MULTI-FUNCTION SPEED SENSOR

• US 20170113698A1
• Filed: 10/22/2015
• Published: 04/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin Technical Center of America, Inc. (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin Technical Center of America, Inc. (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: ZWEGERS, Corey
• Granted Patent: US 10,119,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/486 delivered by photo-electric detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/488 delivered by variable reluctance detectors
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/99 dummy group

Abstract

A smart sensor system and method for a vehicle are described. The smart sensor includes at least one sensing element installed on a suspension of the vehicle and coupled with a wheel of the vehicle, and a digital signal processing circuitry configured to receive signal from the at least one sensing element in the form of a digital signal, correlate the digital signal to an air gap data, and determine a vehicle speed, a vehicle acceleration, a suspension condition, a tire condition, a brake condition, a wheel condition, and a road condition.

Claims

1. A smart sensor for a vehicle, comprising:

at least one sensing element installed on a suspension of the vehicle and coupled with a wheel of the vehicle; and

circuitry configured to receive a signal from the at least one sensing element, to correlate the signal to air gap data of the sensing element, and to determine a vehicle condition based on the air gap data.

2. The smart sensor for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle condition includes at least one of a vehicle speed, a vehicle acceleration, a suspension condition, a tire condition, a brake condition, a wheel condition, and a road condition.

3. The smart sensor for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the air gap data includes at least one of

an amplitude over a period of time,

a frequency over a period of time, and

an air gap change over a period of time.

4. The smart sensor for a vehicle according to claim 3, wherein

the at least one sensing element is a differential hall effect sensor, and

the amplitude over a period of time is a differential amplitude from the differential hall effect sensor.

5. The smart sensor for a vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one amplifier;

at least one automatic gain controller configured to control a gain of the at least one amplifier;

at least one automatic offset adjustment;

at least one signal filter configured to filter out signals with high frequency;

at least one analog-to-digital converter; and

an interface configured to receive signal from the digital signal processing circuitry and to send signal to an electronic control unit of the vehicle.

6. The smart sensor for a vehicle according to claim 5, wherein

the gain of at least one amplifier is correlated to the air gap data.