Cyclist Heart Rate Control Via a Continuously Varying Transmission

This work addresses the design of a heart rate (HR) control system for a bicycle equipped with a continuously varying transmission. The control system helps the cyclist maintain a constant physical effort throughout the trip. The bicycle longitudinal dynamics and a control-oriented model of the cyclist's HR dynamics are the basis for the development of a controller. The HR dynamics is subject to considerable uncertainties due to inter subject differences, nonlinearities and other factors that are not directly influenced by the cycling physical effort. In the control system design phase, these are addressed by designing a second order sliding mode controller. The controller is experimentally validated on several subjects comparing the HR with the without the CVT control, showing that the HR is maintained within 10 BPM from the desired one