Embodiments of the present invention relate to technologies related to vehicle safety and efficiency and more particularly to a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Safety and efficiency are the most important aspects of a vehicle. In recent times, automobile engineers and professionals have constantly been developing new systems and methods for enhancing vehicle efficiency and safety. One such system is a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) is an electronic system by which tyre inflation pressure, cavity air temperature, loading condition, traction force, wheel acceleration, tyre wear etc., are measured directly or in-directly and transmitted to dashboard display. Such details inform/warn regarding the condition of the tyre i.e. low or high inflation, pressure, burst warning, load status on wheel, wear pattern and fuel consumption prediction.
The above-mentioned details have profound implications on environment, vehicle performance and road safety conditions. TPMS are provided both at an OEM (factory) level as well as an aftermarket solution. The target of a TPMS is avoiding traffic accidents, poor fuel economy, and increased tyre wear due to under-inflated tyres through early recognition of a hazardous state of the tyres.
But there are certain drawbacks with the existing TPMS. Firstly, the presently available high precision calibrated systems are expensive and not pocket friendly, when it comes to aftermarket solution and otherwise it is only available in high-end cars. Further, the existing direct TPMS may require costly tools while resynchronization. Furthermore, in presently available systems i.e. internal TPMS, the battery is rarely serviceable. So, if the battery is drained, the whole sensor must be changed. And the sensors are susceptible to damage during mounting/demounting. In addition, proprietary systems make installation, service, and replacement confusing for consumers and auto shops.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a tyre pressure monitoring system that does not suffer from the above-mentioned deficiencies or at least provide a viable alternative.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a tyre pressure monitoring system for a vehicle.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for mounting sensors on truck/bus/light weight vehicle axle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for monitoring tyre pressure, revolutions per minute (RPM), and temperature.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a tyre pressure monitoring system for vehicles that has a higher data rate of three samples per minute.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a tyre pressure monitoring system for vehicles that enables the data rate of sampling to dynamically vary to optimize power consumption.
Yet another object of the present invention is to utilise artificial intelligence for providing a tyre health status using collected data from a TPMS device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) is provided. The tyre pressure monitoring system comprises one or more sensors. The one or more sensors are configured to measure data of one or more tyres of a vehicle. The one or more sensors are communicatively connected with a processing module. The processing module is configured to receive and transfer the measured data of the one or more tyres in real-time. The processing module is communicatively connected with the one or more servers. The one or more servers are configured to store data of the one or more tyres and transfer the measured data to one or more dashboard displays. The one or more dashboard displays are configured to display the measured of the one or more tyres. The power source is configured to supply power to the one or more sensors, processing module, a wireless communication module, the one or more server, and the one or more dashboard display.
Further the wireless communication module is configured to communicatively connect the processing module to the one or more sensors and one or more servers.
Further the one or more sensors (104) are mounted on one or more-wheel axles of the vehicle to reduce centrifugal force.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for tyre pressure monitoring is provided. The method comprises steps for monitoring the pressure and temperature of the one or more tyres. The first step is measuring and transferring data of one or more tyres of a vehicle by one or more sensors. The second step is receiving the measured data of the one or more tyres from one or more sensors by a processing module. The third step is sending the measured data to one or more servers by the processing module. The fourth step is receiving the measured data of the one or more tyres from the processing module by the one or more servers running artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. The fifth step is transferring the measured data of the one or more tyres to one or more dashboard displays by the one or more servers. The sixth step is displaying the measured data of one or more tyres by the one or more dashboard displays.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the one or more sensors may be selected from a group comprising micro electromechanical sensor (MEMS) pressure sensors, MEMS temperature sensors, MEMS acceleration sensor or a combination thereof.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the measured data may be selected from a group comprising cavity air temperature, pressure, acceleration, loading condition, and the like.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the one or more dashboard displays may be selected from a group comprising a handset, mobile phone, a portable computing device, or LCD display.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the one or more servers may be selected from a group comprising local storage, a cloud-based storage, or server stack.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular to the description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
These and other features, benefits and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following text figure, with like reference numbers referring to like structures across the views, wherein:
Fig. 1 illustrates, a tyre pressure monitoring system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and
Fig. 2 illustrates a method for tyre pressure monitoring system, in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 illustrates, a tyre pressure monitoring system mounted on a tyre of a vehicle.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
While the present invention is described herein by way of examples using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. As used throughout this description, the word "may" be used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one” and the word “plurality” means “one or more” unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein is solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like are included in the specification solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.
In this disclosure, whenever a composition or an element or a group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase “comprising”, it is understood that we also contemplate the same composition, element or group of elements with transitional phrases “consisting of”, “consisting”, “selected from the group of consisting of, “including”, or “is” preceding the recitation of the composition, element or group of elements and vice versa. The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated as examples only and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, a number of materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
Figure 1 illustrates a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) (100), in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The TPMS (100) comprises one or more sensors (104), one or more tyres of a vehicle (not shown in figure), a processing module (106), one or more servers (114), one or more dashboard displays (110) and a power source (not shown in Figure), all are connected with each other. The one or more sensors (104) are mounted on one or more-wheel axles of the vehicle (102). The one or more sensors (104) may be Micro Electromechanical Sensors (MEMS). Micro Electromechanical sensors (MEMS) are a class of devices characterised both by their small size and functions. The one or more sensors (104) maybe, but not limited to, MEMS temperature sensor, MEMS pressure sensor, MEMS accelerometer, and the like. The one or more sensors (104) are mounted on one or more-wheel axles of the vehicle (102) to reduce centrifugal force. The one or more sensors (104) are configured to measure data of one or more tyres(not shown in figure) of the vehicle (102).The measured data may be cavity air temperature, pressure acceleration, loading condition, and the like. The one or more tyres may be tube tyres or tubeless tyres. The one or more sensors (104) are communicatively connected with the processing module (106) for processing the data received from the one or more sensors (104).
The processing module (106) comprises a micro controller that may be a small computer on a single integrated circuit and is envisaged to contain one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. The program memory in the form of ferroelectric RAM, NOR flash or OTP ROM may be included on chip, along with a small amount of RAM. The processing module(106) further comprises a wireless communication module(108).The wireless communication module(108) is configured to communicatively connect the processing module (106) with the one or more sensors (104) and the one or more servers(114). The wireless communication module (108) may be a short-range communication network and/or a long-range communication network, wired or wireless communication network such as Wi-Fi, RF etc. The communication module (108) may be implemented using a number of protocols, such as but not limited to, TCP/IP, 3GPP, 3GPP2, LTE, IEEE 802.x, HTTP, HTTPS, UDP, RTMP etc. The communication interface includes, but not limited to, a serial communication interface, a parallel communication interface or a combination thereof. The processing module (106) is configured to receive the measured data of the one or more tyres from the one or more sensors (104) and transfer the measured data of the one or more tyres to the one or more server (114) in real-time.
The one or more server (114) comprises a storage unit. The one or more server (114) may be cloud-based storage local storage or server stack. The one or more server (114) is configured to store data of the one or more tyres. In any manner, the one or more server (114) is envisaged to be capable of providing the measured data of the one or more tyres to any of one or more computing device (116, 110) connected with the network, when the data is queried appropriately using applicable security and other data transfer protocols.
Further, the processing module (106), one or more server (114), and one or more dashboard displays (110) are connected by using wireless communication network (112) as shown in figure 1. The wireless communication network (112) may be one of, but not limited to, a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN). The wireless communication network (112) may be implemented using using a number of protocols, such as but not limited to, TCP/IP, 3GPP, 3GPP2, LTE, IEEE 802.x, HTTP, HTTPS, UDP, RTMP etc. The communication is established over may be, but not limited to, wired network or wireless network such as LoRa, GSM, GPRS, CDMA, Bluetooth, Wi-fi, Zigbee.
Furthermore, the one or more dashboard displays(110) may be, a handset, mobile phone, a portable computing device, LCD display, LED display or TFT display panels configured to display readings of the TPMS (100) and status of the temperature and pressure of the one or more tyres. The one or more dashboard displays (110) is configured to receive the measured data of the one or more tyres from the one or more servers (114). The one or more dashboard displays (110) are further configured to display the measured data of the one or more tyres and provide a current status of the one or more tyres to a user. Further, the one or more dashboard displays (110) also provide a user interface. In an aspect, the one or more dashboard displays (110) may be placed inside the vehicle for example a touch-based display embedded into the dashboard of the vehicle. In another aspect, the dashboard display may be placed remotely for example as a handheld device to display the current status of the one or more tyres as shown in figure 1. Moreover, the power source is configured to supply power to the one or more sensors (104), the processing module (106), a wireless communication module (108), and one or more dashboard display (110). The power source may be, but not limited to, an on-board battery.
Figure 2 illustrates a method (200) for tyre pressure monitoring, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method includes the following steps for monitoring the pressure and temperature of the one or more tyres. At step 202, the one or more sensors (104) are configured to measure and transfer data of one or more tyres of a vehicle (102) to the processing module (106). At step 204, the processing module (106) is configured to receive the measured data of the one or more tyres from one or more sensors (104). At step 206, the processing module (106) sends the measured data to one or more servers (114). At step 208, the one or more servers (114) are configured to receive the measured data of the one or more tyres from the processing module (106). At step 210, the one or more servers (114) are configured to transfer the measured data of the one or more tyres to one or more dashboard displays (110). At step 212, the one or more dashboard displays (110) are configured to receive and display the measured data of the one or more tyres. The display shows the value of tyre inflation pressure, cavity air temperature, loading condition, traction force, wheel acceleration, one or more tyres wear etc.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the TPMS (100) comprises one or more sensors (104) mounted on the axle provide measured data to the processing module (106) that computes and tell crucial pressure and temperature of the one or more tyres at a higher data rate of four samples per minute and transmits to one or more servers for storage. The higher data rate increases the sampling rate of the data. The increased data rate of the TPMS (100) detects the degradation of one or more tyres due to uncertain road conditions, under/over-inflated tyres at the early stage. The detection of the degradation condition of one or more tyres at the early stage prevent road accidents and improve the performance of the vehicle (102).
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the TPMS (100) is customized based on the location of the wheel. The system (100) is mounted on the one or more-wheel axle part to reduce the centrifugal force impact on the micro electromechanical sensor (MEMS) sensors. For front axle, a single device may use as TPMS (100). For rear axle, a dual sensor arrangement may be used for each side of the axle. The configuration of TPMS (100) achieves 70 feet of range for the monitoring and data transferring of one or more tyres.
Figure 3 illustrates a manner of mounting a TPMS (300). The figure shows the TPMS to be mounted on the outside of a tyre wheel over the centre cap and across the centre disc of the wheel. The TPMS (300) is illustrated to include wires that may communicatively couple the tyre with the one or more sensors and one or more processing modules of the TPMS (300). One of the wire from the TPMS (300) may be attached to a valve of the tyre and one or more wires may be attached to one or more other sensors present in the wheel or the vehicle. In an aspect, the TPMS (300) may be attached to the spokes of the wheel, behind the wheel, or even inside the car body. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that the position of the TPMS (300) may not substantially affect the various features and advantages of the present TPMS disclosed throughout the present disclosure.
The present invention offers a number of advantages. Although a range of TPMS (100) are available commercially but the present invention directly benefits the long haul heavy commercial vehicles i.e fleet companies (lower downtime). The developed prototype fills above mentioned gap. The major features are pressure & temperature monitoring using TPMS (100), dual port arrangement, higher data rate i.e four samples per minute, transmission of data to one or more servers (114), one or more dashboard displays (116, 110) of measured values, central server for storage and inference engine. The high data rate and wide range of the TMPS (100) provide the fast and accurate data related to the current status of the one or more tyres, which results in decrease pollution, reduce road accident, increase one or more tyres lifetime, decrease the fuel consumption and drastically improve the vehicle performance. The present invention provides a cost-effective solution to the problems of the prior art.
In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will be appreciated that modules may comprised connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and may comprise programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of computer-readable medium or other computer storage device.
Further, while one or more operations have been described as being performed by or otherwise related to certain modules, devices or entities, the operations may be performed by or otherwise related to any module, device or entity. As such, any function or operation that has been described as being performed by a module could alternatively be performed by a different server, by the cloud computing platform, or a combination thereof. It should be understood that the techniques of the present disclosure might be implemented using a variety of technologies. For example, the methods described herein may be implemented by a series of computer executable instructions residing on a suitable computer readable medium. Suitable computer readable media may include volatile (e.g. RAM) and/or non-volatile (e.g. ROM, disk) memory, carrier waves and transmission media. Exemplary carrier waves may take the form of electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals conveying digital data steams along a local network or a publicly accessible network such as the Internet.
It should also be understood that, unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as "controlling" or "obtaining" or "computing" or "storing" or "receiving" or "determining" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that processes and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art from the description and the accompanying drawings. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown along with the accompanying drawings but is to be providing broadest scope of consistent with the principles and the novel and inventive features disclosed or suggested herein. Accordingly, the invention is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present invention. ,CLAIMS:1. A tyre pressure monitoring system (100), the system (100) comprising:
One or more sensors (104) configured to measure data of one or more tyres of a vehicle (102);
A processing module (106) communicatively connected with the one or more sensors (104), the processing module (106) is configured to receive and transfer the measured data of the one or more tyres in real-time;
One or more servers (114) having a storage unit, communicatively connected with the processing module (106), the one or more servers (114) are configured to store data of the one or more tyres;
One or more dashboard displays (110) wirelessly connected with the one or more servers (114), the one or more dashboard displays (110) are configured to display the measured data of the one or more tyres; and
A power source configured to supply power to the one or more sensors (104), processing module (106), a wireless communication module (108), one or more server (114), and one or more dashboard displays (110);
Wherein the wireless communication module (108) is configured to communicatively connect the processing module (106) to the one or more sensors (104) and one or more servers (114);
Wherein the one or more sensors (104) are mounted on one or more-wheel axles of the vehicle (102) to reduce centrifugal force.
2. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors (104) may be selected from a group comprising micro electromechanical sensor (MEMS) pressure sensors, MEMS temperature sensors, MEMS acceleration sensor or a combination thereof.
3. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the measured data may be selected from a group comprising cavity air temperature, pressure, acceleration, or loading condition.
4. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more dashboard displays (110) may be selected from a group comprising a handset, mobile phone, a portable computing device, or LCD display.
5. The system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more servers (114) may be selected from a group comprising local storage, a cloud-based storage, or server stack.
6. A method (200) for tyre pressure monitoring, the method (200) comprising:
Measuring and transferring data of one or more tyres of a vehicle (102) by one or more sensors (104);
Receiving the measured data of the one or more tyres from one or more sensors (104) by a processing module (106);
Sending the measured data to one or more servers (114) by the processing module (106);
Receiving the measured data of the one or more tyres from the processing module (106) by the one or more servers (114);
Transferring the measured data of one or more tyres to one or more dashboard displays (110) by the one or more servers (114); and
Displaying the measured data of one or more tyres by the one or more dashboard displays (110).
7. The method (200) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more sensors (104) may be selected from a group comprising micro electromechanical sensor (MEMS) pressure sensors, MEMS temperature sensors, MEMS acceleration sensor or a combination thereof.

8. The method (200) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the measured data may be selected from a group comprising cavity air temperature, pressure, acceleration, or loading condition.
9. The method (200) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more dashboard display (110) may be selected from a group comprising a handset, mobile phone, a portable computing device, or LCD display.
10. The method (200) as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more servers (114) may be selected from a group comprising local storage, a cloud-based storage, or server stack.