Motorcycle control prototyping using an FPGA-based embedded control system

A research ECU for the 2004 Yamaha YZF-R6 motorcycle was developed. Engine control, which involves fuel and spark events control, depends heavily on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). For the engine-control algorithm development as well as road testing, a National Instruments (NI) CompactRIO embedded control system was selected because of its flexibility, small size, and rugged form factor. With this system, sensors and actuators were added while readily visualizing the data. The unique computational feature of the CompactRIO system is that it includes both a real-time processor and an FPGA. Both devices are programmable using the Lab VIEW graphical development environment. With this combined architecture, multiple control approaches and algorithms can be quickly designed and tested on the motorcycle. The modified motorcycle was test driven extensively. Experienced drivers could not detect significant differences between the factory ECU and CompactRIO control system