Remote interrogation of a vehicle wheel
AssigneeMichelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
InventorsBryn James Dixon, Victor Alexandrovich Kalinin, John Peter Beckley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for assessing the condition of a wheel particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for assessing the condition of a tire rotating on a vehicle wheel. Apparatus is provided comprising a plurality of antennas (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108) for transmitting an interrogation signal to a sensor (110, 112), the sensor being mounted to a wheel to be assessed and being adapted to detect the condition of the wheel; wherein the antennas are arranged in a line along a path to be followed by a wheel to be assessed.
Claims20
An apparatus for assessing a condition of a wheel/tire assembly, the apparatus comprising a plurality of antennas arranged in a line along a path and in a direction to be followed by a wheel/tire assembly to be assessed for transmitting an interrogation signal to and receiving a response signal from a sensor while the wheel is moving past the antennas, the sensor being mounted to the wheel/tire assembly to be assessed and being adapted to detect the condition of the wheel/tire assembly, wherein the length of the line of antennas is at least equal to an outer circumference of the wheel/tire assembly to be interrogated.
The apparatus of any of the preceding claims, wherein each antenna is adapted to transmit an interrogation signal to the sensor and to receive a response from the sensor, wherein the sensor comprises a wireless passive piezoelectric resonant structure.
The apparatus of any of the preceding claims, wherein at least one antenna is a unidirectional antenna.
A system comprising one or more of the apparatus claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein each antenna is individually connected to a separate channel of a multi-channel interrogation control unit common to all the antennas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.