Theoretical and experimental findings for an tyre-road friction potential estimator for motorcycles

The tyre-road contact is the only connection of a motorcycle with the ground and has therefore a decisive influence on its longitudinal and lateral dynamics. Due to this fact, knowledge of the tyre-road friction potential can contribute to performance improvements of motorcycle dynamic control systems. Although this research topic has been covered extensively, they refer almost exclusively to two-track vehicles. Therefore, a grip potential estimator for a motorcycle, based on an extended Kalman-Filter (EKF) will be used to discuss its potential with regard to the required excitation level and estimation time. These findings will be verified with actual test runs by this year’s summer. Another objective of these tests is to determine the tyre characteristics for different road conditions.