A wheel assembly of a vehicle (e.g., a forklift or another material-handling vehicle) is monitored to obtain information regarding the vehicle, including information regarding the wheel assembly, which may be indicative of how the vehicle including the wheel assembly is used (e.g., a duty cycle of the vehicle and/or the wheel assembly), a state (e.g., a degree of wear) of the wheel assembly, loading and shocks on the wheel assembly, and/or a state of an environment (e.g., environmental temperature, a profile, compliance, or other condition of an underlying surface beneath the wheel assembly), and which may be, for example, conveyed to a user (e.g., an operator of the vehicle), transmitted to a remote party (e.g., a provider), and/or used to control the vehicle (e.g., a speed of the vehicle). This may improve use, maintenance, safety and/or other aspects of the vehicle, including the wheel assembly.

Methods, apparatuses and computer program products for determining the severity of a deflation of a tire are disclosed. The method comprises: receiving wheel speed signals from wheel speed sensors; determining a first indicator value based on the received wheel speed signals, wherein the first indicator value is indicative of at least one tire-related quantity; determining whether the first indicator value satisfies a first condition; outputting, in response to determining that the first indicator value satisfies the first condition, a preliminary deflation alarm; recording, in response to determining that the first indicator value satisfies the first condition, the first indicator value; determining a second condition from at least the recorded first indicator value; determining a second indicator value based on the received wheel speed signals, wherein the second indicator value is indicative of at least one tire-related quantity; determining whether the second indicator value satisfies the determined second condition; and outputting, in response to determining that the second indicator value satisfies the second condition, a severe deflation alarm.

A method is provided for evaluating wheel sensor signals of a wheel speed sensor where the wheel speed sensor supplies signals that are transmitted using two different protocols. Each protocol comprises a start pulse and a number of data pulses. A first processor unit receives the signals from the sensor and uses the start pulse to determine whether they were transmitted using the first protocol or the second protocol. Depending on the result, the first processor unit signals without a time delay whether a start pulse has been received via an ASO interface of a second processor unit, wherein a variable pulse width is used to indicate whether the start pulse belongs to a data packet that is transmitted with the first protocol or with the second protocol. The second processor provides each incoming ASO signal with a time stamp, so that the speed can be determined.

A first and second acceleration measuring devices are mounted on a rigid vehicle structure spaced apart from each other in the longitudinal and transverse direction of the vehicle. A first or second inclination variable is determined by the acceleration measuring devices and characterizes a longitudinal or transverse inclination of the vehicle structure relative to a predetermined horizontal plane in a first or second reference point assigned to the respective acceleration measuring device. Components of the first or second inclination variable during the journey of the vehicle are eliminated by an evaluation unit on the basis of a coincidence resulting from the travel speed of the vehicle and a direction-of-travel-related distance between the two reference points, to conclude, based on a remaining invariant component of the first or second inclination variable, that there is a loss of pressure in one of the tires.