A virtual environment for the design of power management strategies for hybrid motorcycles

In this paper, we consider the problem of providing a commercial 125cc motorbike with a hybrid propulsion system, by adding an electric engine to its standard internal combustion engine. The aim for the prototype is to use the electrical machine (directly keyed on the drive shaft) to obtain a torque boost during accelerations, while reducing the emissions. Two different control algorithms are proposed, based on a standard heuristic and on torque-split optimal-control strategies, respectively. A SIMULINK virtual environment has been realized starting from a commercial tool, VI-BikeRealTime, to test the algorithms. Strategies performance is evaluated by means of simulations on a realistic track.