Automated Gearshift System

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
Hello,

First I'm new to the forum and would like your help to get some opinions.

I'm doing a project in my Industrial Automation course at my Institute of Technology regarding a monitoring and automated gearshift system for cycling. And for programming and setting some parameters take into account the rider's speed, the force applied to the pedal, cadence, power and the relationship of speed to the best use of the rider pedaling.

To set these parameters, I would like your help to get a feedback from those who really understands and practices this sport that is growing a lot.

Please, if you can fill a small sheet for me to collect some data would be really great and help me adapt the idea from real data and mainly suggestions, tips, advice and opinions.
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/wwpgwNZ9

Once again I appreciate the space and attention.

Thank you very much,

Kind Regards,

Renato
 
Drago

Drago

Legendary Member
Location
Suburban Poshshire
What are these strange kmh things whereof you speak?
 
LocalLad

LocalLad

Senior Member
Funny you should post this. Last proper ride, last weekend, my mind turned to automatic gears on a bike. I figured the best way to cycle is to choose a cadence and power and then the gear to match, so automatically picking a gear seems sensible.
 
OP
OP
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
LocalLad said:
Funny you should post this. Last proper ride, last weekend, my mind turned to automatic gears on a bike. I figured the best way to cycle is to choose a cadence and power and then the gear to match, so automatically picking a gear seems sensible.
Click to expand...
Yest that's it. I've been working in this idea for a while, I've started to develop in Ireland.

To ensure the right match there are some data to be analysed. The cadence and the force applied to the pedal ensures the best match to keep 'stable' the best cadence. Of course the cyclist can choose to the manual, or totally automated. The prototype is going well, other sensors can also improve the stability and monitoring system, as an accelerometer to track the inclinations for instance..

Thank you very much for your reply! @LocalLad
 
OP
OP
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
[QUOTE 4180692, member: 9609"]I would like to be able to preselect for range change; twin lever operation is just awkward, so for instance if I was going to go from 5 Low to 4 High (this being my next gear up) I would first preselect high range, then that would take effect when I changed gear from 5 to 4. Hence I would only ever have to move one lever at a time. Be also quite nice if a splitter could be added.[/QUOTE]
That's a great suggestion @User9609, and I think it can be easily implemented, also monitoring the activity and the initial parammeter setup of the cyclist. A lot of ranges and combinations could be included to improve the gear matches, satisfying each different "characteristic" for instance.

Thanks for your good tip!
 
cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Location
Land of confusion
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/10/bioshifts-automated-shifting.html
http://evolvethebike.com/
http://road.cc/content/tech-news/17...omatic-gear-shifting-upgrade-its-steps-e-bike
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I answered as best I could (I'm fluent in km/h ;) ) but I have no idea what my cadence or power is. Average speed is tricky: Do you mean overall (start-finish) average or moving average which is calculated by various websites and gps devices, all of which will give different results, so it doesn't mean a lot, and is also dependent on terrain and weather. Max speed is also difficult: Do you mean max speed on a level road, or downhill? The latter is pretty meaningless as its more dependent on use of brakes than gears.

Anyway, best of luck with your project. I'm sure it will be a fascinating engineering challenge, and I look forward to reading about it here.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
Last edited:
OP
OP
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
Dogtrousers said:
I answered as best I could (I'm fluent in km/h ;) ) but I have no idea what my cadence or power is. Average speed is tricky: Do you mean overall (start-finish) average or moving average which is calculated by various websites and gps devices, all of which will give different results, so it doesn't mean a lot, and is also dependent on terrain and weather. Max speed is also difficult: Do you mean max speed on a level road, or downhill? The latter is pretty meaningless as its more dependent on use of brakes than gears.

Anyway, best of luck with your project. I'm sure it will be a fascinating engineering challenge, and I look forward to reading about it here.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your answer! The data is simply to get an average of different type of cyclists to define all the possibilities of combinations of gears that can be implemented in the project. These data are really important to me and your opinion as well. Thank you very much @Dogtrousers
 
OP
OP
R

RenatoLacerda

Regular
Pale Rider said:
The NuVinci hub does some of what we speak - constant cadence with stepless gear changes.

There is an electrically operated automatic version which I tried briefly.

Takes some getting used to, but on a short ride I didn't get the 'must have it' feeling.

http://www.fallbrooktech.com/cycling/n360
Click to expand...
Really @Pale Rider ? It's good that you've already tried something similar, you can give a suggestion maybe... What did you think that was missing for the 'must have it' feeling? Thanks a lot
 
Pale Rider

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
RenatoLacerda said:
Really @Pale Rider ? It's good that you've already tried something similar, you can give a suggestion maybe... What did you think that was missing for the 'must have it' feeling? Thanks a lot
Click to expand...

We need to be clear what we are talking about.

The standard NuVinci hub is not automatic, it is a constantly variable gear which is changed by the rider using a twist grip.

The electronic version does the changing automatically to enable the rider to maintain a constant cadence without having to manually change gears.

I didn't ride the auto for long enough to form a proper impression.

I've ridden a standard NuVinci hub for a bit longer.

It felt 'draggy' to me.

NuVinci claim friction losses are minimal, but I reckon they are being a bit optimistic about that.

I'm sure drag is one of the reasons why the NuVinci hub has never really caught on.

NuVinci hubs are more commonly fitted to ebikes, where power losses are less important.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom