MIT’s Copenhagen Wheel will change your biking experience
A number of electric assist bicycles have come on the market in the last few years. All of them require you to buy the entire bike, but what if you like the one you already have? You have the top of the line frame, gears, pedals, brakes and perfect height adjustments, but you want a little something extra. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has the perfect solution. The Copenhagen Wheel can add a ton of electronics without buying a whole new bike.
The Copenhagen Wheel was unveiled during the Copenhagen Climate Convention. It was created as a way to enhance your bike riding experience without having to purchase a lot of different gadgets. The wheel itself incorporates all sorts of electronics.
This wheel was developed with the aid of a number of partners. Along with MIT, the Kobenhavns Kommune, Ducati Energia, and Progical Solutions LLC provided expertise for various portions of the project. Ultimately, they created a wheel that can interact with your smartphone (currently only the iPhone) to allow gear changes and to update you on information.
Everything is housed in the bright red hub.
There is no external wiring or bulky battery packs, making it retrofittable into any bike. Inside the hub, we have arranged a motor, 3-speed internal hub gear, batteries, a torque sensor, GPRS and a sensor kit that monitors CO, NOx, noise (db), relative humidity and temperature. In the future, you will be able to spec out your wheel according to your riding habits and needs.
As you can see, with all of the electronics and equipment housed in the hub, you can obtain a wide variety of information while also getting a boost up hills. The different sensors communicate with your iPhone by Bluetooth to give you environmental information that breaks down the air quality and noise quality of your ride. You can also get information on traffic congestion and road conditions as you pedal along.
Information concerning the way you ride are also collected. How much “effort” you are putting into your ride along with calories burned, and route(s) taken are all catalogued by the Copenhagen Wheel and can be viewed on your smartphone or even on the web.
You can store the information and use it to plan better bike routes and exercise goals while also noting the changing air quality in the areas you frequent. You can also share the environmental data collected by your bicycle with your local community, anonymously of course.
The Wheel also has built in energy regeneration through braking similar to what you find in most hybrid and electric cars. As you pedal back to break, that kinetic energy is harvested and stored in batteries to give you an electric boost when you need it.
Overall, the Copenhagen Wheel holds a lot of goodies for bicycle riders. Hopefully the wheel will be in production in the not too distant future. As stated above, once in production the Copenhagen Wheel may be customizable for biking location. For example, in San Francisco you could get bigger batteries for boosts going up those famous hills. You could also add more sensors for more information.
Since many cities and towns have law enforcement officers that patrol on bicycles, this would be a great way for cities to also monitor environmental differences in air and road quality, and noise.
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