Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766

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Control Engineering Practice

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conengprac

Launch control for sport motorcycles: A clutch-based approach$

Paolo Giani a, Mara Tanelli a,n, Sergio M. Savaresi a, Mario Santucci b
a
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
b
Piaggio Group & C. S.p.A., Viale R. Piaggio 25, 56025 Pontedera (PI), Italy

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Launch control is an innovative active system which offers an appealing automatic feature for sport
Received 3 October 2012 motorcycles. Due to the high power of the engine and to the complexity of the torque transfer dynamics
Accepted 9 August 2013 driving a smooth and safe start from a standstill might be difficult for non-expert riders in some working
Available online 28 September 2013
conditions. As such, an active controller capable of safely managing the vehicle acceleration from a
Keywords: standing start might effectively support the rider as far as both safety and performance are concerned.
Launch control To control such a maneuver, two possible actuators can be employed: the engine throttle and the clutch.
Clutch control This paper illustrates the analysis and the design of a clutch-based launch controller for sport
Motorcycle dynamics motorcycles, demonstrating that it allows the accurate tracking of an acceleration set-point thanks
Motorcycle control
to a dedicated clutch position controller. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the
Automotive systems
effectiveness of the proposed approach.
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction wearing due to over-heating or excessive torque flow. Usually, launch

In the racing context, launch control typically refers to an electronic
aid used to assist the driver during the departure maneuver.
This maneuver consists of accelerating from a standing start to gain
the most effective “launch”. It is known that this operation is crucial
for an effective departure and a good maneuver can often guarantee
a good placing at the end of the competition.
Electronic launch control is probably more commonly known
as additional feature for cars, see e.g., Ross and Schneider (2010)
and Popa (2011). Launch control is widespread in almost all high-
end cars, and usually automotive manufacturers incorporate
launch control into their automated gearboxes.
The launch controller manages the torque transferred to the
driving wheels based on appropriate measurements (such as vehicle
speed and/or acceleration) or estimates (the torque at the driving
wheels and/or the wheel slip). The launch controller acts on the
vehicle so as to track a desired reference profile of the controlled
variable, which is computed in order to make the vehicle as fast
as possible in a smooth manner, while avoiding spinning of the
driving wheels. All these features are constrained to avoid engine
failure due to over-revving or to minimize both clutch and gearbox
☆
This work was partially supported by MIUR project “New methods for
Identification and Adaptive Control for Industrial Systems” and by Piaggio Group
& C. S.p.A.
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 39 02 2399 3621; fax: þ 39 02 2399 3412.
E-mail addresses: giani@elet.polimi.it (P. Giani),
tanelli@elet.polimi.it (M. Tanelli), savaresi@elet.polimi.it (S.M. Savaresi),
mario.santucci@piaggio.com (M. Santucci).
control operates only at the start of movement of the vehicle,
managing its departure from standstill. The controller is then
disabled when an end-of-launch condition holds.
To realize a launch controller, in principle, one has to regulate
both the throttle opening (so as to act on the available engine torque)
and the clutch position (in order to control the percentage of the
available torque that actually acts on the driving wheels). Thus,
to optimally perform such a maneuver, the combined use of both
actuators would be welcome. However, this is not always possible,
due to the need of both a drive-by-wire and a controllable clutch
vehicle architecture.
In the scientific literature, many research efforts were devoted
to automatic driveline systems for different types of vehicle (see
Kiencke & Nielsen, 2000, where heavy vehicles are considered,
or Dolcini, Canudas-de Wit, & Béchart, 2010; Glielmo, Iannelli,
Vacca, & Vasca, 2006; Haj-Fraj & Pfeiffer, 2001; Kulkarni, Shim, &
Zhang, 2007; Lee, Hebbale, Bai, & Samie, 2006; Lin, Chang,
& Li, 2011; Lucente, Montanari, & Rossi, 2005; Samie, Lee, Heb-
bale, & Kao, 2007 in which the focus is on passenger and sport
cars). Most of these works are tailored to four-wheeled vehicles,
while the issue is still mostly unexplored in the two-wheeled vehi-
cles field.
In this context, the launch controller manages the acceleration
phase of the vehicle so as to achieve the required performances.
Racing drivers have only a very short time to perform a compe-
titive acceleration and the high power delivery to the driven
wheels cannot easily be managed even by the most skilled drivers.
Only a few works are devoted to analysis and design of launch
controller for vehicles. Moreover, the two aforementioned actuators

0967-0661/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2013.08.005
 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766
Fig. 1. Schematic view of the hydraulic layout of the vehicle transmission.
(i.e., the throttle and the clutch) are usually used separately, see e.g.,
Mack (2003) in which the launch control is performed by regulating
the throttle opening, or Slicker and Loh (1996), Liu (1999), and
Colvin, Ortmann, Kraska, and Encelewski (2005), where only the
clutch is used to perform the launch maneuver. To our best knowl-
edge, even less results are available for motorcycles. In Panzani et al.
(2010), a throttle-based launch strategy is presented, which con-
stitutes one of the first attempts to solve the problem for this class
of vehicles.
Based on this analysis, we can say that the main strength of the
proposed approach is its detailed validation in an experimental
setting, which of course poses much more problems than a sim-
ulation-based one, where the computational constraints, the sen-
sors and actuator imperfections and the related measurement
errors, saturations, hysteresis and the like are not present. Furthe-
rmore, as far as the control approach is concerned, our method is
based on a standard control design method, with ad hoc refine-
ments to deal with the aforementioned limitations of the vehicle
instrumentation.
As far as motorcycle control is concerned, recently different sub-
systems have been analyzed in the scientific literature. Specifically,
solutions were proposed to address active braking (see Corno,
Savaresi, & Balas, 2009; Corno, Savaresi, Tanelli, & Fabbri, 2008; Cos-
salter, Lot, & Maggio, 2004; Savino, Pierini, & Baldanzini, 2012;
Tanelli, Corno, Boniolo, & Savaresi, 2009), traction control (see Mas-
saro, Sartori, & Lot, 2011; Tanelli, Vecchio, Corno, Ferrara, & Savaresi,
2009), steering control (see De Filippi, Tanelli, Corno, Savaresi,
& Fabbri, 2011; Evangelou, Limebeer, Sharp, & Smith, 2006, 2007;
Sharp, 2001) and stability control (see De Filippi, Tanelli, Corno,
& Savaresi, 2010, 2011), but —to our best knowledge— no contribu-
tions are available which address the launch control problem.
In Panzani et al. (2010), a throttle-based launch strategy is pre-
sented, which constitutes one of the first attempts to solve the
problem for this class of vehicles.
In the present work, launch control is performed regulating the
clutch opening, instead of the throttle request. In this context, this
work constitutes one of the first contributions to the literature.
To effectively perform the launch, a proper clutch position con-
troller has to be designed first. In the literature, several research
efforts were devoted to the analysis and to control clutch-based
automotive systems, see e.g, Sun and Hebbale (2005), Gander
and Loibl (1999), and Giani, Tanelli, Savaresi, and Santucci (in
press). A proper and coordinated use of the clutch system can
1757
considerably improve the vehicle performance, thus increasing the
efficiency and the rapidity of the maneuver, see e.g., Savaresi,
Tanelli, Taroni, Previdi, and Bittanti (2006) and Horn, Bamberger,
Michau, and Pindl (2003).
To achieve the desired goals, the present work aims first at
identifying an effective control-oriented model of a motorcycle
equipped with an electro-hydraulic clutch and at proposing a con-
trol scheme that allows us to realize a precise management of the
launch maneuver. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2
provides a description of the transmission system, while Section 3
introduces the launch control problem. Further, Section 4 is devoted
to the clutch dynamics identification and position controller design.
In Section 5, an acceleration-based launch controller is proposed
and tuned. Finally, Section 6 examines the experimental results, fav-
orably demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach,
and comparing the acceleration-based approach with that based
on controlling the time variation of the transmission ratio, so as to
highlight relative merits and drawbacks.
2. System description
The test vehicle considered in this work is an instrumented
sport motorcycle, 750 cc and approximately 100 HP, equipped
with a controllable gearbox. A schematic view of the transmission
system is displayed in Fig. 1. For more details on the experimental
layout refer to Giani et al. (2011).
To improve the readability, the most important variables of
the system and their respective symbols that will be used in the
following are reported in Table 1.
The clutch mechanically connects the engine to the rear wheel.
The transferred torque depends on the relative position of its
plates, which is adjustable by regulating the oil pressure in
the hydraulic clutch actuator chamber. Such a pressure can be
controlled both by the rider via the manual clutch lever and by the
electronic control unit (ECU) via a proportional electro-hydraulic
valve (EVC). The EVC position sensor measures the displacement
of the EVC valves that can be considered proportional to the true
displacement of the clutch plates.
Next to the clutch there is the gearbox, which, based on the barrel
position, can modify the transmission ratio between its input and
output shafts. The barrel can assume six different positions (corre-
sponding to the six gears of the motorcycle) that can be sequentially
1758 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766
selected by the ECU via two 3-way directional electro-hyd-
raulic valves (EVU and EVD for up and down gear shifts, respectively,
which can assume an open, closed and hold position). Thus, for
performing a gear shift, the ECU turns on the EVU (or EVD) valve;
when the barrel position reaches the desired one, the hold phase
starts. Finally, when the hold time Th interval is elapsed, the valve is
switched off.
All hydraulic users share a common hydraulic circuit, consti-
tuted by an oil tank and an accumulator, the pressure of which is
measured by means of the pressure sensor PS (see Fig. 1) and is
kept as constant as possible with an oil pump.
Finally, the motorcycle is equipped with a brake switch sensor
BS, which detects when the brake lever is pulled by the rider, and
two buttons, UB and DB, that are used to request an automatic up
or down gear shift, respectively. Other useful information (e.g.,
engine speed ωe , vehicle acceleration and throttle handle opening)
can be accessed via the motorcycle CAN bus, with a refresh rate of
200 ms.
3. Launch control: problem setting
To properly control the launch maneuver, a precise regulation
of the clutch position is required. More precisely, in launch operation,
the clutch is required to track an almost constant position set-point.
Note that the rider typically fully opens the throttle handle while
a proper clutch control ensures a constant traction force (the maxi-
mum allowable without wheel slippage) to the wheel.
In this setting, the clutch position will be considered as the sys-
tem control variable while the output variable will be the vehicle
longitudinal acceleration, which is the quantity more directly
related to driveability and rider's comfort. The high-level block
diagram of the control system is depicted in Fig. 2: based on the thr-
ottle handle opening, the engine provides a torque Te to its output
shaft, which rotates with angular speed ωe . According to the clutch
position x, a percentage of Te is transferred to the gearbox that,
Table 1
System variables and symbols.
Symbol Variable
ωg Angular speed of the clutch input shaft
ωc Angular speed of the clutch output shaft
ωe Angular speed of the engine
τ ¼ ωg =ωc Transmission ratio
v Vehicle speed
x Clutch position
xo Desired value of the clutch position (controller set-point value)
xk Kiss-point position
u PWM input of the clutch current input command
Fig. 2. Control-oriented block diagram of the considered system.
together with the chain and the rear-wheel, converts it into an equi-
valent longitudinal force Fw acting on vehicle center of mass. Finally,
the effective longitudinal force Fa that makes the vehicle accelerate
is given by the difference between the longitudinal force Fw and the
friction force Ff, which opposes to the vehicle motion and is
a function of the vehicle speed v.
Remark 3.1. The choice of the controlled variable in a launch
controller is not unique. Specifically, besides acceleration, the trans-
mission ratio τ ¼ ωg =ωe (in which ωg and ωe are the angular speeds
of the clutch output and input shafts, respectively, see Fig. 2 and
Table 1) could be considered as a possible alternative choice. As was
investigated in Savaresi et al. (2006), it can be difficult to use
transmission ratio for tracking purposes, as it yields a time-varying
reference signal. This leads to poor tracking which induces significant
synchronization issues between the set-point and the measured
variable. Moreover, the controlled variable is only indirectly related
to the actual driving feel perceived by the rider. In view of these
considerations, in this work acceleration has been selected as the
controlled variable. However, in order to analyze the intrinsic merits
and drawbacks deriving from a different choice of the controlled
variable, in Section 6 a brief report of the experimental results
obtained on the test vehicle by controlling the time variation of the
transmission ratio will be presented.
The operation sequence involved in a launch control maneuver
is the following: when the motorcycle is turned on, the barrel is in the
neutral position and the rider is ready to depart, he/she has to pull
the brake lever (so as to ensure the vehicle does not move) and
presses both UB and DB buttons (this sequence of operations has been
designed to avoid accidental starts of the procedure). At this moment,
the launch maneuver starts: the ECU fully opens the clutch
(i.e., commanding the desired value of the clutch position xo to be
xo ¼0), inserts the first gear (acting on the EVD) and, when the first
gear is engaged, the ECU closes the clutch till its kiss-point position xK
is reached. When the rider initiates a throttle handle opening, the
launch controller is activated. Note that keeping the clutch position
to x ¼ xK , rather than at its fully open one, helps in avoiding
unpleasant delays in the system response: as the clutch moves from
x¼0 to x ¼ xK no movement is experienced by the vehicle. The kiss-
point position is estimated online for each maneuver as follows: once
the first gear is inserted, the clutch set-point is increased according
to a ramp with slope Δ, up to the value at which the engine speed
ωe o ωe , ωe being a suitable threshold value. The corresponding
position is taken as the kiss-point one xK. The launch sequence ends
when the clutch is fully closed (i.e. x ¼ xo ¼ 1).
A graphical representation of the operations of a launch maneuver
is depicted with the finite-state-machine diagram in Fig. 3, while Fig. 4
shows the time histories of the signals of interest recorded during
a launch maneuver, together with the temporal evolution of the seq-
uence of operations involved.
 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766 1759

Fig. 3. FSM description of the operations involved in a launch maneuver.

Fig. 4. Sequence of operation during the starting maneuver. Top plot: clutch position set-point (dashed line), measured clutch position (solid line) and estimated kiss-point
position (dotted line); middle plot: throttle request; bottom plot: clutch output angular speed ωg (dashed line), engine speed ωe (solid line) and threshold on engine speed ω e
for kiss-point estimation (dotted line).

4. Clutch position controller
A low-level clutch position controller is needed to implement
a satisfactory launch control strategy. Thus, this section briefly
describes the identification of the clutch dynamics and the clutch
position controller design (for more details see Giani et al., in press).
Remark 4.1. If the kiss-point position could be learnt without
errors, then no position measurement would be needed to per-
form the launch maneuver: once the kiss-point is known with
no uncertainty, the PWM input of the clutch actuator can be
directly commanded by the launch controller, based on the
acceleration error. In practice, however, this solution is unfeasible
with the experimental set-up of this work, due to the multiple
non-linearities and non-idealities of the system, together with
the strong stiff behavior of the clutch itself. As will be shown in the
next section, the actuator exhibits an open-loop two-state behavior
and it is affected by significant friction effects, that are mainly
responsible for its hysteretic characteristic. All these issues have
to be properly managed at a sub-system control level, which
conceptually lays below the launch controller, so as to allow an eff-
ective design of the launch control maneuver at the vehicle
dynamics level. To do this, an inner clutch servo-control loop
must be designed, and for this task a position sensor is needed.
Moreover, if, for any reason, the kiss-point detection procedure
fails, a clutch position controller can anyway ensure to move the
clutch to the position corresponding to the last estimate of the
clutch kiss-point position, thus ensuring a good and, most impor-
tantly, safe launch maneuver, even if the initialization procedure
failed. On the contrary, without a position measurement this
operation cannot be performed, and a possible fail that happened
during the kiss-point position estimation could not be recovered,
thus resulting in a very abrupt – and possibly hazardous – dep-
arture. Note, finally, that the actuation system characteristics vary
during the vehicle operations, due to temperature and other
factors. Again, a clutch position controller can cope with this issue,
thus compensating for such variations. This ensures that the
launch controller has to control a more repeatable plant.
4.1. Control-oriented identification of the clutch dynamics
To obtain a reliable model of the clutch dynamics, several experi-
ments have been carried out on the system. First of all, the steady-
state behavior was characterized, by feeding the system with a very
1760 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766

Fig. 5. Quasi-static system response in the input/output plane.

slow varying ramp of the PWM input u. During the tests, the clutch Fig. 6. Estimated frequency response GðjωÞ for the clutch dynamics.
was already installed on the motorcycle, but the tests were carried out
with the vehicle in neutral gear standing still. Several experiments
have been carried out considering two different temperature ranges
T r 70 1C and T 4 70 1C and the obtained results are shown in Fig. 5
in the input/output plane x versus u. Specifically, the left plot shows
the average characteristic obtained in all the tests, while the top right
plot shows two different tests for the two considered working temp-
eratures.
The collected input/output data clearly reveal that the system
exhibits a significant hysteretic behavior. Moreover, the system
is not repeatable, as Fig. 5 shows a large spread among different
experiments.
To better see this, consider the horizontal and vertical bars that Fig. 7. Overall architecture of the control system.
refer to the left plot. The first represents the range of the PWM
input u, from 0 to 1; the torque modulation intervals represent the Based on these samples, a third order parametric transfer
range of values of u that actually manages the overall torque function model has been estimated, yielding
modulation. The corresponding values of the clutch position that
μð1 þ sT z Þ ~
are related to torque transmission account for approximately 20% GðsÞ ¼ e  τs ¼ GðsÞe  τs
; ð1Þ
of clutch entire stroke shown in the vertical bar, which represents, ð1 þ sT p1 Þð1 þ sT p2 Þð1 þ sT p3 Þ
again in a normalized description, the overall variation of the
in which the pure delay depends on the pipeline geometry and the
clutch position. The whole intervals shown in the horizontal
maximum admissible oil flow rate. The overall transfer function is
bar represent the whole range of inputs that is of interest for the
shown by the solid line in Fig. 6 and its parameter values are
clutch movement, which is approximately 14% of the whole range
μ ¼  10:54, Tz ¼0.005, T p1 ¼ 0:0474, T p2 ¼ 0:0325 and T p3 ¼
of the input u. This analysis reveals that the effective modulation
0:0246. The delay τ ¼ 0:019 s was estimated via input and output
range of the control variable is u ¼ ½0:14; 0:18 [ ½0:3; 0:34, that
signal cross-correlation analysis.
is approximately 8% of the whole range: this would not be a
The fitting between the measured data and the analytical model
problem per se, if the PWM measurement were known with high
was considered to be satisfactory with the following exception:
resolution. Unfortunately, though, such a resolution is tuned
according to the whole range of the variable, and Δu ¼ 0:001. This
Remark 4.2. One may notice that the phase diagram of the identified
means that, to actuate the full torque transmission in the con-
G(s) given in the bottom plot of Fig. 6 does not explain the experi-
sidered clutch, the PWM input u can take only 80 different values
mental points for f r 1 Hz, which appear to be close to ϕ   2801.
(over 1000), thus making the quantization effects significant
As will be clear later, at low frequency the static friction effects are
indeed.
stronger, resulting in an extra delay that is not attributable to the
Other important issues are related to the two-state behavior of
linear dynamics of the system. For this reason, the control system
the system, due to friction characteristics. Specifically, as soon as
must be augmented with appropriate compensation for this effect.
the excitation signal reaches an amplitude large enough to break
the static friction, the clutch plates move to a fully open (or closed)
configuration. 4.2. Controller design
Due to these characteristics, the tests were performed in a closed-
loop on a test-bench, using a stabilizing position controller. The ~
To design the position controller, the rational part GðsÞ of the
motorcycle was held at constant engine speed while a single tone identified model (1) is first considered, obtaining the regulator
sinusoidal signal 0 which spans the frequency range [0.5 15] Hz expression
was used as input to the controller. Each experimental test yielded a
sample of the non-parametric estimate of the frequency response ð1 þ sT z1 Þð1 þ sT z2 Þ
RðsÞ ¼ K C ; ð2Þ
^ ωÞ, see Fig. 6.
Gðj sð1 þ sT p Þ
 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766 1761

Fig. 8. Closed-loop time histories of the clutch position. Response with no

hysteresis compensation (top plot) and with hysteresis compensation (bottom
plot). Set-point position xo (dashed line) and measured position x (solid line).
Fig. 9. Estimate of the complementary sensitivity function of the closed-loop
clutch position system obtained from experimental data.
with T z1 ¼ 0:0833, T z2 ¼ 0:0325 and T p ¼ 0:0033. The regulator
gain was tuned to achieve a cut-off frequency of f C C 10 Hz. Then,
in order to deal with the system pure delay a Smith predictor P(s)
was designed, yielding


τs ~
PðsÞ ¼ GðsÞ: ð3Þ
1 þ 0:5τs þ τ2 s2 =12
The overall control architecture is shown in Fig. 7.
Due to the significant hysteresis of the system and the static
friction effects, the linear controller (2) and (3) alone is not able
to guarantee the needed tracking performance of an almost
constant set point, as can be seen from the top plot in Fig. 8, in
which the position oscillations (solid line in the figure) are not
acceptable. For this reason, a compensation term uH has to be
added to the linear-computed control variable uC so as to deal with
this issue.
The correction signal uH (see Fig. 7) is computed by modulating
a binary signal δ that depends on the tracking error e(t) as
(
1 if jeðtÞj Z eH
δðtÞ ¼ ð4Þ Fig. 10. Maximum engine torque as a function of the engine speed ωe : manufac-
0 if jeðtÞj r eL turer's data (solid line) and fourth-order approximation T^ e ðωe Þ (dashed line).

with the linear filter

1 þ λs
HðsÞ ¼ ρ : ð5Þ
1 þ αs
In (4), eH ¼ 0.015 and eL ¼0.01 are suitable threshold values useful
to avoid chattering due to measurement noise. This additional
compensation term gives an output uH with two important
features: a constant component term ρ that, added to the dynamic
controller output uC, allows us to instantaneously move from one
hysteresis branch to the other (the hysteresis branches are the two
parallel vertical lines shown in the results displayed in Fig. 5),
and a time varying component that allows us to cope with the
static friction in the initial part of the transient, and it is then
exponentially modulated to zero.
Parameters in (5) have been experimentally tuned to λ ¼ 0:1 and
α ¼ 0:038, so as to determine the amplitude of the initial peak in uH
and the decay rate of the dynamical component of the signal,
respectively. Note that, when δ ¼ 0, uH is forced to zero. The bottom
plot in Fig. 8 shows the performance improvement with respect to
the previous case.
4.3. Closed-loop performance analysis
To complete the analysis, the complementary sensitivity function
of the closed-loop system is experimentally identified. As previously
done, a single tone sinusoidal excitation is employed for this purpose.
The frequency response estimate is depicted in Fig. 9, together with
the analytical complementary sensitivity transfer function, i.e.
the one computed as the unitary negative feedback connection of
(2) and (1). As can be seen, the fitting between the two can be
considered as satisfactory, thereby confirming the suitability of the
identified model for control design.
5. Acceleration-based launch controller
As previously stated (see also Fig. 2), by properly acting on the
clutch position x it is possible to modulate the clutch torque Tg from
zero to Te. According to the value of Tg, the vehicle is subject to
a different longitudinal acceleration, which we aim at regulating with
the launch controller, so that the departure is smooth and comfor-
table. Note that the engine torque Te depends on the engine speed ωe
and the static function that links the two variables (at least for the
maximum achievable torque) is represented in Fig. 10. For confiden-
tiality reasons, the y-axis scale is omitted.
To design a suitable acceleration controller an estimate of the
relationship between the clutch position set-point xo (i.e., the control
variable) and the vehicle acceleration a(t) is needed. To this end,
several experiments were carried out feeding the system with a single
tone sinusoidal signal, spanning the frequency range f A ½0:1 5 Hz,
which comprises the dynamics of interest. The experiments were
1762 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766
Fig. 11. Non-parametric estimates (crosses) of the frequency response Gxo -a ðjωÞ
and transfer function estimate (solid line).
executed by a professional rider on a flat track and with a con-
stant throttle handle opening. From the experiments a non-para-
metric estimate of the frequency response G^ xo -a ðjωÞ was obtained
and the first-order parametric model
μ conditions no rider's intervention is present in all tests). The results
Gxo -a ðjωÞ ¼
1 þ sT
was identified, with μ ¼ 8:2 and T¼ 0.025. The frequency response
Gxo -a ðjωÞ and the corresponding transfer function model are repre-
sented in Fig. 11.
From Fig. 11, one may notice that, in the frequency range of
interest, the magnitude of the identified frequency response Gxo -
aðjωÞ is almost constant. Hence, from a control point of view, the
system can be represented as a constant gain, whose maximum
value (i.e., the maximum longitudinal acceleration aM) can be
obtained by properly managing the engine torque characteristic in
Fig. 10. For computational reasons, this curve is not used as is,
but was approximated with a fourth-order polynomial of the form
T^ e ðωe Þ ¼ α0 þ α1 ωe þ ðα2 ωe Þ2 þ ðα3 ωe Þ3 þðα4 ωe Þ4 ;
represented with the dashed curve in Fig. 10.
To obtain the relationship between aM and the engine speed,
consider that the longitudinal force balance on the vehicle can be
expressed as
MaðtÞ ¼ F w ðtÞ  F b ðtÞ  F f ðtÞ;
where M is the total mass (i.e., the sum of rider's and vehicle
masses), Fw is the traction force at the wheel, while Fb and Ff are
the braking force and the friction force, respectively.
When the clutch is fully engaged, the whole engine torque Te
is transferred to the rear-wheel (see also Fig. 2), on which it acts as
a longitudinal force whose steady-state value is given by
T e ð ωe Þ
F w ðωe Þ ¼ η;
τG r d
where τG is the transmission ratio from engine speed ωe to vehicle
speed v for the selected gear G, r is the nominal rear wheel radius
and ηd represents the nominal drive train efficiency, which
accounts for the power losses due to the gearbox and the chain.
The nominal transmission ratio τG can be easily computed as
v
τG ¼ : ð10Þ
ωe r
Further, the friction forces Ff can be properly characterized with
coasting down experiments (see Dardanelli et al., 2011) in which
the vehicle decelerates in neutral gear from an initial constant
speed, thus subject only to inertia. Hence, friction forces can be
expressed as
F f ðtÞ ¼ F a ðtÞ þ F v ðtÞ þ F rs ðtÞ
¼ 12ρC x Av2 ðtÞ þ dv vðtÞ þ F rs ðtÞ: ð11Þ
As can be seen from (11), Ff is composed by the sum of the
aerodynamic drag force Fa(t) (a quadratic function of the speed v,
in which ρ represents the air density, while Cx and A are the drag
coefficient and the reference front area of the vehicle, respec-
tively), the viscous force Fv(t) (which expresses the equivalent
damping factor of the vehicle, and it is proportional to the speed
via a drag coefficient dv) and the roll and slope forces F rs ðtÞ, that are
independent of the vehicle speed.
Hence, in the coasting-down experimental conditions (i.e., with
F w ¼ F b ¼ 0), using (11) one can rewrite (8) as
F f ðtÞ ¼  MaðtÞ ¼ s2 v2 ðtÞ þs1 vðtÞ þ s0 ; ð12Þ
where the coefficients si , i A f0; 1; 2g are non-negative. Since the
instantaneous acceleration a(t) is measured, the parameters si of (12)
can be estimated to approximate the term MaðtÞ with a quadratic
function of the vehicle speed. In particular, different coasting down
tests were carried out in the same working conditions and the
average regressor MaðtÞ was used in the estimation algorithm. To
ensure repeatability between different coasting down experiments,
only data between 5 km/h and 55 km/h were considered (in these
ð6Þ
are shown in Fig. 12 (plotted again omitting the y-axis scale).
Assuming now that the clutch is fully closed and recalling (10),
F f ðÞ can be expressed as a function of the engine speed as
F f ðωe Þ ¼ s2 τ2G r 2 ω2e þ s1 τG r ωe þs0 ; ð13Þ
where all coefficients are known. Hence, substituting (13) and (9)
into (8), and assuming Fb ¼0, the maximum vehicle acceleration
can be expressed as a function of the engine speed ωe , as
F w ðωe Þ  F f ðωe Þ
aM ðωe ; τG Þ ¼ : ð14Þ
M
Thus, the final system model to be used for controller design is the
first-order linear filter (6), whose maximum gain value aM is a
ð7Þ function of the engine speed ωe and of the selected gear, according
to (14). Moreover, aM can be estimated on-line using T^ e instead of
Te in (9), thus obtaining
T^ e ðωe Þ
ηd  ðs2 τ2G r 2 ω2e þ s1 τG rωe þs0 Þ
aM ðωe ; τG Þ ¼
τG : ð15Þ
M
ð8Þ
Fig. 13 (again, the y-axis scale is omitted for confidentiality
reasons) shows aM ðωe ; τG Þ for τG ¼ τI , (the first gear is one of the
ð9Þ
Fig. 12. Estimation of the friction force Ff(t) via (12) in a coasting down experiment:
experimental points (crosses) and approximated model (dashed line).
 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766
Fig. 13. Maximum longitudinal acceleration aM as a function of engine speed ωe for
τG ¼ τI . The y-axis scale is omitted for confidentiality reasons.
interests for the launch operations) considering the approximation
T^ e of the engine torque Te.
5.1. Acceleration controller design
Based on the identified model (6) and (15), a parameter-varying
integral controller
Ra ðsÞ ¼ K a ðωe Þ=s
can be used to control the launch maneuver while dealing with
the dependence of the system gain on ωe . Specifically, the regu-
lator gain is varied as
2π f a
K a ðωe Þ ¼
aM ðωe ; τI Þ
in which aM ðωe Þ is as in (15) and the gain is selected so as to
achieve a constant cut-off frequency f a ¼ 1:5 Hz.
Remark 5.1. Note that aM ðωe Þ is also a function of the throttle
handle opening, that determines the maximum torque, that the
engine can provide. This dependence, however, is not taken into
account in (15), which implies assuming that the engine torque
request is always equal to its maximum value. Note, however, that
this assumption is realistic, since the launch maneuver is almost
always performed to achieve the maximum vehicle performance
(i.e., the rider usually fully opens the throttle handle).
5.2. Closed-loop stability analysis
Once the scheduling law is implemented, the whole controlled
system can be seen as a linear parameter varying (LPV) system.
Further, note that the parameter (i.e., the system gain) varies with
respect to time, with bounds on the velocity of its time variation. To
resort to LPV techniques for the closed-loop stability analysis, one
needs to obtain a state space representation of the closed-loop system.
To this end, the state-space representation of the closed-loop
system given by the unitary negative feedback connection of the
plant (6) and the integral regulator (17) can be easily obtained as
(
z~_ ðtÞ ¼ AðpÞz~ ðtÞ þ Byo ðtÞ
ð18Þ
yðtÞ ¼ CðpÞz~ ðtÞ;
where the varying parameter of the system is p ¼ aM , and its
explicit expression is given in Eq. (15). The system matrices are
" # " # In the top plot of Fig. 14 the measured acceleration a is depicted
0 0 0  T1
AðpÞ ¼ A0 þA1 pðtÞ ¼ κ
 T1
þ μðtÞ;
T 0 0
   
1 1
B¼ ; CðpÞ ¼ C 0 þ C 1 pðtÞ ¼ ½0 0 þ 0 pðtÞ:
0 T
1763
It is worth pointing out that, as is well known, for LPV systems the
usual notion of equivalence between input/output (I/O) and state
space representations which hold for LTI systems are not valid,
unless a dynamic variation of the parameters is permitted, see
Tóth, Felici, Heuberger, and Van den Hof (2007). The underlying
assumption that is implicit in the above change of representation
and that allows us to postulate that the state-space model can be
considered sufficiently close to its I/O representation is that the
time variation of the underlying coordinate transformation is
negligible (for a more detailed discussion on these issues see
Corno, Tanelli, Savaresi, & Fabbri, 2011). Such an assumption will
be validated via the experimental results discussed in the next
section.
In view of the results obtained in the estimation of the
parameter p(t) (see Fig. 13) the parameter space (i.e., the set in
which the parameter p(t) can take values) can be indicated
with P ¼ ½4 10, and the bound on the time derivative of p ¼ aM
_ r ν ¼ 10. Based on these data, it is possible to analyze the
as jpj
closed-loop LPV system stability, grounding on the following result
(see Wu, 1995).
Theorem 1. The system (18) is stable if there is a C1 matrix-valued
function satisfying
XðpÞ 40
∂XðpÞ
ð16Þ AT ðpÞXðpÞ þ XðpÞAðpÞ 7 ν o0
∂p
for all p A P, where p ¼ μ A P and p_ ¼ ν ¼ 10 is bound on its time
derivative. The notation 7ðÞ indicates that every combination of
þ ðÞ and  ðÞ should be included in the inequality.
ð17Þ
The above problem is an infinite dimensional one, since X(p) is
a function of p and the above conditions must hold for all p A P.
As the considered LPV system model (19) is affined in the
parameter p, and considering that the following basis can be
employed
nb
XðpÞ ¼ ∑ f i ðpÞX i ¼ X 0 þ X 1 p; ð20Þ
i¼1
for proving closed-loop stability it suffices to test the LMIs in the
nb vertexes of the polytope determined by the parameters varia-
tion and that of its time derivative (see Corno et al., 2011 and
references therein). The feasibility of the resulting LMIs has been
successfully checked via YALMIP (see Lofberg, 2004) using both
SeDuMi and SDPT3 solvers.
6. Experimental results
Fig. 14 shows the signals measured during a launch controlled
maneuver. The maneuver starts at t C 151:5 s, when the rider
activates the starting sequence (dash-dotted vertical line). The
middle plot shows the clutch set-point (dashed line) and the
measured position (solid line). As can be seen, the clutch is initially
fully opened, the first gear is inserted and then the kiss-point
position is estimated. Further, by inspecting the bottom plot, one
can observe that ωe C ω e at t C 154 s. The launch maneuver
actually starts few seconds later, at t C 156 s (dashed vertical line
in the figure), when the rider opens the throttle handle (see the
dotted line in the middle plot).
together with its set-point ao. The set-point tracking performance
can be regarded as satisfactory: note that the difference in magnitude
between the tracking error and the oscillations at t C 152 s, which
are only due to the gear insertion, have an amplitude of about 2 m/s2.
ð19Þ
Note, further, that the set-point signal ao is pre-filtered (with a single
1764 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766

Fig. 14. Time histories of: top plot – longitudinal acceleration a (solid line) and set-point ao (dashed line). Middle plot – clutch position x (solid line), clutch set-point xo
(dashed line) and throttle request (dotted line). Bottom plot – clutch output angular speed ωg (dashed line), engine speed ωe (solid line) and threshold on engine speed ω e for
kiss-point estimation (dotted line).

Fig. 15. Launch controlled maneuver in a test with disturbances on the throttle handle. Top plot – longitudinal acceleration a (solid line) and set-point ao (dashed line).
Middle plot – clutch position x (solid line), clutch set-point xo (dashed line) and throttle request (dotted line); Bottom plot – clutch output angular speed ωg (dashed line) and
engine speed ωe (solid line).

pole low-pass filter with angular frequency fF ¼5 Hz) to avoid abrupt
variations of the control action. Finally, the tracking error at
t C 155:5 s is due to the brake lever release.
As can be seen from the bottom plot, the maneuver can be
considered concluded at t  161 s. After that time instant the
angular speed ωg of the clutch output shaft (see Fig. 2) equals
the engine speed. From this point onward, the vehicle acceleration
only depends on the rider's throttle request.
Finally, the disturbance rejection properties of the closed-loop
system are investigated to analyze the response in the face of
disturbances on the throttle request. To this aim, the rider was asked
to perform a launch maneuver during which the throttle handle
opening was varied. The measured signals are depicted in Fig. 15.
As can be seen, the throttle varying during the maneuver (see
the central plot in the figure) also causes disturbances on the
engine speed (solid line in the bottom plot). Nevertheless, the
controller provides good tracking of the acceleration set-point (see
the top plot).
Nevertheless, the controller allows a good tracking of the accel-
eration set-point (see the top plot). The good performance of the
 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766 1765

controller is also confirmed by the vehicle speed (proportional to ωg

through (10), as shown with the dashed line in the bottom plot)
which linearly increases according to a ramp profile, as desired.

6.1. Control of the transmission ratio

As mentioned in Remark 3.1, other variables can be in principle

selected to control the launch maneuver. The most directly related
to the clutch behavior would be the clutch slip, i.e., the relative
velocity of the clutch plates. In our setting, this would be
Δω ¼ ωe  ωg , ωg being the angular speed of the gearbox input
shaft (see Fig. 2). However, this choice of the controlled variable is
not always favorable for launch control, as Δω can assume
different values when the vehicle stands still and ωg ¼ 0, as ωe
mainly depends on throttle opening, that in our setting is cont-
rolled by the rider only (in a ride-by-wire vehicle these problems
can be overcome). This ambiguity rules out the possibility of using
the clutch slip to regulate the launch. A viable solution may be that
of controlling the transmission ratio r ω , defined as
ωg
rω ¼ ; ð21Þ Fig. 16. Time histories of a launch maneuver with regulation of the variation of the
ωe transmission ratio. Top plot – variation of the transmission ratio (solid line) and set-
point (dashed line). Middle plot – throttle request (solid line). Bottom plot – clutch
which is well-defined for all possible working conditions, with output angular speed ωg (dashed line) and engine speed ωe (solid line).
r ω A ½0 1. However, as noticed in Savaresi et al. (2006), this choice
leads to a tracking problem, as the set-point would be time
varying, typically a ramp profile with a given slope. The generation
of this profile would not be a problem per se, but it can introduce
some difficulties related to its synchronization with the measured
variable. A time shift between the two would cause a non-zero
error that would induce a closed-loop response that makes the
maneuver uncomfortable, while, in principle, it would be accep-
table for the rider as long as the two lines remain parallel. These
issues can be partly managed if, instead of r ω , the controlled
variable is selected to be its time variation, i.e.,
dr ω
r_ ω ¼ : ð22Þ
dt
By doing so a regulation problem is recovered, and no more
synchronization problems need to be addressed. As such, a con-
troller for the vehicle dynamics linking the clutch position set-point
and the time variation of the transmission ratio in (22) was
designed. A dedicated experimental identification step analogous
to that discussed in Section 5 was carried out, based on which
a linear and time invariant second-order model was found to
appropriately describe the dynamics of interest. A linear and time
invariant controller with integral action proved to be appropriate, Fig. 17. Time histories of a launch maneuver with regulation of the variation of the
transmission ratio and disturbances on the throttle handle. Top plot – variation of
ensuring a cut-off frequency of 0.5 Hz (a faster response proved to
the transmission ratio (solid line) and set-point (dashed line). Middle plot – throttle
be not achievable in practice due to excessive oscillation that request (solid line). Bottom plot – clutch output angular speed ωg (dashed line) and
translated into an uncomfortable acceleration profile). To test the engine speed ωe (solid line).
closed-loop performance the same maneuver shown in Fig. 14 for
the acceleration controller is considered, and the time histories
of the measured signals are shown in Fig. 16. By inspecting the suggesting that a direct control over the engine dynamics is manda-
figure, note that the closed-loop response is slower than that tory to implement this solution.
achieved with the acceleration controller, but, as mentioned, As final test for the acceleration-based controller, its response
a reduction in the cut-off frequency was necessary to avoid over- in a tracking test was investigated. Specifically, the controller was
shoots, mainly due to a significant sensitivity to the (unmodeled, fed with a biased sinusoidal set point signal
yet not controllable) engine dynamics. The obtained clutch position ⋄
ao ¼ a þ A sin ð2π f tÞ; ð23Þ
profile is comparable with that commanded by the acceleration
⋄
controller, thus yielding a similar behavior on the vehicle long- with a ¼ 1 m=s , A ¼ 0:5 m=s and f ¼ 0:2 Hz. The closed-loop
2 2

itudinal acceleration.
If perturbed conditions are considered, however, the performance
of the new controller get worse than that obtained with the accelera-
tion one, as can be seen by inspecting Fig. 17, which shows the results
obtained in a test with throttle disturbances. This behavior is some-
how to be expected, as the definition of the controlled variable itself
makes this control problem more sensitive to the engine behavior,
response is depicted in Fig. 18, which shows that the control
objectives are achieved also in this more challenging scenario.
7. Concluding remarks
In this work, a clutch-based launch controller for motorcycles
was presented and discussed. To realize such a system, a low-level
1766 P. Giani et al. / Control Engineering Practice 21 (2013) 1756–1766
Fig. 18. Launch controlled maneuver with acceleration controller: tracking of a
sinusoidal acceleration reference profile.
clutch position controller was first tuned and an acceleration
controller was designed to ensure a smooth and comfortable
departure maneuver. The results obtained on an instrumented
vehicle confirm the suitability of the proposed approach, and illu-
strate a comparison between different choices of the controlled
variable.
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