Honda Motor Co., Ltd. showcased the Honda Riding Assist technology at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This technology allows the motorcycle to self-balance itself.
Riding Assist technology harnesses Honda’s robotics technology originally developed for the company’s UNI-CUB personal mobility device. What it provides is a self-balancing motorcycle that minimizes the possibility of falling over even when the motorcycle is at rest.
Honda ditches the use of heavy gyroscope and relies on the advanced robotics technology. Honda Riding Assist is the company’s plan to make touring and everyday use of motorcycle more fun. This could be helpful especially during crawling speed, where the rider has to actively correct the handle inputs to balance the bike.
Honda Riding Assist – Video
Honda Riding Assist uses an electronic steer-by-wire system which disengages the handlebars from the front forks at speeds below 3 mph. The front wheels are then controlled by the on-board computer. Whenever the bike senses lean angles the computer swings the wheel to either side, thousands of times per second. This helps to counteract any tendency to tip over.
The system also lowers bike’s centre of gravity to improve stability. This is done by increasing the angle of the front forks, thereby lengthening the bike’s wheelbase. The handlebars and the forks have separate motors to move them while disconnected. The steer-by-wire mode allows them to remain synchronized, so the rider retains control for low-speed manoeuvring. When the rider accelerates above 3 mph, two anchors come back into the forks to lock them in place, returning the motorcycle to conventional steering.
The bike also has some cool tricks up its sleeve. It can follow its owner just like a pet. It would be interesting to see what more the motorcycle is capable of. One use I can think, is controlling the bike using a smartphone for parking in tight spaces, just like the tech we have seen in the latest luxury cars.
There is no definite timeline in place for when we might see the Honda Riding Assist technology come to market. At the moment it represents, Honda’s “dream” for how it can make the riding experience better in the future.
