Design and Validation of a Gain-Scheduled Controller for the Electronic Throttle Body in Ride-by-Wire Racing Motorcycles

This paper presents the analysis, design and validation of a gain-scheduled controller for an electronic throttle body (ETB) designed for ride-by-wire applications in racing motorcycles. Specifically, the open-loop dynamics of the system are studied in detail discussing the effects of friction based on appropriate experiments. Further, a linear time invariant nominal model of the system to be controlled is experimentally identified via a frequency-domain black box approach, together with the uncertainty bounds on the model parameters. Based on these results a model-based gain-scheduled proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller for throttle position tracking is proposed. The closed-loop stability of the resulting linear parametrically varying (LPV) system is proved by checking the feasibility of an appropriate linear matrix inequality (LMI) problem, and the state space representation of the closed-loop LPV system is experimentally validated. Finally, the performance of the controlled system is compared to the intrinsic limit of the actuator and tested under realistic use, namely both on a test-bench employing as set-point the throttle position recorded during test-track experiments and on an instrumented motorcycle.