The disclosure relates to systems, methods and computer program products for detecting tire pressure loss in tires of a vehicle. The system comprises a sensor, which is arranged at the vehicle remotely from the tires, mechanically coupled at least indirectly to a chassis of the 5 vehicle, and configured to detect a property indicative of tilting spatial movement of the chassis. The system further comprises a processing unit, which is communicatively coupled with the sensor, configured to receive sensor signals from the sensor, the sensor signals being indicative of tilting spatial movement of the chassis, and configured to detect a tire pressure based on the sensor signals. The processing unit is configured to detect a tire pressure loss responsive to the 10 sensor signals indicating a tilting spatial movement of the chassis towards the at least one tire.

A tire radius monitoring system for dynamically determining a tire effective radius for each of the wheels on a vehicle is described. The system includes a GPS sensor, a plurality of wheel speed sensors, and a controller. The controller determines, via the GPS sensor, a velocity vector related to longitudinal velocity of the vehicle. The controller determines wheel speeds for the plurality of vehicle wheels, and detects a no-wheel-slip state for the vehicle wheels and the velocity vector from the GPS sensor. The controller determines tire effective radii for the plurality of vehicle wheels based upon the velocity vector for the vehicle and the wheel speeds for the plurality of vehicle wheels during the no-wheel-slip state, and controls vehicle operation based upon the tire effective radii.

Methods and apparatus forming part of a vehicle sensor system (100) comprising a plurality of sensor units (104a-f) and a controller (102). A sensor unit comprises: a motion sensor (417) configured to determine a first speed of the sensor unit; and a transmitter (402) configured to transmit first identification data to the controller if the first speed of the sensor unit exceeds a first threshold. The motion sensor is further configured to determine a second speed of the sensor unit a period of time after determination of the first speed of the sensor unit, and the transmitter is configured to transmit to the controller second identification data if the second speed of the sensor unit exceeds a second threshold. The controller comprises: a receiver (304) configured to receive the first identification data, and further configured to receive the second identification data a period of time later; and a sensor unit assigner (320) configured to assign the sensor unit to the controller if the first identification data and the second identification data are received.

The invention concerns a system and a method for detecting potential damages to tires of motor vehicles due to impacts against/on obstacles.

A system for determining a tire change status in a vehicle is provided. The system includes at least one processing device and a storage device. The at least one processing device may be arranged to: calculate a value of at least one reference parameter which may be used in indirect tire pressure monitoring; store the calculated value of said at least one reference parameter in the storage device; retrieve a previously stored value of said at least one reference parameter from the storage device; determine a similarity parameter based on a similarity between the calculated value and the previously stored value of said at least one reference parameter; and determine a tire change status, indicating whether or not the tires have been re-filled or replaced, by comparing said similarity parameter with a threshold.

A system for determining a tire pressure status in a vehicle is provided. The system includes at least one processing device, which may be arranged to: estimate values of a set of predetermined vehicle parameters; calculate a tire pressure parameter as a predetermined function of the values of the set of predetermined vehicle parameters, wherein said predetermined function has been generated by training a machine learning system, such as, for example, a neural network or a Support Vector Machine, using values of a large number of sets of predetermined vehicle parameters and associated tire pressure parameters; and determine a tire pressure status, indicating whether or not there is tire under-inflation, by comparing said tire pressure parameter with a threshold.

The invention concerns a tire damage detection system (1,1A) that includes an acquisition device (11), a processing system (12,12A) and a notification device (13,13A). The acquisition device (11) is installed on board a motor vehicle (2) equipped with two or more wheels fitted with tires, is coupled to a vehicle bus (20) of the motor vehicle (2), and is configured to acquire, from the vehicle bus (20), a signal indicative of a speed of a wheel of the motor vehicle (2) and output quantities indicative of the wheel speed. The processing system (12,12A) is configured to store a predefined tire damage model and to receive, from the acquisition device (11), the quantities indicative of the wheel speed, and is programmed to compute, based on the quantities indicative of the wheel speed, a normalized wheel speed indicative of a ratio of the wheel speed to an average wheel speed indicative of motor vehicle speed, and detect a potential damage to a tire of the wheel of the motor vehicle (2) based on the predefined tire damage model and on the normalized wheel speed. The notification device (13,13A) is configured to, if a potential damage to the tire of the wheel of the motor vehicle (2) is detected by the processing system (12,12A), signal the detected potential damage to a user (3) associated with the motor vehicle (2). In particular, according to the present invention, the processing system (12) is a cloud computing system (12A) that is wirelessly and remotely connected to the acquisition device (11), while the notification device (13) is an electronic communication device (13A) associated with the user (3) and remotely connected to the cloud computing system (12A) via one or more wired and/or wireless networks.

A method for determining a tread depth of a tread of a tire during operation of a vehicle having the tire, a control device for a vehicle for determining a tread depth of a tread of a tire of the vehicle, and a system for a vehicle having such a control device and at least one electronic wheel unit, are provided. Provision is made to determine the tread depth based on a determined instantaneous dynamic wheel radius of a wheel, having the tire, of the vehicle and a determined instantaneous dynamic inside radius of the tire. In addition, at least one further first operating parameter of the tire, selected from the group including an instantaneous roadway gradient, an instantaneous vehicle drive mode and an instantaneous tire material expansion, is determined and taken into consideration.

A method for detecting a wear-relevant load on a vehicle wheel uses a tire pressure monitoring unit mounted on the vehicle wheel containing an acceleration sensor. A rotational frequency of the vehicle wheel is determined for a time interval from a series of measured values of the acceleration sensor at first time intervals. A centrifugal acceleration value is determined for the time interval. A proportionality factor is determined from the rotational frequency and centrifugal acceleration value, linking the square of the rotational frequency with the centrifugal acceleration. A rotational frequency of the wheel is continuously calculated from measured values of the centrifugal acceleration, which have been determined at second time intervals that are greater than the first time intervals, and from the proportionality factor. A load value is respectively calculated from the rotational frequency and the second time intervals. These load values are continuously added up to an overall load.

A method for efficiently estimating a degree of wear of a tire in which a normalized deformation speed index is set as a wear measure. The normalized deformation speed index is obtained by normalizing an index of a deformation speed near an edge of a tire contact patch, the index being calculated from magnitudes of peaks appearing in a radial acceleration waveform obtained by differentiating tire radial acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor. The degree of wear of the tire is estimated using the wear measure, the ground contact time ratio, a worn tire approximate formula and an approximate formula when a tire is new, which have been obtained in advance and each represents a relationship between the wear measure and the ground contact time ratio obtained by running a plurality of tires having tire sizes different from each other.