A method for detecting wheel units mounted at wheels of a vehicle and for detecting wheel mounting positions belonging to each of the wheel units is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: positioning a mobile communication device at a predetermined start position with respect to the vehicle moving the mobile communication device from the start position along a path around the vehicle receiving RF signals from the wheel units and measuring the RF signal strengths thereof by the mobile communication device when moving along the path around the vehicle performing an analysis of variations of the measured RF signal strengths of the received RF signals depending on the position of the mobile communication device along the path identifying the wheel units and identifying the wheel mounting positions based on a result of the analysis.

A tire pressure monitoring system comprising a tire pressure monitoring device for mounting on an internal surface of a tire and including a pressure sensor for monitoring the fluid pressure in the tire. The system has an RFID tag located on the tire separately from the tire pressure monitoring device. In response to detecting a tire pressure event from monitoring the fluid pressure of said fluid, the tire pressure monitoring device causes the RFID to transmit data, which is received by the tire pressure monitoring device.

A tire mounting position detection system measures a first signal strength which is the strength of a radio signal received by a first receiver (R1) for each transmitter, measures a second signal strength which is the strength of the radio signal received by a second receiver (R2) for each transmitter, and calculates an strength ratio which is a ratio using the first signal strength and the second signal strength for each transmitter. The tire mounting position detection system detects a wheel position where a tire equipped with a transmitter is mounted on the basis of the first signal strength, the second signal strength and a strength ratio for each transmitter.

An apparatus is provided for auto-locating positions of a plurality of wireless sensors on a vehicle. The apparatus comprises a receiving unit for receiving signals from the plurality of wireless sensors. The apparatus further comprises a processing unit arranged to calculate a probability value for each one of the plurality of wireless sensors based upon signals that have accumulated over a period of time to provide a table of probability values. Each probability value contained in the table during a calculation cycle of the processing unit is indicative of likelihood of one of the plurality of wireless sensors being located at a corresponding one of a plurality of positions on the vehicle. Each one of the plurality of wireless sensors is associated with the position having the highest probability value during the calculation cycle.

A tire pressure monitoring system used for a vehicle includes a sensor unit, a receiving device, and a control device. The sensor unit is provided at each wheel of the vehicle, detects tire pressure of the each wheel with a tire pressure sensor and transmits data of the detected tire pressure by radio waves. The receiving device includes a receiving antenna that is provided at an outside of the vehicle to receive the data of the tire pressure transmitted from the sensor unit. The control device includes a data acquisition unit that acquires the data of the tire pressure received by the receiving device.

A method of localizing a TPMS sensor module includes transmitting, by the TPMS sensor module, a TPMS signal; and localizing, by a localization module, the TPMS sensor module based on receiving the TPMS signal at a phase array antenna including a plurality of reception antennas each configured to receive the TPMS signal. Localizing the TPMS sensor module includes measuring a phase of the TPMS signal at each of the plurality of reception antennas such that a plurality of phases corresponding to the TPMS signal are determined, and determining a location of the TPMS sensor module based on the plurality of phases.

A sensing system for a vehicle includes wheel end sensors (WES), each WES proximate to at least one predetermined tire and configured to sense angular data, including at least one of angular position, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and/or angular displacement. The system includes a plurality of tire pressure monitoring (TPM) sensors, each TPM sensor inside one of the tires and configured to sense pressure, temperature, and angular data within said tire. The sensing system is configured to compare the angular data sensed by each WES to the angular data sensed by each TPM sensor to automatically identify, for each TPM sensor, a corresponding WES, and based on the position on the vehicle of the predetermined tire of the corresponding WES, identify the position on the vehicle corresponding to said TPM sensor.

A tire mounting state detection system (100) is provided with a vehicle configuration holding unit (230) holding a vehicle configuration including the number of wheels of a vehicle (10); a transmitter number detection unit (250) detecting the number of transmitters based on a radio signal received by a receiving unit; a state detection unit (260) detecting whether or not the number of transmitters exceeds or is short the number of wheels based on the number of wheels based on the vehicle configuration and the number of transmitters detected; and an output unit (270) outputting that the state of the transmitter is abnormal when it is determined that the number of transmitters exceeds or is short the number of wheels.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of automobiles and disclose a tire positioning method and apparatus, an electronic control unit (ECU) and a tire pressure sensor. The method includes: successively controlling, within a transmission cycle, one of L exciter sets to send a low-frequency signal, L being an integer greater than 1; receiving high-frequency signals fed back by N tire pressure sensors according to the low-frequency signals, N being an integer greater than 1; determining a correspondence between one of the L exciter sets and M tire pressure sensors according to the high-frequency signals, M being an integer greater than 1; and after a quantity of transmission cycles reaches a preset threshold, determining a tire corresponding to each of the N tire pressure sensors according to the correspondence between the exciter set and the M tire pressure sensors determined in each transmission cycle. The tire positioning method is accurate and reliable.

A system and method include, among other things, providing at least one vehicle transceiver and at least one tire information sensor for a tire on a vehicle and wirelessly communicating between the at least one vehicle transceiver and the at least one tire information sensor via a signal. A phase shift in the signal is determined and a physical distance between the at least one vehicle transceiver and the at least one tire information sensor is determined based on the phase shift. A position of the at least one tire information sensor within the vehicle is then determined based on the physical distance.