Method and device for estimating hydroplaning-occuring vehicle speed and method and device for detecting possibility of occurence of hydroplaning

A method of detecting a possibility of occurrence of a hydroplaning phenomenon of a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• (1) detecting an amount of water on a wet road surface on which said vehicle is traveling;
• (2) detecting a speed of said vehicle;
• and
• (3) determining whether there is a possibility that a hydroplaning phenomenon can occur, based on the detected amount of water and the detected speed of said vehicle.

A device for estimating a hydroplaning-occurring speed of a vehicle having wheels, comprising:

• road noise-detecting means arranged in the vicinity of at least one of said wheels of said vehicle for detecting road noise generated by said at least one of said wheels;
• means for extracting data of a parameter indicative of frequency components of said road noise, from said road noise detected by said road noise-detecting means;
• water amount-detecting means for detecting an amount of water on a road surface on which said vehicle is traveling, based on said data of said parameter indicative of said frequency components of said road noise, by means of a neural network;
• and
• vehicle speed-estimating means for estimating a speed of said vehicle at and above which a hydroplaning phenomenon of said vehicle can occur, based on the detected amount of water.

A device for detecting a possibility of occurrence of a hydroplaning phenomenon of a vehicle having wheels, comprising:

• road noise-detecting means arranged in the vicinity of at least one of said wheels of said vehicle for detecting road noise generated by said at least one of said wheels;
• means for extracting data of a parameter indicative of frequency components of said road noise, from said road noise detected by said road noise-detecting means;
• water amount-detecting means for detecting an amount of water on a road surface on which said vehicle is traveling, based on said data of said parameter indicative of said frequency components of said road noise, by means of a neural network;
• and
• hydroplaning-determining means for determining a possibility of occurrence of said hydroplaning phenomenon of said vehicle, based on the detected amount of water and the detected speed of said vehicle.