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Improve balance assist page with this writing #168

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moorepants opened this issue Feb 11, 2025 · 0 comments
Open

Improve balance assist page with this writing #168

moorepants opened this issue Feb 11, 2025 · 0 comments

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@moorepants
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I had to write the following text for a report, we could use some of the language to improve the balance assist page:

Balance Assist Bicycle
Crashes are a deterrent for cycling growth
Bicycling is an integral part of daily life in Dutch cities, with over 25% of trips made by bicycle, and the world needs a drastic increase in bicycling to help mitigate the environmental and societal costs automobiles cause. Cycling crashes that cause injuries or even death are still too numerous, with little reduction over the last 20 years. Safety is a deciding factor for choosing cycling or not, especially for the elderly. Some 60% of crashes occur without interaction between road users (cyclist-cyclist or cyclist-car, for example) and mostly are the result from loss of rider control. The Department of BioMechanical Engineering is working to understand the mechanisms at play during a crash along with ways to intervene and prevent loss of balance.
Steering control can keep you on your wheels
Funded by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in partnership with Royal Dutch Gazelle, Bosch eBike Systems, and Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid the Biomechatronics and Human-Machine Control section’s Bicycle Lab developed a balance assist bicycle that utilizes a small motor in the steering column paired with a gyroscope sensor to steer along with the rider. This makes the bicycle stable at low to medium speeds, when it would not be otherwise.
Falls are reduced with balance assist
Testing safety critical scenarios is a challenging research endeavor, but not impossible. With the fall perturbation system developed in-house the balance assist system can be evaluated to determine if it helps prevent falls. Our recent study showed that the probability of falling is significantly reduced when the system is active. If this bicycle technology was widely adopted, a decrease in the 60% of single cyclist falls is expected. Ongoing work to determine the effectiveness in other fall scenarios and investigation into commercialization are already in action.

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