Autonomous tire and wheel balancer, method therefor and robotic automotive service system

A method for detecting imbalance of a tire wheel assembly of a vehicle, the vehicle having a wheel hub, the tire wheel assembly being removably mountable to the wheel hub, the tire wheel assembly having an axis of rotation and being rotatable about the axis of rotation, the method comprising the steps of:

• conducting at least one spin test on the tire wheel assembly, the at least one spin test including the sub-steps of:
• effecting at least one rotation of the tire wheel assembly about its axis of rotation while the tire wheel assembly is mounted to the wheel hub;
• measuring with one or more sensors an imbalance condition of the vehicle, the imbalance condition being indicative of a static imbalance and a dynamic imbalance of the tire wheel assembly, the one or more sensors generating an imbalance signal in response to the measured imbalance condition;
• and
• processing the imbalance signal to determine at least a respective magnitude of the static imbalance and the dynamic imbalance of the tire wheel assembly;
• determining whether the respective magnitude of each of the static imbalance and the dynamic imbalance of the tire wheel assembly is at most equal to at least one magnitude threshold.