Low‐Speed Control Experiment of Motorcycles Using SPACAR Model

The main stream of development of autonomous driving technology (ADT) is for four-wheel motor vehicles. ADT for motorcycles has received scant attention. The motorcycle stability tends to diminish when being driven at extremely low speed. This study addresses how a motorcycle should be stabilized under low-speed driving. To obtain a linearized motorcycle model without skidding, we introduce a model based on SPACAR, a finite element method computation program. Moreover, velocity-dependent gain-scheduling linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is applied. The experimental results demonstrate stabilized driving responses at 1.5 km/h, which is slower than a person's typical walking speed.