9 Future work
There are several ideas for future extensions and iterations of the
SEMS. These draw on the experience gained from running the
system for 2 years, on feedback from trial participants and from
the companies involved with the commuter trials as well as from
discussing early findings with other researchers. One of the areas
we are particularly interested to develop further is the use of
SEMS and the e-bike fleet as part of a sensing network to collect
local environmental data. For example, we could attach sensors to
monitor noise pollution [26] or air pollution [27]. Another area of
interest for future development is to extend SEMS to measure
health variables such as heart rate monitoring and torque sensor
data [28]. This would represent a mobile health use case of SEMS.
An example could be smart e-bikes being used by those currently
physically inactive, as part of a health programme at work or
through a doctor (similar to current interventions with gym
memberships). The combined bike use data and health data could
then also support the economic case for this kind of health
intervention.
The system could also be developed to read detailed data about the
e-bike battery usage. This could be of interest to a range of
stakeholders, including e-bike manufacturers, battery
manufacturers and those purchasing or using fleets. Fleet
management of public or private e-bike fleets could also be part of
future developments. This use case concerns a fleet of public bikes
that are available for hire through public bike stations. Using a
public fleet with SEMS would enable crowd sourcing of bike and
sensor data at scale as it would engage with a large number of
bike users and with usage over time. Another potential use case is
the area of cargo e-bikes for urban goods delivery. In this case, the
SEMS could be developed to interface with the goods
management system and the battery use to calculate optimum
routes, to visualise goods progress in real time to customers, and
to calculate carbon savings compared with other modes of
transport. Another potential use case for SEMS is intermodal
transport. This would involve the integration with other modes of
transport via systems such as smartcards or mobile phone ticketing
and payment systems. Due to the modular design and the open
source nature of SEMS, some or all of these areas could be
integrated and several of the use cases could be explored in more
detail. This would work towards a toolkit of e-bike data that can
be combined as needed.