Design and preliminary testing of an haptic handle for powered two wheelers

Abstract

In the last decade European accidentology data, divided per mode of transport, have shown the increasing relevance of safety for Vulnerable Road User (VRU). In particular Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) accidents are increasing both as number of events and as percentage of the total fatalities. The European Community has promoted and co-financed several research projects to promote the development and implementation of viable technical solutions to reduce fatalities and mitigate accident consequences. Most of the proposed devices and systems require the interaction with the rider through Human Machine Interface (HMI) devices. This work focuses on the design of an innovative haptic HMI device to communicate information/warnings to the rider in a reliable and intuitive way. An in-depth state of the art on HMI devices for PTWs is presented. The design phase is illustrated since the initial concept stage, through the preliminary experiments to characterise the human action, until the experimental validation of a mock-up and discussion of the results. © 2011 The Author(s).