A Road-Adaptive Vibration Reduction System with Fuzzy PI Control Approach for Electric Bicycles

Riding comfort and safety are essential requirements for any form of transportation but particularly for electric bicycles (e-bikes), which are highly affected by varying road conditions. These factors largely depend on the effectiveness of the e-bike’s control strategy. While several studies have p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chao-Li Meng, Van-Tung Bui, Chyi-Ren Dow, Shun-Ming Chang, Yueh-E (Bonnie) Lu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:World Electric Vehicle Journal
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2032-6653/16/5/276
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Summary:Riding comfort and safety are essential requirements for any form of transportation but particularly for electric bicycles (e-bikes), which are highly affected by varying road conditions. These factors largely depend on the effectiveness of the e-bike’s control strategy. While several studies have proposed control approaches that address comfort and safety, vibration—an influential factor in both structural integrity and rider experience—has received limited attention during the design phase. Moreover, many commercially available e-bikes provide manual assistance-level settings, leaving comfort and safety management to the rider’s experience. This study proposes a Road-Adaptive Vibration Reduction System (RAVRS) that can be deployed on an e-bike rider’s smartphone to automatically maintain riding comfort and safety using manual assistance control. A fuzzy-based control algorithm is adopted to dynamically select the appropriate assistance level, aiming to minimize vibration while maintaining velocity and acceleration within thresholds associated with comfort and safety. This study presents a vibration analysis to highlight the significance of vibration control in improving electronic reliability, reducing mechanical fatigue, and enhancing user experience. A functional prototype of the RAVRS was implemented and evaluated using real-world data collected from experimental trips. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system achieves effective control of speed and acceleration, with success rates of 83.97% and 99.79%, respectively, outperforming existing control strategies. In addition, the proposed RAVRS significantly enhances the riding experience by improving both comfort and safety.
ISSN:2032-6653