Rental bike rides itself back: ETH students build a self-driving bicycle
Ten mechanical engineering students at ETH Zurich have built a rental bike prototype meant to ride to the station on its own after use – with lidar, a camera and fold-out support wheels.
Photo: Tiia Monto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · ETH Zürich · youtube.com
Mechanical engineering students at ETH Zurich have built an autonomous bicycle as part of a one-year bachelor's project, the university reported on 6 October. The AutoBike is based on a regular rental bike from Swiss provider PubliBike. The ten-member team was supervised by the Autonomous Systems Lab of robotics professor Roland Siegwart.
A lidar sensor and a stereo camera at the front scan the surroundings. The software turns this into a map of obstacles and plans the route, while actuators in the top tube steer and brake the bike. Two support wheels fold out at the back so it does not tip over without a rider. According to Swiss broadcaster SRF, the bike travels at no more than 5 km/h in autonomous mode.
The idea: bike-sharing operators currently have to redistribute their bikes at great effort. The AutoBike is meant to ride itself to where it is needed once it has been parked. Whether and when it will be allowed on public roads is still open, SRF reports – the team is aiming for a pilot in a test area.