Rider's net moment estimation using control force of motion system for bicycle simulator

One of the challenging problems with bicycle simulators is to deal with the virtual bicycle dynamics that is coupled with rider’s motion. For the virtual bicycle dynamics calculation and the real time simulation, it is necessary to identify the control inputs from the rider as well as the virtual environments. The steering, pedaling, and braking torques can be easily measured by using torque sensors and the virtual environments can be generated and provided by a visual system. However, direct measurement of the rider’s net moment that significantly affects the bicycle motion is not practical. In this work, it is shown that six control forces of the Stewart platform-based motion system can be used for effective estimation of the rider’s net moment, incorporated with the sliding mode controller with perturbation estimation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •