05 February 2018

Will Robots Replace Riders?

Maybe I hang out with all the wrong people:  I have yet to meet anybody who likes the idea of a driverless car.  They may not enjoy driving, but they are skeptical that a computer program, or whatever would guide the vehicle, can make the same kinds of judgments a driver could make.

Then there are those people who enjoy driving.  I don't imagine many of them would be crazy about losing one of their pleasures.

So why, then, would anyone want to teach a computer how to ride a bicycle?

Computer scientist Matthew Cook, from what I can see, isn't trying to make a machine that can usurp the role of a cyclist.  Rather, he says, "we do not have great insight into how we ride a bicycle" no matter how well we may ride.

 

In 2004, when he was at the California Institute of Technology, he created a simulator and made 800 unsteered runs with it to see how far it could go when there is no one to steer it.   The image above shows the tracks of those runs, initiated when the "bicycle" was pushed to left to right, and how far they went before falling down.  Oscillations from side to side, visible in the chart, occurred because the bicycle was moving too slowly to keep itself stable.

As a result of this work, he found that it took a simple network of only two neurons to keep the bike stable:  one to calculate the required lean of the bicycle to execute a given judgment in direction, and another to translate that change into an amount of torque to apply to the handlebars.

Cook says his work could have "many applications", but doesn't specify what they are.  My guess is that it might be helpful for people to regain skills and faculties lost or impaired in crashes and other traumatic events:  Simulators like Cook's might, for example, provide insights into how our minds and bodies allow us to do some of the things--like balancing a bicycle or walking--we do instinctively. Also, I could see how "test dummies" for bikes could be developed to better test helmets and other products.

I just hope no one develops robots that can push us aside and take our bikes!  

04 February 2018

Watermelon Cooler?

In my youth, one of my riding partners was a bartender.  This got me to thinking about him:




I imagine that something like this would make him very popular with some cyclists!

For those of us who don't imbibe and ride, this might be for us:




"Watermelon wheels" sounds like an unflattering nickname for a slow or unskilled cyclist--or one you just don't like!



03 February 2018

New Trial For Driver Who Mowed Down Five Cyclists

A year and a half ago, I reported one of the most horrific auto-on-bike crashes I've ever heard about.   Melissa Fevig-Hughes, Tony Nelson, Debbie Bradley, Larry Paulik and Suzanne Sippel, all experienced cyclists who'd ridden together for more than a decade, were run down by a blue Chevrolet pickup truck.  They died almost immediately; the crash seriously injured four fellow club members who were riding with them.



In the minutes before that tragedy, police were looking for that truck after three different callers said it was being driven erratically.  When he was apprehended, he was intoxicated and therefore charged with DUI.

Charles Pickett Jr would be charged with five counts of second-degree murder.  He appealed his conviction all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, which last week said it wouldn't hear his argument that he shouldn't be tried for murder in the case.  



Now he is set to stand trial again in the Kalamazoo County Circuit Court.  A settlement conference is set for Friday, 13 April (!) and jury selection for the trial is to start on Monday the 23rd.

Nothing will bring those cyclists back.  But it's good to know that someone, at least, is taking the needless deaths of cyclists seriously.

    

02 February 2018

If Triathloners Don't See Their Shadows....

Today is Groundhog Day.  The media will focus this country's attention on the most famous groundhog of all, Punxsutawney Phil. He's said to be the only one who really knows whether spring is just around the corner or winter will keep its grip on us for another six weeks.

Closer to (my) home, there is Staten Island Chuck. He and Phil aren't always in agreement.  Then again, they live about 500 kilometers apart.  It must be said, though, that from 1992 to 2016, Chuck's predictions were accurate 68.4 percent of the time, while Phil got it right only 42.1 percent of the time.

Hey, Chuck's a New Yorker. Waddaya expect?

Anyway, I think I've found an even more accurate way of predicting weather for the next few weeks:




The question is, of course: Do they see their shadows?  

Their shadows are behind them.  Does that mean they can't see them?  Or they can act as if they haven't seen?


Hmm...I wonder whether a groundhog can pretend not to see his shadow. If he did, would that mean spring is at hand?

Update  Phil saw his shadow.  But Chuck didn't.

01 February 2018

Before The Dawn

When I first started this blog, there were mornings when my commute involved riding into the sunrise.  I used to enjoy that--certainly more so than the job I had at the time!  Every once in a while, when I get up early enough (which means, ahem, getting to bed early enough), I will actually voyage into the dawn just for fun.



Today, though, began with me pedaling away from the sunrise


and into the darkness.  

Hell Gate

James Wright used the word "darkness" so much, especially in his early poems, that if he'd copyrighted it he'd've died an extremely wealthy man.  At least there were different kinds of darkness in his work.  I wonder what he would have made of the kind I saw today at Hell Gate as I rode over the RFK Memorial Bridge.