Vision

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title: Vision

Grab a Bike-Project vision

Grab a bike is a effort-free bike sharing that focuses on the environment and on the user, providing hop and go feeling and an intelligent navigation through the city.

In most cities public transport, despite the efforts, isn’t good enough, and the already existing bike sharing services force you to leave the bike in a given spot after the ride, which ends up to being uncomfortable if you are in a hurry. Plus when you get on the bike you have no information about the path you should follow and if you don’t know the city very well you could end up stuck in some over-polluted place which would make your ride a very undesirable experience.

Nevertheless bike sharing is still a good idea for both the environment and our wallets, so that’s where Grab a Bike comes in: our goal is to offer a new generation bike sharing service, allowing you to look up on your phone the position of the closest bike, enjoy your ride and leave it wherever you want, being provided with information if you are entering a polluted or busy zone during your ride.

Open issues

From the very first moment we understood that securing our bikes would have been a primary issue in our project. We are aware that securing a bike perfectly is impossible but we try to make stealing one of our bikes as hard as possible. First of all a smart lock is connected to each bike, allowing the user to secure it to almost everything. The lock can be opened by means of the smartphone app and once closed if it’s severed it lets us know what is going on and triggers the built in position tracker of the bike recording the whole route the bike follows while a loud siren lets the whole neighborhood know what you are doing, so, if you really want to steal a bike, it might not be a great idea to steal ours.

Main AmI steps

  1. Sensing: The system senses if the air is polluted or the zone you are entering is too busy or if someone is trying to steal the bike.

  2. Reasoning: On the base of what is senses the system can suggest you to change your path

  3. Acting: A security system triggers whenever the bike is being stolen.

  4. Interacting: The system interacts with the user giving him information and also with the manager, letting him know if a bike is being stolen.

AmI features

  1. Grab a Bike is sensitive and responsive: it can sense environmental pollution and suggest you to change your path. Moreover it interacts with you by means of the application.

  2. Grab a Bike is ubiquitous: many bikes can be scattered through the whole town allowing you to just look for the closest one.

  3. Grab a Bike is intelligent: it detects when you’re too close to a polluted or busy area, it warns you if it’s being stolen.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

Grab a bike is an effort-free bike sharing service that focuses on the environment and user, providing hop and go feeling and an intelligent navigation through the city. The system is designed to provide a service free from all the constraints of specific parking spots: the bike can be taken and left wherever the user needs. Moreover, with a smart pollution monitoring system, grab-a-bike can prevent the user from passing through polluted spots in the city.

DEFINITIONS

Glossary

  • App: Android based application (4.4+).
  • The interface: the application.
  • HW: the hardware part fixed on the bike crossbar.
  • The sensor: the pollution sensor provided on the HW part.
  • The lock: the lock managed by the HW and the app.
  • LEDS: the LEDs fixed on the handle of the bike to provide the routing advice.

Actors

Every adult citizen who has registered to our service, who has a smartphone with GPS and Internet connection, such as travelers, workers and students.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Functional requirement:

Functional area Description
1- ID User login, registration, and logout
2- PSR Pollution-sensing and reasoning
3- IN Intelligent navigation
4- ATS Bike anti-theft function

1.1 User registration - Priority:2

The user registration on the website is needed to control the bikes’ access.

1.2 User login and logout - Priority: 2

The user will have to authenticate himself at the beginning of every session and he will be logged out once the application is closed.

1.3 Position record Priority: 2

The latest position of the bike is stored on a database. Once the bike is unlocked and locked again the position will be updated.

2.1.1 Pollution database - Priority : 2

A database stores data about the pollution level as a function of the position. If the database has already pollution information of a certain place, the data is updated whenever a new value is detected. If the pollution level is greater than a given limit level, a flag is given to the user.

2.1.2 Sensing - Priority : 1

The pollution data is provided by a sensor embedded in the onboard system of the bike.

2.2. Position - Priority : 1

The GPS data is given by the GPS antenna of the user’s smartphone.

2.3 Final info Priority : 3 At the end of the ride, the App shows the most polluted and the less polluted spots the user has passed though.

3.1 Anti-pollution Advice by means of direction LEDs - Priority: 2

During the use of the bike, if the user position is close to a polluted place, the system suggestes an alternative direction by two LEDs: Right LED is switched on if turning right would help the user avoid pollution, otherwise Left LED is switched on.

4.1 Smart alarm - Priority: 2

When the bike is locked, if it is moved the alarm is activated.

NON FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

  • Portability: Android smartphones running KitKat or later (4.4+)
  • Efficiency: The response time for the system to detect the polluted area and warn the user of an alternative route is estimated to be a couple seconds maximum, this way the user experience won’t be compromised.
  • Privacy: User data is logged in the server anonymously, saving only the bike positions and the polluted areas.
  • Safety: The user ride through the city won’t be distracted with the smartphone screen, only a small screen/led on the bike will provide relevant information to the user.
  • Smart lock: The bike is provided with an automatic lock, controlled by the user via the application.

OPEN ISSUES

  • Bike connection to the Internet
  • Bike theft detection and prevention

Youtube Video

Video

The team

Name Github Account Email Role
Riccardo Coggiola rcoggiola s213787@studenti.polito.it Hardware designer, programmer
Fiorenza Conte ConteF s212929@studenti.polito.it Hardware designer, programmer
Nicola Gregorio Durante kknickkk me@ngdurante.eu Software designer, programmer
Zhaoyang Liu liuzhy71 s241506@studenti.polito.it Software designer, programmer