System and method for predicting wear progression for vehicle tires

A system for estimating progression in vehicle tire wear, the system comprising:

• a computing device or network functionally linked to a data storage network;
• one or more sensors mounted on a tire associated with a vehicle and/or the vehicle and configured to generate output signals corresponding to tire structural modes;
• wherein the computing device or network is configured to
• develop over time, and store in the data storage, correlations based on historical measurements of changes in tire tread and shifts between corresponding modal frequencies associated with a type of tire corresponding to a type of the tire associated with the vehicle,
• store a tread depth at a first stage for the tire associated with a vehicle;
• collect the output signals from the one or more sensors responsive to an excitation of the tire structural modes at each of a first stage and a subsequent second stage,
• responsive to the excitation of the tire structural modes at the first stage, determine a first set of one or more modal frequencies for the tire,
• responsive to the excitation of the tire structural modes at the subsequent second stage, determine a second set of a corresponding one or more modal frequencies for the tire, and
• estimate a tire wear status of the tire based on a calculated frequency shift between at least one corresponding modal frequency from each of the first and second sets, wherein an estimated loss in tire tread is determined via a retrievable correlation between the calculated frequency shift and a change in tire tread for a given tire,
• predict one or more tire performance characteristics, based at least in part on the estimated tire wear status, and
• selectively provide real-time feedback based on the predicted one or more tire performance characteristics and/or estimated tire wear status.