Development of a low-cost motorcycle riding simulator for emergency scenarios involving swerving

Abstract

The development of advanced riding assistance systems requires the analysis of user reactions in emergency situations. Motorcycle riding simulators are an alternative to "on road" testing as in the virtual environment dangerous scenarios can be investigated without risks for the participants. In this paper, we propose a validation process of a low-cost motorcycle simulator characterised by: (i) elastic resistance on the steer input; and (ii) counter steer strategy. Sixteen riders tested the simulator in different manoeuvres, including cornering in non-urban environment, slalom and lane change. Objective and subjective evaluation showed good realism of the simulator, in particular for investigating lateral avoidance scenarios. The development of suitable motorcycle simulators will significantly advance the field of the motorcycle safety research.

Evaluating rider steering responses to an unexpected collision hazard using a motorcycle riding simulator

“…Any comparison of simulated versus real steer torque values should consider that steer inputs during real motorcycling will vary depending on the type of vehicle, ergonomics, rider size and style, tire type/condition, environmental factors (road geometry, surface, weather) and also on the variety of ways in which a given maneuver can be performed. Table 2 provides a summary of results obtained (Savino et al, 2016a) showing that steer inputs used in the simulator were consistent with real world values in terms of direction, order of magnitude and trends in the relationships between torque and speed. In addition, the shapes of the steer profiles in turning and quick lane change maneuvers were consistent with real-world observations.…”

“…The motorcycle simulator (Fig. 1A), developed in Savino et al (2016a), began as the MUARC advanced driving simulator, reconfigured for motorcycle behavioral experiments (Filtness et al 2013). The original simulator rig consisted of the body and front wheel assembly of a Honda NSR 150cc motorcycle, (engine and rear wheel removed) mounted on a static platform.…”

“…The simulator was tested in the previous study (Savino et al, 2016a) for steer input validity and user acceptability in the performance of standard lateral control maneuvers. Validations were performed in three different ways:…”

“…Because the only output signal for rider steer inputs was change in steer angle, a static calibration was performed by rotating the handlebar to a range of angles by means of a force meter gauge attached to one of the hand grips, and calculating the associated torque at each angle. This static calibration method is justified considering that inputs applied by riders are of low enough frequencies to be effectively quasi-static (error <3%) (Savino et al, 2016a). The input-output response was tuned for a relationship between steer angle and steer torque that allowed for a steer input range up to 100 Nm in either direction.…”

Investigating the feasibility of motorcycle autonomous emergency braking (MAEB): Design criteria for new experiments to field test automatic braking

“…To evaluate the physical and mental effort the Borg scale [25] is used, since it was widely adopted as an indicator to monitor exercise intensity. In order to have a comparable valuation of the controllability of the system, an adapted Cooper-Harper rating scale is employed [26 , 27] . This scale, which is a rating scale that is widely adopted to assess the controllability of aircrafts, was adjusted to assess the controllability of a PTW.…”