Integrated Wheelie-Traction Controller for Maximum Acceleration in High Performance Electric Motorcycle

In motorcycles, traction control is an essential feature for both performance and safety. A traction control strategy usually focuses on keeping the slip of the driving wheels in a stable region. One unique phenomenon for motorcycles is the wheelie, which hasn’t been addressed for electric motorcycles. In this paper, an Integrated Wheelie-Traction Control System (IWTCS) is designed to accelerate the motorcycle as fast as possible. The proposed IWTCS consists of a classical Proportional-Integral control algorithm for traction control and a Wheelie Detector (WD) that uses a Kalman-Filter for wheelie intervention. The developed IWTCS is analyzed in the Quarter Mile scenario and compared against a controller based on synthetic user behavior with zero delays to wheelies and a TCS without Wheelie Control. The results demonstrate that the IWTCS can match the synthetic user behavior performance in quarter mile scenario and reduce both the wheelie duration and keep body pitch angle stable to improve safety and comfort. When compared to the TCS without Wheelie Control, the IWTCS, improves average acceleration by ~3% and significantly reduces both body pitch angle and total wheelie duration.