Automatic detection and analysis of tire treads

摘要

A pressure sensor is used to automatically calculate physical parameters of a tire, for example, groove area fraction or shoulder center ratio. In one approach, a pressure sensor measures the pressure distribution produced by a tire when a known load is applied to the tire while it is resting on or traversing the pressure sensor. The resulting pressure map corresponds to tread area and features of the tread contact area.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for measuring a physical parameter for a tire tread comprising a computer system automatically performing the steps of:
measuring a pressure distribution produced by a tire on a pressure sensor, the pressure sensor having an array of individual pressure sensing elements; and processing a pressure map based on the measured pressure distribution to determine a physical parameter for the tire tread, wherein the pressure map comprises sensels, and the step of processing the pressure map comprises removing artifacts from the pressure map based on which sensels within the pressure map are above a threshold pressure.