Mobile Cockpit System for Enhanced Electric Bicycle Use

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industrial informatics Vol. 11; no. 5; pp. 1017 - 1027
• Main Authors: Ferreira, Joao C., Monteiro, Vitor, Afonso, Jose A., Afonso, Joao L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.10.2015; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applications programs; Batteries; Bicycles; Bicycling; Cockpits; Cyclist Profile; Electric bicycles; Historic; Mobile Cockpit System; Mobile communication; Mobile communication systems; Public transportation; Sensors; Smart phones; Smartphone Sensing; Cyclist profile; smartphone sensing; range prediction; electric bicycle (EB); public transport; mobile cockpit system (MCS)
• ISSN: 1551-3203; 1941-0050
• DOI: 10.1109/TII.2015.2463754

This paper presents the project of a mobile cockpit system (MCS) for smartphones, which provides assistance to electric bicycle (EB) cyclists in smart cities' environment. The presented system introduces a mobile application (MCS App) with the goal to provide useful personalized information to the cyclist related to the EB's use, including EB range prediction considering the intended path, management of the cycling effort performed by the cyclist, handling of the battery charging process, and the provisioning of information regarding available public transport. This work also introduces the EB cyclist profile concept, which is based on historical data analysis previously stored in a database and collected from mobile devices' sensors. From the tests performed, the results show the importance of route guidance, taking into account the energy savings. The results also show significant changes on range prediction based on user and route taken. It is important to say that the proposed system can be used for all bicycles in general.