Force Plate Bicycle Pedals

[Jacob Gardner]

Hello Biomech L Community,

I am looking for bicycle pedals or force transducing devices to attach to pedals that would allow me to record the three force components as well as their corresponding moments during cycling. I would like to sync the information with kinematics using Nexus and evaluate the data in Visual 3D. Is there anyone in the community that has done this or has a product recommendation and can provide me with some info? I have heard of a product by Look that measures power output but cannot determine if the forces and moments are available as well. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Jake Gardner

[Khalil Ben Mansour]

Re: Force Plate Bicycle Pedals

Hello,
This device allows the estimation of the three force components and their corresponding moments with a good accuracy and precision.
sensix.fr
Hope this helps you.
KBM

[John Rasmussen]

Re: Force Plate Bicycle Pedals

Jake,

I do not have a ready-made solution for you, but two talented students of mine developed a new solution a couple of years ago based on the idea of measuring the forces on the pedal arms using strain gauges rather than directly on the pedals and transmitting the signals wirelessly. This has some distinct benefits, one of which is that the device can be mounted on a real bicycle and used on the road. The device they made was a prototype, but if you have the expertise to bring this to an operable state, then I would be happy to share the information on how to build the device with you or other interested parties.

Best regards,
John

[Ajit Chaudhari]

Re: Force Plate Bicycle Pedals

Dear Jake,

I remember seeing instrumented pedals in Dr. Maury Hull's lab at UC Davis around summer of 2000. I'm not sure if he still has them or if he has moved them beyond the prototype stage that they were at when we used them for an experiment there, but you may want to follow up with him.

Ajit Chaudhari
Ohio State University

[Ray Browning]

Re: Force Plate Bicycle Pedals

Hi Jake,

I'm not aware of any commercially available systems that measure all 3 force and moment components. As Ajit mentioned, Dr. Hull has a set of force pedals, as does Dr. Jeff Broker at Univ of Colo, Colo Springs. You should also contact Dr. Bjorn Stapelfeldt at Radlabor (http://www.radlabor.eu/measuring-dev...ce-system.html) as they have recently developed a very interesting pedal force measurement system (although it only records normal and tangential forces). He may be able to help you.

Ray Browning
Colorado State University