Optimization of electric bicycle for youths with disabilities

Tobias Blumenstein, Hilar Zeitlmann, Ana Alves-Pinto, Varvara Turova, Renée Lampe

Cerebral palsy is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect a person's ability to move and to maintain balance and posture. People with cerebral palsy have also perception and space orientation deficits so that special assistance devices should be developed to compensate these handicaps. The objective was to optimize an adapted electric bicycle (E-bike) for youths with neurodevelopmental disorders. An adapted E-bike was provided with ultrasonic sensors that measure distances to objects. If the distance to other objects reduces, an acoustic signal is sent. Additionally, a self-created force plate was fixed on the pedal to evaluate the muscle performances during biking. An experiment with the ultrasound warning system confirmed that acoustic feedback was helpful in avoiding obstacles. The measurement of the blood pressure, the heart frequency and the pedaling force during biking approved that the training condition of the test person can be registered and enables tuning the power of the electric motor to individual requirements. The results demonstrate that an adapted E-bike can be improved to provide better space orientation for people with perceptual disorders and to measure training conditions of patients. Moreover, these enable individual adjustment of the electric motor power to optimize comfort and therapy effect.