BUT and Nextbike collaborate on an app for planning shared bike maintenance

Optimization of bike distribution, efficient maintenance, and increased rentals. All this is promised by a new app for employees of the Czech franchise of Nextbike, developed in collaboration with a team of experts from the Brno University of Technology (BUT). The goal is to digitize and streamline the everyday activities of field technicians—from moving bikes between stations to replacing advertisements or performing on-site repairs.

The application uses both historical and real-time data to generate a daily plan for each technician. It considers not only the number and distribution of bikes at individual stations, but also factors such as weather, the nature of the location, availability of e-bikes, and expected demand. The goal is to minimize situations where users want to rent a bike but none are available, while also helping technicians use their time more efficiently.

“The optimization model can propose the ideal sequence of field operations to maximize efficiency while meeting real demand for shared bikes,” explains researcher Radovan Šomplák from the Institute of Process Engineering. “This saves technicians’ time, reduces unnecessary driving, and increases bike availability where and when they’re needed most. What’s interesting about the calculation is that we’re essentially predicting the future—the model uses historical data to anticipate that, say, in two hours there will be a bike somewhere where there isn’t one now,” Šomplák adds.

“Managing a fleet of thousands of bikes is a demanding task. That’s why we’re glad to have collaborated with experts from VUT on developing an app that makes it more efficient. This solution will improve operations both from our perspective and from that of the cities and our users,” explains Tomáš Karpov, Operations Director of Nextbike Czech Republic.

The project, financially supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, has been underway since January of last year. Field testing is currently in progress, with Nextbike employees and VUT engineers working together on-site. The results will be used to further refine the algorithm and user interface, with completion expected by the end of this year. The optimization features are being integrated directly into the company’s existing app so technicians won’t need to use a separate one.

From Brno to Europe?

Students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BUT also participated in the development. One of them, Jakub Hadaš, developed the map and route interface as part of his master’s thesis. “In the interactive map, we can see the real-time status of bikes at stations. A technician can select which stations to include, or run a calculation for the entire area. They set parameters such as start and end points, fieldwork duration, and weather conditions, then start the computation. The result can be displayed as navigation on their phone, guiding them by car to the next stop and task. On-site, they record the actual state and completed work, further improving future calculations. The app is mobile-first and fully adapted for field use,” explains Hadaš, who successfully defended his ‘bike-sharing’ thesis with top marks.

The project originated from an initiative by the BUT team, who approached the Czech branch of Nextbike with a proposal inspired by their work on waste collection optimization. Beyond the technical side, the project also brings a direct social impact: more accessible bikes, reduced operational costs, and better resource utilization. The Czech Nextbike, operating in dozens of cities across the country, is a franchise of the German company. Thanks to a unified data management system, the app—if successful in the Czech Republic—can easily be deployed in other countries.

“Just for context, Nextbike operates over 600 bikes and 200 stations in Brno. Demand and bike distribution change dynamically depending on the time of day, weather, or special events,” says Vlastimír Nevrlý from the BUT development team. “Our system is designed to adapt to different cities and needs, including cases where multiple technicians work in the same area and could otherwise ‘get in each other’s way,’ which again reduces efficiency,” Nevrlý concludes.

Nextbike is the largest Czech bike-sharing platform, offering shared bikes in dozens of Czech cities. The company’s vision is to help create cities that are livable, comfortable, and safe for cycling. The original Nextbike was founded in Leipzig in 2004, while the Czech branch was launched by Lukáš Luňák and Tomáš Karpov at the turn of 2018–2019. The company promotes cycling as a healthy, practical, and eco-friendly mode of urban transport. In the Czech Republic, it operates a fleet of 7,100 mechanical bikes and 600 e-bikes.

Source: FME BUT

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Author	Mgr. Iveta Hovorková
Published	2025-10-17 17:59
Link	https://www.vut.cz/en/but/f19528/d306566