Bike Buddy – A Vehicle Detection Device for Cyclists
Project Description Heading link
The overall objective of the ‘Bike Buddy’ project is to encourage the use of bicycles in cities to reduce emissions and promote a less sedentary lifestyle. To help promote the use of bicycles, the ‘Bike Buddy’ attempts to prevent one of the greatest dangers on the road to cyclists; vehicular accidents. According to the 2016 Fatality Analysis Report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 840 fatal accidents involving cyclists and automobiles in 2016. The idea behind ‘Bike Buddy’ is that a device which improves cyclist safety will help encourage more people to use bicycles for their daily commute. To improve cyclist safety, ‘Bike Buddy’ attempts to make the user aware of vehicles in a major blind spot; the rear of the bicycle. The user is kept aware of vehicles in his/her blind spot through two sensors; an ultrasonic sensor and a LiDAR sensor. Besides vehicle detection, ‘Bike Buddy’ also attempts to improve cyclist safety by making the user’s presence and intentions predictable to other motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. ‘Bike Buddy’ attempts to improve predictability in several ways; a rear light that gets brighter the darker it gets outside, turn signal lights that allow other people to anticipate which direction the user will go, and finally a brake light that signals when the cyclist will stop. The device communicates with the user through his/her smartphone; warnings are displayed on the smartphone based on sensor data sent from a microcontroller via Bluetooth, and user commands (like turn signals) are sent from the smartphone to the microcontroller via Bluetooth. One of the major guidelines of road safety is predictability; the more predictable the vehicle (or bicycle) the lower the chances are of an accident. With these functionalities, the ‘Bike Buddy’ can help reduce vehicular accidents.