BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a controller and a control method capable of appropriately assisting with a rider's operation while suppressing falling of a motorcycle, departure of the motorcycle from a lane, a difficulty of the motorcycle in adaptive cruise, and the like.

As a conventional technique related to a motorcycle, a technique of assisting with a rider's operation has been available.

For example, a system is disclosed in JP-A-2009-116882. Based on information detected by a sensor that detects an obstacle present in a travel direction or substantially in the travel direction, the system warns a motorcycle rider that the motorcycle inappropriately approaches the obstacle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to assist with the rider's operation, use of an autonomous cruise travel mode is considered. The autonomous cruise travel mode is a travel mode in which the motorcycle continues traveling with behavior thereof being at least partially and automatically controlled. In the autonomous cruise travel mode, for example, a distance from the motorcycle to a preceding vehicle is controlled to approximate a distance reference value. Thus, in the autonomous cruise travel mode, the motorcycle is possibly controlled to perform autonomous cruise acceleration operation that is operation to accelerate the motorcycle without relying on the rider's operation. Here, a posture of the motorcycle tends to become unstable when compared to a posture of a four-wheeled vehicle, for example. In addition, a center of gravity of the rider himself/herself is significantly shifted during turning travel. This leads to such a problem that falling of the motorcycle, departure of the motorcycle from a lane, a difficulty of the motorcycle in adaptive cruise, and the like possibly occur due to the acceleration of the motorcycle by the autonomous cruise acceleration operation.

The present invention has been made with the above-described problem as the background and therefore obtains a controller and a control method capable of appropriately assisting with a rider's operation while suppressing falling of a motorcycle, departure of the motorcycle from a lane, a difficulty of the motorcycle in adaptive cruise, and the like.

A controller according to the present invention is a controller that controls behavior of a motorcycle, and includes: an acquisition section that acquires a lean angle of the motorcycle; and an execution section that initiates a control mode to make the motorcycle perform autonomous cruise acceleration operation. In the control mode, automatic acceleration that is acceleration generated to the motorcycle by the autonomous cruise acceleration operation is controlled in accordance with the lean angle.

A control method according to the present invention is a control method for controlling behavior of a motorcycle, and includes: an execution step of initiating a control mode to make the motorcycle perform autonomous cruise acceleration operation; and an acquisition step of acquiring a lean angle of the motorcycle. In the control mode, automatic acceleration that is acceleration generated to the motorcycle by the autonomous cruise acceleration operation is controlled in accordance with the lean angle.

In the controller and the control method according to the present invention, in the control mode to make the motorcycle perform the autonomous cruise acceleration operation, the automatic acceleration that is the acceleration generated to the motorcycle by the autonomous cruise acceleration operation is controlled in accordance with the lean angle of the motorcycle. In this way, it is possible to appropriately control the automatic acceleration in accordance with the posture of the motorcycle. Thus, it is possible to appropriately assist with the rider's operation while suppressing the falling of the motorcycle, the departure of the motorcycle from the lane, the difficulty of the motorcycle in the adaptive cruise, and the like.

