VEHICLE TYRE INSPECTION

Abstract

A tyre condition monitoring system comprising a sensing unit adapted for approximation to a tyre to take a measurement of, or at least from which can be derived, tread depth, the sensing unit being adapted for deployment by manual approximation to a tyre and to store and/or transmit measurement data from one or more or all of a set of tyres on a vehicle as well as for mechanical approximation to a tyre for continuing and/or programmed measurement.

Claims

1. A tyre condition monitoring system comprising a sensing unit adapted for approximation to a tyre to take a measurement of, or at least from which can be derived, tread depth, the sensing unit being adapted for deployment by manual approximation to a tyre and to store and/or transmit measurement data from one or more or all of a set of tyres on a vehicle as well as for mechanical approximation to a tyre for continuing and/or programmed measurement.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises a signal injector and a reflected signal receiver.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the signal injector comprises a laser injecting inject visible light, infra-red or ultra-violet light.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the receiver comprises a photocell sensitive to the laser light.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a light meter adapted to compensate for ambient light conditions.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein the injector and receiver are comprised in a sensing unit adapted to be approximated to a tyre.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the sensing unit is adapted to be placed a known distance from the tyre tread surface or in contact with the tread surface and aimed at the base of a groove of the tread.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein the sensing unit is locatable at an arbitrary distance from a tread surface whereby the receiver will receive reflections from the tread surface and the groove base.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein the sensing unit is contained in a small, hand held unit, and communicates with a smartphone app, or software built into a vehicle's management system.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the app or the software give directions for periodical tyre inspection and step a user through an inspection procedure.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein, through the smartphone app, or through the management system software and on-board communication system, the sensing unit communicates via the internet or a cellular network with a tyre management or fleet management operation, an insurance company or a tyre parameter monitoring operation e.g. of a government enforcement agency.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein a sensing unit is traversed across a tyre to generate a profile from which the depth of each groove of the tread can be derived.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein scanning is automatically started when the sensing unit encounters one edge of the tyre and automatically stopped when the scanning head encounters the other edge of the tyre.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the scanning head encounters a tyre edge by a proximity switch or a mechanical switch actuated by a skid or a roller.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein a robot arm traverses the sensing unit.

16. The system according to claim 15, for a multi-wheeled vehicle, wherein there is one robot arm and sensing unit for each wheel.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing unit incorporates a signal time-of-flight measurement.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises a digital camera.

19. The system according to claim 1, further comprising tyre identification.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the tyre identification comprises an RFID chip adhered to the inner wall of the tyre beneath the treat and an RFID reader positioned to read the chip.

21. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a tyre pressure monitoring facility.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the tyre pressure monitoring facility comprises a pressure transducer with an RFID-style aerial through which the transducer is powered as it passes by an RFID-type reader.

Description

[0041] The drawings illustrate a tyre tread condition monitoring system comprising a sensing unit 11 adapted for approximation to a tyre 12 to take a measurement of, or at least from which can be derived, tread depth, the sensing unit 11 being adapted for deployment by manual approximation to the tyre 12 and to store and/or transmit measurement data from one or more or all of a set of tyres on a vehicle as well as for mechanical approximation to a tyre 12 for continuing and/or programmed measurement.

[0042] The sensing unit 11 comprises a signal injector 11a and a reflected signal receiver 11b on a signal head 11.

[0043] The signal injector 11a comprises a laser, which injects visible light, infra-red or ultra-violet light, and the receiver 11b is a photocell sensitive to the laser light. A light meter can measure ambient light, which affects sensitivity, and make adjustments to the programming to compensate.

[0044] The injector 11a and receiver 11b are comprised in the sensing unit 11 which is adapted to be approximated to the tyre 12, to be placed in contact, FIGS. 1 and 2, with the tread surface 13 and aimed at the base 14 of a groove of the tyre 12. The injector 11a emits a pulse of light and the receiver 11b picks up its reflection from the base 14 of the groove and measures the time delay.

[0045] The minimum permitted tread depth for automobile tyres in the UK is 1.6 mm. The total distance travelled by the light, for a minimum depth groove, is 3.2 mm, the time taken from emission to pick up, taking the speed of light to be 3×10.sup.12mm/sec, then being 1.07×10.sup.12 seconds.

[0046] In FIG. 4, the sensing unit is locatable at an arbitrary distance D from the tread surface 13 whereby the receiver will receive reflections from the tread surface 13 and the groove base 14. In this arrangement, the time between surface and groove reflections, for a minimum depth of 1.6 mm, will be 1.07×10.sup.12 seconds.

[0047] The sensing unit 11 comprises a small, hand held unit, and communicates with a smartphone app, or software built into a vehicle's management system, which may give directions for periodical tyre inspection and step a user through an inspection procedure. This will generate measurements on all the vehicle's wheels and desirably at multiple places around and across the tread. Software will either determine that measurements are above or below the minimum depth, for a go-no go test, or will compute the actual depths for analysis, for example, by a tyre monitor function that will facilitate rate of wear indication and predict tyre replacement requirement.

[0048] FIG. 5 illustrates how the sensing unit 11 can be mounted on a robot arm 51, shown simply as a screw threaded rod engaging thread on a nut 52 on the head 11. Turning the rod traverses the signal head across the tyre. Rollers or skids 11d sense when the unit 11 encounters and leaves the tyre 12 to turn the signal on and off. Time of flight between signal injection and echo arrival is monitored continually as the nit traverses, and the result depicted graphically, as shown in FIG. 6. The upper graph in FIG. 6 shows the tread pattern projected onto a straight line, the lower graph shows the contour of the tread. While FIG. 5 shows only rectilinear motion of the unit 11 across the tyre, it is more desirable that the head 11 comes into contact with, and is perpendicular to the tyre surface, at the rounded edges of the tyre 12. To achieve this, in practice, some kind of articulation of the head 11 to the traverse mechanism would be required, which may be nothing more complex than a curved rail on which the unit 11 moves, driven from the arm 51 via an articulated joint.

[0049] Instead of a single traversing unit 11, a number of such units could be located in the wheel arch to measure across the tread. The units may be normally protected by cover means that can be opened for measurement.

[0050] While the sensing unit 11 of FIG. 1 may be used on wheels in a fixed sequence around the vehicle, as may be dictated by software, the robot arm units can operate all together, and the software will ‘know’ which wheel they are measuring.

[0051] However, it is a common practice to change a vehicle's wheels around to even out wear, and this can lead to confusion and readings being attributed to the wrong tyres.

[0052] It has been proposed to assign identities to individual tyres, and in particular by attached or embedded RFID chips. FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate how such a chip 71 can be simply adhered to the inner wall of a tyre 12 to be read by an RFID reader 72 mounted in the wheel arch.

[0053] A pressure transducer 91, illustrated in FIG. 9, could likewise be adhered to the inner wall of the tyre 12 comprised in a wafer with an aerial 92, like an RFID chip, which could be read in like fashion by a reader powering up the transducer by induced current in the aerial 92, for a continuing tyre pressure monitor taking a reading every revolution.

[0054] Through the smartphone app, or through the management system software and on-board communication system, the sensing unit may communicate via the internet or a cellular network with a tyre management or fleet management operation, an insurance company or a tyre parameter monitoring operation e.g. of a government enforcement agency. FIG. 3 illustrates the sensing unit 11 communicating via a smartphone 31 which in turn communicates through a cellular network 32 with any desired recipient. The unit 11 can sit in a docking station 33 in the vehicle and be connected via on-board electronics to the internet or a cellular network and to the vehicle's diagnostic and vehicle management systems.

[0055] Instead of, or in addition to, the time of flight sensing, a digital camera can be incorporated into the unit 11, imaging the tread pattern in such a way as to enable image processing techniques such as edge detection to be used as a way of assessing tread condition.