Motorcycle Testing Robots

Motorcycles are being designed with greater functionality, higher performance, and higher speed. The motorcycle test rider must be highly skilled because the rider himself, his body type, his position, as well as the repeatability of his actions affect the usefulness of the test. Not to mention that in order to test the motorcycle at the edges of its capability, there is a possibility of injury for the test rider. In order to solve these problems–repeatability of tests and possibility of injury–The use of some sort of remote control comes to mind. After all, every little boy has probably driven a small scale remote control motorcycle. But simply wiring up the motorcycle itself to a remote controller isn’t the answer because electronic response isn’t all that is being tested. The tests require a human shape and weight on the cycle, plus part of the test is control pressure and responsiveness. The answer is a human shaped motorcycle riding robot.

In 2002, Yahama Motor began using a control system for automated testing of their motorcycles by a human-shaped robot. In this measurement system, the anthropomorphic robot controls the accelerator, shift, and clutch operations on a driving test bench.

The robot rides the motorcycle in a wind tunnel. The motorcycle stays on the chassis dynamo and wind flows from front to back of the cycle at the same speed as the running speed of the cycle. The driving patterns can be controlled automatically using the built-in driving programs, so the operator only has to press the start button in the operation room to have the robot carry out the evaluation test. The control data gives drive commands to the robot, and sets the environment and load conditions. As the test progresses, the driving status and data from load cells are recorded.