• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.873-880
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• 2011

As environmental pollution, global warming, and exhaustion of fossil fuel become global issue recently, there has been strong research motivation to develop green energy technology. Along the same line of motivation, some research efforts have been put into the development of environment-friendly bicycle equipped with various smart energy technologies to increase the usability of the bicycle as short-distance transportation. Among the technologies related with new generation bicycle, PAS (power assist system) is one of the most important systems that are essential in efficiently integrating human power and the electrical power supplied by electric motor driven by battery. In this paper, a novel torque sensor technology which is core component for PAS is proposed. Unlike existing technologies, strain gauges are attached to rear shaft directly under the hub bearings, which eliminates the requirement of slip-ring, Furthermore, the sensor is able to not only measure the torque transmitted to driving axle by human but also estimate the position of the gear to which the chain is currently engaged.