DELFT: Holger Caesar, a researcher at a Dutch university, rides a bicycle unlike any other into the afternoon traffic to gather information that he thinks could one day save lives.
Equipped with a variety of laser sensors and scanners, his blue electric bike rushes across the Delft University of Technology campus while thousands of students ride their way home.
The TU Delft campus is a maze of bike lanes, a picture-perfect representation of life in a nation where bicycles outnumber people. Caesar’s bicycle collects information on the elevation, direction, and range of moving and stationary objects, such as vehicles, pedestrains, and cyclists, while he rides through the congested streets of Delft.
The goal is to improve comprehension of how road users behave and to create a three-dimensional image of its surroundings.
“We hope these datasets will have lots of applications in the future,” he said, implying that they may be used to educate autonomous vehicles how to avoid colliding with two-wheeled travelers, assist cyclists in avoiding obstacles, or create self-stabilizing bicycles.
“It’s rather easy for cars … They turn left. They move to the right. They proceed directly. However, Caesar noted that it is extremely difficult to forecast the behavior of bikers.
“For example, you could utilize the information to create an app that notifies drivers when a cyclist makes an unexpected movement.”
With its front and rear LiDAR sensors, the “Delft SenseBike” itself would look right at home in a science fiction movie. Autonomous vehicles frequently employ LiDAR, or “Light Detection And Ranging,” technology, which uses laser detection to provide a three-dimensional image of their environment.