Artificial intelligence lets bicycles “see”

Holoscene Bike sensor bike from Boréal Bikes during test rides in the municipality of Puch bei Hallein
© Salzburg Research

Bike-friendliness of a cycle path depends to a large extent on the surface quality. This allows people who use bicycles for work-related reasons or to complete daily errands and want to keep bike-commuting climate-neutral to perform their tasks faster and in a more pleasant way. Salzburg Research is training AI that enables smart bicycles to analyse their surroundings. The technology is suitable for evaluating cycle paths, analysing overtaking manoeuvres, collision detection and warning concepts for safe cycling.

Cycling plays an important role in the mobility transition to achieve European and national climate goals. Therefore, in many places, investments are being made in the expansion of bicycle infrastructure. Outdated bike paths must be maintained and preserved.

Until now, the surface quality of cycling infrastructure has been derived from vibration measurements. In the field of street surveillance, however, visual and LiDAR-based approaches are predominant, with the latter approach providing the best results. “Light Detection and Ranging,” or “LiDAR” for short, is a system for generating high-resolution 3D information using light only.

“The problem here is that measuring vehicles, such as those used for highways and main roads, are too large and too heavy for bike paths. This is where our sensor bike provides a solution,” says Moritz Beeking from Salzburg Research Institute.

Data collection with a smart sensor bike

The latest version of Boreal Bikes’ sensor bike, the Holoscene Edge, was used for this research. The device is equipped with a range of sensors, including GPS, several inertial measurement units, 2D cameras, and five LiDAR sensors. Each LiDAR sensor on the bike faces a different direction to capture a full 360-degree view of the bicycle’s surroundings.
With the LiDAR sensors mounted on the research bike, the surroundings of the bike were recorded ten times per second and displayed in three dimensions by means of high-frequency laser distance measurements in the form of a so-called point cloud consisting of 240,000 points. Using artificial intelligence trained specifically for this purpose, each point is then assigned to a specific class, for example, “street,” “vegetation,” or “building.”

“With regards to the maintenance of cycle paths, for example, all associated points could first be extracted, and, in the next step, a model of the surface could be created,” says Moritz Beeking from Salzburg Research.

The recorded point clouds can also be used to analyze traffic situations, such as overtaking processes. Technologies for connecting bicycles to automated vehicles enable collision detection and warning concepts for safe cycling.

More safety for cyclists through smart sensor technology

Salzburg Research is famous for its methods and technologies for the valorization of motion data. The Mobility and Transport Analytics group develops and evaluates methods and software-as-a-service tools for sustainable, environmentally friendly, and efficient mobility and transport systems.

The research focuses on active mobility, particularly data-supported technologies that promote safe and efficient cycling. To evaluate the quality of bicycle infrastructure, Salzburg Research offers sensor- and data-based analyses to monitor the condition of the bike infrastructure and focus the maintenance work on the most heavily used sections. The technology is also suitable for analysing traffic situations such as overtaking, as well as for collision detection and warning concepts for safe cycling. The intelligent, networked sensor bike is part of the research infrastructure.
https://youtu.be/CS5QNvduAB0

Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

Moritz Beeking
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
+43/662/2288-312 | moritz.beeking@salzburgresearch.at

Originalpublikation:

Armin Niedermüller & Moritz Beeking (2024): Transformer based 3D semantic segmentation of urban bicycle infrastructure, Journal of Location Based Services, DOI: 10.1080/17489725.2024.2307969

Weitere Informationen:

https://www.salzburgresearch.at/presseaussendung/kuenstliche-intelligenz-laesst-… more pictures

Media Contact

Birgit Strohmeier Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

All latest news from the category: Information Technology

Here you can find a summary of innovations in the fields of information and data processing and up-to-date developments on IT equipment and hardware.

This area covers topics such as IT services, IT architectures, IT management and telecommunications.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

New organoid with all key pancreas cells

Researchers from the Organoid group (previously Clevers group) at the Hubrecht Institute have developed a new organoid that mimics the human fetal pancreas, offering a clearer view of its early development….

Unlocking the potential of nickel

New study reveals how to use single atoms to turn CO2 into valuable chemical resources. Nickel and nitrogen co-doped carbon (Ni-N-C) catalysts have shown exceptional performance in converting CO2 into…

‘Spooky action’ at a very short distance

Scientists map out quantum entanglement in protons. Particles streaming from collisions offer insight into dynamic interactions and collective behavior of quarks and gluons. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s…