Remote sensing of vehicle tire pressure
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorsRobert L. Brooke, Peter J. McConnell, Anthony M. Testa, George B. Maksymonko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and a method for determining the tire pressures of vehicles as y pass an instrumented checkpoint on a roadway. Rigid corrugations on the roadway set the tires into vibration with a waveform which is a function of tire pressure. The complex waveforms from each tire of a given vehicle are subjected to a spectral analysis and the results of such analyses are compared to each other to determine which, if any, of said tires have produced a spectrum different from the normal spectra produced by the other tires. This invention requires no apparatus mounted on the vehicles being checked.
Claims6
Apparatus for remotely sensing differential tire pressures of vehicles as they pass an instrumented checkpoint on a roadway, comprising:
- a plurality of rigid corrugated sections adapted to be adjacently arrayed across a single lane roadway so that each tire of each vehicle will simultaneously traverse at least two adjacent corrugated sections, said corrugated sections comprising a series of parallel hard ridges arranged perpendicular to the direction of vehicle travel, with a transducer or sensor attached to each of said corrugated sections for detecting vibrations indicative of different tire pressures as the vehicle traverses said corrugated sections, circuit means connected to all of said sensors for performing a spectral analysis and comparison of the output of each of said sensors to the outputs of all other of said sensors as the vehicles traverse said array of corrugated sections, and display means connected to said circuit means for indicating the tire or tires of vehicles which produce an abnormal spectrum indicative of abnormal tire pressure.
A method of determining the differential or relative tire pressures of moving vehicles as they drive over an instrumented checkpoint, comprising the steps of;
- (a) imparting a mechanical impulse to each of the tires of said vehicles as they pass said checkpoint;
- (b) detecting the vibrations resulting from said impulse and converting said vibrations to a corresponding electrical signal;
- (c) performing a spectral analysis on each of said electrical signals from each of said tires, and
- (d) comparing the results of said spectral analyses to determine which, if any, of said tires produces a spectrum substantially different from the normal spectra produced by all of the other tires.
Apparatus for remotely sensing differential tire pressures of vehicles as they are driven over an instrumented checkpoint, comprising;
- corrugations at said checkpoint for causing the tires of vehicles to vibrate with a complex wavelength which is a function of the tire pressure;
- and
- circuit means to sense and detect and to perform a spectral analysis of said complex waveform for each tire of each vehicle, and to compare the results of said spectral analyses, and
- thereby identify which tire or tires exhibit a different spectrum from the majority of the tires which is indicative of abnormal pressure in those tires of different spectra.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.