Tire wear compensated load estimation system and method

• US 10,245,906 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2014
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
• Original Assignee: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
• Inventors: Singh, Kanwar Bharat, Parsons, Anthony William, Engel, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Culler, Jill E
• Application Number:
  US14/538,244
• Publication Number:
  US 20160129737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 11/246 Tread wear monitoring systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/04 mounted on the wheel or tyre
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0488 Movement sensor, e.g. for sensing angular speed, acceleration or centripetal force
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/061 by monitoring wheel speed measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles G01C22/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/064 comprising tyre mounted deformation sensors, e.g. to determine road contact area
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/13 Load or weight
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/086 wherein the vehicle mass is dynamically estimated
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/02 Tyres

Abstract

A system and method of estimating a load bearing on a vehicle tire includes an inflation pressure measuring sensor for measuring an inflation pressure level within a tire cavity; a contact patch length sensor measuring the rolling contact patch length of the tire; a tire rolling speed sensor measuring a rolling speed of the tire; and a tire wear state estimation calculator estimating a tire wear state of a tread of the tire. An artificial neural network estimates a tire load from the contact patch length, the inflation pressure level, and the tire rolling speed by utilizing as a compensation factor input the estimated tire wear state.

Claims

1. A system of estimating a load bearing on a vehicle tire, comprising:

a vehicle tire having a tire cavity and supporting a load;

an inflation pressure measuring sensor attached to the tire for measuring an inflation pressure level within the tire cavity;

a contact patch length sensor attached to the tire for measuring the contact patch length of the tire rolling against a ground surface carrying a tire load;

a tire rolling speed sensor mounted to the vehicle for measuring a rolling speed of the tire;

a hub acceleration sensor for measuring a hub acceleration of a hub supporting the vehicle tire;

a tire wear state estimation calculator for deriving an estimated depth of a tread of the tire based on the hub acceleration;

a compensation factor based upon the estimated depth of the tread; and

a tire load calculator for estimating a tire load from the contact patch length, the compensation factor, the inflation pressure level, and the tire rolling speed.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the tire load calculator comprises an artificial neural network-based signal processor receiving as inputs the contact patch length, the inflation pressure level, the tire rolling speed, and the estimated tire tread depth.

3. A method of estimating a load bearing on a vehicle tire having a tire cavity and supporting a load, comprising:

attaching an inflation pressure measuring sensor to the tire for measuring an inflation pressure level within the tire cavity;

attaching a contact patch length sensor to the tire for measuring the contact patch length of the tire rolling against a ground surface carrying the tire load;

mounting a tire rolling speed sensor to the vehicle for measuring a rolling speed of the tire;

measuring a hub acceleration of a hub supporting the vehicle tire;

deriving an estimated depth of a tread of the tire based on the hub acceleration;

basing a compensation factor upon the estimated depth of the tread; and

estimating a tire load from the contact patch length, the compensation factor, the inflation pressure level, and the tire rolling speed.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising employing an artificial neural network-based signal processor in estimating the tire load, the artificial neural network receiving as inputs the contact patch length, the inflation pressure level, the tire rolling speed, and the estimated tire tread depth.