Design and hardware selection for a bicycle simulator

Abstract

With the resurgence in bicycle ridership in the last decade and the continuous increase of electric bicycles in the streets a better understanding of bicycle rider behaviour is imperative to improve bicycle safety. Unfortunately, these studies are dangerous for the rider, given that the bicycle is a laterally unstable vehicle and most of the time in need for rider balance control. Moreover, the bicycle rider is very vulnerable and not easily protected against impact injuries. A bicycle simulator, on which the rider can balance and manoeuvre a bicycle within a simulated environment and interact with other simulated road users, would solve most of these issues. In this paper, we present a description of a recently build bicycle simulator at TU Delft, were mechanical and mechatronics aspects are discussed in detail.