Abstract:

Electric bicycles or E-bikes are gaining popularity especially in populated cities. Riding comfort, long range per charge of battery and capital cost are the major considerations while people selecting e-bikes in present market. E-bikes are usually with battery powered with either pedal assist provision or with throttle control to ride through different terrains. In this work a low cost e-bike was designed and developed with a brushless DC hub motor with controllers. For smart control, smartphone was used a console and the e-bike can be controlled using a mobile application which was connected to the e-bike through Bluetooth. The controller will pick the gradient of the terrain and will control the power of the motor, which results in energy saving. Predicted range of the e-bike, speed, acceleration and total distance covered were displayed in the console along with the geographical position on the map and throttle control options. The bike with the proposed control tested and the results were giving a reduction in current drawn from the battery. The results showed that the terrain intelligent control is capable of saving power consumed by the motor while riding under different slope conditions.