Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Information, Communication and Engineering

IEEE-ICICE 2017 - Lam, Meen & Prior (Eds)

A New Torque Control Approach for Electric Power Assisted Bicycle Based on
Model-Following Control
Zhu Deyi1, a, Zhang Kai1, b, Yin Dejun1, c, *

Nanjing University of Science and Technology

No.200, Xiaolingwei
Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
E-mail: yin@njust.edu.cn

Abstract never requires many parameters which are difficult to obtain.

Electric Power Assisted Bicycle (EPAC) is becoming a better
means of transport that people like and pursue because of its
environmental, healthy, convenient and economical
characteristics. Compared to the conventional bicycle, EPAC
reduces the pedal force and relieves the fatigue of the rider.
Nowadays, there are few researches on the torque control
approach adaptive to road grade and load for EPAC. Therefore,
this paper proposes a new torque control approach based on
Model-Following Control(MFC), which can eliminate the
impact of the road grade and the load by processing the signal
of speed and trample force on the bicycle. Accordingly, the
torque of motor can be adjusted to achieve the optimal effect
of assisted-power in real-time. In result, the rider will obtain a
better riding experience. The simulation and analysis
demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed
torque control approach.
It only needs to acquire the signal of the driving torque and the
speed of bicycle. In addition, the cost of torque sensor and
velocity sensor is much lower than others. If the bicycle load
or the road grade changes a lot, the controller will adjust the
motor torque in real time to achieve the desired effect of riding
comfortably by the feedback of the torque and the speed of
bicycle. This torque control approach can both achieve better
effectiveness and keep the cost relatively lower.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
describes the longitudinal motion model of EPAC. Section 3
presents the control approach based on the model-following
control and the stability analysis of the algorithm. Section 4
shows the simulation results and the analysis to the simulation.
Finally, we give some remarks and expectations in the
conclusion.
Longitudinal Motion Model

Keywords: Electric Power Assisted Bicycle; Adaptive Control;
Road Grade and Load; Model-Following Control
Introduction
EPAC is the hybrid electric bicycle with the manpower and
electric power which is totally different from the full electric
bicycle [1-2]. Based on the traditional bicycle, EPAC is
equipped with the torque sensor which is the core of the power
assist system, motor and battery. It can perceive the foot-pedal
force to know about the intention of the rider, and provide the
appropriate assistance.
There are often some variations of the load, the road grade,
the wind resistance and so on, which will affect the longitudinal
speed control of the bicycle in the process of riding [3]. Due to
the disturbances mentioned above, it is very essential to design
the controller which is adaptive to these disturbances.
In order to solve the problems above, many researchers
studied and proposed some control methods adaptive to the
load and the road grade [4-6]. In these control systems, there
are all many sensors which are indispensable for the control
system. These controllers need to measure the value of the road
grade and the vehicle mass and then adjust the effect of vehicle.
However, the more the number of sensors, the more it cost. So,
these control methods are inappropriate for EPAC to realize
torque control.
In this paper, a novel simple controller for EPAC is proposed
based on the model-following control, which is adaptive to the
load and road grade [13-15]. The proposed control algorithm
This paper only considers the impact of riding on account of
the change of load and road grade. There are some assumptions
made as follows:
1) The bicycle is in the road of complete adhesion condition.
2) The impact of rolling resistance is neglected because the
deformation of the bicycle tire is small.
3) The impact of wind resistance to the bicycle is ignored
due to the relatively lower speed.
In order to simplify this research, only longitudinal motion
is discussed in this paper. The dynamic longitudinal motion
model of the bicycle is described as in Fig. 1 [9], and the
parameter definition is listed in TABLE I.
Fig. 1. Dynamic longitudinal model of the bicycle
TABLE I.
PARARMETER LIST
Symbol Definition
𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡 Driving Torque(rider and motor)
𝑇𝑇𝑖𝑖 Gradient Resistance Torque
M Total Body Mass

36 - ISBN 978-1-5386-3202-4

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Industrial de Santander. Downloaded on July 27,2020 at 21:08:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Information, Communication and Engineering
α Slope Angle
r Wheel Radius
ω Angular velocity
𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔1 Front Wheel Inertia
𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔2 Rear Wheel Inertia
According to Fig. 1, the dynamic equation for the
longitudinal motion model of the bicycle is described as:
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡 − 𝑇𝑇𝑖𝑖 = (𝑀𝑀𝑟𝑟 2 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔1 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔2 ) ∙ (1)
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
Where 𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡 can be measured easily, 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔1 , 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔2 , 𝑟𝑟 , are all
known and fixed. 𝑀𝑀𝑟𝑟 2 is the equivalent inertia. When the
road grade is increasing, the gradient resistance torque will
increase correspondingly. Then, when the bicycle load is
increasing, the equivalent inertia M𝑟𝑟 2 will increase too. So
there are only these two variables which can lead to changes of
the bicycle motion state.
Due to the assumptions above, the drag torque may only
generate from the gradient resistance. If we ride the bicycle on
a flat road, there will be no gradient resistance, 𝑇𝑇𝑖𝑖 =0. So the
ideal dynamic equation of the longitudinal motion model is
described as follows:
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (2)
𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡 = 𝐽𝐽 ∙
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝐽𝐽 = 𝑀𝑀𝑟𝑟 2 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔1 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔2 (3)
Here, J is the total rotational inertia. Then, a novel and simple
torque control approach adaptive to the road grade and the
bicycle load is proposed on the basis of the characteristics.
Controller Design and Stability Analysis
A. The controller design for EPAC
Based on model-following control, we can build a control
system shown in Fig.2 for EPAC, in which there are two
variations of road grade and load [10-11]. In this paper, the
bicycle load is regarded as inertia variable and the road grade
is external disturbance. The variation which is caused by the
bicycle load is replaced by the plant uncertainty ∆ . So, the
transfer function of plant is defined as:
1 1 (4)
𝐺𝐺𝑝𝑝 (𝑠𝑠) = = (1 + ∆)
𝐽𝐽𝐽𝐽 𝐽𝐽𝑛𝑛 𝑠𝑠
𝐽𝐽𝑛𝑛 − 𝐽𝐽
(5)
∆=
𝐽𝐽
Where 𝐽𝐽𝑛𝑛 := 𝑀𝑀 ∙ 𝑟𝑟2 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔1 + 𝐽𝐽𝜔𝜔2 is the nominal inertia and
𝑀𝑀 is the mass of nominal model. J is the actual inertia which
varies according to the load [8]. If the load is identical to the
mass of nominal model (𝑀𝑀), J takes its nominal value 𝐽𝐽𝑛𝑛 .
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the torque control system for EPAC
In this paper, model-following control is applied to control
ISBN 978-1-5386-3202-4
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Industrial de Santander. Downloaded on July 27,2020 at 21:08:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE-ICICE 2017 - Lam, Meen & Prior (Eds)
the driving torque adaptive to the load and road grade.
B. Stability analysis for the control system
As the Fig.2 shows above, it is necessary to ensure the
stability of closed-loop system [7]. The transfer function of the
torque control system can be calculated by
𝐺𝐺𝑝𝑝 (𝑠𝑠) ∙ 𝐺𝐺𝑛𝑛 (𝑠𝑠)
𝐺𝐺𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡𝜔𝜔 (𝑠𝑠) = (6)
𝐺𝐺𝑛𝑛 (𝑠𝑠) + [𝐺𝐺𝑝𝑝 (𝑠𝑠) − 𝐺𝐺𝑛𝑛 (𝑠𝑠)] ∙ 𝑄𝑄(𝑠𝑠)
(1 + ∆)(𝜏𝜏2 𝑠𝑠 + 1)(𝜏𝜏1 𝑠𝑠 + 1)(𝜏𝜏3 𝑠𝑠 + 1)
=
𝐽𝐽𝑛𝑛 [(𝜏𝜏2 𝑠𝑠 + 1)(𝜏𝜏1 𝑠𝑠 + 1)(𝜏𝜏3 𝑠𝑠 + 1) + 𝐾𝐾(∆ − 𝜏𝜏2 𝑠𝑠)]
Through the formula above, suppose 𝐺𝐺𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡𝜔𝜔 (𝑠𝑠): =0 and the
characteristic equation of the transfer function is given by:
𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏2 𝜏𝜏3 𝑠𝑠 3 + (𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏2 + 𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏3 + 𝜏𝜏2 𝜏𝜏3 )𝑠𝑠 2
+ (𝜏𝜏1 + 𝜏𝜏2 + 𝜏𝜏3 − 𝐾𝐾𝜏𝜏2 )𝑠𝑠 + 𝐾𝐾∆ (7)
+1=0
The stability analysis can be discussed by Routh method.
Based on Routh criterion, the necessary condition is that the
coefficients of the characteristic equation are all greater than
zero. If 𝜏𝜏1 = 0.4 , 𝜏𝜏2 = 0.4 , 𝜏𝜏3 = 0.02 , ==0.9, the equation
above is described as:
0.0032𝑠𝑠 3 + 0.176𝑠𝑠 2 + 0.46𝑠𝑠 + 0.9∆ + 1 = 0 (8)
Thus, it is concluded that if 0.9∆ + 1 > 0 , the necessary
condition of stability of the system is satisfied.
When the control system is simulated by MATLAB-
Simulink , the nominal model parameters show as: the bicycle
mass is 20kg, the weight of rider is 70kg, the wheel radius is
0.29m, the front and rear wheel inertia is 0.1kg𝑚𝑚2 , so the ideal
nominal inertia is 7.8kg𝑚𝑚2 . Similarly, the maximum load is
130kg and the corresponding inertia is 12.8kg 𝑚𝑚2 ; the
minimum load is 40kg and the corresponding inertia is
𝐽𝐽 −𝐽𝐽
5.25kg𝑚𝑚2 . Then, by the formula (5) "∆= 𝑛𝑛 ", the value of
𝐽𝐽
∆ is from range of -0.39 to 0.48. And then the value of 0.9∆ +
1 is greater than zero. Therefore, the necessary condition of
stability is satisfied.
TABLE II.
ROUSE ARRAY
𝑠𝑠 3 𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏2 𝜏𝜏3 𝜏𝜏1 + 𝜏𝜏2 + 𝜏𝜏3 − 𝐾𝐾𝜏𝜏2
𝑠𝑠 2 𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏2 + 𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏3 + 𝜏𝜏2 𝜏𝜏3 𝐾𝐾∆ + 1
𝑠𝑠1 𝑏𝑏1
𝑠𝑠 0 𝐾𝐾∆ + 1
In TABLE II, the Rous array is shown. Where:
(𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏 +𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏 +𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏 )(𝜏𝜏 +𝜏𝜏 +𝜏𝜏 −𝐾𝐾𝜏𝜏 )−(𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏 )(𝐾𝐾∆+1)
𝑏𝑏1 = 1 2 1 3 2 3 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 .
𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏2 +𝜏𝜏1 𝜏𝜏3 +𝜏𝜏2 𝜏𝜏3
The sufficient condition of stability is that all terms of the
first column in the Rous array which is composed of the
coefficient of the characteristic equation are positive number.
When the values of the parameters are substituted, the value of
𝑏𝑏1 is always greater than zero. Therefore, the sufficient
condition of stability is satisfied as well. By the stability
analysis of system above, it is demonstrated that the torque
control system for EPAC is stable in theory.
Simulation
In this section, the proposed control approach based on
model-following control will be verified through simulations.
The control system shown in Fig. 2 above is simulated in order
to prove the adaptation to load and road grade by MATLAB-
Simulink. The initial torque (pedal torque from the rider) is set
from 12Nm to 2Nm, and keeps 2Nm since then. The simulation
time is set to 50 second.
On account of the interference of measurement noise which
- 37
 Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Information, Communication and Engineering
IEEE-ICICE 2017 - Lam, Meen & Prior (Eds)

is generated by torque sensor and velocity sensor, the white

noise is added to the simulation to get close to the reality [12]. In Fig. 4, the bicycle is running on a flat road and the load is
The amplitude value of sensor noise is set to 0.1% - 0.5% of set to 70kg and 130kg, respectively. In the case of control, there
the measurement range in general case and so the amplitude is no obvious difference in the bicycle speed in the two kinds
values of torque sensor noise and velocity sensor noise are set of situation. And the heavier the load is, the larger the driving
to 0.1N and 0.1km/h, respectively. So the following torque is becoming. Therefore, the influence due to the change
simulations are all based on the circumstance of sensor noise. of the load can be eliminated by the controller. So the
simulation results illustrate the function of adaptive to the load.
A. The impact of K to controller
20 C. Comparison with variation in slope
No_Control 70
15 K=0.9
K=0.5 Slope=-10%,No_Control
60 Slope=-10%,Control
10 Slope=-5%,No_Control
Slope=-5%,Control
50
Speed(km/h)

Speed(km/h)
40
0

30
-5

20
-10

10
-15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0
60 Time(s) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
30 Time(s)
No control
50 K=0.9 Slope=-10%,Control
K=0.5 20 Slope=-10%,No_Control
Slope=-5%,No_Control
Slope=-5%,Control
40
10
Torque(Nm)

Torque(Nm)

30 0

20 -10

-20
10

-30
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
-40
Time(s) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Time(s)
Fig. 3. Comparison of simulation results with variation of = with 70kg
load and on the 15% slope road Fig. 5. Comparison of simulation results with variation of the road
downslope and with 90kg load
In Fig. 3, the load is set to 70kg and the road slope is 15%,
which is the maximum grade of domestic road. As the value of
20

= is increasing, the effectiveness of control is becoming better. 15

When the observer gain = is 0.9, the controller can reach to 10

greatest performance. So, the gain of disturbance observer is
Speed(km/h)

set to 0.9. 5

B. Comparison with variation in load Slope=10%,No_Control

Slope=10%,Control
25 Slope=5%,No_Control
-5
Load=70kg,No_Control Slope=5%,Control
Load=70kg,Control
Load=130kg,No_Control
20 Load=130kg,Control -10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Slope=10%,No_Control Time(s)
Slope=10%,Control
40
Speed(km/h)

15 Slope=5%,No_Control
Slope=5%,Control

10 30
Torque(Nm)

5
20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
10
30 Time(s)
Load=70kg,No_Control
Load=70kg,Control
25 Load=130kg,No_Control 0
Load=130kg,Control 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Time(s)
20

Fig. 6. Comparison of simulation results with variation of the road

Torque(Nm)

15
upslope and with 90kg load
10

In Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, the bicycle load is set to 90kg and the
5
road slope is set to -10%, -5%, 10%, 5%, respectively. It can
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
be seen that when the bicycle gets into the slope road, the speed
Time(s) without control is changing rapidly but the speed with control
Fig. 4. Comparison of simulation results with variation of the load and can keep steady in some degree. Because the compensating
on a flat load torque from the motor can increase or decrease to prevent the

38 - ISBN 978-1-5386-3202-4

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Industrial de Santander. Downloaded on July 27,2020 at 21:08:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Information, Communication and Engineering
IEEE-ICICE 2017 - Lam, Meen & Prior (Eds)

bicycle speed from raising quickly. The greater the road grade
is, the larger the driving torque becomes. Therefore, the control [1] Alan A. Parker, Alan Parker Design. “Electric Power-Assisted
system is adaptive to road slope. Bicycles Reduce Oil Dependence and Enhance the Mobility of
the Elderly,” 29th Australian Transport Research Forum paper,
D. Stability under extreme conditions 2015.
50 [2] Liu Bainan. “Research on Longitudinal Speed Control for
Slope=-15%, No_Control Autonomous Vehicles Adaptive with Road Grade and Vehicle
Mass,” Jilin University, 2015.
40 Slope=-15%, Control
Slope=15%, No_Control
Slope=15%, Control
30 [3] Carmelina Abagnale, Massimo Cardone, Paolo Iodice, Salvatore
Strano, Mario Terzo, Giovanni Vorraro. “Model-based control
Speed(km/h)

20
for an innovative power-assisted bicycle,” 69th Conference of
10
the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering Association, vol. 81,
0 pp. 606-617, Sept. 2014.
-10
[4] Hong S.Bae, Jihan RYU, J.Christian Gercfes. “Road and Vehicle
Parameter Estimation for Longitudinal Control Using GPS,”
-20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, 2001, pp.
80 Time(s) 166-171.
60
Slope=-15%, No_Control
Slope=-15%, Control
[5] Ardalan Vahidi, Ann a Stafanopoulou, Hui Peng. “Recursive
Slope=15%, No_Control
Slope=15%, Control
Least Squares with Forgetting for Online Estimation of Vehicle
Mass and Road Grade-Theory and Experiments,” Vehicle System
40

Dynamics, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 31-55, 2005.

Torque(Nm)

20

[6] Vincent Winstead and Ilya V.Kolmanovsky. “Estimation of

0
-20
-40
-60
0 5 10 15 20
Time(s)
Fig. 7. Comparison of simulation results under such extreme
conditions of 15%, -15% slope and 130kg load
In Fig. 7, the load is 130kg and the road slope is set to -15%
and 15% respectively. Under such extreme conditions, the
speed without control is changing rapidly. However, the
compensating torque from the motor can be adjusted to optimal
value to adapt to the extreme conditions. Therefore, this
simulation results demonstrate that the controller still keeps
stable even in such extreme conditions.
Conclusion
This paper proposed a novel and simple torque control
approach based on model-following control adaptive to load
and road grade for EPAC. This torque control algorithm can
process the speed and driving torque to provide a reliable
torque control method adaptive to load and road grade. It was
demonstrated that the control system is stable in terms of theory.
Simulation results proved that the system was still stable
even there was the disturbance of sensor noise. Even under
such extreme conditions, the control system is still stable.
Therefore, the simulations and analysis proved the robust and
high performance of the proposed controller.
For future work, the impact of wind resistance and rolling
resistance on the controller will be taken into account. In
addition, if the adhesion coefficient on road surface is
relatively small or the driving wheel of bicycle skids, it should
be considered that the driving torque from the motor cannot be
fully provided to drive the bicycle.
Road Grade and Vehicle Mass via Model Predictive Control,”
IEEE Conference on Control Applications, 2005, pp. 1588-1593.
[7] Yin, D., S. Oh, and Y. Hori. “A Novel Traction Control for EV
Based on Maximum Transmissible Torque Estimation,” IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 2086-
25 30 35 40 45 50
2094, June. 2009.
[8] Hori Y. “Motion Stabilization Control of Electric Vehicle under
Snowy Conditions Based on Yaw-Moment Observer,” Industrial
Electronics IEEE Transactions on, 2004, pp. 35-40.
[9] T. Umena, K. Asano. H. Ohashi. M. Yonetani, T. Naitou and T.
Taalwchi. “Observer hased estimation of aarameier variations
and its application to tire pressure diagnosis,” Control
Engineering Practice, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 639-645, June. 2001.
[10] Wen-Hua Chen. “Disturbance Observer Based Control for
Nonlinear Systems,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics,
vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 706-710, Dec. 2004.
[11] Carl J. Kempf and Seiichi Kobayashi. “Disturbance Observer
and Feedforward Design for a High-Speed Direct-Drive
Positioning Table,” IEEE Transactions on Control System
Technology, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 513-526, Sept. 1999.
[12] Gao, R. “The Design and Research of Adaptive Filter in
Eliminating Mixed-noise Interference,” Jilin: Jilin University,
2013, pp. 1-54.
[13] Emadi A, Lee YJ, Rajashekara K. “Power electronics and motor
drives in electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 2237–
2245, May. 2008.
[14] Yoshihiro Sawamura, Shingo Kojima, Masami Iwase, Shoshiro
Hatakeyama. “Model-Following Control of Nonlinear Systems
based on Virtual Constraints,” The International Federation of
Automatic Control, 2008, pp. 4835-4839.
[15] Li, B. and Yu, F. “Four-wheel Active Steering(4WAS) Based on
Model-Following Control,” Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong
University, 2009.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT- This work is supported by ‘the

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities’ No.
30917015101.

Reference

ISBN 978-1-5386-3202-4 - 39

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Industrial de Santander. Downloaded on July 27,2020 at 21:08:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.