WHEEL ASSEMBLY POSITION IDENTIFYING APPARATUS

• US 20170164072A1
• Filed: 06/26/2015
• Published: 06/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacific Industrial Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Pacific Industrial Company Limited
• Inventors: TSUJITA, Yasuhisa
• Granted Patent: US 9,788,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/04 mounted on the wheel or tyre
• 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 23/0437 Means for detecting electromagnetic field changes not being part of the signal transmission per se, e.g. strength, direction, propagation or masking
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/045 Means for detecting electromagnetic field changes being not part of the signal transmission per se, e.g. strength, direction, propagation or masking
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0459 self triggered by motion sensor
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0462 Structure of transmission protocol
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0483 Wireless routers between wheel mounted transmitters and chassis mounted receivers
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0486 comprising additional sensors in the wheel or tyre mounted monitoring device, e.g. movement sensors, microphones or earth magnetic field sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0489 for detecting the actual angular position of the monitoring device while the wheel is turning
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/061 by monitoring wheel speed measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles G01C22/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/80 Arrangements in the sub-station, i.e. sensing device
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A wheel assembly position identifying apparatus includes transmitters, each of which is provided in one of wheel assemblies and includes a transmission section and a control section, and a receiver, which includes a receiving section, a measuring section, and a wheel assembly position identifying section. The wheel assembly position identifying section is configured to detect, more than once, a rotational position of each wheel assembly at which the RSSI has an extreme value, for each position detecting signal received during one rotation of the wheel assembly, and identify the position of the wheel assembly in which the corresponding transmitter is provided based on variation of the rotational position of the wheel assembly at which the RSSI has the extreme value.

Claims

1. A wheel assembly position identifying apparatus configured to be mounted in a vehicle equipped with rotational position detecting sections, each of which detects a rotational position of one of wheel assemblies, the apparatus comprising:

transmitters, each of which is provided in one of the wheel assemblies; and

a receiver, which is provided in a body of the vehicle, wherein

each transmitter includes

a transmission section, which is configured to transmit a position detecting signal to the receiver, and

a control section, which is configured to cause the transmission section to continuously transmit the position detecting signal for at least a predetermined transmission time, and

the receiver includes

a receiving section, which is configured to receive the position detecting signal,

a measuring section, which is configured to measure a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of the received position detecting signal, and

a wheel assembly position identifying section, which is configured to

detect, more than once, a rotational position of each wheel assembly at which the RSSI has an extreme value, for each position detecting signal received during one rotation of the wheel assembly, and

identify the position of the wheel assembly in which the corresponding transmitter is provided based on variation of the rotational position of the wheel assembly at which the RSSI has the extreme value.

2. The wheel assembly position identifying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

each transmitter includes an acceleration sensor, which detects acceleration in a direction in which centrifugal force acts as the corresponding wheel assembly rotates, and

each control section is configured to

determine that the vehicle is moving when the acceleration detected by the corresponding acceleration sensor is greater than a movement determination threshold for determining movement and a stopped state of the vehicle, and

cause the corresponding transmission section to transmit the position detecting signal when the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor is greater than a transmission threshold, which is greater than or equal to the movement determination threshold.

3. The wheel assembly position identifying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each control section is configured to vary the transmission time of the position detecting signal in accordance with the acceleration detected by the corresponding acceleration sensor.

4. The wheel assembly position identifying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein each control section is configured to

cause the position detecting signal a predetermined number of times after the acceleration detected by the corresponding acceleration sensor exceeds the transmission threshold, and

subsequently, stop the transmission of the position detecting signal.