Model-free control for active braking systems in sport motorcycles

Abstract

Designing effective braking controllers for sport motorcycles is a very challenging task, due to the complex vehicle dynamics and the highly nonlinear nature of the road-tire interactions. These facts make it difficult to devise control-oriented dynamical models capable of describing the dynamics of interest in all working conditions. Thus, this paper proposes a model-free approach to solve the problem. Specifically, a linear controller designed via the virtual reference feedback tuning (VRFT) approach is complemented with a data-driven nonlinear compensator to yield an effective braking controller within the Mixed Slip-Deceleration (MSD) framework. The proposed approach relies on an ad-hoc adaptation of the VRFT controller design which takes into account the presence of the dynamic compensation. The effectiveness of the proposed design approach is assessed on a multibody simulator.