The Future is Here with the Riderless Motorbike

Many motorcyclists ride because being on a bike gives them an unparalleled sense of freedom and adrenaline, yet an automated motorcycle takes away all of that.

(Screengrab from YouTube)

A driverless motorcycle system does come with its benefits, though.

According to Dr Richard Simpson, Senior Systems Engineer of AB Dynamics, “A riderless motorcycle allows more comprehensive testing of autonomous or ADAS-equipped vehicles.”

“It also permits greater accuracy, repeatability and consistency between tests than any human rider could achieve,” he further explained.

Although these riderless motorcycles are limited by their slow speed and poor representation of an actual bike, they are still said to have “the full performance potential of the original bike, enabling more dynamic interactions to be tested, such as motorcycle overtaking, traffic filtering and lane splitting.”

Check out this video of the project being tested above!

Developed in a collaboration between AB Dynamics and AutoRD, the motorbike’s movements are programmed using the former’s established software, while coordination with other vehicles is enabled due to their Synchro system.

On the other hand, mechanical integration is done by technology from start-up company AutoRD. Using their on-board robot controller, programming of the motion of the motorcycle is done via GPS positioning.

The vehicle used is a BMW C1 manufactured by AB Dynamics and has ABS, no manual clutch and a roof structure where sensors are mounted. More developments will also reportedly be made to the motorcycle to enhance its performance.

“Future legislation and vehicle safety testing could require ADAS systems and autonomous vehicles to be validated in increasingly complex scenarios and the riderless motorcycle is a useful tool for achieving this,” said Simpson.

“It could also have applications in motorcycle durability testing by removing the human rider from some of the more arduous tests over rough surfaces, such as pave, where cars already use robot drivers to eliminate driver fatigue.”

In other words, these high-tech machines are here for the purpose of proving whether motorbikes can exist safely around autonomous vehicles, and also to test motorcycles for durability without unnecessarily putting the human rider’s life in danger.

What do you think of the riderless motorbike?