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At the University of Tennessee, Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Chris Cherry collaborated
with the biosystems engineering department to create the nation's first automated e-bike sharing system.
two bicycle stations now on campus the pilot program offers an opportunity for
for health active transport while reducing emissions.
[music]
Chris Cherry: "One of the main motivations for including electric bikes in a bike sharing system
is I was hoping to expose more people to a relatively very efficient mode of transportation.
A lot of people won''t bicycle around campus or around east Tennessee because the terrain and the weather and other things.
Electric bikes can help overcome that. I worked with Stacy Worley in biosystems engineering and the
civil engineering department and collaborated on developing a station and prototype really of
how to share electric bikes and how to study the way people use electric bikes as a
research experiment And we put together a system that helped deal with how to manage battery
charging and battery exchange. And came out with a pretty successful first attempt."
Stacy Worley: "I think we did have some really good brain storming sessions and the concept was born we drew from
some of the systems that were out there already and we kind of dialed in on the expense of the bike and
how that was a major factor in making it well suited to a sharing type of system.
Then we came up with our idea of battery vending and management system to make the most use of the bike.
We have more batteries than we have bikes so that there is always a charged battery for the users when they come to pick up the bike,
and they get maximum range out of it."
Casey Langford: "Basically anyone with any student, faculty or staff at the University can sign up to
participate. And at this point it's completely a research project so it's entirely free. And they sign up through us
through a website and then basically we put them in the system and as soon as they are in the system they can swipe their card and
take a bike. As soon as they swipe their card we know who it was and what bike they got,
what battery they took. As soon as you pull the bike out we're collecting GPS data. We use that
to study your behavior. I am using it to study your physical health. It's a great option for transportation."
From the initial concept and design to the rigorous labor schedule needed for completion, the success of the on-campus
e-bike system is a result of collaborative efforts.
Cherry: "We had several groups of people participate in this project. We have electrical engineering students,
we have staff and faculty from biosystems engineering, and civil engineering, myself and my students."
Langford: "Everything was basically built in-house. So the structure is built across campus in the civil
shop. All the electronics, the software, everything inside the structure is
designed and built by the biosystems shop."
Cherry: "The beautiful part of a university is that you have a universal body of knowledge experts in almost any field and you can piece together these collaborations in a meaningful way."
Worley: "Well my supervisor here made a statement that's really stuck with me He said the really interesting and powerful things happen at the
intersection between the different areas that can be brought to bear on a problem and it's really
special when you get the right mix of people together with just the right assorted skill sets to attack a
attack a problem, and it just fills all of the holes that there are and in the end you always wind up with a
very high quality project that turns out to be more that you ever initially thought it could be."