System and Method for Determining the Mileage and Wear of a Tire

• US 20140107946A1
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Kandler, Michael, Steiner, Christoph, Lange, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,566,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/34
• 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 23/0489 for detecting the actual angular position of the monitoring device while the wheel is turning

Abstract

A system includes an acceleration sensor for detecting a centrifugal acceleration, and a processing unit, which is coupled to the acceleration sensor and which is configured to determine numerical values from measured values of the centrifugal acceleration. The determined numerical values are representative of a mileage of a tire and/or wear of the tire and/or an installation radius of the system in the tire.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an acceleration sensor configured to detect a centrifugal acceleration; and

a processing unit coupled to the acceleration sensor and configured to determine numerical values from the detected values of the centrifugal acceleration, wherein the numerical values are representative of a mileage of a tire and/or a wear of the tire and/or an installation radius of the system in the tire.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine numerical values for a rolling acceleration of the tire from the detected values of the centrifugal acceleration, and determine from the rolling acceleration numerical values the numerical values which are representative of the mileage and/or the wear.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine a numerical value for the installation radius from measured values of the centrifugal acceleration and from a tire rotational frequency.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine a measure of the mileage by obtaining the square root of a number of measured values of the centrifugal acceleration and subsequently forming a sum of the measured values whose square root has been obtained.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine a measure of the wear by forming a sum of a number of measured values of the centrifugal acceleration.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine the measure of the wear by quadratically weighting numerical values for a rolling acceleration from the detected values of the centrifugal acceleration.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the acceleration sensor is configured to detect measured values of the centrifugal acceleration at predefined time intervals.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the predefined time intervals are in a range from 0.5 s-10 s.

9. The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the time intervals are variable.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature, wherein the temperature sensor is coupled to the processing unit, and wherein the processing unit is configured to correct the determined values of the centrifugal acceleration as a function of a detected temperature from the temperature sensor.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the temperature sensor is configured to detect measured values of the temperature at predefined time intervals.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the time intervals are in a range from 5 s-100 s.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a non-volatile memory and an accumulator memory coupled thereto, wherein the system is configured to accumulate the determined numerical values for the mileage and/or the wear in the accumulator memory and after a threshold value has been reached is configured to set the content of the accumulator memory to zero and to increase a content of the non-volatile memory by the threshold value.

14. A system, comprising:

a tire rotational frequency sensor; and

a processing unit coupled to the tire rotational frequency sensor and configured to determine a measure of a centrifugal acceleration from measured values of the rotational frequency of the tire provided by the tire rotational frequency sensor.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the tire rotational frequency sensor is configured to generate an oscillating signal on the basis of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field.

16. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the tire rotational frequency sensor is configured to generate a periodic signal on the basis of a contact of the tire with the underlying surface.

17. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the tire rotational frequency sensor has a tangential acceleration sensor.

18. A method, comprising:

measuring values of a centrifugal acceleration at the installation location of an acceleration sensor in a tire; and

determining numerical values that are representative of a mileage of the tire and/or a wear of the tire and/or an installation radius of the acceleration sensor using a processing unit from the measured values of the centrifugal acceleration.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising determining numerical values for a rolling acceleration of the tire from the measured values of the centrifugal acceleration, and wherein determining the numerical values which are representative of the mileage and/or the wear are determined from the numerical values for the rolling acceleration of the tire.

20. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein a numerical value for the installation radius is determined from measured values of the centrifugal acceleration and/or a tire rotational frequency.

21. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein a measure of the mileage is determined by obtaining the square root of a number of measured values of the centrifugal acceleration and subsequently forming a sum of the measured values whose square root has been obtained.

22. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein a measure of the wear is determined by forming a sum of a number of the measured values of the centrifugal acceleration.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the measure of the wear is determined by quadratically weighting numerical values of a rolling acceleration determined from the measured values of the centrifugal acceleration.

24. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein measured values of the centrifugal acceleration are detected by the acceleration sensor at predefined intervals.

25. A method, comprising:

measuring values of a tire rotational frequency of a tire using a tire rotational frequency sensor; and

determining a measure or a numerical value of a centrifugal acceleration at the installation location of a tire rotational frequency sensor in the tire from the measured values of the tire rotational frequency.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising generating an oscillating signal on the basis of the earth'"'"'s magnetic field, and generating the measured values of the tire rotational frequency therefrom.

27. The method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising generating a periodic signal on the basis of a contact of the tire with the underlying surface, and generating the measured values of the tire rotational frequency therefrom.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27, wherein the periodic signal is generated by a tangential acceleration sensor.

29. A computer program having a program code stored in a non-transitory medium for carrying out a method when the program runs on a computer, the method comprising:

measuring values of a centrifugal acceleration at the installation location of an acceleration sensor in a tire or measuring values of a tire rotational frequency of a tire using a tire rotational frequency sensor; and

determining numerical values that are representative of a mileage of the tire and/or a wear of the tire and/or an installation radius of the acceleration sensor using a processing unit from the measured values of the centrifugal acceleration or determining a measure or a numerical value of a centrifugal acceleration at the installation location of a tire rotational frequency sensor in the tire from the measured values of the tire rotational frequency, respectively.