TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20150061852A1
• Filed: 11/07/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jianzhong Fu
• Original Assignee: Liming Fu
• Inventors: FU, LIMING
• Granted Patent: US 10,189,319 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/442
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/02 Signalling devices actuated by tyre pressure hand-held tyre pressure gauges G01L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0474 Measurement control, e.g. setting measurement rate or calibrating of sensors; Further processing of measured values, e.g. filtering, compensating or slope monitoring
• 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

Abstract

An improved method for a passenger car tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), including improvements of a direct TPMS or an indirect TPMS technique. The direct TPMS uses a dynamic tire pressure reference as a tire pressure determination basis, and monitors the real-time tire load, e.g., when the wheel load changes, the TPMS data processing center takes the tire cold inflation pressure data corresponding to the real-time load as the current tire pressure reference, and performs determinations and warnings for the real-time tire pressure data. The indirect TPMS establishes a wheel speed reference database based on a vehicle speed reference, and conducts compensations and corrections for wheel speed distortions caused by the tire wear in use, and performs an analysis and comparison between the compensated and modified real-time wheel speed and the data from the wheel speed reference database, and makes a real-time tire pressure information indication or warning.

Claims

1. A vehicle tire safety monitoring system comprising a processor, wherein the processor is configured to determine a real-time tire safety baseline based on a real-time condition of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time tire safety baseline comprises a tire pressure baseline, and wherein the processor is configured to determine a dynamic correlation between the tire pressure baseline and a tire load by at least one of a database lookup or a mathematical relationship.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the dynamic correlation is determined by:

establishing a database of tire pressure baseline, wherein the database comprises data of, within allowable load regime of tires, tire cold inflation pressure data corresponding to different tire loads; and

determining a present tire pressure baseline by selecting, from the database, tire pressure data corresponding to real-time tire load.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the dynamic correlation is determined by:

establishing a mathematical relationship between different tire loads and inflation pressures, wherein the mathematical relationship is established based on vehicle design parameters and tire specification data; and

providing compensation and correction to tire pressure baseline data under real-time tire load based on the mathematical relationship.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a plurality sensors configured to collect data of the tire load; and

an indication device configured to provide an indication of a tire safety status.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise at least one of:

a pressure sensor, a displacement sensor, a seat sensor, an infrared sensor, or an ultrasound sensor.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to measure, directly or indirectly, real-time tire load data, and the plurality of sensors are configured to measure at least one of static tire load data or dynamic tire load data.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors are disposed at vehicle seats to measure occupancy of the vehicle to thereby indirectly measure the tire load data.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors are disposed adjacent to or at the tires to measure directly the tire load data.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to transmit the collected data wirelessly to the processor, or through a data bus to the processor.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time condition comprises a wheel radius, and wherein the processor is configured to determine the safety baseline based on a mathematical model comprising:

Vg=ω

R=n2π

R=nzα

R, wherein Vg is a speed of the vehicle, ω

is a tire angular velocity, n is a number of tire revolutions, z is a number of wheel speed sensor teeth, α

is an angle between two teeth of the wheel speed sensor, R is the radius of the tire, wherein the processor is configured to correct a wheel speed in real time resulting from tire wearing;

wherein the correction is made based on a ratio between a real-time wheel rotating radius and a standard wheel rotating radius, and wherein the real-time wheel rotating radius is calculated based on the tire wearing calculated from a tire mileage data based on a correlation between a tire lifetime and a wearing limit.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the standard wheel has a new tire or a wearing-free tire under a half load cold inflated state, the database or the mathematical relationship is based on the standard wheel, between zero and a vehicle speed limit of vehicle speeds, in a range between a 75% half-load cold inflated pressure and a125% half-load cold inflated pressure.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the tire mileage data are based on vehicle GPS mileage and/or vehicle odometer mileage.

14. A computer-implemented vehicle tire safety monitoring method, the method comprising:

determining a real-time tire safety baseline based on a real-time condition of the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the real-time tire safety baseline comprises a real-time tire pressure baseline, the method further comprising:

determining a dynamic correlation between a real-time tire pressure baseline and a tire load by at least one of a database lookup or a mathematical relationship; and

providing at least one of a visual, audio, or heptic indication of a tire safety status.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the dynamic correlation is determined by:

establishing a database of tire pressure baseline, wherein the database comprises data of, within allowable load regime of tires, tire cold inflation pressure data corresponding to different tire loads; and

determining a present tire pressure baseline by selecting, from the database, tire pressure data corresponding to real-time tire load.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the dynamic correlation is determined by:

establishing a mathematical relationship between different tire loads and inflation pressures, wherein the mathematical relationship is established based on vehicle design parameters and tire specification data; and

providing compensation and correction to tire pressure baseline data under real-time tire load based on the mathematical relationship.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the real-time condition comprises a wheel radius, the method further comprising:

calculating the real-time tire safety baseline based on a mathematical model including;

Vg=ω

R=n2π

R=nzα

R, wherein Vg is a speed of the vehicle, ω

is a tire angular velocity, n is a number of tire revolutions, z is a number of wheel speed sensor teeth, α

is an angle between two teeth of the wheel speed sensor, R is the radius of the tire, wherein the processor is configured to correct a wheel speed in real time resulting from tire wearing;

wherein the correction is made based on a ratio between a real-time wheel rotating radius and a standard wheel rotating radius, and wherein the real-time wheel rotating radius is calculated based on the tire wearing calculated from a tire mileage data based on a correlation between a tire lifetime and a wearing limit.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for vehicle tire safety monitoring, the instructions comprising:

determining a real-time tire safety baseline based on a real-time condition of the vehicle.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the determining comprises at least one of a direct determining or a non-direct determining, wherein the direct determining comprises determining a dynamic correlation between a tire pressure baseline and a tire load by at least one of a database lookup or a mathematical relationship, and wherein the non-direct determining comprises:

calculating the real-time tire safety baseline based on a mathematical model including;

Vg=ω

R=n 2π

R=nzα

R, wherein Vg is a speed of the vehicle, ω

is a tire angular velocity, n is a number of tire revolutions, z is a number of wheel speed sensor teeth, α

is an angle between two teeth of the wheel speed sensor, R is a radius of the tire, wherein the processor is configured to correct a wheel speed in real time resulting from tire wearing;

wherein the correction is made based on a ratio between a real-time wheel rotating radius and a standard wheel rotating radius, and wherein the real-time wheel rotating radius is calculated based on the tire wearing calculated from a tire mileage data based on a correlation between a tire lifetime and a wearing limit.