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Study of Interactive Bike Simulator in Application of Virtual Reality

Article  in  Journal of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, Transactions of the Chinese Institute of Engineers - Series C · December 2007

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 中國機械工程學刊第二十八卷第六期第 633~640 頁(民國九十六年)
Journal of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers, Vol.28, No.6, pp.633~640 (2007)
Study of Interactive Bike Simulator in
Application of Virtual Reality
Ching-Kong Chen*, Fong-Jie Chen**, Jung-Tang Huang ***,
Chi-Jung Huang**
Keywords： Virtual Reality, Dynamic Platform,
Bike.
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes an interactive bike simulator
of 2-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) mechanisms with
dynamic platform driven by changing cable length and
its application to virtual reality for the rider in the
virtual environments. The bike motion equations and
road conditions in virtual bike driving can be calculated
and analyzed by using numerical methods and software
of the virtual reality. We also expect an interactive bike
simulator between rider and virtual reality system could
integrate exercise with entertainment.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays a variety of vehicle simulators have
been developed for different types of vehicles, such as
airplane, tank, motorbike, automobile, and ship
simulators are becoming widely used in training for
driving, evaluation of environments, etc. In the past few
years, virtual reality technique has been extensively
applied to movies, AC game, PC game, medicine,
military affairs, etc. The platform is the most important
part of the vehicle simulator. Today, 6-DOF Stewart
platform for motion feeling has mostly been used for
Paper Received August,2007. Revised November,2007 Accepted
December,2007. Author for Correspondence: Jung-Tang Huang.
* Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan 106,
ROC.
** Graduate Student, Institute of Mechatronic Engineering, National
Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan 106, ROC.
*** Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National
Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan 106, ROC.
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vehicle simulators [3][4][5][7].The bike dynamic model,
which has been analyzed for many times from different
mathematical levels in previous studies. He and Ma [3]
have thoroughly derived the motion equations for a The
study of sloshing-force behavior of fluid rear wheel,
respectively, provide force feedback of Korea KAIST
bicycle simulator proposed by Kwon software system.
Handlebar and pedal resistance bike, which are the
most important components in the systems which are
attached to the handlebar and the [4] [5], and others.
Shin [7] et al. proposed the sliding mode controller with
perturbation estimator, which is a well-known
model-base controller, for reduction of the low
frequency tracking error associated with the
perturbation dynamics.
This paper presents an interactive bike simulator,
which contains the development of 2-DOF dynamic
platform, virtual environment, bike motion equations,
numerical simulation and analysis.
MECHANISIMS ARCHITECTURE OF
DYNAMIC PLATFORM
The design of the dynamic platform we have
developed is based on an idea of using a triangle
platform with the point of H1, H2 and H3. As showed
in Fig. 1, our purpose is to make the center of gravity
be located inside triangle platform, through the change
in center of gravity and length of H2 and H3 to work
relative motion on the platform.
 J. CSME Vol.28, No.6 (2007)

Fig. 1. Prototype of 3-DOF dynamic platform. Fig. 2. The vibration effect of yaw angle from the

In accordance with Grübl er

’sf ormu l
a,wel earn
Eq. (1), is able to calculate the degree-of freedom of a
platform in space, where d, n, g and fi represent the
dimension of the feasible motion space of all the joints
of a given mechanism, the number of constraints of the
joint, and the degree of freedom at the ith joint,
respectively [8] [9].
g
M DOF d 
n  g 1 
 f i (1) l1
i 1
R1
R2
According to Eq. (1), the degree-of-freedom of l2
R3
the dynamic platform, which has pitch, roll, and yaw
motion, can be calculated as Eq. (2). 3-DOF dynamic platform.

M 6 
4 5 1 
3 5 3 DOF (2)
3 DOF
Fig. 3. The toggle mechanism and dynamic platform.

The joints of H2 and H3 are connected by cables;
and H1 is a fixed universal joint; therefore the dynamic
platform can generate relative motions by changing
cable length.
Vibration Effect of Yaw Angle
Because there is no constraint for the yaw angle,
only controlling cables at H2 and H3 can not withstand
vibration effect of the platform around the H1 as shown
in Fig. 2. For this reason we consider adding a toggle
mechanism, as shown in Fig. 3, which consists of 2-link
(l1, l2) and 3 joints (R1, R2, R3). Consequently, the
platform is reduced into 2-DOF (pitch angle, roll angle)
as calculated by Eq. (3).
Kinematics Analyses of Dynamic Platform
On the basis of Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, dimension,
coordinate and relative position etc. in each part of the
platform can be obtained, and following by the
geometry of relative position above, Eqs. (4), (5) and (6)
are calculated out. Using Matlab to analyze Eqs. (4), (5)
and (6), we comprehend how to make the platform
working on 2-DOF (pitch angle, roll angle) motions
through the controlling of rope length by using a
motor-driven reel.

M 2 DOF 6 
6 8 1 
1 1 2 1 3 6 (3)
2 DOF

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H.K. Sun et al.: Dynamic Analysis of Rigid-Body Mechanisms Mounted on Support Structures

constructing a dynamic model is necessary. Owing to

physical characteristics of bike are difficult to obtain,
we use Inventor of AutoDesk to draw the model of bike
and rider to gain moment of inertia, center of gravity,
area etc. by physical characteristics supplied from
Inventor. As to Forces acting on the rider-bicycle
system is shown in Fig. 6, the following formula (7), (8)
and (9) can be calculated out in accordance with
Ne wton’s second law [10].

Fig. 4. The pitch angle view of 2-DOF dynamic

platform.

Fig. 6. Forces acting on the rider-bike system.

Fig. 5. The roll angle view of 2-DOF dynamic F rZ F fZ F rDrag F fDrag F wind
platform (7)
L1
2
S 2 D 2 2 SD cos   1  m Z
mg sin 
r

S 2
 D 2
 L1 
2
(4)
 1    cos 1
  

F rZ r  J r  (8)
 2 SD  M
  drive r



F fZ r  J f  (9)
 
L1 L1 2 n1r1 sin 1 2 
f

 
  According to Eq. (7), (8) and (9), we can derive
L 2 
L 2 2 n 2 r2 
sin 
1 2 
  the second order differential equation, Eq. (10).
L  L 
  sin 1  2 1  (5) M drive
 W  FrDrag F fDrag Fwind mg sin 
  r (10)
 Jf J r 
x1 D cos 1 L1 cos 
1 2  
m  r 2  r 2  Z
r

y 1  D sin 1 L1 sin 

1 2   

 x1  y 1 D 2 L1 2 DL 1 cos 2
2 2 2
The main resistances with riding outside are
x 1 2  y 1 2  D 2
 L1 
2
(6) normally from wind and the road condition of rise and
 2  cos 1
 
 2 DL 1  fall as expressed in Eq. (10). In order to run the
 
simulation of bike dynamic system more accurately, it
will need to consider the effect from coefficients of
drag to the bike dynamic system. The resistance forces
BIKE DYNAMIC MODEL caused by coefficients of drag are shown in Eq. (A1),
(A2) and (A3). Eq. (A1) and (A2) represent the forces
In order to examine the influence caused by extra
acting on Front & Rear wheel, respectively, while Eq.
forces to the system while riding on road surface,
(A3) the force acting onto the rider, etc (Appendix A).

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Numerical Methods of Bike Motion Equations
The motion equation of system, Eq. (10) is a
nonlinear second-order differential equation of initial
conditions. In order to solve this differential equation,
we adopt Fourth-Order Runge-Kutta method [6].
DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIRTUAL
ENVIRONMENT AND VIRTUAL
MODEL
Animation of virtual bike driving is developed
from 3D virtual models of 3D Studio Max and virtual
environment of Virtools Dev. For creating exclusive-
use virtual bike driving such as 3D model, road conditi-
on, bike motion equations, and an option of SDK
(Software Development Kit) provided by Virtools Dev
is indispensable.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE OF
VIRTUAL BIKE DRIVING
Fig. 7 shows the control flow chart of the bike
simulator. The system uses estimation to measure pedal
torque and handlebar angle, and then feedback these
information into bike motion equation, follows by
computing via numerical method, and then output the
result to Virtools to determine the forward velocity of
virtual environment. Meanwhile, on the way of
forwarding in progress, the function of road condition
feedback will keep its activities to forward control
signal into the resistance system and the controller of
dynamic platform as well. Furthermore, the system can
achieve the result of resistance force feedback and track
the control of pitch angle and roll angle.
Fig. 7. Block diagram of system architecture.
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J. CSME Vol.28, No.6 (2007)
SIMULATION
Kinematics Simulation and Analyses of Each Angle
of Dynamic Platform from MATLAB
Fig. 8 and Fig.9 show the relationship between
the pitch angle of platform and the motor is linear. In
addition, the analysis also shows the pitch angle will be
in about 12 degrees while dynamic platform reach in
horizontal position with maximum degree of operation
area up to about 24 degrees. Meanwhile, the motor
rotation angle and operation area of roll angle is also
linear according to Fig. 10. Figures 10 and 11 describe
the correlated rotation rate the motor requests when roll
angle is located in horizontal position and also shows
the relative rotation of two motors following by the
change of roll angle to pitch angle. We can derive the
related parameter from those mentioned above. The
related parameter is an important pointer to platform
feedback control.
Numerical Simulation and Analyses of Time
Responses of the Velocity and Acceleration of the
Pedal Torque
In the light of the various necessary parameters
of the system in table 1, it is used in applying
Fourth-Order Runge-Kutta method. It results in a
steady-state solution. We observe the velocity response
Fig. 8. Rotation response of pitch angle.
H.K. Sun et al.: Dynamic Analysis of Rigid-Body Mechanisms Mounted on Support Structures

Fig. 9. Rotation response of pitch angle operation on

the horizontal position.
Fig. 11. Rotation response of roll angle couple with
pitch angle.

Fig. 10. Rotation response of roll angle.

of torque 5 N-m, as shown in Fig. 12, and realize the

system will converge at 250 second. The velocity
response shown in Fig. 13 will reveal the convergence
of exponential. Fig. 13 can prove the motion equation Fig. 12. Time response of the velocity while pedal
will reveal convergence state ultimately via velocity torque is 5 N-m.
and acceleration response.
Table 1. Specific data for bike motion equations.

M drive (N-m) 5 9

Cd 0.0491 0.0491

C xo 0.6 0.6
RS 0.25 0.25
r (m) 0.337 0.337
J f ( kg  m 2 ) 0.0885 0.0885

J r ( kg  m ) 2 0.1085 0.1085
 (rad) 0 0
m Bike (kg) 100 100
Rider

Air ( kg / m 3 ) 1.226 1.226

r r 2
2 2
A wheel (m )
A Rider ( m 2 ) 0.6 0.6
Fig. 13. Time response of the acceleration while pedal

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torque is 5 N-m.
Fig. 14 shows the time response of the velocity
for pedal torque of 9 N-m. In addition, we can find the
acceleration response converges at 150 second in
system convergence, as shown in Fig. 15. By
comparing the difference between 5 N-m and 9 N-m, it
is found that the higher torque is faster in response than
that of lower torque.
Fig. 14. Time response of the velocity while pedal
torque is 9 N-m.
Performance of Virtual Bike Driving from Virtools
Road condition design is shaped up via the idea
from adopting differential equation. As shown in Fig.
16, after sampling from a fixed sample time, vectors of
X Y Z will be obtained via Get Position (Virtools
Building Blocks ), through calculating the difference
equation, three increased values are obtained, which
could help us to understand the road condition (uphill
or downhill) by values in positive or negative.
Fig. 15. Time response of the acceleration as pedal
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J. CSME Vol.28, No.6 (2007)
torque is 9 N-m.
Fig. 16. 2-axes coordinate of road condition.
Fig.17. Virtual bike driving Performance of the bike
motion equation and road condition.
We can also use the same equation to calculate
out angles. On the other hand, design of bike motion
equation is using the same method adopted on the
Runge-Kutta method to program a Virtools SDK
projects form the Visual C++. It is important that all the
parameters in virtual environment are changing
continuously, the solution of steady-sate from the
Runge-Kutta method will not be easy to obtain.
Therefore, in order to change velocity with input-torque,
the system should be designed to overlap the obtained
parameters repeatedly.
The virtual reality system of the Virtools consists
of a personal computer (PC) with CPU of AMD 1.8
GHz, DDR RAM of 1 Giga Bytes and graphic chip of
ATI Random 9200 Series. Performances of road
condition and bike motion equations in the Virtools is
approximately 70 frames per second (FPS), therefore
the software system of virtual reality we developed has
a high performance, as shown in Fig. 17.
H.K. Sun et al.: Dynamic Analysis of Rigid-Body Mechanisms Mounted on Support Structures
DISCUSSION
This study adopts a 2-DOF dynamic platform
developed by the authors (as shown in Fig. 18) to study
the interactive bike simulator in application of virtual
reality for the rider in the virtual environments. Except
for cooperating to the bike in this study, other vehicles
can collocate as well, owing to the original aim of
design developed for dynamic platform of
multi-function, not dynamic platform of single-function.
In order to operate the subject of bike simulator, virtual
bike riding for background is necessary for making
virtual environment. Even though to develop virtual
environment by oneself takes time, it seems inevitable.
In general, most current game software do not open
correlative interface, therefore, getting correlative
parameter is very difficult. However, self-design and
transforming is also impossible. For that reason, to
develop an adaptable virtual environment for applying
to interactive leisure equipment is very important.
Lastly, introducing numerical simulation and analyses
with adopting Virtools SDK design by Visual C++ will
be the way to solve many design problems and make
the system being well-processed.
Fig. 18. Bike simulator prototype.
CONCLUSION
This paper has successfully established an interactive
bike simulator of 2-degrees-of-freedom (DOF)
mechanisms with dynamic platform and its application
to virtual reality from the rider in the virtual
environments. Because the platform is driven by
changing cable length, the cost could be reduced
comparing the traditional hydraulic or ball-screw driven
platform based on similar motion range. The bike
motion equations and road conditions in virtual bike
driving have been calculated and analyzed by using
numerical methods and software of the virtual reality.
In addition to an interactive bike simulator between
rider and virtual reality system could be expected to
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integrate exercise with entertainment, other kinds of
exercise machine such as boat-rowing, surfing,
horse-riding could be easily substitute the bike. The
extra DOF of yaw angle motion can also be added on
this 2-DOF dynamic platform.
REFERENCES
[1] Analytic Cycling, www.analyticcycling.com
[2] Ǻström,K. j.,Klein,R.E. ,Le nnart
s son,A. ,“Bic ycl
e
Dy n ami csa nd Con tr
ol ,” IEEE Control Systems
Magazine 25 (4), pp. 26– 47, 2005.
[3] He ,Q. ,Fa n ,X. ,Ma ,D. ,200 5,“Full bicycle dyna-
mic model for interactive bicycle simulator,”Jour-
nal of Computing and Information Science in En-
gineering 5 (4), pp. 373– 380, 2005.
[4] Kwon, D.-S., Yang, G.-H., Lee, C.-W., Shin, J.-C.,
Park, Y., Jung, B., Lee, D.-Y., Lee, K., Han, S.-H.,
Yoo, B.-H., Wohn, K.-Y., Ahn, J.-H. ,“ KAIST
interactive bicycle simulator,”Robotics and Auto-
mation, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE Interna-
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[5] Kwon, D.-S., Yang; G.-H., Park, Y., Kim, S., Lee,
C.-W., Shin, J.-C., Han, S., Lee, J., Wohn, K.Y.,
Kim, S., Lee, D. Y., Lee, K., Yang, J.-H., Choi,
Y.-M. ,“ KAIST interactive bicycle racing simulator:
the 2nd version with advanced features,”Intelligent
Robots and System, IEEE/RSJ International Con-
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2002.
[6] Kiusalaas, J., Numerical Methods in Engineering
with MATLAB, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
[7] Shin, J.-C., Lee, C.-W.,“ Rider's net moment estima-
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bicycle simulator,”Journal of Robotic Systems 21
(11), pp. 597– 607, 2004.
[8] Wolf, A., Ottaviano, E., Shoham, M., Ceccarelli, M.,
“ Application of line geometry and linear complex
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CaPaMan parallel manipulator,” Mechanism and
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[9] Yoon ,J .
,Ry u,J .
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[10] Ying, S.J., Advanced Dynamics, AIAA Education
Series, 1997.
APPENDIX
 J. CSME Vol.28, No.6 (2007)

I. When the bike was running, the wind resistance fo-

rce acted on the rider-bike system. FfDrag, FrDrag
互動式自行車模擬器應用於
and Fwind are the wind resistance and drag forces
on the rear wheel, front wheel and rider. RS is the 虛擬實境之研究
rear shelter [1]. V is the velocity of bike. is the
air density. A is the area. Cd and Cxo are the
coefficients of drag.

V2 陳正光 陳峰傑 黃榮堂 黃啟榮

F fDrag  A wheel C d (A1)
2 國立台北科技大學機械工程學系/機電所
V 2
F rDrag  A wheel C d 
1 RS  (A2)
2
V2 摘 要
F wind A Rider C xo (A3)
2
本文提出一個以繩索驅動並具兩自由度動態平
台機構的互動式自行車模擬器，及讓騎者於虛擬環
境中的虛擬實境應用。虛擬騎乘之自行車運動方程
式及路況可以使用數值方法或虛擬實境軟體進行計
算與分析。此新研發之介於騎乘者與虛擬實境系統
間之互動式自行車模擬器，相信可將娛樂整合於健
身運動中。

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