Communication method between a plurality of electronic measurement modules of a motor vehicle

• US 10,226,973 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive France (Continental AG), Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive France (Continental AG), Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Guinart, Nicolas, Boisset, Jean-Philippe, Fudulea, Olivier, Huard, Jean-Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Heard, Erin F
• Application Number:
  US15/465,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20170282654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/007 having multiple wheels arranged side by side
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/008 having wheels on more than two axles
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/009 having wheels on a trailer
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0454 Means for changing operation mode, e.g. sleep mode, factory mode or energy save mode
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0455 Transmission control of wireless signals
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0483 Wireless routers between wheel mounted transmitters and chassis mounted receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for communicating measurement messages between a plurality of electronic measurement modules and an electronic control unit of a motor vehicle. The method includes the steps of measurement (E1), by a primary emitter module, of parameter values associated with the wheel in which the module is mounted, of sending (E2), by the primary emitter module, of measurement messages to a relay module, of reception (E3) by the relay module, of the measurement messages sent, of measurement (E5), by the relay module, of parameter values associated with the wheel in which the relay module is mounted and of sending (E6), by the relay module, of the measurement messages received and of its own measurements to the electronic control unit.

Claims

1. A method for communicating measurement messages between a plurality of electronic measurement systems and an electronic controller of a motor vehicle, each of the electronic measurement systems being mounted in a wheel of said vehicle, said method comprising:

measuring, by at least one first electronic measurement system of the electronic measurement systems that is a primary emitter system, parameter values associated with the wheel in which said primary emitter system is mounted;

sending, by said primary emitter system, over a first radio communication link at a power below a first threshold, measurement messages to at least one second electronic measurement system, of the electronic measurement systems, that is mounted in the wheel of the vehicle, the second electronic measurement system being a relay system;

receiving, by said relay system the measurement messages sent over the first radio communication link;

measuring, by the relay system, parameter values associated with the wheel in which said relay system is mounted to obtain its own measurements; and

sending, by the relay system, the measurement messages received and the measurements obtained by the relay system to the electronic controller over a second radio communication link at a power above a second threshold, higher than or equal to the first threshold.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising

initializing, in a preliminary initialization step performed by the electronic controller, each electronic measurement system of the vehicle in order to define the role of each electronic measurement system.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein, in the preliminary initialization step, each electronic measurement system emits, at different powers, an initialization message to the other electronic measurement systems and the electronic controller in order to determine the distance, in terms of power, separating the respective electronic measurement system from the other electronic measurement systems and from the electronic controller.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the electronic controller receives, from each electronic measurement system, a list of the determined distances separating said respective electronic measurement system from the other electronic measurement systems, classifies all the electronic measurement systems as a function of the determined distances between the electronic measurement systems, determines the role of each electronic measurement system and informs the primary emitter systems that the primary emitter systems must emit at a power below the first threshold and informs the relay systems of the list of the identified primary emitter systems for which the relay systems must transfer the messages received, with measurements of the relay systems, to the electronic controller, in signals emitted at a power above the second threshold.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the relay system concentrates the measurement messages received from a plurality of identified primary emitter systems from which the relay system must receive messages before sending the the messages grouped together with the measurements of the relay system to the electronic controller.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising sending a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the relay system concentrates the measurement messages received from a plurality of identified primary emitter systems from which the relay system must receive messages before sending the the messages grouped together with the measurements of the relay system to the electronic controller.

8. The method according to claim 3, further comprising sending a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the relay system concentrates the measurement messages received from a plurality of identified primary emitter systems from which the relay system must receive messages before sending the the messages grouped together with its the measurements of the relay system to the electronic controller.

10. The method according to claim 2, further comprising sending a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the relay system concentrates the measurement messages received from a plurality of identified primary emitter systems from which the relay system must receive messages before sending the the messages grouped together with the measurements of the relay system to the electronic controller.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising sending a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising sending a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second electronic measurement system that is the relay system is closer to the electronic controller in terms of radio power than the first electronic measurement system that is the primary emitter system.

15. A communication system for a motor vehicle comprising:

an electronic controller; and

a plurality of electronic measurement systems each mounted in a wheel of said vehicle, said plurality of electronic measurement systems comprising at least one first electronic measurement system that is a primary emitter system and at least one second electronic measurement system that is a relay system, said primary emitter system being configured to measure parameter values associated with the wheel in which said primary emitter system is mounted and to emit, to said relay system, over a first radio communication link at a power below a first threshold, signals comprising measurement messages, the relay system being configured to receive signals emitted by the primary emitter system, to measure parameter values associated with the wheel in which said relay system is mounted to obtain its own measurements, and to emit signals comprising the measurement messages received and the measurements obtained by the relay system to the electronic controller over a second radio communication link at a power above a second threshold, higher than or equal to the first threshold.

16. The communication system according to claim 15, wherein the electronic controller is configured to initialize the communication system by defining the role of each electronic measurement system of the vehicle.

17. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein each electronic measurement system is configured to send a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

18. A motor vehicle comprising:

the communication system according to claim 16.

19. The communication system according to claim 15, wherein each electronic measurement system is configured to send a switchover request to the electronic controller following a switchover event to indicate to the electronic controller that it is necessary to redefine all or some of the roles of the electronic measurement systems.

20. A motor vehicle comprising:

the communication system according to claim 15.