Method of determining the inflation pressure of a tire on a moving vehicle

Claim 1

A method of determining the inflation pressure of one or more pneumatic tires on a moving vehicle having a plurality of n wheels fitted with tires comprising the steps of: performing a set-up procedure including, for a range of tire inflation pressures including all the vehicles tires at their scheduled inflation pressure and combinations of one or more tires at a range of pressures below their scheduled pressure and for a range of vehicle speeds and driving conditions to include accelerating, braking, straight-ahead driving and cornering, the steps of: deriving for each of the wheels a set-up speed value Cn proportional to the wheel angular velocity, determining the relationship of the set of set-up speed values Cn to the set of tire pressures by means of teaching a trainable neural network information processing system having an input layer of neurodes and an output layer of neurodes to map the set-up speed values onto the set of tire pressures by deriving from each set of set-up speed values intermediary speed parameters each derived from at least two of the set of set-up speed values and inputting each intermediary speed parameter to a different neurode of the input layer of neurodes and taking the inflation pressure of each of the tires from a different neurode of the output layer of neurodes and storing in a data storage means the determined relationship of the set of set-up speed values to each of related tire pressures, and subsequently in normal driving monitoring, in subsequent normal driving, at intervals of time, the wheel speed signals of the wheels on the vehicle, deriving an equivalent set of normal driving speed values based on these monitored wheel speed signals, and obtaining the associated tire inflation pressures by using the determined relationship stored in the data storage means.

Claim 2

A method of determining the inflation pressure of one or more pneumatic tires on a moving vehicle having a plurality of n wheels fitted with tires comprising the steps of: performing a set-up procedure including, for a range of tire inflation pressures including all the vehicles tires at their scheduled inflation pressure and combinations of one or more tires at a range of pressures below their scheduled pressure and for a range of vehicle speeds and driving conditions to include accelerating, braking, straight-ahead driving and cornering, the steps of: deriving for each of the wheels a set-up speed value Cn proportional to the wheel angular velocity, determining the relationship of the set of set-up speed values Cn to the set of tire pressures by means of teaching a trainable neural network information processing system having an input layer of neurodes and an output layer of neurodes to map the set-up speed values onto the set of tire pressures by deriving from each set of set-up speed values intermediary speed parameters each derived from at least two of the set of set-up speed values and inputting each intermediary speed parameter to a different neurode of the input layer of neurodes and taking the inflation pressure of each of the tires from a different neurode of the output layer of neurodes and storing in a data storage means the determined relationship of the set of set-up speed values to each of related tire pressures, and subsequently in normal driving monitoring, in subsequent normal driving, at intervals of time, the wheel speed signals of the wheels on the vehicle, deriving an equivalent set of normal driving speed values based on these monitored wheel speed signals, and obtaining the associated tire inflation pressures by using the determined relationship stored in the data storage means.