Harley-Davidson’s Push for Automation

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Harley’s latest designs suggest the company’s future models might institute radar-assisted safety features. (Harley-Davidson/)

Harley-Davidson might currently have the image of a company that’s anchored in the past, but the firm’s engineers aren’t short of ideas for the future and their recent R&D activity suggests there’s a particular focus on improving safety in the years to come.

We’ve already seen Harley working on its own variation of the radar-assisted cruise control systems that look to be the next big battlefield for luxury bike brands. BMW and Ducati have already debuted their own takes on the idea, both using Bosch equipment, in the 2021 R 1250 RT and Multistrada V4, with KTM set to follow suit soon using a similar setup. Harley’s take on the idea, which we revealed in 2019, puts a different spin on the potential for radar-assisted riding by focusing on groups of bikes moving together, allowing riders to “lock on” to other bikes and maintain position in relation to them. However, that’s far from the only possibility that the company sees in the development of intelligent cruise control systems.

One of several new patent applications show H-D working on radar-assisted automatic braking systems. (Harley-Davidson/)

Just recently we’ve seen more activity from Harley-Davidson in the form of multiple patent applications filed in relation to radar systems and cruise control. The first is the latest in a string of patents that the firm has filed over more than two years in relation to a radar-assisted automatic braking system. First seen in a 2018 patent, the system uses the same front radar that senses the distance to the vehicle ahead to make adaptive cruise control work, but instead of merely modulating the bike’s speed to keep pace with traffic it’s tied in with an emergency braking system and a whole array of rider awareness sensors in an effort to prevent or mitigate crashes.

The idea is one that’s already familiar from many modern cars, but bikes present a whole new set of problems. Where a car can relatively safely be set up to automatically perform emergency braking maneuvers, any unexpected application of the brakes could be potentially disastrous on a bike if the rider isn’t prepared. It’s no good having a bike slam its own anchors on to avoid a crash if the result is the rider being thrown off because he wasn’t braced for the resulting forces.

The auto-braking system uses sensors to evaluate the bike’s condition before applying the brakes. (Harley-Davidson/)

As such, Harley’s auto-braking system, which has been subject to at least three patent applications and two granted patents over the last three years, applies a series of checks, using sensors to judge the rider’s awareness and seating position before going ahead with an automated emergency braking maneuver. The system first checks if the rider is already braking. If the answer is “yes” but the system judges that the bike could be braking harder (many riders aren’t aware of how quickly a bike can stop if needed), it applies more brake force until it reaches the maximum potential deceleration.

Other sensors measure the rider’s awareness and body position to determine if rider alerts should precede braking actuation. (Harley-Davidson/)

If the answer is “no,” it runs through checks on the rider’s position and awareness, using sensors measuring the gripping force on each bar and in the seat to judge whether it’s safe to go ahead with the emergency stop. The patent also suggests a rear-facing camera set into the instrument panel and focused on the rider’s face, or a helmet-mounted camera focused on the rider’s eyes, could be used to judge awareness. If the computer decides the rider isn’t paying enough attention for it to safely apply the brakes automatically, it’s tied into audible, visual, and haptic alert systems, potentially using vibration motors in the bars like those in games console controllers, along with warning lights and a buzzer, to get his or her attention before going ahead with the emergency stop.

Another idea H-D’s working on? GPS-assisted cruise control for groups of riders. (Harley-Davidson/)

The radar setup isn’t the only cruise control-related idea Harley’s working on, as another recent patent reveals a plan for a system based on GPS rather than wheel-speed sensors to make life easier for groups of riders, all using cruise control.

Harley’s patent describes the problem, saying: “Motorcycle riders may often travel together in groups. During long journeys, the riders may coordinate their speeds and set a speed of their individual motorcycles using a cruise control system. However, variations in motorcycles, components, sensors, and the like can cause slight variations between the speeds of the different motorcycles in the group. These variations can cause distances between the motorcycles in the group to change over time. These changes require riders to change their set speeds to either increase…or decrease their speeds, as needed. However, the variations between motorcycles continue to exist, which often requires riders to constantly adjust their speeds. This issue is compounded as the size of the group of riders increases, as multiple riders will modify their speed settings during the ride with no coordination of speed available.”

The solution? Get all the bikes to use a GPS-assisted cruise control that can make sure they’re riding at precisely the same speed. Even by only making occasional GPS speed checks, the computer will know how far off its own wheel-speed sensors are from perfection and compensate, ending the constant juggling of cruise control settings as you try to keep pace with the bike ahead.

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