DESC:FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION
“AN ELECTRONICALLY MONITORED DRIVESHAFT
FOR VEHICLES”

Endurance Technologies Limited
E-92, M.I.D.C. Industrial Area, Waluj, Aurangabad - 431136

The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of Invention

[001] The present invention is related to a driveshaft used in the vehicles. More particularly, the present invention is related to an electronically monitored driveshaft that monitors its health in different operating conditions of a vehicle and accordingly interact with the end user to optimize fuel economy, safety and overall drive comfort.

Background of the Invention

[002] Driveshaft is an important component of drive train of a vehicle that transmits engine torque to the drive wheel of the vehicle. Wear and tear in driveshaft leads to increased drivetrain losses and thus bring down the efficiency of the engine and fuel economy as well.

[003] Failure of driveshaft, when the vehicle is running can pose a serious safety risk for the driver. Several vehicles were recalled recently and in past as well, by OEMs owing to drive shaft failure. The manufacturer of shaft though take utmost care in designing but once it is fitted in the vehicle and used by a driver in real world scenario, unexpected or abnormal usage can lead to premature failure of shaft.

[004] Driveshaft is usually covered under a warranty where it is expected that they last longer than the vehicle itself. Although improper maintenance, usage beyond prescribed limits (overload), exposure to extreme temperature, moisture, shock and vibration can shorten the life of shaft and occasionally lead to sudden breakdown. To the end user, though failure appears to be a sudden event but it actually goes through a progressive degradation pattern or profile, which is measured only during R&D phase by shaft manufacturer.

[005] When driveshaft U-joint or bushings wear out, it can cause the driveshaft to vibrate excessively. An excessively vibrating driveshaft will not only cause significant vibrations which is felt by the passengers, it can also cause accelerated wear on other drivetrain components, thereby negatively impacting the fuel economy. The common cause of unbalanced drive shaft is worn out U-joints or slip lines. Other causes might be misaligned angles, yokes out of phase, yoke ears that are not concentric with splines.

[006] Conventionally, NVH profiling tools are used by field engineers or R&D team at various stages; starting from Product Development to quality check to EOL checks. Sometime, equipment are fitted in the test vehicles (prototype samples) too, for data collection in run time. But such data samples are very small in terms of volume and are for improving product design purpose alone. No such system or mechanism exist for production vehicles.

[007] Once the shaft is being operated in vehicle, no real time measurement happens. Thus, there is a need of a mechanism to enable OEM, shaft manufacturer and Driver (optionally) to observe the progressive deterioration of shaft performance. A digital track of usage pattern must be maintained for warranty claim validation, dynamically tuning of engine and chassis parameters to optimize fuel economy, safety and drivability. Hence, there is a long pending unmet need to provide an driveshaft that monitors its health in different operating conditions of the vehicles accordingly interact with the end user to optimize fuel economy, safety and drivability.

Objects of the Present Invention

[008] The main object of the present invention is to provide an electronically monitored driveshaft for vehicles.

[009] Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronically monitored driveshaft which diagnose its health under different operating conditions.

[0010] Still further object of the present invention is to provide a driveshaft wherein the driveshaft itself monitors it’s predictive maintenance in light of different operating conditions viz. driving pattern, terrain, climatic variation and actual use/misuse/abuse of vehicle.

[0011] Yet, further object of the present invention is to provide an electronically monitored driveshaft that monitors its health in different operating conditions of the vehicles accordingly interact with the end user to optimize fuel economy, safety and drivability.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0012] This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the various figures. The embodiments herein and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following description when read with reference to the following drawings, wherein

[0013] Figure 1 discloses the perspective view of the electronically monitored driveshaft in accordance with the present invention.

[0014] Figure 2 shows the enclosure of housing to support electronic module as per the invention.

[0015] Figure 3 describes the housing enclosure that accommodate the PCB, battery and sensors.

[0016] Figure 4 shows the cross sectional view of the drive shaft along with longitudinal direction w.r.t. Fig. 1.

[0017] Figure 5 describes the scheme of the transmitter module.

[0018] Figure 6 (a) & (b) shows the representative receiver module at vehicle side connected to ECU network.

[0019] Figure 7 displays the overview of communication between transmitter and receiver module in accordance with the present invention.

[0020] Figure 8 is the flow diagram of the analytics being done which is distributed between transmitter and receiver modules.
[0021] Figure 9 is an embodiment another embodiment of the driveshaft wherein electronic control unit is housed in a slot created on the outer surface of the driveshaft.

[0022] Figure 10 is other embodiment of the driveshaft wherein electronic control unit is mounted on extruded flat profile on the outer surface of the driveshaft.

[0023] Figure 11 is further embodiment of the drive shaft wherein electronic control unit is mounted on the circular plate and sensing means are mounted in the slot created on outer surface of the driveshaft.

Detailed Description of the Present Invention

[0024] In vehicles, its NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) profile is indicative of vehicle’s built quality which up to a large extent is unavoidable and designers take care to offset those. The multiple sources of NVH in a typical vehicle are Engine and Transmission induced NVH, Body frame and aero acoustics induced NVH, Powertrain induced NVH and Component induced NVH. But over a period of time, departure of NVH profile from standard profile is indicative of poor maintenance or failing/ageing component which need replacement. Therefore, the source of vibration contributing to NVH needs to be characterized in both time and frequency domain in two categories viz. periodic (natural) vibrations and random vibrations.

[0025] The periodic (natural) vibrations are the vibrations originating from engine, transmission, various systems and sub-systems which are either in rotating or translational movement are periodic. They fall under a predefined pattern or profile under various driving condition and RPM. Thus they are easier to characterize and nullify for signal processing and analysis. Any vibrating systems has a unique signature frequency and it changes only when a parameter changes. Once the device/component is repaired, original signature frequency is restored. Systematic and progressive departure from reference vibration frequency is a long term and slow phenomenon due to ageing or wear and tear. This shift must be accounted in Engine Management System ECU for tuning and recalibration of engine parameters such as torque-RPM map. A chassis control ECU can adjust suspension parameters also based on this data so that drivability and comfort factor of the vehicle is not compromised.

[0026] Random vibrations are the vibrations induced by the external factors. When a vehicle is driven, the road and terrain conditions introduce a pattern or profile which is relatively tougher to analyze. However these random pattern or profile are not the concern always as it is an expected behavior due to randomness of external factors. Although, these events must be captured for dynamic correction of vehicle or tuning engine parameters if required. The random vibration pattern is additionally generated when the component starts to fail or already failed or extra force or torque is exerted on it than its stipulated limits. These events definitely must be captured for predictive maintenance purpose as abnormality or random events over a long period, contributes toward deterioration in performance and must be considered for analysis.

[0027] To address this, the proposed design of an electronically monitored driveshaft is a distributed system, which mainly consists of two sub-systems referred as Transmitter and Receiver. In accordance with the present invention, an electronically monitored driveshaft has capability to individually correct the shift in drive shaft performance behavior for a given vehicle and alert the probable failure because rugged and low cost design of the shaft enables the shaft manufacturer to equip each shaft with measurement devices. An electronically monitored driveshaft is embedded with electronics hardware, inbuilt power supply module, bi-directional data transmission link which will monitor critical physical parameters of a drive shaft such as temperature and NVH which will help to not just predict failure of shaft but serve as an important input for improving fuel economy and drivability of the vehicle.

[0028] Referring to Figs. 1 and 4, an electronically monitored driveshaft comprises of a rotating shaft and a housing mounted thereon by suitable mounting means. The said housing is balanced housing and accommodates electronic control unit. The electronic control unit comprises of sensing means for sensing different parameters. For sensing vibrations, the sensing means is selected from the accelerometer sensor which is configurable to measure vibrations in driveshaft in different ways viz. handheld device and measure remotely/closely, magnetic fixtures and measure directly on shaft, by suitable adhesive and measure directly on shaft and stud mount and measure directly on shaft.

[0029] An electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle comprises of a shaft (10), a balanced housing (20), a plurality of sensing means, an electronic control unit (40), and a communication module. The balanced housing (20) is formed by the integration of a LS (left side) casing (22) and a RS (right side) casing (24). The plurality sensing means are mounted inside the balanced housing (20) in a close proximity of the shaft (10) and the electronic control unit (40) is rigidly accommodated inside the balanced housing (20) with the help of a plurality of lugs (24a) and a plurality of screws (25). The plurality sensing means and the electronic control unit (40) are in continuous communication with each other through the communication module. The balanced housing (20) is integrated with the shaft (10) by a suitable fastening means. The fastening means is selected any one from the group of welding, riveting, adhesives, brazing, crimping, and like. The LS (left side) casing (22) is provided with mounting sleeve (22b) and the RS (right side) casing (24) is provided with mounting sleeve (24b). The LS casing (22) of the balanced housing (20) has a plurality of support lugs (22a) to secure the electronic control unit (40) inside the balanced housing (20) rigidly for accuracy of the data. The fastening of the balanced housing is preferably done with the shaft by crimping at the mounting sleeves 24b and 22a of the casings.

[0030] The plurality of sensing means comprising of accelerometer sensor for sensing vibrations, temperature sensor for sensing temperature, strain gauge, displacement sensor, angle sensor, position sensor, speed sensor coordinating individually or in combination with each other wherein the said sensing means are housed in the balanced housing rigidly in such way that they are in close proximity with the shaft and work in coordination with each other to ensure the accuracy of the data / parameters. Further, said electronic control module comprises of digital signal processor for filtering / amplifying signals received from sensors, controller for processing the data, inbuilt power supply module, output generation for user interface (selected from dashboard, independent display, cluster, cloud, storage means – inbuilt / remote, etc…), bi-directional data transmission link to transfer the data. Further, the ECU module comprising of strain gauge data and temperature data facilitates for fatigue life prediction and thereby gives output signal to user interface. Further, the user interface is selected from the group of cluster unit, display unit, audio warning, visual warning, input to other ECUs on the vehicle, remote devices.

[0031] The balanced housing of electronically monitored driveshaft is made of any material selected from steel, plastic or combination thereof fulfilling the mechanical properties required therefor for operating in different conditions. The said shaft is configured to compensate the deterioration in its health by employing specific ECU of the vehicle leading to improvement in drivability and safety of the vehicle; and also configured to indicate the shaft manufacturer for structural analysis and appropriate selection of material in the design of the shaft. The electronically monitored shaft of the present invention is capable of interfacing with the engine ECU in a close loop feedback to control the firing sequence and firing frequency of the engine.

[0032] Since the driveshaft is rotating in harsh environment of vehicle, the most preferred option is stud mount. This methods requires drilling into the shaft and is a method of permanent and reliable sensor installation. The other methods are meant for temporary attachment and useful in controlled or lab environment during product development. If connection of the sensing means to shaft is loose, the measurable frequency limit is lowered. Adhesive or magnetic methods of mounting the sensing means leads to lower down the resonant frequencies affecting the accuracy of measurement. Therefore, stud mounting method was preferred to mount the sensing means without compromising the mechanical strength of the driveshaft. This method doesn’t lead to alter the shaft structure but still offers the benefits of maximizing accuracy and leveraging larger frequency range. The design of housing for accommodating the sensing means i.e. the accelerometer PCB and crimping of this housing in the shaft leads to the effect of stud mounting.

[0033] As shown in Fig. 4, the housing of the driveshaft of the present invention accommodate the transmitter unit, sensing means and battery module for its functioning. The said housing over the driveshaft is designed in such way that the durability and strength of the driveshaft is not affected and remains intact as desired. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, adequate protection for the transmitter module is provided to prevent it from any of the damages.

[0034] The electronic control unit of the driveshaft (Transmitter PCB) is housed inside the driveshaft. Transmitter PCB is an electronics hardware that comprises of sensing means, their power supply circuit, at least a microprocessor or microcontroller and antenna as shown in Fig. 5. The sensing means of the electronic module of the driveshaft comprises of two sensors, one 3-axis accelerometer sensor and other temperature sensor. These sensors collectively provide physical parameters such as lateral & longitudinal acceleration and temperature which post processing of the data of these parameters helps to work out the NVH profile of the driveshaft.

[0035] The sensors and microprocessor/microcontroller of the electronic control unit are powered by a 3V battery. The entire circuit board is designed rugged enough so as to sustain the shock and vibration level when the vehicle is being operated in different operating conditions. The electronic module is mounted on the periphery of driveshaft, which is rotating along with engine shaft, it cannot be powered by vehicle’s main battery and hence the inbuilt battery and power management system is provided.

[0036] The physical parameters acquired by the sensors mounted on the driveshaft are transmitted in the form of a predefined data packet to the Receiver module as shown in Fig. 6. The receiver module is located and mounted appropriately inside the vehicle’s cage (body). It is powered by the battery system of the vehicle itself and acts as an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) node. This ECU is connected to ECU network of vehicle via communication protocol preferably selected from CAN link. This enables the receiver module to broadcast the health parameters of the driveshaft to all other ECUs that subsequently uses the data for their decision-making. The electronic control unit of the shaft is configured to interface with a plurality user interfaces, viz. directly make it available as display in dashboard to driver, make it available through CAN messages and broadcast the same to a cloud infrastructure using a suitable data gateway. The transmitter and receiver of the electronic control unit perform data exchange through wireless communication protocol preferably through RF Link as shown in Fig. 7.

[0037] The data is measured by the transmitter module via connected sensors at a certain interval/rate and is transmitted to receiver module via RF Link at certain interval/rate. The rate of data measurement is designed in such way that the transmitter system is powered by a battery and increasing the data rate will increase the power consumption and thus limit the life of battery. The rate of data transmission is significantly lower than data measurement rate. This is managed by accumulating the data in the physical onboard memory of transmitter module and the same is sent periodically by creating encrypted data packet. A typical data packet has unique identifier so that other ECUs in vehicle network can uniquely recognize the source of data.

[0038] A data packet has fields reserved for many such identifiers such as VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), P/N, Make and model of driveshaft, product variant, etc. A unique ID data field inside a data packet helps in data aggregation and analytics. The header is also provided as an optional feature to capture and contain additional information such as day, date, and other sensor related information. Actual data from the sensors are followed after ID fields. Each field in data packet contains specific physical parameters.

[0039] To maximize battery life of transmitter module, the data is measured, transmitted and processed only when vehicle is running. It has two modes namely data logger mode and data transmission mode. The data logger mode is for the vehicle, which does not have connectivity to internet, storing the data on the HW could be one solution. The data thus stored can be accessed offline when vehicle is at garage and failure analysis to be done. This mechanism need relatively larger local memory and is not much useful as the failure already occurred. Data transmission mode is most preferable method and new generation of vehicles are equipped with high-speed network connectivity. In addition, data is consumed as the vehicle is running; dynamic correction can be performed to improve either fuel economy or drivability by their respective ECUs.

[0040] The HW (Transmitter, Receiver and RF Link) must run only when vehicle is running and system enters into sleep mode and subsequently to off mode when vehicle is parked. This power management strategy helps in prolonging the onboard battery life. Frequently replacing the battery is annoying and time-consuming process for a component like drive shaft.

[0041] The electronic module that captures and analyzes the data is distributed in two parts, one reside at receiver module and other at transmitter module. The transmitter module is configured to perform various functions viz. data acquisition from sensors, Power Management of circuit board and transmission system, Auto calibration of sensors, Signal conditioning ex threshold, noise removal, amplification; Preprocessing of data ex moving average, Anomaly detection and classification ex in range or out of range vibrations, sudden and random glitches in vibration level; Creation of data packet with various data fields which is encrypted; Relaying the anomaly data over RF link to be received by a receiver module, etc as shwon in Fig. 8.

[0042] The receiver module is configured to perform various functions viz. receive the data packet and acknowledge the reception to transmitter module, Unpack the data packet, Reference Mathematical model of the drive shaft (good drive shaft), Free vibration (natural frequencies) patterns, Forced vibration patterns under various driving conditions, load, torque and RPM; Abnormal vibration patterns, Trend analysis with time series data, Trend analysis with frequency domain data and makes anomaly data available to other peripheral ECUs over the CAN bus as shown in Fig. 8.

[0043] Vibrations in a driveshaft mainly caused by imbalance, runout and U-joint condition are detected by a 3-axis accelerometer sensor. The force from a driveshaft imbalance or runout causes a first order vibration because it occurs once per revolution of the shaft. As U-joint rotates it accelerates and decelerates twice per revolution. Therefore conditions relating to U-joints will generate second order vibrations. Higher order vibrations can exist but only lower order vibrations are common and useful. Therefore, the objective is not to detect the strongest vibration, rather to understand the unexpected patterns. The patterns can be identified when harmonics are analyzed.

[0044] The novel and inventive features of an electronically monitored driveshaft of the present invention are placement of sensing means inside the balanced housing in a close proximity of the driveshaft in such way that it gives accurate measure of accelerations exerted on the shaft; placement of sensing means along with the battery module in the shaft without affecting the mechanical strength of shaft, optimized placement of sensing means so as to maximize the sensitivity of sensors and maximize the SNR (signal to noise ratio); and configuration of the driveshaft to derive insights such as degradation in performance, failure of system or components, misalignment, wear and thermal cycle variation etc. based on the correlation with data from the sensing means.
[0045] The health of shaft can be broadcasted as three levels of color coded labels namely Green, Yellow and Red. These levers are non-linearly distributed i.e. not of equal size. The reason for non-linearity is components such as shaft are built to last long and degradation is a slow procedure. Transition from Green (i.e. Good Condition) to yellow (i.e. Deterioration Started) is much longer than transition from Yellow to Red (i.e. at the verge of failure). The threshold numbers demarking the 3 levels are indicative and needs to be fine-tuned. Even the numerals are configurable that can be changed at controller level dynamically as calibration.

[0046] The controller is comparing the actual curve of each sensor output with signature (reference) curve and amount of deviation is correlated to 3 color coded labels. By analyzing the deviation between actual and signature curve as time series data, an additional parameter called Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of the shaft can be inferred. The controller is configured to filter local maxima and local minima so as to avoid spurious signal ingested for analysis. The signal filtering and pre-processing part of the controller is performed by the microcontroller hosted inside the drive shaft and is referred as transmitter module. The advantages derived are battery consumption is minimized and size of Flash memory and RAM, clock frequency of microprocessor can be minimized if major portion of the calculation is performed at receiver end instead of transmitter end.

[0047] The acceleration sensor’s output itself is used as a switch to identify whether vehicle is parked or running (i.e. driving). From various surveys and studies it is well known that a typical passenger vehicle is parked for ~96% of the time whereas only for 4% of the time vehicle is used/in operation/running. When acceleration measured is close to 0(actual value is calibrated and flashed in the memory), it is assumed safely that vehicle is in parked state and Electronics at Transmitter module can enter into sleep mode.

[0048] In sleep mode, no data acquisition, processing or transmission is done. This helps to prolong the life of battery. The data acquisition rate from sensor is controlled dynamically by observing the trend as well as the instantaneous data of accelerometer. When an anomaly is detected, sampling rate of data acquisition is increased to dig deeper into the underlying cause of anomaly. For normal situation coarser data acquisition is done but is made finer when an anomaly is detected. Dynamic sampling rate helps to limit the size of the data packet too.

[0049] In another embodiment of the present invention, an electronically monitored driveshaft (100a) for a vehicle comprises of a shaft (10), a plurality of sensing means, an electronic control unit (40), and a communication module. The shaft (10) has a slot (10a) carved on its outer surface as shown in Fig. 9. The electronic control unit (40) and said plurality sensing means are mounted in the slot (10a) of the shaft (10) and are in communication with each other through the communication module. A cover is provided to hold the electronic module in place by screws. This design eliminate the need of extra cover/housing and welding effort, also the assembly process is simplified but it significantly impact strength of shaft. Tear and bending will develop from the slot/notch and propagate further in due course of usage.

[0050] In other embodiment of the present invention, an electronically monitored driveshaft (100b) for a vehicle comprises of a shaft (10), a plurality of sensing means, an electronic control unit (40), and a communication module. The shaft (10) has an extruded flat surface (10b) carved on its outer surface as shown in Fig. 10. The electronic control unit (40) and said plurality sensing means are mounted on the extruded flat surface (10b) of the shaft (10) and are in communication with each other through the communication module. In this embodiment, to avoid bending of PCB and intricate slot creation etc. on the driveshaft, a flat surface of the size of electronic module is created. In this embodiment, the electronic module is exposed to the external environment.

[0051] Still in further embodiment of the present invention, An electronically monitored driveshaft (100c) for a vehicle comprises of a shaft (10), a plate (10c) fitted to the shaft (10), a plurality of sensing means, an electronic control unit (40), and a communication module. The shaft (10) has a slot (10d) carved on its outer surface at the base of the plate (10c) as shown in Fig. 11. The electronic control unit (40) mounted on said plate (10c) and said plurality sensing means mounted in the slot (10d) are in communication with each other through the communication module. In this embodiment, a housing is provided to cover a circular electronic module. The sensors are placed directly in the notch created on shaft and this sensor is wired from the electronic module. But since this embodiment requires to create a notch on the driveshaft, the strength of the driveshaft gets affected.

[0052] There is perceived value in monitoring health status of drive shaft and the benefits and technical advantages derived from the invention are as under:
- Reduced downtime as failure is predicted beforehand and maintenance alert can be raised.
- This serve as a critical input to engine management system and other vehicle ECUs
- Helps in providing realistic inputs for validating warranty claims
- Insight to driver as well as to the OEM
- Qualify shaft performance
- Verify manufacturer’s specifications
- Detect and evaluate overloads
- Aid in troubleshooting by isolating the cause of failure
- Resolve repetitive maintenance problems
- It is helpful in predicting fatigue life of the shaft in different conditions.
- The proposed design is equally beneficial for shaft manufacturer, vehicle manufacturer and driver i.e. end-user. ,CLAIMS:We Claim:

1. An electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle comprising of
- a shaft (10),
- a balanced housing (20),
- a plurality of sensing means,
- an electronic control unit (40), and
- a communication module
wherein,
- the balanced housing (20) is formed by the integration of a LS (left side) casing (22) and a RS (right side) casing (24);
- said plurality sensing means are mounted inside the balanced housing (20) in a close proximity of the shaft (10);
- the electronic control unit (40) is rigidly accommodated inside the balanced housing (20) with the help of a plurality of lugs (24a) and a plurality of screws (25);
- said plurality sensing means and the electronic control unit (40) are in continuous communication with each other through the communication module; and
- said balanced housing (20) is integrated with the shaft (10) by a fastening means.

2. The electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the LS (left side) casing (22) is provided with mounting sleeve (22b) and the RS (right side) casing (24) is provided with mounting sleeve (24b).

3. The electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle as claimed in claim 2 wherein LS casing (22) of the balanced housing (20) has a plurality of support lugs (22a) to secure the electronic control unit (40) inside the balanced housing (20) rigidly for accuracy of the data.

4. The electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle as claimed in claim 3 wherein the fastening means is selected from crimping at the mounting sleeves 24b and 22a.

5. An electronically monitored driveshaft (100a) for a vehicle comprising of
- a shaft (10),
- a plurality of sensing means,
- an electronic control unit (40), and
- a communication module
wherein,
- the shaft (10) has a slot (10a) carved on its outer surface; and
- the electronic control unit (40) and said plurality sensing means are mounted in the slot (10a) of the shaft (10) and are in communication with each other through the communication module.

6. An electronically monitored driveshaft (100b) for a vehicle comprising of
- a shaft (10),
- a plurality of sensing means,
- an electronic control unit (40), and
- a communication module
wherein,
- the shaft (10) has an extruded flat surface (10b) carved on its outer surface; and
- the electronic control unit (40) and said plurality sensing means are mounted on the extruded flat surface (10b) of the shaft (10) and are in communication with each other through the communication module.

7. An electronically monitored driveshaft (100c) for a vehicle comprising of
- a shaft (10),
- a plate (10c) fitted to the shaft (10),
- a plurality of sensing means,
- an electronic control unit (40), and
- a communication module
wherein,
- the shaft (10) has a slot (10d) carved on its outer surface at the base of the plate (10c); and
- the electronic control unit (40) mounted on said plate (10c) and said plurality sensing means mounted in the slot (10d) are in communication with each other through the communication module.

8. The electronically monitored driveshaft for a vehicle as claimed in claims 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 wherein the sensing means are selected, individually or in combination, from an accelerometer sensor for sensing vibrations, temperature sensor for sensing temperature, strain gauge sensor, displacement sensor, angle sensor, position sensor and speed sensor.

9. The electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein said electronic control unit (40) comprises of digital signal processor for filtering and amplifying signals received from the sensing means, controller for processing the data, inbuilt power supply module, output generator for user interface and bi-directional data transmission link to transfer the data.

10. The electronically monitored driveshaft (100) for a vehicle as claimed in claim 9 wherein the user interface is selected, individually or in combination, from a group of cluster unit, display unit, audio warning, visual warning, input to other ECUs on the vehicle and remote storage device.

Dated this 24th day of July 2021

(Sahastrarashmi Pund)
Head – IPR
Endurance Technologies Ltd.

To,
The Controller of Patents,
The Patent Office, at Mumbai