Wheel localizer, wheel localization device, system, method and computer program for locating a position of a wheel

• US 9,251,120 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2013
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Kandler, Michael, Peine, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): TSAI, CAROL S W
• Application Number:
  US13/969,742
• Publication Number:
  US 20140058580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 702/150, 701/41, 701/301, 701/514
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0416 allocating a corresponding wheel position on vehicle, e.g. front/left or rear/right
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0488 Movement sensor, e.g. for sensing angular speed, acceleration or centripetal force
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00

Abstract

Embodiments can provide a system, a wheel localizer, a wheel localization device, a method or a computer program for locating a position of wheel. The system for locating the position of the wheel on the vehicle includes a detector for obtaining information related to a steering angle of the vehicle and a locator for determining the position of the wheel based on the information related to the steering angle of the vehicle. Embodiments further provide a device, a method and a computer program configured to determine information related to one or more expected rotational frequencies of one or more wheels of a vehicle. The device includes a path detector configured to determine expected path lengths of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on information related to a path of the vehicle. The device further includes a controller configured to determine the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the expected path lengths of the one or more wheels.

Claims

1. A system for locating a position of a wheel on a vehicle, comprising:

a detector configured to obtain information related to a steering angle of the vehicle, wherein the detector comprises a sensor configured to determine the information related to the steering angle;

a locator configured to determine the position of the wheel based on the information related to the steering angle of the vehicle, wherein an input of the locator is coupled with an output of the detector, and

wherein the locator is configured to evaluate information indicating a radius of a curve along which the vehicle moves to determine an operating point for locating the position of the wheel, and

wherein the locator is configured to further use information on a rotational frequency of the wheel to determine the position of the wheel based on the information related to the steering angle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information related to the steering angle further comprises information related to a state of movement of the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the detector comprises at least one of an angular sensor, a traverse arm position sensor, a magnetic sensor, or an optical sensor, wherein each are configured to generate a signal based on which the steering angle is detectable.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the locator is operable to use information on rotational frequencies for each of a plurality of wheels on the vehicle and determine a position for each of the plurality of wheels on the vehicle based on the information on the plurality of rotational frequencies and the information related to the steering angle of the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the locator is operable to assign predefined positions on the vehicle to each of the plurality of wheels based on the information on the plurality of rotational frequencies and expected rotational frequencies, wherein the expected rotational frequencies are based on the information related to the steering angle and information related to a speed of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an acceleration sensor, an energy harvester, a shock sensor, or a tire pressure monitoring system sensor configured to obtain the information on the rotational frequency of the wheel, or wherein the locator or detector comprises an interface to receive information on an expected rotational frequency from a device configured to determine information related to one or more expected rotational frequencies of one or more wheels of a vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is operable to verify a signal indicating the rotational frequency of the wheel and a signal indicating the steering angle of the vehicle before using the signals as information to determine the position of the wheel.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the system is operable to verify that the rotational frequency of the wheel and a rotational rate of the vehicle, which is based on the steering angle of the vehicle, fulfill a predefined relation for a predefined time interval.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the locator is operable to determine the position of the wheel when changes of the steering angle of the vehicle are below a predefined threshold for a predefined time interval.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the locator comprises an interface to receive information related to a trigger on when to determine the position, wherein the locator is configured to determine the position of the wheel when the information related to the trigger is received.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the locator is operable to determine a corrected rotational frequency of the wheel based on information on a tire pressure of a tire of the wheel and based on the rotational frequency of the wheel, and wherein the locator is operable to determine the position of the wheel based on the corrected rotational frequency.

12. A wheel localization device, comprising:

an input configured to receive a signal comprising information on a steering angle of the vehicle or a state of movement of the vehicle and signals comprising information indicating rotational frequencies of each of a plurality of wheels of the vehicle, and signals comprising information indicating a tire parameter for each of the plurality of wheels; and

a unit configured to assign to each of the plurality of wheels one location of a set of predefined locations based on the information on the steering angle or a state of movement of the vehicle and the information on the rotational frequencies, and wherein the unit is configured to evaluate information indicating a radius of a curve along which the vehicle moves to determine an operating point for assigning the locations to the plurality of wheels, wherein the wheel localization device is implemented in an autonomous operating device wherein the autonomous operating device is coupled to the vehicle to receive the signal comprising information indicating rotational frequencies of each of a plurality of wheels in the vehicle.

13. The wheel localization device of claim 12, wherein the autonomous operating device is or a retrofitted device or a portable device selected from the group consisting of a portable phone, a portable GPS system, a handheld computer, and a laptop.

14. A device configured to determine information related to one or more expected rotational frequencies of one or more wheels of a vehicle, comprising:

a path detector configured to determine expected path lengths of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on information related to a path of the vehicle; and

a controller configured to determine the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the expected path lengths of the one or more wheels, wherein the path detector is coupled to the controller, the device further comprising a navigation module configured to determine the information related to the path of the vehicle based on information related to a route of the vehicle.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller is further configured to determine the information related to the expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on predefined geometry information of the one or more wheels of the vehicle.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the information related to the rotational frequencies comprises information related to an order of expected rotational frequencies or expected path lengths of a plurality of wheels of the vehicle.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to determine one or more positions of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the information related to the expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller comprises an interface configured to provide the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle to a system for locating a position of a wheel on a vehicle, or wherein the interface is configured to provide information related to a trigger when to determine the position of a wheel and wherein the controller is configured to provide the information related to the trigger, when the expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle fulfill a predefined criterion.

19. The device of claim 14, wherein the controller comprises an interface configured to receive information related to one or more tire pressures of the one or more wheels of the vehicle and wherein the interface is further configured to receive information related to one or more rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels, and wherein the controller is configured to associate the information related to the one or more tire pressures to one or more positions of the one or more wheels based on the information related to the one or more rotational frequencies and based on the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle.

20. The device of claim 14, wherein the path detector is configured to determine an expected path length for each of a plurality of wheels on the vehicle based on the information related to the path of the vehicle, wherein the controller is configured to determine information related to an expected rotational frequency for each of the plurality of wheels on the vehicle, and wherein the controller is configured to determine a position for each of the plurality of wheels on the vehicle based on the information on the plurality of expected rotational frequencies and based on the expected path lengths for each of the plurality of wheel of the vehicle.

21. The device of claim 20, wherein the controller is configured to assign predefined positions on the vehicle to each of the plurality of wheels based on the information on the plurality of expected rotational frequencies.

22. The device of claim 21, further comprising an interface configured to receive information related to tire pressures for each of the plurality of wheels of the vehicle, and wherein the interface is further operable to receive information related to a rotational frequency for each of the plurality of wheels of the vehicle, and wherein the controller is configured to associate the information on the tire pressures to positions of each of the plurality of wheels based on the information related to the rotational frequency for each of the plurality of wheels and based on the information related to the expected rotational frequency for each of the plurality of wheels of the vehicle.

23. A method for determining information related to one or more expected rotational frequencies of one or more wheels of a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining information related to a path of the vehicle based on information related to a route of the vehicle using a navigation module;

determining expected path lengths of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the information related to a path of the vehicle using a path detector; and

determining the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the expected path lengths of the one or more wheels using a controller.

24. A computer program having a program code on a non-transitory medium for performing, when the computer program is executed on a computer or on a processor, a method for determining information related to one or more expected rotational frequencies of one or more wheels of a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining information related to a path of the vehicle based on information related to a route of the vehicle using a navigation module;

determining expected path lengths of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the information related to a path of the vehicle; and

determining the information related to the one or more expected rotational frequencies of the one or more wheels of the vehicle based on the expected path lengths of the one or more wheels.

25. A method for locating a position of a wheel on a vehicle, comprising:

obtaining information related to a steering angle of the vehicle using a sensor;

determining the position of the wheel based on the information related to the steering angle using a locator;

evaluating information indicating a radius of a curve along which the vehicle moves to determine an operating point for locating the position of the wheel; and

using information on a rotational frequency of the wheel to determine the position of the wheel based on the information related to the steering angle when changes of the steering angle of the vehicle are below a predefined threshold for a predefined time interval.

26. A computer program having a program code on a non-transitory medium for performing, when the computer program is executed on a computer or on a processor, a method for locating a position of a wheel on a vehicle, comprising:

obtaining, by a sensor, information related to a state of movement of the vehicle;

determining, by a locator, the position of the wheel based on the information related to the state of movement of the vehicle;

evaluating information indicating a radius of a curve along which the vehicle moves to determine an operating point for locating the position of the wheel; and

wherein the computer program is executed on a computer or processor of a device operating autonomously from the vehicle.