Trajectory exploration of a rigid motorcycle model

This paper introduces a rigid motorcycle model that captures many important aspects of real motorcycle dynamics in- cluding sliding and load transfer. The model is used to demonstrate a dynamic inversion procedure which maps a desired flatland tra- jectory into a corresponding (state-input) trajectory for the rigid motorcycle model. This inverse trajectory is the solution of an op- timal control problem that is computed using the projection oper- ator approach for the optimization of trajectory functionals,a re- cently developed optimization technique. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is illustrated using a trajectory computation for a realistic path that is traversed with a demanding speed profile. The rigid motorcycle model detailed in this paper is also of interest as a nontrivial example of a mechanical system with nonideal holo- nomic constraints.