Attitude Control of Bicycle Motion by Steering
Angle and Variable COG Control
Ko Iuchi, Hiroshi Niki and Toshiyuki Murakami, Member, IEEE
Department of System Design Engineering, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
iuchi@sum.sd.keio.ac.jp hirochi@sum.sd.keio.ac.jp mura@sd.keio.ac.jp
Abstract— As well know, a bicycle is a high efficiency ve-
hicle and is suitable for aging society in the future. In the
practical use, however, the bicycle is not always stable and
the motion stabilization is required for a widespread appli-
cation. In an electric bicycle, two strategies are taken up to
stabilize the running motion of a bicycle. One is Center Of
Gravity (COG) control of bicycle, and the other is a control
of steering angle of handle. In the past research, there are
few researches that consider an autonomous control of bi-
cycle by using both steering and COG position control. To
address this issue, this paper describes a strategy that real-
izes autonomous motion of bicycle with the use of steering
and COG control. Numerical and experimental results are
shown to verify the validity of the proposed strategy.
Keywords— bicycle, attitude control, inverted pendulum,
disturbance observer, steering control
I. Introduction
There are many proposals for environment issue. Also a
consideration of environment-friendly system becomes im-
portant in the future society. Above all, cars have a great
influence on global environment and Hybrid Vehicle (HV)
is regarded as one of environment-friendly system.
Compared with the vehicle using internal combustion en-
gine, bicycle gives little load on environment because it is
driven by human power, but not fossil fuel. In addition, the
energy conversion efficiency of bicycle is critically higher
than other vehicles.
As above, bicycle has a strong possibility of the solution
of global environment problem and world energy problem
which are main themes in the 21st century.
In the practical use, however, bicycle has some demerits.
There is a social issue of illegally-parked bicycle near sta-
tion. Bicycle is not suitable for long-range transport and
it is an instability vehicle. Many solutions have been tried
to overcome such issues so that bicycle will be more con-
venient in the future. This paper focuses on the instability
of the bicycle.
There are many researches on the stabilization control of
the two-wheeled vehicle. In 1970’s, Kondo, Kageyama and
Iguchi have reported some results. In 1971, Sharp[1] has
analyzed the stability of two-wheeled vehicle about straight
running by using 4DOF model, and the research indicated
that the steering angle, the side slip of bicycle body, the
angle of bicycle body and the camber angle influence on
the stability of two-wheeled vehicle under the straight run-
ning. Also the features of two-wheeled vehicle body and
tire have been investigated by this model. Many of these
researches have been concerned with high speed range and
0-7803-9252-3/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE
have been conducted by bike motion. There are few past
researches about the stability of bicycle at low speed. In
these years, there are getting more researches about the
stability of bicycle. In Kanazawa University, the control of
bicycle with COG control has been reported[2]. The idea
of this research is that bicycle is assumed as inverted pen-
dulum fixing handle up. There is another research about
two-wheeled vehicle. Felix Grasser and Aldo D’Arrigo[3]
propose novel type of two-wheeled vehicle which runs by
driver’s weight shift. In Keio University, Muraoka[4] has
reported the stability of running bicycle controlling steer-
ing angle of handle. In Keio University, Tanaka[5] and
Niki[6] have realized the stable running of bicycle control-
ling steering angle of handle. In the bicycle motion, COG
and steering angle controls are important to realize a stable
running motion. In general, both controls are done skill-
fully by human and the stable bicycle motion is achieved.
In an autonomous control of bicycle or an assist control
of an unskilled driver, however, there is no research that
considers this issue using both steering and COG control.
This paper proposes a unified approach that steering and
COG controls realize a human-like skill operation in elec-
tric bicycle control. Furthermore the proposed strategy is
expanded to variable speed control by pole assignment of
bicycle controller according to the reference speed.
This paper is composed of six sections. In section II,
kinematic and dynamic modeling are shown. Section III
shows the proposed control strategy. In section IV and V,
numerical and experimental results are implemented to ver-
ify the proposed strategy. The conclusions are summarized
in section VI.
II. Modeling
A. Coordinates system of bicycle and the name of each part
Fig.1 and Fig.2 indicate the coordinate system and each
parameter of bicycle. The direction of movement defines
x axis, the side direction defines y axis, and the vertical
direction defines z axis. G is the COG of bicycle body. Gf
indicates the COG of the front wheel part. The front wheel
part is consisting of handle, front fork and front wheel.
Table I indicates parameters using for dynamics. These
parameters positive directions are defined in Fig.2. Table
I indicates the parameters of dynamics.
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 B. Dynamic equation of bicycle
Gp This section shows dynamic equation of bicycle. Bicycle
l2 dynamic equations are divided between front wheel part
G Gf and body part. Here it is assumed that the bicycle runs at
l1 f v constant speed and there is no side slip.
r
h
C. The dynamic equation of front wheel parts
Yb X b
L1 L2 τhan indicates input torque applied to the handle and
L
Zb t θ is steering angle. Assuming the physical phenomenon
working on bicycle, the dynamic equation of front wheel
Fig. 1. Bicycle looking from side parts is defined:
Ih θ̈ = τhan + Tf ront + Tps − Ttrail
= τhan + f mg sin φ1 + Iw ω φ˙1
−(Ct φ1 cos θ + µω sin θ)t (1)

where, τhan describes torque of handle , Tf ront , Tps , Ttrail

represents gravity effect, precesstion effect and trail effect.
C.1 Dynamic equation of bicycle body part
From Fig.2, bicycle body and pendulum are regarded
as an double inverted pendulum. Assuming bicycle as a
double inverted pendulum, (2) and (3) are yielded. (2)
indicates dynamic equation about bicycle body[7].

Fig. 2. Bicycle looking from backward (M1 h2 + M2 l12 + M2 l22 + 2M2 l1 l2 cos φ2 + J1 + J2 )φ¨1
−(M2 l22 + M2 l1 l2 cos φ2 + J2 )φ¨2
−2M l l sin φ φ̇ φ̇ + M l l sin φ φ˙2
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2
+(M1 l1 cos φ1 + M2 l2 cos φ1 + M2 l2 cos(φ2 − φ1 ))ÿ
TABLE I −M1 gh sin φ1 − M2 gl1 sin φ1 + M2 gl2 sin(φ2 − φ1 ) = 0
The parameter of dynamics
(2)

Mass of bicycle exclusive of pendulum M1 (3) indicates dynamic equation about pendulum. τpen is
Mass of pendulum M2 input torque to pendulum.
Mass of front wheel part m −(M2 l22 + M2 l1 l2 cos φ2 + J2 )φ¨1 + (M2 l22 + J2 )φ¨2
Wheel base L +M l l sin φ φ˙2 − M l cos(φ − φ )ÿ
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
COG position from rear wheel L1 −M2 gl2 sin(φ2 − φ1 ) = τpen (3)
COG position from front wheel L2
Height of COG h Linearizing (2) and (3), the following equation is derived.
Height of pendulum from ground l1 Here the friction effect is ignored.
Length of pendulum l2
Radius of wheel r
A B φ¨1 C D φ1 Y1






Offset f + + ÿ
G H φ¨2 I J φ2 Y2
Trail t

Inertia of COG about x axis J1 0
= (4)
Inertia of pendulum J2 τpen
Inertia of front wheel part about handle axis Ih
where, A to J represent coefficients from (2),(3).
Inertia of wheel Iw
Camber angle φ1 C.2 Equation concerned about the side direction of bicycle
Pendulum angle φ2 y and the steering angle θ.
Steering angle θ This section is concerned about side direction accelera-
Velocity of bicycle V tion ÿ. Fig.3 shows the bicycle looking overhead. Here, it
angular velocity of wheel ω is assumed that the bicycle changes direction a little from x
Coefficient of conflict µ axis. yf indicates the distance from x axis to the attached
Coefficient of camber thrust Ct point of front wheel. yr indicates the distance from x axis
to the attached point of rear wheel. And y indicates the
distance from x axis to COG of bicycle body.

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 X

ψ
A. The attitude control of bicycle with the use of steering
θ
y f
control and pendulum control

y L2
Y
This paper suggests a control model based on dynamic
equation (12). Kp , Kv are the gains of steering, and
L
L1
K2p , K2v are the gains of inverted pendulum.
yr cmd
θcmd = Kp (φ1 − φcmd 1 ) + Kv (φ˙1 − φ˙1 ) (13)

cmd
φcmd
2 = K2p (φ1 − φcmd
1 ) + K2v (φ˙1 − φ˙1 ) (14)
Fig. 3. Bicycle looking from overhead
φcmd
1 is the command of camber angle, θcmd is the com-
mand of steering angle, and φcmd
2 is the command of pen-
(5) indicates a relationship between the bicycle direction dulum angle. Assuming steering angle θ and inverted pen-
angle ψ and other parameters. dulum angle φ2 equal to command θcmd andφcmd 2 and sub-
y − yr yf − yr stituting(13) and (14) into (12), the transfer function is
sin ψ = = (5) written as
L1 L
From the relation (5) yields φ1 p 1 s3 + p 2 s2 + p 3 s + p 4
= (15)
L 1 yf + L 2 yr φcmd
1 q1 s3 + q2 s2 + q3 s + q4
y= . (6)
L
where,
Substituting (7) into (6) yields
y˙f = V sin(ψ + θ), y˙r = V sin ψ, (7) p1 = q1 = BK2v
p2 = BK2p + F Kv
p3 = q3 = F Kp + EKv + DK2v
L1 L2
ẏ = V sin(ψ + θ) + V sin ψ. (8) p4 = DK2p + EKp
L L
Defferentiating (6), and assuming ψ, θ ≈ 0 : q2 = A + BK2p + F Kv
q4 = C + DK2p + EKp .
L1 V L2 V
ÿ = (ψ̇ + θ̇) + ψ̇ (9)
L L
There is a relationship between ψ and θ. The degree of the characteristic polynomial of transfer
V sin θ function is 3. The gain is decided with the use of pole
ψ̇ = (10)
L assignment method.
Substituting (10) into (9) and linializing the equation yields
p1 s3 + p2 s2 + p3 s + p4 = BK2v (s + α)3 (16)
2
V L1 V
ÿ = θ+ θ̇. (11)
L L Comparing the coefficients of both sides, the three equa-
Substituting (11) into (4) yields tions are able to be written as

A + BK2p + F Kv = 3BK2v α (17)

A B φ¨1 C D φ1 E






+ + θ
G H φ¨2 I J φ2 K
F Kp + EKv + DK2v = 3BK2v α2 (18)
F



0
+ θ̇ =
L τpen C + DK2p + EKp = BK2v α3 . (19)
(12)
There are five parameters which is Kp , Kv , K2p , K2v and
where E, F, K, L are coefficient from (4) and (12).
α in these equations while there are three equations. So
III. Control System Design there is two degree of freedom. Kp and α are decided as
our chooses and the other parameters Kv , K2p andK2v are
Bicycle has a function of self balancing for its nature.
able to be got from (17)-(19).
However, we are not able to ride bicycle without operat-
ing handle and shifting weight. There are two methods
B. The control of steering and pendulum
for running bicycle controlling its attitude. One is steering
control, and the other is COG control. This paper sug- This section explains about the control method of steer-
gests the attitude control of bicycle with the use of both ing angle θ and pendulum angle φ2 . The purpose of using
controls. PD control is used for the attitude control of this control is to conform command θcmd , φcmd
2 to response
bicycle because it is easy to adjust gain. θ, φ2 .

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 θ cmd &&cmd &&ref τ ref 1 φ2
cmd
φ&&2 φ&&2 φ2
s θ θ τ pen 1
cmd ref ref
s I h han handle
s s s Mn pendlum
& cmd
θ
K hv
s
φ&2
cmd
K 2 hv
K hp
θ&
θ K 2 hp
φ&2
Fig. 4. The block diagram of steering control system

Fig. 5. The block diagram of inverted pendlum control system

B.1 Steering control
The reference value of angular acceleration of steering
angle θ̈ is able to be got from

θ̈ref = θ̈cmd + Khv (θ̇cmd − θ̇) + Khp (θcmd − θ) (20)

where, Khp , Khv are gains. From (13), only θcmd is able to
be got. Then θ̇ and θ̈ are led from differentiating θcmd .
dθcmd
θ̇cmd = (21)
dt
cmd
dθ̇
θ̈cmd = (22)
dt
¨ multiplied by the inertia of handle
The product of θref
ref
Ih is the reference value of torque τhan .
ref
τhan = Ih θ̈ref (23) Fig. 6. The block diagram of attitude control system with steering
and inverted pendulum.
ref
The reference of motor torque τhan is entered to handle
motor. Fig.4 indicates the block diagram of this control
model. IV. Simulation
B.2 Pendulum control
This chapter shows simulation results with the use of
The reference value of angular acceleration of pendulum
modeling in II and control theory in III. The purpose of
angle φ¨2 is able to be got from
simulation is to confirm that suggested controller is able to
ref cmd cmd
φ¨2 = φ¨2 + K2hv (φ˙2 − φ2 ) + K2hp (φcmd
2 − φ 2 ) (24) stabilize bicycle and may have applicability to various ve-
locity. Kp , Kv , K2p and K2v are gains which is determined
where, K2hp , K2hv are gains. From (24), only φ̈cmd is able by simulation result.
to be got. Then φ˙2 and φ¨2 are led from differentiating
A. The contents of simulation
φcmd
2 .
cmd
cmd dφ2 Simulations are implemented as follows
φ˙2 = (25)
dt 1. Bicycle velocity is 2.5m/s without control
cmd
¨ cmd dφ˙2 2. Bicycle velocity is 2.0m/s with control
φ2 = (26)
dt 3. Bicycle velocity is 2.5m/s with control
ref 4. Bicycle velocity is 3.5m/s with control
The product of φ¨2 multiplied by the nominal inertia of
pendulum H is the reference value of torque τpen ref
. All simulations are implemented under the condition that
ref
the sampling time is 0.2msec and the command is entered
ref
τpen = H φ¨2 (27) every 1msec. And 20N disturbance torque to y direction
ref is added from 0.5s to 1.0s. the response of the steering
The reference of pendlum motor torque from τpen is en-
angle and the pendulum angle are investigated against the
tered to motor. Fig.5 indicates the block diagram of this
disturbance. Table II indicates the parameters using in this
control model.
simulation.
The control system explained in this chapter does not
take the effect of the disturbance and the error from model- B. The results of simulation
ing into consideration. Then, disturbance observer is used B.1 Bicycle velocity is 2.5m/s without control
to compensate these external forces[8]. In this way, the
steering angle control and the pendulum control which is Fig.7 shows the response of camber angle, steering angle,
robust with a feedforward of equivalent disturbance are re- and inverted pendulum angle. From figure, bicycle does not
alized. Fig.6 indicates the block diagram of the whole con- run without control. In other words, bicycle is not able to
trol system. run only by bicycle’s own self standing ability.

2068
 5
TABLE II camber angle
steering angle
4 pendulum angle
The parameters used in simulasion

angle(degree)
3

Name Ward Value 1

Mass of bicycle M (kg) 52.0 0

Mass of front wheel part m(kg) 10.0 -1

0 1 2 3 4 5
Mass of inverted pendulum M2 (kg) 2.0 time(s)

Wheel base L(m) 1.13 Fig. 8. Simulation with control v = 2.5m/s

COG position from rear wheel L1 (m) 0.324
COG position from front wheel L2 (m) 0.806
5
Height of COG h(m) 0.855 4
camber angle
steering angle

l1 (m)
pendulum angle
Height of the axis of pendulum 1.0

angle(degree)
3
Length of pendulum l2 (m) 0.51 2
Radius of wheel r(m) 0.35 1
Offset f (m) 0.06 0
Trail t(m) 0.05 -1

Inertia of roll from ground IX (kgm2 ) 39.4 0 1 2

time(s)
3 4 5

Inertia of handle Ih (kgm2 ) 0.35

Fig. 9. Simulation with control v = 3.5m/s
Inertia of wheel Iw (kgm2 ) 0.18
Inertia of inverted pendulum J2 (kgm2 ) 0.0463
coefficient of camber thrust Ct (N/rad) 66.0
5
camber angle
steering angle
4 pendulum angle

angle(degree)
3

2
40 camber angle
steering angle 1
30 pendulum angle
angle(degree)

20 0
10
-1
0 0 1 2 3 4 5
-10 time(s)
-20
-30
Fig. 10. Simulation with control v = 2.0m/s
-40
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
time(s)
C. The discussion about simulation
Fig. 7. Simulation without control
From the results of simulation, the displacement of cam-
ber angle φ1 is within 1degee in any three velocity con-
dition when disturbance force is added Simulation results
indicates that suggested controller is able to stabilize bicy-
B.2 Simulation with control under the condition of various cle at various speed. When the bicycle velocity is 2.0m/s,
velocity the speed of response is the last. This is referred from that
the system of bicycle becomes less stability in low speed be-
cause the effect of gyro from wheel rotation becomes small
Fig.8,Fig.9 and Fig.10 show the results of simulation un- in low speed. In any simulation, the response of pendulum
der the condition of various velocity. The values of param- angle φ2 head from negative direction to positive direction
eter are indicated on Table III. We decide only α and Kp when disturbance force is just added. This is referred from
and another gains are calculated from (17), (18) and (19). that the value of gain K2v is negative.
V. Experiment

A. Experimental condition

TABLE III
Fig.11 shows the appearance of bicycle robot. 27 inch
Simulation gain
city cycle is used for experiment. The motor fixed to handle
controls steering angle, and the motor fixed on the second
stair of loading space controls inverted pendulum angle.
α Kp Kv K2p K2v The motor fixed on the first stair of loading space controls
v = 2.0m/s 10.0 10.0 0.943 14.86 -1.03 the speed of bicycle. In this experiment, the bicycle ve-
v = 2.5m/s 20.0 10.0 0.0574 15.44 -0.216 locity is constant 2.5m/s. Motor drivers are fixed on the
v = 3.5m/s 20.0 10.0 0.509 17.83 -0.449 loading space. Mounting battery and PC on the bicycle,
the machine is able to run independently.

2069

Fig. 11. The appearance of bicycle robot
15
camber angle
steering angle
10
angle(degree)
5
0
-5
-10
-15
0 5 10 15 20
time(s)
Fig. 12. Experimental result with only steering control v = 2.5m/s
A.1 Hardware used for experiment
The PC used for experiment is IBM Think Pad i Series.
OS is RTlinux to control in real time. Board is AD-DA
multi function PC card from Interface.Co. Using this card,
the counter is read out and AD-DA is transformed. Steer-
ing angle θ and inverted pendulum angle φ1 are read out
from encoder fixed in motor. The encoder data is read
out par 1msec. Camber angle φ1 is read out from gyro
sensor. Camber angle φ1 implements first-order hold and
camber angular rate φ˙1 is calculated from the differentia-
tion of camber angle φ1 so that the output frequency of
gyro sensor is 60Hz.
B. Experimental matter
The experimental matter is as follows:
• Running experiment of bicycle with only steering con-
trol, the velocity is 2.5m/s
• Running experiment of bicycle with both steering and
inverted pendulum control, the velocity is 2.5m/s.
C. Experimental result
Fig.12 shows the result of experiment with only steering
control. In this experiment, Kp = 5.0, Kv = 0.317.
Fig.13 shows the result of experiment with both steering
and inverted pendulum control. In this experiment,
Kp = 15.0, Kv = 0.106, K2p = −6.0, K2v = −0.28.
D. Discussion about experiment
From the results of experiment, the stabilization of cam-
ber angle φ1 is succeeded with the control of steering angle
θ and inverted pendulum angle φ2 . The result of Fig.13
is more stable than the result of Fig.12. This means that
the control of both steering and inverted pendulum makes
4
camber angle
3 steering angle
pendulum angle
2
angle(degree)
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
time(s)
Fig. 13. Experimental result with both steering and inverted pendu-
lum control v = 2.5m/s
good. The machine slide off the track as time advances
so that the experiment is conducted on the roller. This
is caused that only camber angle φ1 is controlled and yaw
angle isn’t regarded. In this experiment, The COG of this
machine is backside because bicycle takes on motor and
25 motor drivers on the loading space. Therefore, yaw ro-
tation moment is generated when handle is rotated. The
model suggested in this paper does not consider this in-
fluence. Shifting COG to more front of bicycle by gaining
front wheel part in weight, this influence is minimized.
VI. Conclusions
This paper proposes a control strategy of bicycle atti-
tude by considering COG and steering angle motion. In
the proposed approach, the motion along a camber direc-
tion is described as a double inverted pendulum motion
and its stable motion control is achieved by a steering an-
gle control and COG position control indirectly. Also the
designed controller is applicable to a variable speed mo-
tion of bicycle and it is one of the remarkable points in the
proposed strategy.
The validity of the proposed controller is confirmed by
several simulation and experiments.
References
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[3] Felix Grasser, Aldo D’Arrigo, Silvio Colombi ”JOE: A Mobile,
Inverted Pendulum” IEEE Transactions on industrial electronics,
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[4] D. Muraoka: ”Stable Running Control of Autonomous Bicycle
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