The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Gyroscopic stabilisers for powered two-wheeled vehicles

Gyroscopic stabilisers for powered two-wheeled vehicles
Gyroscopic stabilisers for powered two-wheeled vehicles
This paper illustrates the potential of a gyroscopic stabiliser for the stabilisation of single-track vehicles, at low and high speed as well as during braking. Alternative systems are considered, including single and twin counter-rotating gyroscopes, spinning and precessing with respect to different axes, either freely (passive stabilisers) or in a controlled way (active stabilisers). A suitable mathematical model has been developed and stability has been investigated both by eigenvalue calculation and time domain simulations. It has been found that the most effective configuration is one where the gyroscope(s) spin with respect to an axis parallel to the wheels' spin axis and swing with respect to the vehicle yaw axis. Passive systems may effectively stabilise both weave and wobble at medium and high speed, but cannot stabilise the vehicle at low and zero speed. On the contrary, actively controlled gyroscopes are capable of stabilising the vehicle in its whole range of operating speed, as well as during braking. The alteration of the original vehicle handling characteristics is negligible when active counter-rotating gyroscopes are used, and still acceptable if a single gyroscope is adopted instead.
Motorcycles, powered two wheelers (PTWs), single-track vehicles, Stability, gyroscopic stabilisation
0042-3114
Lot, Roberto
ceb0ca9c-6211-4051-a7b8-90fd6f0a6d78
Fleming, James
b59cb762-da45-43b1-b930-13dd9f26e148
Lot, Roberto
ceb0ca9c-6211-4051-a7b8-90fd6f0a6d78
Fleming, James
b59cb762-da45-43b1-b930-13dd9f26e148

Lot, Roberto and Fleming, James (2018) Gyroscopic stabilisers for powered two-wheeled vehicles. Vehicle System Dynamics. (doi:10.1080/00423114.2018.1506588).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper illustrates the potential of a gyroscopic stabiliser for the stabilisation of single-track vehicles, at low and high speed as well as during braking. Alternative systems are considered, including single and twin counter-rotating gyroscopes, spinning and precessing with respect to different axes, either freely (passive stabilisers) or in a controlled way (active stabilisers). A suitable mathematical model has been developed and stability has been investigated both by eigenvalue calculation and time domain simulations. It has been found that the most effective configuration is one where the gyroscope(s) spin with respect to an axis parallel to the wheels' spin axis and swing with respect to the vehicle yaw axis. Passive systems may effectively stabilise both weave and wobble at medium and high speed, but cannot stabilise the vehicle at low and zero speed. On the contrary, actively controlled gyroscopes are capable of stabilising the vehicle in its whole range of operating speed, as well as during braking. The alteration of the original vehicle handling characteristics is negligible when active counter-rotating gyroscopes are used, and still acceptable if a single gyroscope is adopted instead.

Text
_mainGyroStabilizers4PTW - Accepted Manuscript
Download (1MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 24 July 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 August 2018
Keywords: Motorcycles, powered two wheelers (PTWs), single-track vehicles, Stability, gyroscopic stabilisation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 424458
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/424458
ISSN: 0042-3114
PURE UUID: 45b7aeb8-7c70-4240-9455-43138acf627c
ORCID for Roberto Lot: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5022-5724
ORCID for James Fleming: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2936-4644

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 05 Oct 2018 11:37
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:02

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Roberto Lot ORCID iD
Author: James Fleming ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×