Dynamics of narrow tilting vehicles

R. Rajamani, J. Gohl, L. Alexander, P. Starr

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

Narrow commuter vehicles can address many congestion, parking and pollution issues associated with urban transportation. In making narrow vehicles safe, comfortable and acceptable to the public, active tilt control systems are likely to play a crucial role. This paper concentrates on developing a dynamic model for narrow vehicles that can be used for the design and evaluation of active tilt control systems. The model has four degrees of freedom including lateral and tilt dynamics. The influence of gyroscopic forces due to rotating wheels and the influence of front wheel trail are included but secondary coupling effects are ignored so as to keep the model tractable. The model is used in this paper to understand the influence of vehicle tilt on the steering angle required for cornering, the desired tilt angle for any specified cornering maneuver and the influence of gyroscopic moments on transient tilting/cornering maneuvers. A study of the model equations also provides insight into how narrow vehicles can be designed so as to be self-stabilizing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)209-231
Number of pages23
JournalMathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems
Volume9
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2003

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding for this work provided by the ITS-Institute, University of Minnesota.

Keywords

  • Narrow vehicles
  • Tilting vehicle dynamics
  • Tilting vehicles

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