Design and Validity of a Smart Healthcare and Control System for Electric Bikes

Abstract

This paper presents the development of an electronic system that converts an electrically assisted bicycle into an intelligent health monitoring system, allowing people who are not athletic or who have a history of health issues to progressively start the physical activity by following a medical protocol (e.g., max heart rate and power output, training time). The developed system aims to monitor the health state of the rider, analyze data in real-time, and provide electric assistance, thus diminishing muscular exertion. Furthermore, such a system can recover the same physiological data used in medical centers and program it into the e-bike to track the patient’s health. System validation is conducted by replicating a standard medical protocol used in physiotherapy centers and hospitals, typically conducted in indoor conditions. However, the presented work differentiates itself by implementing this protocol in outdoor environments, which is impossible with the equipment used in medical centers. The experimental results show that the developed electronic prototypes and the algorithm effectively monitored the subject’s physiological condition. Moreover, when necessary, the system can change the training load and help the subject remain in their prescribed cardiac zone. This system allows whoever needs to follow a rehabilitation program to do so not only in their physician’s office, but whenever they want, including while commuting.

Torque Measurement and Control for Electric-Assisted Bike Considering Different External Load Conditions

“…References Torque control for assisted E-bike [1,2,24,38,39] Instantaneous pedaling torque waveform [4][5][6][7] Pedaling torque component analysis [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Factors affecting riding [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]] Recharge control for assisted E-bike [36,37] To overcome these limitations on existing E-bike assisted torque control, this paper's motivation is to find the best-suited assisted torque considering external loads. It is shown that the overall cycling torque is affected by external loads, including the cyclist's weight, wind resistance, rolling resistance, and the road slope.…”

“…In [ 26 ], a comprehensive monitoring system was developed. This system integrates environmental factors [ 27 , 28 ], the cyclist’s heart rate [ 29 , 30 ] and respiratory rate [ 31 ], power consumption [ 32 ] and electromyogram [ 33 , 34 ] information, and journey time. Collecting data from the cloud can give the rider a reference indicator to determine the motor power of the journey in order to retain a longer battery life.…”

“…By contrast, [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ] investigate the cyclist’s pedaling dynamic with no motor-assisted torque assumed. Moreover, [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ] focus on E-bike cycling performance with respect to human behaviors, including heartbeat, gender, and weight. The authors of [ 40 , 41 ] further evaluate recharge control for assisted motor output.…”