System for monitoring the inflation pressure of a vehicle

Claim 1

A system for monitoring pressure of a vehicle tire, comprising: a device for detecting at least a vertical acceleration value related to the tire and a vehicle longitudinal speed value; an analyzing device comprising an estimating unit trainable via predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values, said estimating unit, in a trained condition, determining a tire inflation pressure at least as a function of the measured vertical acceleration value and the vehicle longitudinal speed value input therein either directly or after preprocessing; wherein the system comprises at least one of the following components: i) a device for generating road condition information as a function of the measured vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed values, by which an activation and deactivation of said estimating unit is controlled as a function of whether a momentary measured vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed values are in each case inside or outside of pertaining predeterminable value ranges; ii) a signal post-processing stage connected behind said estimating unit for suppressing estimated values obtained by said estimating unit which are outside a predeterminable trained value range; iii) a preprocessing unit comprising an analog-digital converter unit and a post-connected system condition determination unit, said condition determination unit computing one or more time derivatives of the measured vertical acceleration value and feeding said derivatives, in addition to the measured vertical acceleration value, to said estimating unit as input quantities; iv) a preprocessing unit comprising an analog-digital converter unit and a post-connected FFT unit having a pertaining selection unit, wherein information selected by said pertaining selection unit is fed as input quantities to said estimating unit; v) a data memory usable in a recording phase for recording said training example data instead of said estimating unit, said recorded training example data being stored in the recording phase, and an evaluating and optimizing stage which, in a training phase, is connected behind said estimating unit, wherein in said training phase the estimating unit is connected to the data memory and is trained via the training example data stored therein with a feedback from said evaluating and optimizing stage.

Claim 2

A system for monitoring pressure of a vehicle tire, comprising: a device for detecting at least a vertical acceleration value related to the tire and a vehicle longitudinal speed value; an analyzing device comprising an estimating unit trainable via predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values, said estimating unit, in a trained condition, determining a tire inflation pressure at least as a function of the measured vertical acceleration value and the vehicle longitudinal speed value input therein either directly or after preprocessing; wherein the system comprises at least one of the following components: i) a device for generating road condition information as a function of the measured vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed values, by which an activation and deactivation of said estimating unit is controlled as a function of whether a momentary measured vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed values are in each case inside or outside of pertaining predeterminable value ranges; ii) a signal post-processing stage connected behind said estimating unit for suppressing estimated values obtained by said estimating unit which are outside a predeterminable trained value range; iii) a preprocessing unit comprising an analog-digital converter unit and a post-connected system condition determination unit, said condition determination unit computing one or more time derivatives of the measured vertical acceleration value and feeding said derivatives, in addition to the measured vertical acceleration value, to said estimating unit as input quantities; iv) a preprocessing unit comprising an analog-digital converter unit and a post-connected FFT unit having a pertaining selection unit, wherein information selected by said pertaining selection unit is fed as input quantities to said estimating unit; v) a data memory usable in a recording phase for recording said training example data instead of said estimating unit, said recorded training example data being stored in the recording phase, and an evaluating and optimizing stage which, in a training phase, is connected behind said estimating unit, wherein in said training phase the estimating unit is connected to the data memory and is trained via the training example data stored therein with a feedback from said evaluating and optimizing stage.

Claim 10

A system for monitoring inflation pressure of a vehicle tire, comprising: a vertical acceleration sensor and a vehicle longitudinal speed sensor operable to determine vertical acceleration data related to the vehicle tire; an analyzing unit comprising a trainable estimating unit in the form of a neuronal network, said estimating unit being trained via predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values, wherein, in a trained condition, said estimating unit determines the inflation pressure of the vehicle tire at least as a function of the sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data, said vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed data being fed one of directly and in a preprocessed form to said estimating unit.

Claim 11

A system for monitoring inflation pressure of a vehicle tire, comprising: a vertical acceleration sensor and a vehicle longitudinal speed sensor operable to determine vertical acceleration data related to the vehicle tire; an analyzing unit comprising a trainable estimating unit in the form of a neuronal network, said estimating unit being trained via predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values, wherein, in a trained condition, said estimating unit determines the inflation pressure of the vehicle tire at least as a function of the sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data, said vertical acceleration and vehicle longitudinal speed data being fed one of directly and in a preprocessed form to said estimating unit.

Claim 12

A method for monitoring tire pressure of a vehicle tire, the method comprising the acts of: sensing vertical acceleration data related to the vehicle tire; sensing vehicle longitudinal speed data of the vehicle; initially training an analyzing device containing a trainable estimating unit, said initial training being performed with predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values; feeding the sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data to said analyzing device; and in the trained condition, determining the tire pressure in the analyzing device at least as a function of said sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data.

Claim 13

A method for monitoring tire pressure of a vehicle tire, the method comprising the acts of: sensing vertical acceleration data related to the vehicle tire; sensing vehicle longitudinal speed data of the vehicle; initially training an analyzing device containing a trainable estimating unit, said initial training being performed with predeterminable training example data having different tire inflation pressure values and vehicle longitudinal speed values; feeding the sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data to said analyzing device; and in the trained condition, determining the tire pressure in the analyzing device at least as a function of said sensed vertical acceleration data and vehicle longitudinal speed data.