For people with disabilities, for those who face trouble while steering or pedalling bicycles, for the benefit of bicycle sharing stations, for solving innumerable environment issues – this driverless bicycle developed by some students of IIT Kharagpur may well be the answer.

If, for example, an arm amputee wants to use i-Bike, all he/she has to do is send an SMS to the bike using the Android app that has an option – “call the bike to my location.” The GPS location is saved on a server that is continuously accessed by sensors on the bike. On receiving the location information, the bike instantly starts moving towards the destination. The rider can then add a new destination using the app and reach there with the help of autonomous steering.

Trainer wheels have been used for balancing the bike and these too are easily retractable with the help of a switch.

With i-Bike, this team plans to solve the last mile transportation problem in many urban cities. The bicycle is primarily for use by people with disabilities, like amputees and the visually impaired, but will also be very useful to commuters who struggle to find affordable means of transport after getting off local trains, metros, and buses.

Once the team has the patent, they plan to collaborate with companies willing to start bicycle sharing centres in India.

Source: TheBetterIndia