High-Performance Motorbike Lean Angle Estimation

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time, high-accuracy lean angle estimation method for motorbikes using onboard sensors and a novel two-stage observer, validated through theoretical analysis and race-track experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a new two-stage state observer based on a coordinated manoeuvre assumption, improving lean angle estimation accuracy for high-performance motorbikes.

Findings

The observer is proven stable through theoretical analysis.

Experimental results show superior performance over existing methods.

Numerical comparisons validate the estimator's accuracy in realistic scenarios.

Abstract

This work deals with the real-time estimation of the lean angle of high-performance motorbikes. The estimate is obtained through measurements provided by an onboard inertial sensor and a GNSS receiver. A two-stage state observer, implementing a kinematic model developed under the novel assumption of coordinated manoeuvre, processes these measurements. A theoretical analysis demonstrates the observer's stability, while a covariance analysis assesses the estimate's accuracy and error bounds. Finally, experimental results obtained on race-track tests and numerical comparisons, with competitive approaches, in simulated realistic scenarios show the superior performance of the proposed estimator.