Wheel electronics unit, vehicle wheel and vehicle

• US 8,880,286 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2010
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Fink, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Olszewski, John R
• Assistant Examiner(s): MELTON, TODD M
• Application Number:
  US13/382,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20120253590A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 701/34.4
• US Class Current: 701/34.4
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0408 transmitting the signals by non-mechanical means from the wheel or tyre to a vehicle body mounted receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0425 Means comprising permanent magnets, e.g. Hall-effect or Reed-switches
• 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 23/0486 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 23/0488 Movement sensor, e.g. for sensing angular speed, acceleration or centripetal force
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0489 for detecting the actual angular position of the monitoring device while the wheel is turning

Abstract

A wheel electronics unit for a wheel information device in the installed state is arranged in a vehicle wheel of a vehicle. The wheel electronics unit contains a first sensor that is configured to record a measuring signal, which includes at least one first wheel-specific parameter, and an evaluation unit, which is configured to determine a current rotational position of the vehicle wheel at the time of the measurement on the basis of the measurement signal.

Claims

1. A wheel electronics unit for a tire information device, the wheel electronics unit, in an installed state, is disposed in a vehicle wheel of a vehicle, the wheel electronics unit comprising:

a first sensor for recording a measurement signal having at least one first wheel-specific parameter; and

an evaluating device for determining from the measurement signal a current rotational position of the vehicle wheel at a time of the measurement, said evaluating device having;

a filter device for filtering the measurement signal; and

a phase shifting device for reducing a phase shift generated by filtering the measurement signal.

2. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, further comprising a transmitting device for transmitting a transmit signal which contains an information item about at least one of the determined rotational position of the vehicle wheel or second wheel-specific parameters.

3. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 2, further comprising a control device for controlling said transmitting device such that the transmit signal is sent out in a predeterminable rotational position of the vehicle wheel or a predeterminable angular range of the vehicle wheel.

4. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 2, further comprising a control device for controlling said transmitting device such that the transmit signal is sent out during one or more rotations of the vehicle wheel several times.

5. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 2, further comprising a control device for controlling said transmitting device such that the transmit signal is sent out in a predeterminable rotational position of the vehicle wheel or a predeterminable angular range of the vehicle wheel on a basis of time or angle of rotation.

6. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 2, further comprising a control device for controlling said transmitting device such that the transmit signal is sent out 3 to 10 times per rotation of the vehicle wheel.

7. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 2, further comprising a control device for controlling said transmitting device such that the transmit signal is sent out 3 to 5 times per rotation of the vehicle wheel.

8. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said first sensor is selected from the group consisting of a position sensor and a position switch which determines the current rotational position of a predetermined point on the vehicle wheel by detecting known reference areas or reference points.

9. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said first sensor is selected from the group consisting of a magnetically sensitive sensor, a Hall sensor, and a Reed switch which determines the current rotational position of the vehicle wheel by measuring a known magnetic field.

10. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said first sensor is selected from the group consisting of inertial sensor, an acceleration sensor and a shock sensor which determines the current rotational position by means of an acceleration or derivation therefrom determined by an increase or a decrease in acceleration of the vehicle wheel.

11. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said first sensor is a piezoelectric sensor which determines changes in a curvature of a tire of the vehicle wheel.

12. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said evaluating device performs a gravitation-based evaluation of the measurement signals.

13. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said evaluating device has a sampling device for sampling the measurement signal for determining samples, wherein an evaluation in said evaluating device is carried out by means of samples determined.

14. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 13, further comprising a speed sensor for determining a speed of the vehicle wheel and in that said sampling device is constructed such that said sampling device performs an adaptive adaptation of a sampling time in which the measurement signal and is sampled in dependence on a determined speed of the vehicle wheel.

15. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said filter device has a constant, linear phase shift.

16. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, further comprising at least one second sensor for determining second wheel-specific parameters.

17. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 16, wherein said at least one second sensor determines at least one of a current tire pressure, a tire profile, a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle wheel, a transverse acceleration of the vehicle wheel, or a tire temperature.

18. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, further comprising means for depositing in the transmit signal the information item which identifies whether a predetermined wheel position or rotational position could be determined or not.

19. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said phase shifting device compensates for the phase shift generated by filtering the measurement signal.

20. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said evaluating device performs a gravitation-based evaluation of the measurement signals, namely of a measured acceleration or of a derivation of the measured acceleration.

21. The wheel electronics unit according to claim 1, wherein said filter device is a Bessel filter.

22. A vehicle wheel for a vehicle equipped with a tire information device, the vehicle wheel comprising:

a rim;

a tire; and

at least one wheel electronics unit disposed on one of said rim or said tire, said wheel electronics unit containing;

a first sensor for recording a measurement signal having at least one first wheel-specific parameter; and

an evaluating device for determining from the measurement signal a current rotational position of the vehicle wheel at a time of the measurement, said evaluating device having;

a filter device for filtering the measurement signal; and

a phase shifting device for reducing a phase shift generated by filtering the measurement signal.

23. A vehicle, comprising:

a number of wheels;

a tire information device;

at least one wheel electronics unit disposed in at least one of said wheels, said wheel electronics unit containing;

a first sensor for recording a measurement signal having at least one first wheel-specific parameter; and

an evaluating device for determining from the measurement signal a current rotational position of the vehicle wheel at a time of the measurement, said evaluating device having;

a filter device for filtering the measurement signal; and

a phase shifting device for reducing a phase shift generated by filtering the measurement signal.

24. The vehicle according to claim 23, wherein the vehicle is a passenger car.