A fleet of smart e-bikes in Brighton
Dr F Behrendt and Dr C Kiefer
University of Brighton
31 October 2012, Watts 504 @ 1pm
Abstract
This talk explains the development of a fleet of 20 'smart e-bikes' that are currently out in a trial with commuters of a Brighton-based insurance company. It will particularly focus on the modular monitoring toolkit that has been developed to collect data about the usage of the bikes. It combines GPS tracking, ioio boards, sensors, android phones, custom-made electronics and a server to collect a variety of data. The collected data can be used both for analysis and for providing feedback to the trial participants using the e-bikes.The smart e-bike fleet is at the heart of the 3-year EPSRC-funded project titled 'Understanding how commuters and communities engage with electrically-assisted cycling'. This project aims to understand the issues for policy, design/product development and research that could lead to a higher uptake of e-bikes in the UK, and thereby potentially reduce carbon emissions. Electrically-assisted bicycles – also known as pedelecs and e-bikes –have a small electric motor powered by a rechargeable battery that can be switched on to assist pedaling.
