FIELD OF INVENTION
[001] The present disclosure generally relates to vehicles and more particularly how
to detect tow tamper of a vehicle.
The present invention also pertains to a method for detecting tow tamper of a
vehicle.
BACKGROUND
[001] Today's vehicles have some kind of security features to detect unintended
movement of the vehicle. For example, when a thief tries to move a vehicle, the
movement may be detected by onboard sensors of the vehicle and alarm may be
raised.
[002] Detection of unintended movement generally involves determining
acceleration along any of X-Y-Z axis and determining if a value of the acceleration
along any of the axis is more than a threshold. This technique has a disadvantage
that, if a malicious user slowly moves the vehicle which produces a limited change
in the acceleration values, then the unintended movement of the vehicle is not
detected.
[003] Further, the detection of intended movement of the vehicle also depends on
the location of the sensors. The location of the sensors leads to different sensitivity
in detecting in the unintended movement. For example, when the sensor is located
near a handlebar of a two-wheeler vehicle, the measurement would be more
sensitive compared to the sensor placed somewhere else. Thus, in such cases where
the sensitivity is high due to sensor placement, a small intended movement of the
vehicle may be incorrectly detected as unintended malicious movement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[004] The following presents a simplified summary of the subject matter in order
to provide a basic understanding of some of the aspects of subject matter
embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of the subject matter. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the embodiments or to delineate
the scope of the subject matter. Its sole purpose to present some concepts of the
subject matter in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that
is presented later.
The implementation of the present disclosure provides a system and method for
detecting unintended movement (tow tamper) of a vehicle. According to the present
subject matter, a movement of the vehicle is detected in sleep state. The sleep state
indicates that the vehicle is not intended to be used by a user. In an example, the
movement may be detected by an onboard sensor, such as inertial measurement unit
(IMU) of the vehicle.
[005] Further, instantaneous acceleration values of the vehicle along each of a first
(Axt), a second (Ayt), and a third (Azt) axes is determined based on the movement.
In an example, the first, the second, and the third axes are orthogonal axes.
Thereafter, a cumulative acceleration (Ac) value based the determined
instantaneous acceleration values is determined. Further, an alarm is generated if
the cumulative acceleration (Ac) value is more than a threshold.
[006] According to the present subject matter, since the acceleration along all the
axes are taken into account to obtain the cumulative acceleration, the unintended
movement of the vehicle is correctly determined. Further, since the acceleration
along all the axes is taken into consideration, the values taken by various sensors
are averaged out and there is minimal effect of location of the sensors on
determining the unintended movement of the vehicle.
[007] The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanying
drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages will be
apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.

/We claim:
1. A method comprising:
detecting (302) movement of a vehicle in a sleep state, wherein the sleep
state indicates that the vehicle is not intended to be used by a user;
determining (304) instantaneous acceleration values of the vehicle along
each of a first axis (Axt), a second (Ayt) axis, and a third axis (Azt) axes based on the
movement, wherein the first, the second and the third axis are orthogonal to each
other.
obtaining (306) a cumulative acceleration (Ac) value based the determined
instantaneous acceleration values; and
generating (308) an alarm if the cumulative acceleration (Ac) value is more
than a threshold.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the threshold is configurable.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the alarm is generated when the
cumulative acceleration (Ac) value exceeds the threshold for a particular period of
time.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein obtaining the cumulative
acceleration (Ac) comprises:
determining, at an instance of detection of movement of vehicle, reference
acceleration values along each of the first (Ax), the second (Ay), and the third (Az);
determine a differential acceleration (Ad) value based on the following
equation:
𝐴𝑑 = |(𝐴𝑥
2 − 𝐴𝑥𝑡
2
) + (𝐴𝑦
2 − 𝐴𝑦𝑡
2
) + (𝐴𝑧
2 − 𝐴𝑧𝑡
2
)|; and
adding the differential acceleration at each time instant for a fixed period of
time to obtain the cumulative acceleration.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein generating the alarm comprises
sending a notification to a user equipment associated with the vehicle.
6. An apparatus (100) for detecting tow tamper of a vehicle, the apparatus
comprising:
a vehicle management unit (VMU) (102);
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) (104), coupled to the vehicle
management unit;
the VMU (102) is to:
detect movement of the vehicle in a sleep state wherein the sleep
state of the vehicle indicates that the vehicle is not intended to be used by a
user of the vehicle;
trigger the IMU (104) based on the detection of the movement of the
vehicle;
the IMU (104) is to measure instantaneous acceleration values of the vehicle
along each of a first (Axt), a second (Ayt), and a third (Azt) coordinate axes based on
the movement of the vehicle, wherein the first, the second and the third axes are
orthogonal to each other;
a tow tamper detection unit (106) to obtain a cumulative acceleration (Ac)
value based on the instantaneous acceleration values along each of a first (Axt), a
second (Ayt), and a third (Azt) coordinate axes; and
a notification unit (108) to notify the user about the tow tamper when
cumulative acceleration (Ac) value is more than a threshold.
7. The apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the notification unit
(108) notifies the user when the cumulative acceleration (Ac) value is more than the
threshold for a particular period of time.
8. The apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 6, wherein to obtain the cumulative
acceleration (Ac), the tow tamper detection unit (106) is to:
obtain, at the instance of detection of movement of vehicle, reference
acceleration values along each of the first (Ax), the second (Ay), and the third (Az)
coordinate axes;
determine a differential acceleration (Ad) value based on the following
equation:
𝐴𝑑 = |(𝐴𝑥
2 − 𝐴𝑥𝑡
2
) + (𝐴𝑦
2 − 𝐴𝑦𝑡
2
) + (𝐴𝑧
2 − 𝐴𝑧𝑡
2
)|; and
add the differential acceleration at each time instant for a fixed period of
time to obtain the cumulative acceleration value.
9. The apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the IMU 104 measures
the reference acceleration values along each of the first (Ax), the second (Ay), and
the third (Az) coordinate axes when the movement is detected.
10. The apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 9, wherein the IMU (104)
comprises at least one of:
one or more accelerometer sensors; and
one or more gyroscopes.
11. The apparatus (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the instantaneous
acceleration is measured for a prefixed period of time.