Method and apparatus for monitoring tire performance
AssigneeBridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, LLC
InventorFrancis J Byrne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for assessing tire performance by generating accurate, timely tire-to-surface slippage information under any operational/environmental conditions and on any road and/or off-road surface without requiring instrumentation of the roadway. The approach is capable of storing generated tire-to-surface slippage information for later retrieval and analysis and/or capable of supporting dynamic, real-time collection and dissemination of generated data. One exemplary embodiment generates and disseminates tire-to-surface slippage information in real-time that is compatible with and may be formatted for use by any consumer vehicle control system as well as external test and analysis equipment.
Claims17
A method for monitoring slippage of a tire footprint against a surface, comprising:
- (a) generating a reference frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to a portion of the tire footprint;
- (b) generating a sample frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to the portion of the tire footprint;
- and
- (c) comparing the reference frame with the sample frame to determine whether the portion of the tire footprint has moved relative to the surface.
An apparatus for monitoring slippage of a tire footprint against a surface, comprising:
- a sensor module that generates a reference frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to a portion of the tire footprint and subsequently generates a sample frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to the portion of the tire footprint;
- and
- a processor module that compares the reference frame with the sample frame to determine whether the portion of the tire footprint has moved relative to the surface.
A program product apparatus having a computer readable medium with computer program logic recorded thereon for monitoring slippage of a tire footprint against a surface, comprising:
- a sensor module that generates a reference frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to a portion of the tire footprint and subsequently generates a sample frame of a portion of the surface corresponding to the portion of the tire footprint;
- and
- a processor module that compares the reference frame with the sample frame to determine whether the portion of the tire footprint has moved relative to the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.