Department - Author 1
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Mechanical Engineering
Date
6-2015
Primary Advisor
Sarah Harding
Abstract/Summary
It was our mission to design and build a bicycle attachment that provides a safe, comfortable, and entertaining ride that can attach to any common bicycle for Rebekah, a 12 year old girl living with cerebral palsy. The aluminum frame bicycle trailer we built motivates Rebekah to exercise with a speaker that plays music when she pedals and ceases the music when she stops pedaling. The speaker and sensor system is controlled by an Adafruit Trinket microcontroller using the Arduino IDE. The trailer does not have a chain drive so Rebekah's pedaling will not actually contribute to the movement of the bike. To create resistance, we fabricated an aluminum disk that acts as a flywheel. Magnets were placed on either side of the disk to create eddy current resistance (magnetic resistance). The seat is custom made to fit Rebekah as she grows. Rebekah's Ride was given to the family in June of 2015.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/mesp/285