Abstract
Keywords - motorcycle, semi-active damper, braking, experiments, simulation
The aim of this paper is to prove the robustness of the so-called "MiniMax" damper control strategy for various driving situations of cars and to analyze the feasibility of a "MiniMax" controller for motorcycles. The "MiniMax" control strategy was developed in a former research project at TU Darmstadt.
The paper presents the results of approx. one thousand ABS-controlled braking tests with a passenger car. The parameters initial velocity, friction coefficient, type of pavement and type of tires were varied. With statistical methods it is proven that the damper control strategy reduces the braking distance significantly for a couple of the test conditions which are all of practical relevance. As a result, the control strategy works very robust: In none of the tested cases, a significant inferiority of the damping control to the best passive damping was observed.
This paper also investigates the chances to reduce the braking distance for motorcycles. Simulation results acquired from a half-car model suggest a transferability of the results to motorcycles.