TIRE LOCALIZATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20090066498A1
• Filed: 09/07/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Bialke, Axel, Jongsma, Jakob
• Application Number:
  US11/851,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20090066498A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/447
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0416 allocating a corresponding wheel position on vehicle, e.g. front/left or rear/right

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are related to tire localization. In one embodiment, a tire localization system comprises a wheel module and a control unit. The wheel module comprises a sensor, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter. The control unit is adapted to receive data from the sensor and the GPS receiver via the RF transmitter and determine a location of the wheel module relative to the control unit from at least a portion of the data.

Claims

1. A tire localization system comprising:

a wheel module comprising a sensor, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter; and

a control unit adapted to receive data from the sensor and the GPS receiver via the RF transmitter and determine a location of the wheel module relative to the control unit from at least a portion of the data.

2. The tire localization system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of wheel modules, each associated with a tire of a vehicle.

3. The tire localization system of claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises a GPS receiver.

4. The tire localization system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises an acceleration sensor included in a tire pressure monitoring system.

5. The tire localization system of claim 4, wherein the tire pressure monitoring system further comprises a microcontroller and a transmitter.

6. The tire localization system of claim 1, wherein the location of the wheel comprises a driver side or passenger side position of the wheel module.

7. The tire localization system of claim 6, wherein the location of the wheel further comprises a front or rear position of the wheel module.

8. A monitoring system associated with a tire of a vehicle, the monitoring system comprising:

a positioning system receiver adapted to wirelessly receive positioning information from a satellite-based system; and

a transmitter adapted to transmit the positioning information to a location in the vehicle external to the tire to enable localization of the tire relative to the vehicle.

9. The monitoring system of claim 8, further comprising a sensor adapted to detect data related to the tire.

10. The monitoring system of claim 9, wherein the transmitter is further adapted to transmit the data.

11. The monitoring system of claim 8, wherein the location comprises a vehicle-based electronic control unit.

12. The monitoring system of claim 11, wherein the electronic control unit comprises a receiver adapted to wirelessly receive positioning information from a satellite-based system.

13. The monitoring system of claim 12, wherein the satellite-based system comprises one of a global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS, and Galileo.

14. The monitoring system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle comprises four tires, and wherein a monitoring system is associated with at least three of the tires.

15. A method of localizing tires of a vehicle comprising the steps of:

receiving satellite-based system positioning information at a receiver in each of a plurality of vehicle tires;

transmitting the positioning information from a transmitter in each of the plurality of tires to a control unit in the vehicle; and

localizing each of the plurality of tires using the positioning information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of localizing further comprises localizing each of the plurality of tires relative to the control unit using the positioning information.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of localizing further comprises localizing each of the plurality of tires relative to the other tires.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving one of global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS, and Galileo positioning information.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of localizing further comprises determining both a front or rear and driver or passenger position of each of the plurality of tires.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of providing real-time status information related to at least one of the localized tires.