WORKOUTIMAL
The Smart Exercise Machine
A play on the words "workout" and "optimal", WorkOutimal is a project I am working on at UC Berkeley. The goal of the project is to create a cardio machine, in our case a bicycle, that is able to guide the user through an efficient workout. Efficient, for our purposes, means maximum calorie expenditure for a given time. This is possible because power output, which is the product of force and velocity, is a nonlinear function for a human.
BICYCLE
For the project, our team decided to change a previously-existing stationary exercise bike. The bike, pictured stripped-down, is a basic Loctek desk bike which uses a magnet and flywheel to manipulate the resistance to pedaling.
HARDWARE
As part of the hardware duo, my responsibility is to actually create a working product. We are using a 12 volt linear actuator to manipulate the position of the magnet, and thus the resistance on the bike. I will be using an arduino to gauge the speed of pedalling and also to control the linear actuator. So, the first round of the product will be an add-on item to a stationary bicycle.
ASSEMBLY
The current state of the assembly is shown (left). In order to measure the pedal velocity, I created a low-fidelity encoder using a single LED and photoresistor. The gaps in the wheel change the reading on the photoresistor, which I then used to calculate the rotations of the flywheel, and then the rotations of the pedals. Both the velocity measurement system and linear actuator are controlled using an Arduino Uno.
For more information, visit: https://berkeley.box.com/s/o1snput2afh44vb83fsna0he9jbh7hf6
To discuss this project, contact me today.