Method and apparatus for measuring the quantity of fuel in a vehicle fuel tank subject to external forces

An apparatus for measuring the volume of a liquid in a fuel tank in a vehicle that is subject to varying external forces caused by movement or changes in the roll and pitch angles of the vehicle, comprising:

• a) a fuel tank mounted to the vehicle and subject to forces along the yaw axis of the vehicle;
• b) at least three transducers each providing an output signal representative of a parameter selected from the group consisting of a pitch angle of the vehicle, a roll angle of the vehicle, a load applied by said tank to the vehicle at a discrete location and a height of fuel at a discrete location within said tank;
• and
• c) computational means coupled to said at least three transducers for receiving said output signals from said at least three transducers and for processing said output signals from said at least three transducers to obtain a volume of fuel in said tank, said computational means comprising means for storing an algorithm representative of a derived relationship between the parameters corresponding to said output signals from said at least three transducers and the volume of fuel in said tank and applying the algorithm using said output signals from said at least three transducers as input to obtain the volume of fuel in said tank,
• said algorithm being obtained by conducting a plurality of measurements, each measurement including the known volume of the tank and said output signals from said at least three transducers.

A method for measuring the volume of a liquid in a fuel tank in a vehicle that is subject to varying external forces caused by movement or changes in the roll and pitch angles of the vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• generating an algorithm for use on the vehicle by placing a known quantity of fuel into the tank, collecting reflected wave patterns from a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged on a bottom of the tank at discrete locations under various conditions from an at rest position to a driving state over a variety of road surfaces, repeatedly changing the quantity of fuel in the tank and collecting additional reflected wave patterns from the ultrasonic transducers, inputting the data concerning the quantity of fuel in the tank and the received reflected wave patterns into a neural network generating program to obtain an algorithm,
• installing the algorithm onto a component in the vehicle,
• obtaining reflected wave patterns from the transducers during operation of the vehicle, and
• inputting the reflected wave patterns into the algorithm to obtain the quantity of fuel in the tank.

A method for measuring the volume of a liquid in a fuel tank in a vehicle that is subject to varying external forces caused by movement or changes in the roll and pitch angles of the vehicle comprising the steps of:

• generating an algorithm for use on the vehicle by placing a known quantity of fuel into the tank collecting data from a plurality of transducers arranged in connection with the tank under various conditions term an at rest position to a driving state over a variety of road surfaces, repeatedly child the quantity of fuel in the tank and collecting additional data from the transducers, inputting the data concerning the quantity of fuel in the tank and the data collected from the plurality of transducer into a neural network generating program to obtain an algorithm,
• installing the algorithm onto a component in the vehicle,
• obtaining data from the plurality of transducers during operation of the vehicle, and
• inputting the data from the plurality of transducers into the algorithm, to obtain the quantity of fuel in the rank,
• wherein at least one of the transducers is an ultrasonic transducer, the data being collected from the ultrasonic transducer being a reflected wave pattern.