Effectiveness of Actuating on Rectilinear Bicycle Braking Dynamics

The aim of this study is to quantize the effectiveness of actuating on bicycle braking dynamics with focus on critical rectilinear maneuvers, namely wheel-lock and nose-over. Those situations define the physical limits of rectilinear bicycle braking. The objective is to gain a profound understanding of the limits of unactuated vehicle dynamics by creating a multibody model that is parametrized and validated via an instrumented bicycle. A good model accuracy is obtained modeling the rider as a point mass located at the experimentally determined center of gravity and using tire slip curves which are also gained by experiment. In the second step the obtained system knowledge is used to evaluate possible ways of actuation, which on the one hand could assist the rider not to leave the limits of braking dynamics and on the other hand extend them. Researched types of actuation are brake torque modulation, suspension fork locking as well as active manipulation of the riders center of gravity by a seatpost actuator.