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Turning dynamics and equilibrium of two-wheeled vehicles

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DOI: 10.1007/BF02916158

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 Journal of Mechamcal Science and Technology, Vol I9, No 1, (Special Edmon) pp 377~387, 2005 377

Turning Dynamics and Equilibrium of Two-Wheeled Vehicles

Chih-Keng Chen*, Thanh-Son Dao, Chih-Kai Yang
Department of Mechamcal and Automation Engineering, Da Yeh Untversity,
112 Shan-Jtau Rd, Changhua, Tatwan 515 ROC

The equations of motion of two-wheeled vehicles, e g bicycles or motorcycles, are developed

by using Lagrange's equations tor quasi-coordinates The pure rolling eonstlamts between the
ground and the two wheels me considered in the dynamical equations of the system For each
wheel, two nonholonomm and two holonomic constraints are introduced in a set of differential-
algebraic equations (DAE) The constraint Jacobian matrix ~s obtained by collecting all the
constraint equations and converting them into the velocity form Eqmhbrlum, an algorithm for
searching for eqmhbrlum points of two-wheeled vehicles and the associated problems are
discussed Formulae for calculating the radu of curvatures of ground-wheel contact paths and
the reference pomt are also given

Key W o r d s : B i c y c l e Dynamics, Two Wheeled Vehmle, Nonholonomac Constraint, MultIbody

bust steering controllers for a bicycle Getz et al

1. Introduction
(1993, 1995) derived a controller using steering

Due to the challenges m fully understanding

and rear wheel torques to make their unmanned
bicycle maintain its balance, and, when the steer-
their dynamics and stablhzatlon, two wheeled
mg angle and rear-wheel velocities are non-zero,
vehicles have been attracting a considerable con-
designed a feedback control method to contlol
celn from a number of researchers in the fields
the bicycle to track arbitrary smooth trajectories
of physics, automauon and control Alleyne et
with nonhotonomlc constraints and nonmini-
al (1997) provided both simulation and experi-
mum phases Discussions about internal eqmhb-
mental views at lateral vehicle dynamics for au-
rmm control apphed to the path-tracking with
tomatic steering control Beznos et al (1998) mo-
balance using steering and rear-wheel toiques as
deled a bicycle with gyroscopes that enabled the
inputs were also given Yao et al (1994) present-
vehicle to stabilize itself on an autonomous mo-
ed a kinetic-model-based algorithm for estima-
tion along a straight line as well as along a curve
ting some unstablllzed components in vehicular
In their study, the stabilization unit consisted of
motion In a study of Suryanaryanan et al (2002),
two coupled gyroscopes spmmng m opposite di-
the system dynamics and automated roll-rate con-
rections Chen et al (1998) provided an approach
trol of front and rear-wheel steered bicycles were
to decoupllng the yaw motton from the lateral
proposed Yavln (1997, 1999) dealt with the sta-
motion by using yaw rate feedback Feng et al
bihzation and control of a riderless bicycle by
(1998) applied H~ theory and a three-degree-
using a pedalling torque, a directional to~ que and
of-freedom (DOF) model for synthems of ro-
a rotor mounted on the crossbar that generated a
* Corresponding Author, tdting torque In anotheI study (in&verl, 1999), a
E.mall ckehen@mall dyu edu tw elo~ed loop, tIme-anvarlant and globally stable
TEL -l-82-886-4-851t888, FAX +886 4-8511224 control law fm a blcycle-hke kinematic model
Department of Mechanical and Automatmn Engineer-
ing, Da Yeh UmversUy, 112 Shan-Jlau Rd, Changhua, was introduced Lee et al (2002) built a simple
Tmwan 515 ROC (Manuscript Received November 29, kinematic and dynamic formulation of an un-
2004, Revised December 15, 2004) manned elecmc bicycle with a load mass balance

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 378 Chih Keng Chen, Thank Son Dao and ChiD Kai }rang

system. He also proposed a control algorithm for

e ...............................!.............~.... f
self stabilization using nonlinear control and
, A7 i.,,
then, implemented simulations of straight driving ) ,. t

+ f _
and turning of vehicular motions. L +
Most previous studies dealt with simplified ma~
thcmatical models of two-wheeled vehicles which i
, i",, l)
then were used to implement simulations, analy-
sis and experiments, However, due to their sim- Ill '.,~ !+, ~
plicity, the mathematical models were unable to
present all of the dynamic motions of the sys- (a)
tem in some situations. With that in mind, we
approach by modeling a two-wheeled vehicle as
a nine DOF system in three-dimensional space by
using Lagrange's equations for quasi-coordinates.
Also, the constraints equations are derived from
t " A-," \
wheel ground contact conditions.
This paper is organized as follows : In Section
2, the nine DOF model describing the motion of
two-wheeled vehicles is obtained by Lagrange's o'

method. Constraint conditions between wheels

and the ground are discussed in Section 3. Sec-
,>~
K
tion 4 deals with equilibrium of two wheeled (b)
vehicles and introduces a strategy for equilibrium
Fig. 1 Two-wheeled vehicle model
points search, along with some selected numerical
results. Formulae for calculating the radii of cur-
the saddle and the vehicle b o d y ; e is a point
vatures of ground~wheel contact paths and the
between the vehicle body and the front fork ; o'
reference point are also given. In Section 5 are
and s are the contact points between the ground
some concluding remarks.
and the rear and front wheels, respectively.
There are three SAE-standard coordinate sys-
2. T h r e e - D i m e n s i o n a l Two Wheeled
tems used in the model: (1) an inertial frame
Vehicle Model Fo(I, J, K) fixed on the ground, (2) a reference
frame /'c(ic, jr ke) mounted on the model at
In this section, the compact equations of mo-
point c, and (3) a frame/~(i~, je, ke) placed on
tion with nine degrees of freedom are develop-
the front fork at point e. The coordinate Fe is
ed to describe the dynamics of two-wheeled ve-
obtained by rotating about /'c a rake angle r
hicles. The equations discussed here are develop-
and a steering angle 8 as shown in Fig. 1. In this
cd by LagEangc's equations for quasi coordinates
paper the dynamics of two wheeled vehicles is
(Baruh, 1999).
described by the motion of the reference point c.
Six coordinates are used to designate the posi-
2,1 Coordinate systems
tions and orientations of point c, The other three
The schematic of a typical two-wheeled ve-
coordinate variables are the rotating angles of the
hicle model is shown in Fig. 1. Let the upper-
front and rear wheels and lhe steering angle of the
case letters A. B, D and F represent the vehicle
front fork. According to the foregoing definitions,
body, the rear wheel, the front wheel and the
the generalized coordinates can be written as
fork, respectively, while the lowercase ones a,
b, d, and f are used to designate the center of q-iX g z r ~ 0 a ~ %]T
mass of each part. Reference point c is between where (X, Y, Z) are the position parameters and

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 Turning Dynamws and Equthbnum o f Two- Wheeled Vehwles 379

(#, r 0) are the three Euler angles, which des- The relative rotation f r o m / ' o to _F'cis determined
crabe the relanve posmon and orientation be- by the 3-2 1 Euler angles 6~=[.g, r ~?~z
tween the coordinates .Pc and ff'o ~ ts the steering The angular velocmes of the vehicle body and
angle, r and e r are the rotating angles of the the rear wheel are written m sue as
front and rear wheels, respectively The velocity o t ~ [ O J x O)y (oz~ T
vector as (2)
ro~=~oS,+ro$:A=[o)x o), r (o~] ~
where r [0 q~r 01 r is the angular velocity
whose components are quasi-veiocmes (genera- of the rear wheel relative to the vehicle body
hzed speeds) The vehicle body's angular velocities o&, ~oy and
fox are referred to as yaw, Dtch and roll Iates,
2.2 Dynamics of the nine DOF model respectively The angular velocities are related
For slmphctty, the posmon, velocity and angu- to the nine rates of the three Euler angles by the
lar velocity vectors of body M in frame ~ , will formula
be denoted by r } , v~t and m~ respectively One
roA=Sa)
can write the position vectm of point c m ./lo as
r~ Y z ] r Let the posnton vectors of the [ -sine 0!1
centers of mass of the vehicle body, rear wheel where S = ~ c o s r sin O cos 8
and point e relative to point c as Pa, P~ and Pc, [ c o s O cos r - s i n 0
respectwely That ~s, p ~ - - [ x a 0 z ~ r, pCb _ [x~ 0 The angular velocities of the fork and the front
b~] r and p g = [ x e 0 Ze] r In Fe In a s~mllar wheel can be expressed m Fe as
fashion, the position vectors p / and Pa of the t o eF __ 1D e..k. e
lt~eeOJA ! OJFIA
centers of mass of the fork and the front wheel (3)
e__ etoe r , 0jc-- e e
~ D - - O)F DJF ~r A "1- O)FJA OJDIF
relative to point e are expressed in /'e as p.$=
Ix: 0 z / l r and p w [xa 0 za] r where oJ.f-~a= [0 0 ~]T Is the angular velocity of
One can write the position vectors of the centers the fork retanve to the vehicle body and oje:F -~
of mass of each part an Fo as [0 --q S: 0] r 1S the angular velocity of the front
0
ra=re
OO[~'nT
l , Pa
0 wheel relative to the fork
Denote the velocity vector of point c by vc,
r ~o = r eo+ R T c
pe
O O T C T e
(1) one has vg = [ v x vy ve~r The velocities of all
re=re+R (p~ +Ree0a) parts of the vehicle are expressed as
r:--re +R (pe+R~eO:) O.
Va--Vc+
e ~ c
O)A )(, P a

where R and Ree are the rotatmn matrices from v bc - v e +c ~o~ •

['o to /'c and from /'e to SU~, respectively These (4)
e-- c c e T e e
r e - - r e + eOA• Pe + Ree ( o e • pc)
two matrices are as follows
v /e = VeC + CO:,
~ T
• Se + R~e (r e
• pY:)
[ C(s {)C0S r Sill ~r ~ -$Lq~
! The kmetm energy of each part can be written m
R =1 -sin ~00s 0+cos ~'sln~ COS VC06
0-r$1~10$11IOSlll~' c_BS~$1r! O
terms of centers of mass motton as
ism ~)sm0+c0s~sm4c0s0 -cm 0sin0+sinr r c0s8 cmOc~s,
TA 1 : c , r c . 1 : e,
and

cos8 s m S 0 ]O[ 0 ] [ c o s e O - o n e ] T~ = T 1m b v v: b e~r e,

: vb• l : e, rI~eo~
R~= [ - s i n 3 cos ~ 1
(5)
0 0 1. s i n e 0 cossj

=I
Tr = ~ r1r z : / v: ;e-' )r c V / + T (1 . ~OF)
e~ rIero~
cos 8 c o s e s m a cosOslnr
/

sin~cosscos0 slnasme [ Tn 1 , e,r e ~ 1 " c'r e

!
sin e 0 cos e j

Copyri0ht (C) 2005 NuriMeclia Co., I_td.

 380 Chth-Keng Chen, Thank-Son Dao and Ch~h-Kat Yang

Table 1 Samulauon parametels of a two-wheeled The generalized velocities q are related to the
vehicle quast-vefoemes u by
(a)
u=gq or q=Wu (6)
Name Value Name Value
rna 11 05 (kg) m~ 2 09 (kg) where Y and W are the 9 • transform matrices
ma 3 92(kg) m: 4 04 (kg) defined by
Oa (0 1296, 0, 0 285) pb (--0365, 0, 0503)
pa (0, 0, 0 601) Pe (--7 789, O, 0078) Y: S , w:g LI: 8 -1
p: (0 017, 0, 0 1083) r 0 325(m) _ 0 0
g 9 80665 (m/s x) 15~
and ~1=[32 Y Z ~' r 0 3 e r e y ] r
(b) Lagrange's equatmns for quasl-coordmates can
Moment of Inertia (kg.m 2) be formulated as

Vehicle L=/
o,o7 1 934
o _OoO,] d [87"~+07' A 3Tw+0Vw=ur (7)
dt \ 8u ] 3u Oq Oq
Bkody [ 1 558 ]
87"=urj d lOT\ r- , r

Front Fork [ 0
I : = 0 421 0 384 1 where o~u , ~-~-~-]=u Jtu
U n c - W r Q n c are non-conservative forces The
d, and

004t / coefficient matrix A is

0 109 0 0 '
L,= 0218 0 d Ou OU~w
A=\Y-jq/W=\dt 8q 8q ]
0 109
Wheels
0 204 0 0 "
where
~u [Ou ~ ]
I~: / 0 408 0 - ~ = 8q~' ' aq(
L 0 204 One can rewrite Eq (2) in the standard form of
differential equations as

where TA, TB, Te and T~ are the kinetic energy Ju:-Ju-ArJu+Wr ( ~-)T--wT / o3V ~ r
of the vehicle body, the rear wheel, the fork and \Oq/ +U
the front wheel, respectively ; In, IB, IF and ID
arc the inertia matrices of each corresponding or simply,
body Their values m our slmulanon are shown Ju =Q (8)
in Table 1 The total kmettc energy is obtained
by summing all kinetic energy of all parts By 3. Constraint Conditions for Wheels
subsntutmg the velocmes m Eqs (2), (3), (3)
into (5) gives In the two-wheeled vehicle model, the contact
relanonshlps between the two wheels and the
T = T ~ + 7"B+ T ~ + T o = 2 u r J u ground are assumed to have the properttes of
rolling without shppmg The constraint equations
where J is the inertia matrix of the system, for the reai and the front wheels are correspon-
The potential energy has the form dingly developed as follows
V=mgh
3.1 Rear wheel
or~ Ftg 2 shows the schematic of the rear wheel
Let R r be the posmon vector of contact point o'
V = - g r (m~r o + mbrg + m f r } + mar~)
relanve to the center of mass b of the rear wheel
where g~= [0 0 g ] T The position of the contact point o' is

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 Turning Dynamw~' and Eqmhbrmm o f Two- Wheeled Vehwles 381

0 Vo,=Vb + Voqb

where Vb=Vc"~(~a~iOb and Vo,lb-~r Vector

c F Vo, can be expressed in Fc as
-- ~1 c

vo,-vb+ (Rr) ra+O@cx R r c

C __ C ' C

(t4)
- [Vo.x vo.y v o ' ~ ] r

A
Assume that the wheel rolls without slipping, that
Is v g , = 0 In Fo, vo, can be written as

Vo,=R vo,=[vo,~, vo,,, yo,~,]~=O

C T c
(15)

, J
K vo,~=vo,,(cos r cos r
Fig. 2 Schematm of rear wheel
ro,=rb+R~
Express Eq (9) m I"o and note that the contact
point o' ts on the ground The K component of
ro~ is zero Th~s leads to a holonom~c constraant
Z-sin r (xb-r sin e~)
+cos r cos O(zb+r cos a~) =0
where a~ ts the included angle between Rr and
ke, r IS the radius of the two wheels
Furthermore, denote the intersecting vector be-
tween the ground and the rear wheel planes by
p ~ [x y 0] r, since it is on the I - J plane By the
observatmn that p r~ IS perpendicular to ]e, thel
r dot product is zero That is
(Rpro) rj~=x(cos # sin r sm 0 - s i n r cos 0)
+ y (sin r s m r sm 0 +cos ~ cos 0) ( 1 I)
=0
where j~-~ [0 1 0] r
Equation (11) gives
Similarly, p~ and R~ are perpendmulal By equa-
tmg p r ' R , - (with D~ given in Eq (12)) to zero
yields another holonomlc constraint including the
extra parameter fir
cos r cos O s l n a , - - - s m r
To find the nonholonomm constraint equatmns,
we write the velomty of contact point o' as
where
+v~.,(cos .~ s m r sm O-sin r cos O) (16)
+vo,~(cos r r cos 0 + s i n # s m 0)
(9)
Vo,v= vo,x(sln ~k cos r
+ v o , , ( s m ,P s m r sin 0 + c o s r cos 0) (L7)
+ Vo,z(sln !k sin r C0S 0+COS r sin 0)
vo,z,= -- V~,x s i n r + Vo,y COS r s m 0
(10) (18)
+Vo,~ cos r cos 0
It appears that the constraint vo,e,~O is proved
to be an mtegrable equation, whmh can be obtain-
ed by dffferelstlatmg Eqs (1O) and (13) There-
fore, Eq (18) is tllvtal since ~t is only a veloci-
ty form of the holonom~c constraint Thus, fiom
Eqs (16) and (17) we only have two nonholono-
mlc constraints
vo.dcos f cos r +v~.,(cos r san esm 0-sin r cos 0)
+ vo,,(cos #sm r cos O+sin ~/sm 0) =0
Vo'x(8In ~ COSr + Vo'y(sin ~.~sm
' r sin O- cos ,~cos t?)
+ v~..(sm#sm r cos 0 +cos #sm 0) =0
3.2 Front wheel
The constraint condmons of the front wheel
can be obtained by the same procedures as those
used with the real wheel Vector Ry is used to
designate the posmon of the center of mass d of
the wheel relative to the contact point s The
position of the contact pomt s is
r~=r~+R~ (19)
(13) Wilting Eq (19) m f'o and equating the 1~
component of r~ to zero gives a holonomm con-
straint

Copyright (C) 2 0 0 5 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 382 Chth Keng Chen, Thanh-Son Dao and Chih-Kai Yang

Z-xesln r Coos0+za(-smesm e+~ r 0c0se) vsy=Vsx sin r cos q5

+xa(-sln ~cos~cose+cosr sin ~sma-c0s r cos0 cos~sme) + v s y ( s l n s i n ~bs i n 0 + c o s et cos 0) (25)
+rsm at( cosesm 0sin#+cosa (20) + v s z ( s l n r sin r cos 0 + c o s # s i n 0)
+COS~ Cos0 Cos8Sill8+8111~COS8COSS) vs..= - v s ~ s i n r v~, cos r s m 0
+ r cosa~(-sm~sm&cos r cos0 ~ e) -0 (26)
+ v ~ cos r cos O
where oq is the included angle between R I and k~ It is also proved that Eq (26) can be obtained by
The intersecting vector between the glound and differenuatmg Eqs (20) and (22) Hence, Eqs
the front wheel planes, p~-, can be obtamed by (24) and (25) give two nonholonomm constramts
equating p~'j~ to zero, that gives v~cos ~ cos r r san r sin 0-sin ~ cos O)
+vsz(cos ~ksm r cos 0 + s i n ~ksm 0 ) = 0
vsxstn ~ cos ~b+Vs~(Sln~r s m # sin 0+cos (t cos 0)
+v~(sm #sin ~bcos 0-cos #sin 0) =0
I (e~ a(Sltl~}Slll~S,ll0+C~ }}C(~0)-Sill ~Caq6~SlllaC~88/1 (2 1)
3.3 C o n s t r a i n t Jaeohian m a t r i x
={ ~ $(c0s#sinesm0-sinV~ 0)-cesPc0sesm8c~se l As a result, eight constraints are obtained in
[ +m ~sme(cosOsm~ O~stn~s,nO) j Eqs (10), (13), (16), (17), (20), (22), (24) and
(25) Among these, there are four holonomlc
and four nonholonomlc constraints To derive the
Another holonomlc constraint can be found by constraint equations, two algebraic variables, ar
performing p s ' R F - - 0 That gives and c~s, were introduced Hence, the generalized
(cos r sm 0 sm a - c o s r cos 0 cos 6'sm e coordinate and quasi velocity vectors are expand-
- s i n ~bcos a cos e) cos a; (22) ed to
+ (cos r cos 0 cos e - s i n ~ sm s)sm a j - 0 q~-[X Y z r ~ a 0 r Cs ar as] r
To find the nonholonomm constraints of the front U=[vx y, v~ o)x o9~ co, a ~ ~e a~ as] T
wheel, we express the velocity of the contact point Differentiate all the holonomie constraints to
s as follows yield the velocity form, which with other non-
holonomlc constraints can be written as
Vs-- Ve-~-Vdm-~-Vs/d
BU=0 (27)
where V e = V e + COAXPc, Vdle-- COFXPal, and Vsm =
where B is an 8 • 11 matrix, referred to as con-
Rs. Vector vs can be written in 72 as
straint Jacoblan matrix The equations of motion
C-- e C C T with constraint condmons now become
Vs--Vc + O)APe+ Rce( CO~X PS)
+ (R~) ~.,+ RL(co5 +R}) (23)
q~=W~U
= [ v ~ v,y v,.] r
J~U=Q~+ r-Br2 (28)
W~th the assumptmn of n o n - s h p tolhng of the BU=0
wheel and zero-veloclty motion of the contact
point s, one has v w Furthermore, in /'o, Eq where We = l is an IlXll matrix,
(23) becomes 0
v~=RTv~- = [v~, v~,. v..,] ~
J~= 0 is an 11• generalized mass
where
0
Vsx.=V,x COS r COS
+v,y(cos # sin r sin 0 - s i n # cos 0) (24) matrix, Q e = is vector of apphed forces,
+Vsz(Cos ~ S l n ~b COS 0 + S l n r s m 0)

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 Turning Dynamics and Equilibrium of Two Wheeled Vehkqes
represents the eight Lagrange multipliers or con-
straint forces coupled to the system by the 8 • 11
constraint Jacobian matrix B, and z" is the gener-
alized nonconservative /brce vector.
4. Equilibrium of Two-Wheeled
Vehicles
Equilibrium is an essential and very useful
concept in dynamics. For a multibody dynamic
system, equilibrium is defined as the state when
the total torce acting on the system is zero (Baruh,
1999). For a two-wheeled vehicle system, equi-
librium is necessary to understand its interesting
dynamic behaviors and to control file vehicle to
follow a given circular path or a straight line.
This section discusses an important question
coming to mind when deMing with the equilibri-
um oftwo~wheeJ.ed vehicles on : How to calculate
the equilibrium points of two wheeled vehicles'
dynamics.
4.1 Equilibrium points searching strategy
To calculate the equilibrium poinls of a two
wheeled vehicle system one can utilize 111e cot>
stralnt equations to compute the stale variables
when the system is at equilibrium. Equalion (28)
suggests that
JeU=Q~+ r BTa (29)
Practice shows that only the steering torque is
needed to control the vehicle to an equilibrium
point+ Therefore, in the force vector r, only the
scventh element, the steering torque ra. is nonzero
is necessary. That is *'~ [0, --, 0, ra, 0, "--, 0] r.
Two-wheeled vehicle dynamics and the com-
putation of constraint equations are implemented
in numerical simulations. It: order to eliminate
the kagrange multipliers in the constraint equa-
tions, Eq. (29) is muhiplied by the orthogonal
complement of matrix B, matrix T, so that T B T=
0. t"quatlon (29) thu~ becomes
TJflS-TQ~,+Tr (30)
it is clear that all the state variables must satisfy
the constraint equations. ] lowever, fi appears that
the constraint equa{ions are independent of 1he
Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.
383
variables X , ]7 r gh~and qh~ ; and at equilibrium
state: ~ d r = d ' / = 0 . Therefore, there are still
fourteen among totally twenty two state variables
lo be determined. The four holonomic constraints
in Eqs, (10), (13), (20) and (22) can be derived
to yield their time rates, which are also constraint
equations, l-lence, there are totally twelve con-
straint equations.
The Newton's second law can be used to cal
culate the equilibrium points of the system by
setting the acceleration term in Eq. (30) to zero.
The constrain~ condition thus is defined as
TQ~.+Tr-0 {31)
The searching steps for equilibrium points then
can be summarized as follows
(1) Given ,0, change the value of Vx in a cer~
lain range, e.g., I ) O < U x ' Q U 1 9 F o r e a c h pair of
(0, vx), solve for all file state variables and
calculate the two matrices B and Qe+
(2) Compule the orthogonal complement ma-
trix T from B : there are a number of methods to
calculate T, the Pseudo Upper Triangular De:
composhion Method (Amirouche, 1992) is one of
lhem.
(3) Verify whether E q (31) is safis[ied.
Simulation results show that, even at equili-
brium state, d~ere still exists a small amount of
steering torque z~ to maintain the vehicle's stabi-
lization. It is ,'easonab[e because this torque is
necessary to counteract the sell" aligning torque,
which tends to align the wheel plane with the
direction of mo~ion when the angles a'r and as
a r e n o i1ZelO,
\ 6
. / ~ 1 1 ~i '
Fig. 3 Schematic offiont wheel
 384 Chih-Keng Chen, Thanh-Son Dao and C&h-Kai Yang

The searchmg results are selecttvely shown m 4.2 Radii of curvatures

Table 2. These are unstable e q m h b r l u m points,
that is, when the vehicle moves away from an
e q u t h b r m m state, it never returns w~thout a con-
troller Fig 7 shows the relattonshlp between vx
and the steering angle 8 when the vehicle ~s at
e q u l h b r m m with constant 0 angles F~g 7 m-
d~cates that with a constant 0, 8 decreases when
vx increases. At high speeds, the change m the
slope of the curves ~s much milder than ~t ~s at
low speeds
Table 2 Selected equthbrmm points
Fig 4 shows a trajectory of the vehicle at an
e q u d l b r I u m point Th~s trajectory is a circular
path Simply by using g e o m e m c relatlonshtps, the
radius of any trajectory of two-wheeled vehicles
can be computed
Let o', s be the contact points of the rear and
the fiont wheels wtth the ground, respectwely,
and c be the reference point, as shown m F~g 1
[b) T h e ladi1 of curvatures of points d , S and C
of the given two-wheeled vehicle system at any
p o s m o n are dtagrammatized in F~g 5 It ap-
pears that these three points are on three different

o~_~g) lO 15 20 25
~tates \
X (km/h) NAC NAC NAC NAC
Y (kin/h) NAC NAC NAC NAC
Z (kin/h) 0 0 0 0
W (kin/h) tO 283 9552 837r~ 661t
v, (kin/h) 0 750 [ 168 I 568 2 065
Vz (kin/h) --0 167 0 373 --0 657 --1 065
~' (rad/s) 0581 0 906 1 291 1 798
~b (rad/s) 0 0 0 0
0 (tad/s) 0 0 0 0
(tad/s) 0 0 0 0
if, (rad/s)' 9 051 --8 772 8 289 --7 608 Y lca~
ffj (rad/s) 9 390 --9 574 10148 --11085 Fig. 4 TraJectory of two wheeled vehtcle at equl-
0t~ (tad/s) 0 0 0 0 hbrmm
aV (rad/s) 0 0 0 0
X (m) NAC NAC NAC NAC
_ L
Y (m) NAC NAC NAC NAC
0 ~ ,~ ~ B . .
Z (m) - 0 813 --0 796 --0 774 --0 747
~k (deg) NAC NAC NAC NAC
~b (deg) --0 I75 --0329 --0424 --0562
o (aeg) to 15 20 25
(deg) 14 739 22 542 31 157 41 731
~6,, (deg) NAC NAC NAC NAC
4 , (deg) NAC NAC NAC NAC
m (deg) --0 178 --034t --0452 0366
a's (deg) I 1 787 7 615 1 450 7 355
r~ (N m) ~00931 00745 --00201 --00010
Re (m) 49418 2 9514 1 8459 I 0745 0'
NAC stands for "Not a constant" ]Fig. 5 Kadn of curvatures

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 Turning D y n a m i c s a n d Equik'brium o f Two- W h e e l e d Vehide.r 385

curvatures, bl.iI share one colllnlol? center, this L, Lf

point is designated by O* in Fig. 5. Let 8s> be cos & + L r tan ~p
R~ sin &
lhe projection of lhe steering angle ,~ on the (37)
ground. This leads to sin ~.,
=L+rsine,. ~'cos5'o F r s i n c 6 t a n &
.
,=s,gn 8Xcos-'
( iP,p ,l•. . p / )
(32)
sin &,

and tile radius of' cu]valure of th,a ref'crence

where Pr and p / are the intersecling vectors of point c
the ground with the rear and the front wheel
R ( ' - - .......... R, k~sin 0
planes, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. , x

In Fig. 5, let A be the contact point of the CO~;rt.al,7 I( )_, /~ )~

L \ /(, & sin 6) ]
rear wheel with the ground when (?--0, I,~ be the (38)
R< h~sin 0
intersection of the extended line of the fork with
cos t n ' [ 2:,,: r s i n a , ' ~ ]
tile ground. Let k ~ > 0 be the distance from the a ~ . - R F h ~ s i n O /J
reference poim c to the ground when ~9=0. One
where l * --.r~>+rsma~.
has
Tile relationship between vx, 8 and R~ when
L A B - .r~Xe+(hc Ze)tan e (33) the vehicle is a* equilibrium is plotted m Fig. 8.

where E is the rake zmgle of the fork and ~- is

. . . . . . .
r r
the radius of d~c two whccls. Their values are
given in Table 1, One should note that xb and ,re
!.-e-~, :c< ]
are negalive constams. i
The dislance rrorll ()" 10 /v~ is given by

s r sin a,- (34)

and the distance from s lo t3' is

LsslT- r s i n c0 (35)

F r o m Fig. 6, the rad ius of curvature of poinl o' on

the rear wheel thus can be t~rmulated as ~.]-

sin gs - :~ ,~ .,,:, s :'~, ,,~

L,.----L/~. L-f-~"sin a, --- r . _ , < :

cos o~ cos ~p
" ....... :t"ana-~ . . . . . . . . . . . . -{an ~; . . . . . . . . (36) Fig. Relationship betw'een t.'x and ~ with constant
0
the radius of curvature of point x on the front
wheel

!
[,
C-'I%
t I~

=,: .

R, /
/

2 "...

/
0
Fi~. 6 Determine 1}', ~,nd R:. Fig, 8 Relationship between Vx, 8 and /q~.

Copyright (C) 2005 NuriMedia Co., Ltd.

 386 Chth-Keng Chen, Thanh-Son Dao and Chth-Kal Yang
It can be seen that the radius Rc seems to be
dependent on the steering angle only, the velocity
Vx has very httle effect on Rc It ~s what we ex-
pected, because the radii of curvatures of the
vehicle are only dependent on the steering angle 8
and the roll angle O, which are proved m Eqs
(36), (37) and (38) A change in Vx can lead to
a change m 0, but 0 does not influence Rc very
much
5. Conclusions
In this paper, a nine DOF dynamic model of
two-wheeled vehicles ts developed using Lagr-
ange's equatmns for quasl-coordlnates Consider-
mg the contact relationship between the wheels
and the ground surface, the constraint condmons,
including four holonomlc and four nonholono-
talC constraints, can be derived By comblmng the
nonholonomic constraints and the velocity forms
of holollomic constlamts, the constraint Jacoblan
matrix can be obtained With the developed equa-
tions of motmn and constraints, the equlhbrium
of two-wheeled vehicles can be fully investigat-
ed The dynamic model m this study provides
a fundamental in understanding the interesting
dynamic behaviors of two wheeled vehicles With
this model, one can atso Implement simulations,
design controllers and do experiments
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the National
Science Council of the Republic of China, Tal-
wan, for financmlly suppomng the research under
project number NSC 92 2213-E-212-006
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