2012 American Control Conference
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, Montréal, Canada
June 27-June 29, 2012
Control Design of Electrically-Assisted Steering Systems
for Bicycles with Child Restraint Seats
Shunsuke Matsuzawa, Naonari Sato and Masami Iwase
Abstract— Recently, bicycles biking with children are attract-
ing much attention in Japan, but a variety of dangerousness
comes up biking with children. Then, a law for safety of
bicycles with children has been established 2009. Consequently,
bicycle manufacturers have provided bicycles adapting to new
safety standards by improving structure, strength, stiffness,
braking and steering performance. However, unfortunately,
consideration from the dynamics aspect comes short in such
bicycles. Our previous research has shown that the bicycle
stability is best if a child restraint system is installed above
the front wheel. On the other hand, increasing the moment of
inertia when a child sits on the front seat might cause steering
instability. Hence, in our research, to overcome the problem,
an electrically-assisted steering system for those bicycles has
been proposed. In this paper, a control method based on
disturbance observer-based control for the assisted steering
system is presented. The effectiveness of the proposed system
with each control method is verified by frequency analysis,
numerical simulations and experiments.
I. INTRODUCTION
Bicycles attract much attentions recently again as a no-
emission and ecological vehicle because automobile causes
problems such as the greenhouse gases, fossil fuel consump-
tion and so on even though automobile is the most familiar
vehicle. Bicycles also have many advantages such as keeping
and increasing health, relief of traffic congestion and energy
consumption.
A bicycle is of an unstable system, and a certain amount
of rider’s skill is required to perform stable riding. In this
sense, a bicycle is interesting as a research object. Many
studies on two-wheeled vehicles such as bicycles and electric
motorcycles have been reported in [1]–[4]. Saguchi has
realized stable running on straight-line and curve motions
using a model considered the skid of the wheels [3]. Satou
has realized stabilizing a bicycle to control a handle and
center of gravity (COG) by an attached cart-mass system [4].
Dynamics of bicycles is also studied in many researchers, for
example [1].
The law concerned with the safety on riding a bicycle
with two children is changed July 2008, in Japan [5]. Before
the change, the previous law prohibits people from riding a
bicycle with two children. The law change permits them to
ride a bicycle with two children if the bicycle satisfies the
conditions such as stability, rigidity, braking characteristics
and vibration.
This work was partially supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research
(B), No. 22360098.
S. Matsuzawa, N. Sato and M. Iwase are with Department
of Robotics and Mechatronics, Tokyo Denki
{matsuzawa,sato,iwase}@ctrl.fr.dendai.ac.jp
978-1-4577-1096-4/12/$26.00 ©2012 AACC
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However, the authors claimed in our previous studies
[6], [7] that those considerations were not enough to keep
stability due to lack of the consideration with respect to the
dynamical response. This experimental results say that the
stability of the bicycle in the case that a child sits on the rear
seat becomes worse than that in the case that a child sits on
the front seat or than that in the case that two children sit
on both front and rear seats. This implies that a child should
sit on the front seat instead of the rear seat.
Unfortunately, if a child sits on the front seat, the maneu-
verability of the handlebars deteriorates due to increasing
the moment of inertia of the handlebars. To overcome the
problem, our research aims to consider the stability of
the bicycle when riding with small children on a bicycle
and driving, and to develop an assistance-system for riding
bicycle with two children. We focus on the assist system for
the handlebars to solve the problem that the stability gets
better but the maneuverability worse when a child sits on the
front seat. As such system, an electrically-assisted steering
system has been developed. The system supports steering by
supplying some additional torque generated by a motor.
Letting the assist system work well, an adequate control
system is required. Hence this paper especially presents
a control design for the assist system. As fundamental
study, a simple steering simulator with the same structure
of the electrically-assisted steering system is introduced.
The dynamics of the handlebars system is analyzed with
the simple simulator in terms of the frequency response. A
controller using a disturbance observer is designed to recover
the original frequency response even if a child sits on the
front seat. The disturbance observer is often used for the
power-steering system of cars [8], [9], [10], but a light power-
steering system for bicycle with disturbance observers is not
usual as far as the authors know. The effectiveness of the
proposed system is verified through numerical simulations
and experiments.
II. E XPERIMENTAL SYSTEM OF ELECTRICALLY- ASSISTED
STEERING FOR BICYCLE
As shown in Fig. 1, an electrically-assisted steering system
has been developed in our research, and is installed to a
commercial bicycle. This experimental steering system is
developed to improve the maneuverability and the stability
for the bicycle when people bikes it with a child sitting on the
front seat above the handlebars. An adequate control system
is required to control the steering system to achieve the desir-
University, able performance. This study aims to analyze the dynamics
of the steering system and to design such control system.
2749
 Hence this research begins with a simple and experimental
steering simulator shown in Fig. 2, which has the same
structure with the real one. In this paper, under the situation,
the dynamics is analyzed with the steering simulator, and a
control law based on a disturbance observer is designed.
A schematic figure in Fig. 3 depicts the structure of the
steering system. This steering system consists of a motor,
a spring, two gears and two encoders. Each encoder can
measure the handlebars and the motor rotational angle, re-
spectively. The torsional spring is attached between the motor
output axis and the gear connected to the handlebars axis.
Hence the spring plays two important roles. The first role
implies if the difference between those angles is measured,
the torque applied to the spring can be estimated without
any other sensors. The second is that the elasticity permits a
driver to control the handlebars manually if the actuator was
broken and locked.
The set of equations of motion of the steering simulator is
derived by the physical modeling procedure. It follows that
JM θ̈M = TM − k(θM − θH ) − CM θ̇M ,
JH θ̈H = TH − k(θM − θH ) − CH θ̇H − Tℓ ,
where θM and θH is the motor and the handlebars rotational
angle, respectively. TM is the torque generated by the motor,
and TH is the torque applied by the rider. JM and CM is
the moment of the inertia, and the viscous friction coefficient
around the motor rod, respectively. JH and CH is around the
handlebars rod, respectively. k is the spring constant of the
torsional spring, and Tℓ includes the external torque such as
the ground reaction torque, the gyroscopic effect of the front
wheel driving, the front fork effect and so on.
Remark 1: The reason why the linear model in (1) and
(2) is introduced as the simple handlebar system should be
discussed here. In general, bicycle dynamics is nonlinear, and
the handlebar system including the handlebar and the front
wheel is also represented as a nonlinear system taking the
gyroscopic effect and the front fork effect of the front wheel
into account. However, we would emphasize that nonlinear
effects such as the gyroscopic effect, the front fork effect, and
the ground reaction can be consolidated to the external torque
as their effects on the rotational system of the handlebar
system. Thanks to the external torque, it is reasonable that the
main dynamics of the handlebar system can be represented
by the rotational linear system in (1) and (2).
Remark 2: Remark 1 says it is reasonable that the linear
rotational system in (1) and (2) is introduced to represent
the dynamics of the simple handlebar system even though
the original bicycle system is nonlinear. The control design
to be proposed in this paper aims to recover the dynamics
of the handlebar system in the case of no child sitting even
though a child sits on the front seat above the front wheel.
Note that we aim to “recover” the dynamics. From (2),
the human applied torque, TH , and the external torque, Tℓ ,
are applied to the system in purely addition manner. Hence
the system cannot distinguish TH from Tℓ , as long as no
prior information on TH and Tℓ is given or neither TH
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Fig. 1. The upper picture shows the experimental system of a bicycle with
(1) an electrically-assisted steering system developed. The lower picture depicts
(2) the mechanical part of the electrically-assisted steering system.
nor Tℓ is measured. That implies that the control system
to be proposed not only assists the human applied torque
but also gains the external torque without discriminating
whether the torque applied to the system (2) comes from
TH or Tℓ . From this observation, readers might consider it
became a disadvantage to gain the external torque containing
the ground reaction effect because the ground reaction effect
was also amplified by the control system. However, we would
emphasize that our control design aims to “recover” the
dynamics of the handlebar system without children. It is the
well-known fact that the dynamics of the handlebar system
“without children” is affected more strongly by the external
torque rather than the dynamics of the handlebar system
“with child” in terms of the moment of inertia. Hence, it is
natural for our control system not only to assist the human
applied torque but also to gain the external torque including
the ground reaction. The important state we highlighted here
is we suppose that people can well drive a bicycle without
child. That is, if the dynamics of the handlebar system
without child can be recovered when a child sitting on the
front seat above the front wheel, even though it implies to
gain the external torque including the ground effect, but it
achieves our control design object.
III. F REQUENCY A NALYSIS OF H ANDLEBARS DYNAMICS
As mentioned, this study consider the case that people
rides a bicycle with a child sitting on the front seat attached
to the handlebars. In this section, the handlebars dynamics is
analyzed in terms of frequency response when the additional
mass instead of a child is attached to the handlebars of the
steering simulator.
The frequency response of the transfer function from the
torque applied to the handlebars as input to the steering angle
2750
 handle 350 Ideal
Real
300
encoder
250

gain[dB]
gear 200
400 mm
150
spring
80 mm
32 mm
100

50
motor 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
encoder
-90 Ideal
-100 Real
-110

phase[deg]
-120
Fig. 2. The photo shows the simple Fig. 3. The schematic figure shows -130
and experimental steering simulator the structure of the simple steering -140
which has the same structure with simulator. This system consists of a
the real electrically-assisted steering motor, a torsional spring, gears, and -150
system. encoders. -160
-170
-180
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
as output is depicted in Bode plots, Figs. 4. The graphs in the frequency[Hz]
upper row show the gain plots, and the ones in the lower row Fig. 4. Bode plots of the transfer function from the torque applied to the
show the phase plots. In both plots, the blue lines indicate the handlebars to the steering angle. The graphs in the upper row show the gain
frequency response of the original handlebars dynamics, that plots, and the ones in the lower row show the phase plots. In both plots, the
blue indicates the frequency response of the original handlebars dynamics,
is, without the additional mass, and the green lines that of and the green that of the dynamics with the additional mass.
the dynamics with the additional mass. The additional mass
is 2.0 kg. Human Torque Handle System
Remark 3: The reason why the additional mass, 1.0kg, TH GH
is attached to consider the effect of child sitting should be
Motor Torque Motor System
discussed here. The simple handlebar system in Figs. 2-3 TM +
θ = GH TH + GM TM
is smaller and more compact rather than the real handlebar GM
+
system in Fig. 1. The weight ratio between the real handlebar
GM TM
system in Fig. 1 and the simple handlebar system in Fig. 2 GM
- +
becomes about 5 times. Hence, attaching the additional mass GH TH
by 2.0 kg to the simple handlebar system implies the almost
same effect that a child by 10kg sits on the front seat of the GH−1 GR−1
real bicycle. LowPass
From these figures, the gain drops and the phase increases Q Estimate
Q Q Filter
when the additional mass is attached. It found that the Torque
+ T̂H -
steering angle in the case that a child sits on the front - +
seat becomes smaller than that without a child even if the
same torque applied to the handlebars. The response is also Fig. 5. The block diagram shows the control system for the electrically-
delayed because of the phase shift. These plots imply the assisted system. Basically the control system has the structure of a distur-
bance observer. The control design specification is given as the dynamics
maneuverability of the handlebars with a child deteriorates. from the human torque TH to the steering angle θH is same with the
 ™›ÐdoMsMÌq‰7wâ^›`hÔù|ËïÅç original and ideal dynamics.
ws8U—•o )etmsU”\qUK” }
Steering lag leads to a risk if rider maneuvers handlebar
like not to sit on child. Hence, the control design for control system based on the disturbance observer is proposed
this system aims to recover the original (ideal) frequency as shown in Fig. 5. The figure shows the block diagram of
response as much as possible even if a child sits on the front the control system. The purpose of the control system design
seat. is given as the specification in that the dynamics from the
human torque TH applied to the handlebars to the steering
IV. C ONTROL S YSTEM D ESIGN FOR angle θH becomes same with the original and ideal dynamics
E LECTRICALLY- ASSISTED S TEERING S YSTEM WITH as much as possible.
D ISTURBANCE O BSERVER From Fig. 5, the steering angle θH is given by (3),
As aforementioned, a control system for the electrically-
θH = GH TH + GM TM , (3)
assisted steering system proposed here aims to recover the
original dynamics of the handlebars even if an additional where GH is the transfer function of the real system from
mass instead of a child is applied to the handlebars. Here, a the human torque TH to the steering angle θH , and GM is

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 TABLE I 0 Low Pass Filter
T HE PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE SIMPLE STEERING SIMULATOR -20
DEVELOPED IN THIS RESEARCH . -40

gain[dB]
-60
-80
-100
JM Moment of Inertia 3.2 × 10−6 [kgm2 ] -120
of the motor axis -140
JH Moment of Inertia of the handlebars 1.0 × 10−4 [kgm2 ] -160
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
with the additional mass frequency[Hz]
JR Moment of Inertia of the handlebars 5.8 × 10 −5
[kgm ] 2 0 Low Pass Filter
without the additional mass -50
CM Viscous friction coefficient 5.8 × 10−6 [Ns/rad] -100

phase[deg]
of the motor axis -150
CH Viscous friction coefficient of the 2.9 × 10−5 [Ns/rad] -200
handlebars with the additional mass
-250
CR Viscous friction coefficient of the 2.9 × 10−5 [Ns/rad]
handlebars with the additional mass -300
fM Dry friction coefficient 1.3 × 10 −2
[Nm] -350
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
of the motor axis frequency[Hz]
fH Dry friction coefficient of the 2.9 × 10−2 [Nm]
Fig. 6. Bode plot of the low-pass filter Q, a 4-th order Butterworth filter
handlebars with the additional mass with cut-off frequency, 15Hz. The upper row shows the gain and the lower
fR Dry friction coefficient of the 2.3 × 10 −2
[Nm]
shows the phase plot, respectively.
handlebars without the additional mass
k Spring constant 10[Nmm/deg]
performed. Table I shows the physical parameter of the
simple steering simulator in Fig. 2. The parameters were
that of the real system from the motor torque TM to θH . The obtained by the identification process experimentally. The
motor torque TM is also presented by additional mass instead of a child is 1 kg, and the attached
to the handlebars.
TM = QTM − QG−1
R θH + T̂H , (4)
A low-pass filer Q in Fig. 5 is given by a 4-th order
where Q is a low-pass filter, and T̂H is the estimation value Butterworth filter in this simulation and experiment. The
of the human torque TH . GR is the transfer function of filter is represented by (9),
the original and ideal dynamics of the handlebars from the
1
human torque TH to θH . The estimated T̂H is given by (5), Q= √ s (9)
(( wsc )2 + 2( wc ) + 1)2
H θH − QGH GM TM .
T̂H = QG−1 −1
(5)
where the cut-off frequency wc is set by 15 Hz. Figs. 6
Substituting T̂H into (4) gives the control input TM as show the bode plot of the filter. The bandwidth is over 10Hz,
follows, however the phase above 1 Hz is increasing. Hence, for the
QG−1H − QGR
−1
closed-loop transfer function from TH to θH , its frequency
TM = . (6)
1 − Q + QG−1H GM response over 10Hz might indicates the same performance
Substituting TM into (3) and rearranging it with respect to with the ideal one.
θH lead to Remark 4: The internal stability of the closed-system
GH − QGH + QGM in Fig. 5 should be discussed here. As shown in previous
θH = TH . (7) works concerned with the disturbance observer, the design
1 − Q + QGM G−1 R of the low-pass filter Q is important to maintain the internal
This equation shows the closed-loop transfer function from stability of the closed-system. In practice, the control system
the human torque TH to the steering angle θH . If the gain based on the disturbance observer might become unstable
of the low-pass filter Q in (7) is equal to 1, the closed-loop with the choice of the low-pass filter Q(s). Hence, in this
transfer function is reduced to paper, we focus on the fact the low-pass filter Q(s) can be
parameterized by one parameter, wc , the cut-off frequency.
θH = GR TH , (8)
Hence we can apply the line search method with respect
and it is found that the dynamics of the handlebars in the case to wc to maintain the internal stability of the closed-loop
that a child sits on the front seat attached at the handlebars is system. Actually in our case, if wc is lower than a certain
same with the original and ideal handlebars dynamics, i.e. in value, the system is stable. The border shows up above 15Hz.
the case that no child sits on the seat. The maneuverability of Therefore, as we chose wc = 15, wc should be less than or
the controlled handlebars might be improved by this system. equal to 15Hz in this case. On the other hand, it is better
To investigate the frequency response of the simple steer- for recovering the original dynamics to choose a high value
ing simulator with the proposed control system based on as wc . Hence we chose wc = 15Hz, and this ensured the
the disturbance observer, some numerical simulations are internal stability of the closed-loop system in this case.

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 350 Ideal 2000 Ideal
Real 1800 Real
Observer Observer
300 1600
250 1400

angle[deg]
gain[dB]

1200
200 1000
800
150 600
100 400
200
50 0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
frequency[Hz] time[sec]
-80 Ideal 1000 Ideal
Real 800 Real
-100 Observer Observer

angular velocity[deg/sec]
-120 600
phase[deg]

400
-140
200
-160
0
-180 -200
-200 -400
-220 -600
-240 -800
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
frequency[Hz] time[sec]
0.1 Motor Torque
Human Torque
Fig. 7. Bode plots of the frequency response from the human toque TH to
0.05
the steering angle θH corresponding to each case; (a) the blue lines shows

torque[Nm]
the original and ideal handlebars dynamics without any child and mass, 0
(b) the green lines shows the handlebars dynamics with mass instead of
a child, and (c) the red lines shows the frequency response of the closed- -0.05
loop transfer function with proposed control law based on the disturbance
observer. -0.1

As the next step, the frequency response of the handlebars
with the proposed control based on the disturbance observer.
Figs. 7 shows the simulation results, the frequency response
from the human torque TH to the steering angle θH .
In Figs. 7, bode plots of the frequency response from the
human toque TH to the steering angle θH corresponding to
those cases are depicted; (a) the blue lines shows the original
and ideal handlebars dynamics without any child and mass,
(b) the green lines shows the handlebars dynamics with mass
instead of a child, and (c) the red lines shows the frequency
response of the closed-loop transfer function with proposed
control law based on the disturbance observer.
From the figures, it is found that the gain up to about
10 Hz is recovered by the proposed controller. On the other
hand, the phase only up to about 0.8 Hz is recovered, and the
phase above 1 Hz increases much more than the ideal one.
This result might imply that the feeling of a rider in terms
of force may be recovered, and the feeling in terms of time
delay remains slightly. However, in general use, this small
uncomfortable feeling caused by the phase lag above 1 Hz
is not serious because fast manipulation is not necessary for
riding the bicycle.
Other numerical simulations are performed to obtain time
responses of the steering angle θH for the given torque TH .
The simulation results are shown in Figs. 8. The simulations
were performed over 14 seconds with the sampling interval
1.0 msec and the sinusoidal input, TH = 0.05 sin(π/2 · t)
Nm. The initial steering angle and the angular velocity are
set by 0 deg and 0 deg/sec.
In Figs. 8, the upper row shows the time response of the
angle, the middle that of the angular velocity and the lower
the input profile. In the figures of the angle and angular
-0.15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
time[sec]
Fig. 8. Time responses of the steering angle over 14 seconds with the
sampling interval 1.0 msec and the sinusoidal input TH = 0.05 sin(π/2 · t)
Nm. The upper row shows the time response of the angle, the middle that
of the angular velocity and the lower the input profile. In the figures of the
angle and angular velocity, the blue line shows the ideal case, the green line
the no assist case, and the red line the proposed control case. In the figure
of the input, the green line shows the human torque TH . TH is the same
among the three cases. The blue line shows the motor torque generated by
the proposed controller.
velocity, the blue line shows the ideal case, i.e., the original
handlebars dynamics. The green line indicates the no-assist
case, and it is found that the performance with no-assist gets
worse. The red line presents the proposed control case. From
the figure, it is figured out that the proposed system works
well and improve the performance to recover the ideal one. In
the figure of the input, the green line shows the human torque
TH . TH is the same among the three cases. The blue line
shows the motor torque generated by the proposed controller.
V. E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATION WITH S IMPLE
S TEERING S IMULATOR
The effectiveness of the propose assist system is verified
by applying the proposed control law to the simple steering
simulator. The physical parameters of the simulator are same
with those used in the previous simulations, in TABLE I. The
sampling interval was changed to 2.0 msec because of the
hardware limitation used in this experiment. To investigate
the effectiveness of the proposed system, at the first, the ex-
periment with the assist control proposed was performed and
all signals such as the steering angle, angular velocity and the
motor input were recorded. After that, to compare the result
in the case of the assist system with that of no assist system,

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 100 Ideal
Real
Observer
system achieved good results and might be helpful for riders.
80
As a future work, the proposed control law will be applied
60
Angle[deg]

to the real electrically-assisted steering system in Fig. 1, and

40
the dynamics will be investigated to verify the performance
20
through some run tests. As this direction, we also plan to
0
combine this steering assist system with the pedaling torque
-20
assist system, and to develop the total assist system for
-40
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 bicycles with children restraint systems.
Time[sec]
200 Ideal
Real
Anglar Velosity[deg/sec]

150 Observer R EFERENCES

100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200
-250
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time[sec]
Fig. 9. Experimental results of the time responses of the steering angle
with the sampling interval 2.0 msec and the arbitrary human input. The
upper row shows the time response of the angle, and the lower that of the
angular velocity. In the figures of the angle and angular velocity, the blue
line shows the ideal case, the green line the no assist case, and the red line
the proposed control case. The results of no assist case were performed by
the human torque estimation by (5).
the human torque applied in the previous experiments was
estimated by (5), and the estimated torque was applied to
the handlebars directly by the another motor without any
assist. To do that, the angles and angular velocity with no
assist case were estimated and used for the comparison. The
experimental results are shown in Figs. 9 In Figs. 9, in
[10] S. Takehara and T. Yoshioka, “Improvement of Steering and Vehicle
the similar manner with the simulation case, the upper row
shows the time response of the steering angle and the lower
illustrates that of the angular velocity when the arbitrary
human input was applied to the handlebars. In the figures of
the angle and angular velocity, the blue line shows the ideal
case, i.e., the original handlebars dynamics. The green line
indicates the no-assist case estimated by the aforementioned
procedure. The red line presents the proposed control case.
From the figure, it is figured out that the proposed system
works well and improve the performance to recover the
ideal one as well as the simulation case. However, the phase
lag seems to be larger than the simulation case, hence, the
additional tuning of the low-pass filter Q is required to obtain
much better performance. This is one of the future works.
[1] K.J. Åström, R.E. Klein and A. Lennartsson, “Bicycle dynamics and
control,” IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 25, pp. 26–47 (2005)
[2] K. Iuchi, H. Niki and T. Murakami, “Attitude Control of Bicycle
Motion by Steering Angle and Variable COG Control,” Proc. of
IECON 2005 (2005)
[3] T. Saguchi, K. Yoshida and M. Takahashi, ”Stable Running Control
of Autonomous Bicycle Robot,” Transactions of the Japan Society of
Mechanical Engineers Part-C (2006)
[4] T. Satou and T. Namekawa, “Robust running stabilization of an inde-
pendence running two-wheeled vehicle to change of speed and mass,”
Transaction of The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, Vol.
42, No. 1, pp. 1–8 (2006)
[5] The report of the Exploratory Committee on Bicycles with Chil-
dren Restraint Systems, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department,
http://www.npa.go.jp/koutsuu/kikaku20090409/01yoken.pdf (2009)
[6] S. Matsuzawa, M. Iwase, T. Sadahiro and S. Hatakeyama, “Motion
Analysis by Experiment and Simulation for Riding Bicycles with
Children,” Proc. of the 2009 IEEE SMC, pp. 859–864 (2009)
[7] H. Ohno, S. Matsuzawa and M. Iwase, “Modeling and Analysis
of a Bicycle on the Three-dimensional Space Using the Projection
Method,” Proc. of the 6th Vienna International Conference on Math-
ematical Modelling (2009)
[8] J. Kim and J. Song, “Control logic for an electric power steering
system using assist motor,” Mechatronics, pp. 447–459 (2002)
[9] S. Asai, H. Kuroyanagi, S. Takeuchi, T. Toshihiro and S. Ogawa,
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Observer,” Trans. of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. Part-
C, Vol. 70, No. 698, pp. 2913–2916 (2004)

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS

This research aims finally to develop the total assist system
for bicycles biking with children to achieve the stability,
safety and maneuverability. As a part of the purpose, in
this paper, we focused on the electrically-assisted steering
system and developed it. The dynamics of the handlebars
was investigated in terms of the frequency response in both
child and no child case. To recover the ideal dynamics of the
handlebars with child, a control law based on the disturbance
observer was proposed, and the effectiveness was verified
through numerical simulations and experiments. The control

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