Personal Vehicle (PV)

What it does

PV is a vehicle for travel in cities, towns and villages. PV addresses traffic jams, poor public transportation, the lack of built-up vehicles for people without a driving license, and the need to give up cycling in autumn and winter.

Your inspiration

The transportation challenge struck me when I attended a technical school 4 km from home and later a university 41 km away. I used to commute to the technical school by bike, while for the university, I initially drove part of the way by car, then took a bus, and finally cycled. By my second year, exhausted from the commute, I rented a room near the university. However, as rental prices began to rise, I realized that a small, compact, built-up vehicle with a 4 kW engine could solve my transportation issues. This was when the concept of Personal Vehicles first dawned on me, and it has since evolved significantly.

How it works

PV is a highly simplified version of a commonly known passenger car. Essentially, it possesses all the features familiar to car drivers such as weather protection, lights, turn signals, wipers, horn, handbrake, etc. The vehicle has storage space, or optionally, place for two small children. From a legal standpoint, the vehicle is considered a bicycle. It's a bicycle, but it lacks a crankset. It is powered by a gantry drive and optionally can be assisted by an electric motor. The gantry drive requires a seat in front of which a pressure plate is mounted on a carriage. The linear movement of the carriage is converted into rotary motion, and then the drive is directed to the vehicle's wheels. To enable the carriage to return, a one-way clutch is mounted in the drive system. The pressure plate is pushed by both legs simultaneously. The solution with an electric motor assist becomes particularly important when the vehicle is used in mountainous terrain.

Design process

The initial concept of the Personal Vehicle was, from a legal standpoint, a moped equipped with a 50 cc combustion engine. The combustion engine was later replaced with an electric motor to simplify the vehicle's design. During the vehicle's design process, it became clear that homologation was required, which is quite costly and significantly increases the vehicle's final price. Therefore, to lower the implementation difficulty of introducing the PV concept to the market, it was decided to design it as a bicycle. However, it turned out that the known crankset could not fit within the initially planned vehicle outline. This led to the idea of a gantry drive. Dynamic studies showed that the gantry drive has significantly more favorable characteristics than the crankset and perfectly fits the compact vehicle. Concurrently with improving the gantry drive, the miniaturized equipment of the PV was developed to accurately recreate the user features known to car users.

How it is different

The PV is a bicycle with car-like user features, which particularly distinguishes this vehicle from others. Additionally, the vehicle is equipped with a gantry drive that allows it to maintain significantly higher power for longer periods than commonly known crankset. The gantry drive occupies less space than the crankset, enabling the construction of an exceptionally compact vehicle. The vehicle can be operated without a driver's license while maintaining the comfort familiar to car drivers. After installing an auxiliary electric motor, the vehicle can be used outdoors all year round, with reduced risk of colds and injuries, especially those caused by slipping on icy surfaces. The vehicle aligns with all aspects of sustainable development.

Future plans

The next steps include promoting the project and seeking customers in both B2B and B2C models. In parallel, work is underway to launch production of the vehicles. I hope this will become a widely adopted means of transport, helping many people with short-distance trips to schools, universities, workplaces, and for shopping. Additionally, in the future, I am considering developing autonomous capabilities and a mobile app for remotely summoning the vehicle, to make it even more useful and available on demand.

Awards

The project received three grants that allowed for the improvement of the gantry drive and the concept of a bicycle with this drive. The PV project scored the highest number of points during Demo Day, which concluded the incubation process at the Warsaw University of Technology Innovation Center.