METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSOCIATING A TIRE PRESSURE SENSOR TO A WHEEL LOCATION IN AN INTITIATOR BASED TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM

• US 20100148949A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Patel, Dilip B., McQuade, Thomas Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,916,010 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/442
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0415 Automatically identifying wheel mounted units, e.g. after replacement or exchange of wheels
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0416 allocating a corresponding wheel position on vehicle, e.g. front/left or rear/right
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0462 Structure of transmission protocol

Abstract

A method and system for eliminating cross talk in a tire pressure monitoring system that ranks potential sensor identifications based on the number of times the sensors respond to an initiator. Upon determination of a sufficient separation between second and third ranked sensors, an assignment of the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications is made to the tire locations expected to respond to the initiator signal.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a sensor location in an initiator based tire pressure monitoring system, the method comprising the steps of:

activating at least one initiator directed to at least one sensor in a known tire location;

counting the number of transmissions sent during a predetermined period of time for each sensor responding to the at least one initiator;

ranking a plurality of potential sensor identifications based on the number of counted transmissions for each sensor in response to the at least one initiator;

assigning the potential sensor identification having the highest number of transmissions to the at least one sensor in the known tire location.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of activating at least one initiator further comprises activating the initiator a predetermined number of times within the predetermined period of time.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of ranking a plurality of potential sensor identifications further comprises the steps of:

ranking at least first, second and third potential sensor identifications based on the number of counted transmissions for each sensor in response to the at least one initiator;

calculating a difference between the number of transmissions of the second ranked sensor and the third ranked potential sensor identifications; and

comparing the difference to a predetermined threshold value to determine a sufficient separation in the number of transmissions.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the step of assigning the potential sensor identifications further comprises the step of assigning the first and second ranked sensor identifications to tire locations expected to respond to the at least one initiator upon confirmation that a sufficient separation in the number of transmissions exists between the second and third ranked potential sensor identifications.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the initiator based tire pressure monitoring system has a plurality of initiators and further comprising the step of repeating the method for each initiator thereby assigning the potential sensor identification to their respective tire locations for each tire on the vehicle.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the plurality of initiators further comprises at least three initiators.

7. A method for identifying a sensor location in an initiator based tire pressure monitoring system for a vehicle having front right, front left, rear right, rear left tires and a spare tire, the method comprising the steps of:

activating at least one initiator directed to pressure sensors in predetermined tire locations;

counting the number of transmissions sent in a predetermined period of time for each pressure sensor responding to the at least one initiator;

establishing a potential sensor identification for each pressure sensor responding to the at least one initiator;

ranking the potential sensor identifications based on the number of counted transmissions for at least first, second and third ranked potential sensor identifications, the potential sensor identifications being ranked based on the number of transmissions counted for each pressure sensor responding to the at least one initiator;

assigning the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications to the locations associated with the predetermined tire locations.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the step of activating at least one initiator further comprises activating the initiator a predetermined number of times within the predetermined period of time.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the step of ranking the potential sensor identifications further comprises the steps of:

calculating a difference between the number of transmissions of a second ranked sensor and a third ranked sensor;

comparing the difference to a predetermined threshold value to determine a sufficient separation in the number of transmissions; and

assigning the potential sensor identifications upon determination that a sufficient separation in the number of transmissions exists.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the step of assigning the potential sensor identifications further comprises:

comparing the potential sensor identifications having the first and second rankings to known sensor identifications associated with the predetermined tire locations stored in non-volatile memory;

identifying any match between potential sensor identifications and known sensor identifications; and

confirming the potential sensor identifications that match known sensor identifications for the tires as being associated with their respective tire locations.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the step of identifying any match further comprises:

identifying any match between potential sensor identifications and known sensor identifications including a spare tire sensor identification;

assigning the spare tire sensor identification to the newly identified sensor location upon a match between the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications and the known spare tire sensor identification; and

storing the assigned sensor identifications in non-volatile memory.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

identifying the absence of any match between potential sensor identifications and known sensor identifications; and

assigning the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications to expected tire locations; and

storing the assigned sensor identifications in non-volatile memory.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the at least one initiator further comprises at least three initiators and further comprising the step of repeating the method for each initiator in order to identify and assign sensor identifications to respective tire locations on the vehicle.

14. A system for eliminating cross-talk among sensors in a tire pressure monitoring system when determining sensor locations in a vehicle, the system comprising:

a plurality of tire pressure monitoring sensors wherein each sensor is associated with a respective tire location on the vehicle;

at least one initiator associated with at least one sensor for a tire in a predetermined location on the vehicle, the initiator for initiating a response from at least one sensor associated with the at least one tire;

a control algorithm for assigning a potential sensor identification to a respective tire location on the vehicle, wherein the algorithm counts the number of times each of the plurality of sensors transmits a signal in response to the at least one initiator for a predetermined period of time, creates a ranking of potential sensor identifications according to the number of times each sensor responds to the initiator wherein each ranked sensor is assigned a potential sensor identification, and assigns a respective tire location to each potential sensor identification based on its rank.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the control algorithm further comprises:

calculating a difference between the number of transmissions of a second ranked potential sensor identification and a number of transmissions of a third ranked potential sensor identification in response to the at least one initiator; and

comparing the difference to a predetermined threshold value to determine a sufficient separation in the number of transmissions exists before assigning the respective tire locations to each of the first and second ranked potential sensor identification.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the respective tire locations assigned to the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications are determined to be the tire locations expected to respond to the at least one initiator.

17. The system as claimed in claim 16 wherein the control algorithm further comprises:

comparing the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications to known sensor identifications that are stored in non-volatile memory;

confirming the assignment of respective tire locations when the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications match the stored sensor identifications for the expected respective tire locations;

re-assigning sensor identifications of respective tire locations when either of the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications match a known sensor identification for a spare tire location whereby the spare tire sensor identification is re-assigned to the respective tire location that is expected to respond to the initiator; and

re-assigning sensor identifications of respective tire locations when none of the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications match a known sensor identifications whereby the first and second ranked potential sensor identifications are assigned to the respective tire locations that are expected to respond to the initiator.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the system further comprises at least three initiators and the control algorithm is applied to each initiator in turn in order to assign potential sensor identifications to respective tire locations for each sensor and each tire on the vehicle.