[Programmable and universally controlled electronic bicycle ergometer].

A bicycle ergometer was constructed which, for the first time, allows the universal application of modern dynamic test procedures for the analysis of the regulatory behaviour and the physical working capacity in man. Different programs with impulse, step, ramp or sinusoidal test signals as well as with optimal multifrequent binary test signal sequences can be generated by a programmable automatic control system or by a function generator. In the automatic control system the signals are stored on punched papers and transformed into a voltage variation by a paper-tape reader. The voltage fluctuation is changed into the required brake horsepower of the ergometer by a special transducer. The actual pedalling speed is measured by a tachometer and the supplied voltage simultaneously is used for the adjustment of the work load independent of this speed. The new equipment can be used both for dynamic and static ergometric investigations with the advantage of rational and exact test procedures and the extended possibilities of application for the use in clinics, sports medicine, applied physiology and research in general.