body lean torque applied. The controls presume 90 m preview
and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 0, q3 = 105 and r1 = r2 = 1. With
these weightings, the rider lean torque is small compared with
the steering torque.
angle is influenced by the lateral migration of the tire to road
contact points round the tire cross section. The simulation contin-
ues to rely on the linear model, as used to generate the optimal
preview controls, and the results will not account for geometric
nonlinearities in the real problem. However, the smallness of the
tire slip angles suggests that even the linear model deals with the
tire forces well. Most of the necessary side-force is generated
through wheel camber. The front tire side force magnitude reaches
765 N, while that at the rear peaks at 1080 N.
As compared with the results shown in 关14兴, the responses here
are smoother and the tracking errors are smaller, with more evi-
dence of control action ahead of the path change, but it should be
remembered that varying the control tightness will smoothen or
sharpen the motions shown above. Tracking errors will be influ-
enced correspondingly. The steer angle history shows similar peak
Fig. 16 S-maneuver simulation at 30 m / s, showing various as-
pects of the motion, scaled for clarity. The controls presume
90 m rider preview and weightings of q1 = 104, q2 = 0, q3 = 105 and
r1 = r2 = 1, as in Fig. 15. The weightings cause the rider to lean
just a little relative to the motorcycle.
JULY 2007, Vol. 129 / 379
 values to those of 关14兴 but a much smoother and, arguably, a more
realistic, profile. If the simulations of Figs. 9–17 are repeated
using only steer torque as a control input, almost identical path
tracking and vehicle motion results are obtained. This is confir-
matory of the opinion of Weir and Zellner 关46兴, formed by theo-
retical analysis, and the findings of Aoki 关25兴 and of Katayama et
al. 关44兴, who concluded from experimentation that rider lean con-
trol of relatively massive single-track vehicles is completely sec-
ondary to steering torque control. It is apparent that a motorcycle
rider’s movements relative to the machine contribute to improving
the dynamics in a largely passive manner. Such movements can
often be observed to occur, in racing for example, even before the
application of significant steering torque, in preparation for a ma-
neuver and not as a part of it.
7 Conclusions
The kind of optimal linear preview control theory previously
applied to path following by cars can be applied to motorcycles
without particular difficulty. The high order of the motorcycle
model used here contrasts with the simplicity of the car models
employed in previous work. The linearity of the model is its key
feature in the application.
The time-invariant optimal control that corresponds to minimi-
zation of a weighted sum of path errors, rider upper body lean
angle and control power over an infinite horizon with a white
noise disturbance is of familiar form. Diminishing returns are ob-
tained for preview beyond a certain distance in front of the vehicle
and the notion of full preview applies. There is no point in “see-
ing” further forwards of the motorcycle than a certain distance.
The necessary preview distance increases more than in proportion
to speed and is much greater, for a given speed, than is necessary
for a typical car. This consequence of the theory accords perfectly
with riding experience and conventional wisdom.
The optimal preview control represents a kind of inversion of
the state-feedback controlled system’s dynamics, such that an os-
cillatory plant requires a correspondingly oscillatory preview gain
sequence for effective tracking. At high speeds, when a high-
performance motorcycle typically will become oscillatory, the
rider apparently needs to employ a gain sequence showing the
same frequency content as the lightly damped machine modes. If
the oscillations are within the rider’s control bandwidth, with high
skill, he/she will utilize control at the eigenfrequency to get good
response with little control power. Bandwidth limitations of the
rider have not been included in this treatment, so that further work
needs to be done to complete the developing picture.
As with the car, tight and loose controls can be generated by
putting more or less priority on tracking accuracy in the cost func-
tion. Loose controls are more demanding of preview than are tight
ones. It is implied that, under restricted preview conditions, riders
will adopt tighter control strategies, which involves working
harder at the riding task, again, in line with common experience.
Similar steering torque and rider upper body lean torque mag-
nitudes are typical, but they are very much to the rider’s choice.
The optimal lean torque can be made larger by placing a lower
cost on its use. The optimal steering torque control is hardly af-
fected by the inclusion of lean torque as a control or by the
Fig. 17 Path tracking error in S-maneuver of Figs. 15 and 16
380 / Vol. 129, JULY 2007
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weighting attached to it. Neither is the tracking performance much
influenced by the lean torque. It is clear in the results that lean
torque control is quite a minor issue, mainly influencing the roll-
ing motions of the rider’s upper body relative to the motorcycle. It
appears that riders’ body motions are relatively prosaic, contrib-
uting to improving the view of the road and improving the system
dynamics in a very low-frequency passive manner.
With various sets of time-invariant optimal controls installed,
the motorcycle will, in general, successfully track a defined path.
As the control is made looser, so the corner-cutting and the appli-
cation of control inputs ahead of the main features of the path
change increase. This early application of control, especially in
relaxed driving, is a well-known feature of the real-world activity
and is nicely reproduced here. The controls become smoother and
are of reducing magnitude as the control power increases in im-
portance in the cost function relative to the path tracking. The path
tracking is economical computationally, since the optimal controls
are obtained off-line and are invariant for a fixed speed. Variable
speed cases and optimal controls obtained for linearizations about
cornering trim states remain to be dealt with, but it is easy to
imagine a set of gain scheduled controllers with adaptation to
speed and lean angle as extensions of the work so far completed.
Further studies are being conducted to discover how the design
of the motorcycle influences the requirement for preview, on the
basis that advantage to the rider concerned with high performance
will accrue from minimizing the need for planning the control
inputs well ahead of a maneuver. It is hoped that these studies will
bring increased understanding of the potential conflict between
stability and responsiveness, which is a part of two-wheeled ve-
hicle folklore.
Acknowledgment
The support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council for the author’s work is gratefully acknowledged.
Nomenclature
A, B, C, D, E ⫽ matrices in a general state-space system
representation
Ar, Br ⫽ matrices for road model
Av, Bv, Cv, Dv ⫽ matrices for vehicle model
J ⫽ cost function
K ⫽ gain vector
P ⫽ solution of the matrix-Ricatti difference
equation
q ⫽ 关q1 0 0; 0 q2 0; 0 0 q3兴 weighting matrix
for performance
R ⫽ 关r1 0; 0 r2兴 weighting matrix for controls
T ⫽ control torque vector
k ⫽ discrete-time marker
u ⫽ control vector with optimal value u*
xv ⫽ vehicle state vector
y v ⫽ vehicle output
y ⫽ output vector
y r ⫽ road state vector
y ri ⫽ new road displacement value, input to
system
z ⫽ general system state vector
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