„The Cophenhagen Wheel” is project realized for Kobenhavns Kommune and financed by Ministry for the Environment in Denmark. Controlled through your smart phone, a bicycle wheel becomes a natural extension of your everyday life. You can use your phone to unlock and lock your bike, change gears and select how much the motor assists you. As you cycle, the wheel’s sensing unit is also capturing your effort level and information about your surroundings. Access this data through your phone or the web and use it to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve your exercise goals or to meet up with friends on the go. You can also share your data with friends, or with your city – anonymously if you wish – thereby contributing to a fine-grained database of environmental information from which we can all benefit.
The Copenhagen Wheel turns the bike you already own, quickly and easily into an electric bike with regeneration and real-time environmental sensing capabilities. The wheel harvests the energy you input while braking and cycling and stores it for when you need a bit of a boost. At the same time, sensors in the wheel are collecting information about air and noise pollution, congestion and road conditions.
The Copenhagen Wheel differs from other electric bikes in that all components are elegantly packaged into one hub. There is no external wiring or bulky battery packs, making it retrofittable into any bike. Inside the hub, we have arranged a motor, 3-speed internal hub gear, batteries, a torque sensor, GPRS and a sensor kit that monitors CO, NOx, noise (db), relative humidity and temperature. In the future, you will be able to spec out your wheel according to your riding habits and needs.
Credits & info:
Place: Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: December 2009
Project authors: Carlo Ratti – director, Assaf Biderman – assoc. director, Eric Baczuk – project leader, Christine Outram – project leader – first phase
Team members: Giovanni Alli – engineer, Leigh Christie – engineer, Otto Ng – architect, Pierfrancesco Spagnol – engineer, James Simard – GIS analyst, Rex Britter, Andrea Cassi, Xiaoji Chen, Jennifer Dunnam, Paula Echeverri, Myshkin Ingawale, Ari Kardasis, E Roon Kang, David Lee, Vincenzo Manzoni, Sey Min , Max Tomasinelli, Mark Yen
Client: Kobenhavns Kommune
Technical partner: Ducati Energia
Funding: Ministry for the Environment
Bicycle: Cinelli – “Mystic”
