Cadence control of pedal-assisted electric bicycles considering energy and exercise efficiency

Abstract

An electric bicycle is an environmentally-friendly transportation option becoming more and more popular in modern society. Pedal-assisted electric bicycles provide not only convenient mobility but also the effect of exercise at the same time. It is widely known that the effect of bicycle exercise depends on the aspect of movement including torque and cadence. Those pedal movements are also closely related to the energy efficiency of the bicycle from the battery to the motor. In this work, we propose a control method of the pedal-assisted bicycles while maintaining the cadence level in the effective range from the viewpoint of the energy and exercise efficiency. The proposed control algorithm is implemented as a driving assistance application on a smartphone, and the effectiveness of the method is evaluated by the simulation considering actual driving condition of the bicycle. © 2018, Institute of Advanced Scientific Research, Inc. All rights reserved.