Estimation of the Cycling Cadence Using Low-Cost Inertial Sensors Mounted on a Bicycle

With a rising interest in micro-mobility in the context of green technologies and increased awareness of the importance of regular physical activity, bicycles and e-bikes have gained significant popularity in everyday life. Equipping a bike with smart sensors may provide additional data to complement personal fitness trackers. Previous research has shown that cycling cadence can be measured by IMUs, however, studies were based on expensive commercially available motion tracking development kits, tested in laboratory setup environments. The goal of this research was to investigate the possibilities of measuring the cycling cadence by means of lowcost and easy-to-integrate MEMS inertial measurement units (IMUs) and signal processing algorithms, suitable for running on low-power microcontroller architectures. Moreover, the measurement system was evaluated in realistic conditions on a paved and a pebble road to prove that cheaper IMU sensor alternatives may still achieve satisfactory results in the estimation of cycling parameters in real-life outdoor conditions.