Design and Development of a Test Rig for E-bike Performance Evaluation

The paper describes the development of an innovative test rig for the evaluation of e-bikes in terms of energetic performances and control system. The test rig has been realized starting from a commercial cyclist training system and suitably modified. The test rig is able to reproduce an aforethought route or paths acquired during road tests. It is possible to measure the performance of the e-bike in terms of instantaneous power and speed, by the installed sensors and data acquisition system. The experimental test rig can simulate the resistant torque of a predetermined track and it aims to test and to optimize the control strategy available on the electronic control unit (ECU). An important feature of the system is represented by the possibility to adopt a hardware in the loop approach for the testing of the e-bike and of its control. Indeed, the whole control algorithm can be implemented on a suitable controller board able to execute real time processes. The preliminary tests have been carried out for the development of a new model of pedelec designed at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Naples Federico II. The research activity has been financially supported by MIUR (Ministero Istruzione Università e Ricerca) under the grant named PON04a3-00408 "Bicicli e Tricicli elettrici a pedalata assistita di nuova generazione". The experimental results have allowed to evaluate the performance of the electric bike for several simulated tracks in the urban area of Naples, Italy.