Driver's movements influence on the lateral dynamic of a sport motorbike

The aim of this work is to investigate how the driver's movements influence the behavior of the motorcycle. In the past, many interesting researches about this topic were made to examine the coupled effects in the lateral dynamics of the global mechanical system, but only in a numerical approach, most of all through multibody models. In this paper, the interaction between motorcycle and rider is analyzed in an experimental way, using a sport motorbike. A non contact vision based measurement system was developed to identify the position of the driver, using a camera and a target fixed to the pilot's back. Two kinds of tests were executed: the first examines the differences in vehicle's performance when the driver moves his upper-body or not, the second one inspects the effects of the driving style of different riders. Both steady state and transient manoeuvres were performed to achieve these goals. During the analysis, the physical quantities concerning the system's dynamic are summarized by means of synthesis indices deriving from bibliography or developed specifically for this work.