JP2007245982A - Tire position distinguishing method, tire position distinguishing system, its radio transmitting unit, and radio receiving unit - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable implementation with a simple structure, and to distinguish/register a tire position without trouble. <P>SOLUTION: A transmitting unit 10 provided on each tire is equipped with an inclination sensor 12. When each tire is attached to a vehicle, the transmitting unit 10 (the inclination sensor 12) is disposed at a position (an inclining angle) corresponding to a tire attaching position (either one of FR, FL, RR, RL). The corresponding relationship between the attaching position and the inclining angle is decided in advance, and stored in a memory in the transmitting unit 10 or a memory in a receiving unit 20 in advance. Therefore, on the basis of the inclining angle detected by the inclination sensor 12 and the corresponding relationship between the attaching position and the inclining angle, it is distinguished that the attaching position of each tire is either one of FR, LF, RR, or RL. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system / method for determining a tire mounting position in an automobile.

In recent years, TPMS (direct tire pressure monitoring system) has attracted attention as a tire pressure warning device rather than existing DDS (indirect tire pressure monitoring system).
Whereas DDS is a system that monitors tire pressure with the wheel speed sensor used in the ABS system, TPMS is equipped with a sensor unit in the valve part of each of the four tires, and all four wheels are individually This is a monitoring system. This makes it possible to perform highly accurate monitoring, and also has the advantage that the tire pressure can be monitored even when parked or stopped.

  The sensor unit includes a sensor that measures air pressure, a transmitter that wirelessly transmits measurement data from the sensor, and the like. On the vehicle body side, a wireless receiver that receives transmission data from the transmitter, a control device that analyzes and displays the measurement data by the sensor received by the wireless receiver, and the like are provided.

  Each of the transmitters is prestored with a unique ID, and each transmitter also transmits its own ID when transmitting the measurement data. Thus, on the vehicle body side, it is possible to identify which transmitter (which tire) the received measurement data is. And if it is possible to determine where the tire of the transmitter of the transmission source is currently mounted on the front, rear, left and right of the vehicle, for example, the tire where the air pressure is abnormal is It can be determined and displayed. However, for this purpose, a registration operation for registering the IDs in association with the mounting positions of the tires is necessary.

  Conventionally, since the operation of associating and inputting each ID and the mounting position of the tire has been performed manually, it has been troublesome. Furthermore, this registration work must be performed not only when a new tire is attached to the vehicle but also during the so-called “tire low tension”, which is very troublesome (see above, patents). Reference 1).

For example, a technique described in Patent Document 2 has been proposed for such a problem.
In the invention described in Patent Document 2, first, a transmitter provided in each tire includes a rotation direction sensor that generates a specific pattern signal as the tire rotates. The pattern signal generated by the rotation direction sensor of the transmitter in the left tire is different from the pattern signal generated by the rotation direction sensor of the transmitter in the right tire. The receiving antenna is provided on each of the front side and the rear side of the vehicle body (two antennas are provided). The front receiving antenna is provided to correspond to the left and right front tires. The rear receiving antenna is provided to correspond to the left and right rear tires. The receiver includes a switching circuit that alternatively connects both receiving antennas to the controller. When one of the transmitters transmits a radio wave, the controller transmits the transmission based on the level of the signal input from each of the receiving antennas and the data indicating the pattern signal included in the transmission data from the transmitter. Identify the machine.

In addition, conventionally, there is a method in which each tire is attached in advance to which attachment position, the tire attachment position information is stored in the transmitter, and the transmitter transmits the position information to the receiver after the attachment. However, of course, this method does not support tire rotation (if it is to be used, it must be re-stored), and if the tire mounting position is wrong, remove this tire once. It must be installed in the correct position, which is very time consuming.
JP 2004-314726 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-240521

In the invention described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to set the tire position by manual input one by one, which is very troublesome.
In the invention of Patent Document 2 that solves this problem, the rotation direction sensor is used to determine whether the tire is the left tire or the right tire, and thus the vehicle must be driven to determine the tire position. . Furthermore, in order to discriminate between the front tire and the rear tire, it is essential to provide a total of two receiving antennas before and after the vehicle (to discriminate based on the received radio wave intensity).

  An object of the present invention is to provide a tire position determination system / method and the like that can be realized with a simple configuration and can perform tire position determination / registration without taking time and effort.

  The tire position determination method of the present invention is a tire position determination method in a system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side, provided with an inclination sensor for each tire, When the tire is attached to the vehicle main body so that the inclination sensor has a predetermined inclination angle according to the attachment position of the tire, and the tire position registration mode is entered, each of the wireless transmission units is connected to the inclination sensor. Is transmitted wirelessly to the wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side, and the wireless reception unit receives the received inclination angle data and each preinstalled attachment position. Based on the correspondence relationship with the inclination angle, the mounting position of each wireless transmission unit is determined.

  Alternatively, the tire position determination method of the present invention is a tire position determination method in a system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side, and an inclination sensor is provided for each tire. When each tire is attached to the vehicle body so that the inclination sensor has a predetermined inclination angle according to the attachment position of the tire, and the tire position registration mode is entered, each wireless transmission unit is Based on the inclination angle data detected by the inclination sensor and the correspondence relationship between each attachment position and the inclination angle registered in advance, the self attachment position is determined.

  The mounting position of the tire is, for example, one of the right front, right rear, left front, and left rear of the vehicle body. Then, an inclination angle corresponding to each mounting position is determined in advance and registered in the system. Factory workers, car owners, etc., in tire replacement work or tire rotation work, the position of the inclination sensor of each tire (ie, the detected inclination angle) depends on the mounting position of the tire according to the above correspondence. Install the tires so that After that, when shifting to the tire position registration mode, the mounting position of each tire is automatically determined based on the inclination angle detected by the inclination sensor and the registered correspondence relationship.

  In the tire position determination method, for example, each of the wireless transmission units wirelessly transmits an ID of the unit together with the inclination angle data to the wireless reception unit, and the wireless reception unit uses the determined attachment position as the Store in association with the ID.

For example, the system is a direct tire pressure monitoring system.
After the tire position is determined, the air pressure of each tire is monitored, and if abnormal air pressure is detected, the wireless transmission unit of the data transmission source is identified by the ID, and the tire provided with this wireless transmission unit is attached. The position can be recognized based on the determination result.

  The present invention is not limited to the tire position determination method, but can be configured as a tire position determination system, a wireless transmission unit thereof, and a wireless reception unit itself.

  According to the tire position discriminating system / method of the present invention, a factory worker, a car owner, etc. can easily perform tire position discriminating / Registration will be possible. In addition, this system can be easily realized by making some changes to the existing TPMS.

  Moreover, in the invention of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, two reception antennas are necessarily required. However, in the tire position determination system of the present invention, one reception antenna may be used. Furthermore, in the invention of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, the tire position cannot be determined unless the vehicle is actually run. However, in the present invention, such extra work is not necessary.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
Fig.1 (a) is a block diagram of the transmission unit 10 in the tire position discrimination system of this example.

FIG.1 (b) is a block diagram of the receiving unit 20 in the tire position discrimination system of this example.
The tire position discrimination system of this example is based on the TPMS (direct tire pressure monitoring system). Therefore, the transmission unit 10 is provided for each tire, and the reception unit 20 is provided on the vehicle body side. The difference between the transmission unit and the reception unit in the conventional TPMS is that a tilt sensor is provided in each transmission unit, as will be described later. By using the tilt angle data detected thereby, the tire position can be easily determined. It can be discriminated. In other words, the tire position determination system of this example can be realized by using a conventional TPMS configuration, providing a tilt sensor, and adding and storing predetermined applications and data. In this sense, it can be said that this method is a tire position determination method in a direct tire pressure monitoring system.

  A transmission unit 10 shown in FIG. 1A includes a processor 11 (including a memory), a tilt sensor 12, an air pressure sensor 13, an electromagnetic induction reception circuit 14, a wireless transmission circuit 15, and a wireless transmission antenna 16. Of these, the air pressure sensor 13, the wireless transmission circuit 15, and the wireless transmission antenna 16 are substantially the same as those in the related art, and are not specifically described.

  The electromagnetic induction receiving circuit 14 is, for example, an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) receiving device. In recent years, RFID is used for a keyless entry system in an automobile. In this example, this can be used to instruct the transmission unit 10 to shift to the tire position registration mode by operating a remote controller owned by the user / worker or the like.

  Also, the processor 11 itself has a configuration that has conventionally existed, but the processing contents are different. The processor of this example executes various processes described later using the measurement result obtained by the inclination sensor 12. This process is realized by executing an application program stored in the built-in memory. Of course, data necessary for processing is stored in the memory.

The inclination sensor 12 detects the attachment position (angle) of the transmission unit 10 in the vehicle using a motion sensor, and outputs the detection result to the processor 11.
The reception unit 20 shown in FIG. 1B includes a processor 21 (including a memory), a display device 22 (including a buzzer), a wireless reception circuit 23, a wireless reception antenna 24, a power supply circuit 25, and the like.

  The transmission unit 10 is attached to a wheel or the like of each tire as in the conventional case. Therefore, the position of the tire (hereinafter referred to as an angular position) changes as the tire rotates, and the angular position of the transmission unit 10 can be determined from the angular data detected by the inclination sensor 12.

  For example, in the example shown in FIG. 2A, when the transmission unit 10 is at the illustrated angular position A, the inclination sensor 12 detects an inclination angle of 90 °. Similarly, when the transmission unit 10 is at the illustrated angular position B, the inclination angle is 180 °, when the transmission unit 10 is at the angular position C, the inclination angle is 270 °, and when the transmission unit 10 is at the angular position D, the inclination angle is 0 °. It is detected by the tilt sensor 12.

  In this method, the position where the tire is attached to the vehicle (any of FR, RR, FL, and RL, which will be described later) and each inclination angle (angular position) are registered in advance in association with each other. The association method is arbitrary, but here, as an example, it is assumed that the association is performed as shown in FIGS. That is, when the tire is attached to the right front of the vehicle body (indicated as FR in the figure), an inclination angle of 0 ° is associated. Similarly, an inclination angle of 90 ° is associated with the right rear (RR), an inclination angle of 180 ° with respect to the left front (FL), and an inclination angle of 270 ° with respect to the left rear (RL). To do. These correspondence relationships are stored in advance in the internal memory of either the processor 11 or the processor 21.

  Note that the memory is not limited to being incorporated in the processor 11 and the processor 21, and may be provided outside the processor 11 and outside the processor 21. Regardless of the form, the memory stores the following position-angle registration table 30, an application program for realizing this method, and the like.

  FIG. 3A shows an example of the stored contents of the correspondence relationship (position-angle registration table 30). In the position-angle registration table 30, each tire attachment position 31 and an angle range 32 corresponding thereto are registered. The angle range 32 is obtained by giving a certain margin to each of the above inclination angles, and is registered here with a margin of ± 30 ° around each of the above inclination angles. Therefore, for example, when the tire attachment position 31 is the RR (inclination angle = 90 °), the angle range 32 is an inclination angle of 60 ° to an inclination angle of 120 ° (90 ° ± 30 °). Yes.

There are a form in which the position-angle registration table 30 is stored in the transmission unit 10 and a form in which the position-angle registration table 30 is stored in the reception unit 20. Details will be described later.
For example, when changing tires or rotating tires, an operator or a car owner, for example, attaches a tire to the left rear (RR) of the car, and the transmission unit 10 has an inclination angle of 60 ° to 60 °. Attach so that the inclination angle is within a range of 120 °. Similarly, when attaching other tires, the tires are attached so that each has an angular range shown in FIG. Here, as a mounting procedure, it is of course possible to attach the tire to the hub before adjusting the angular position of the tire and rotate the tire to adjust the angular position after mounting.

  For example, it is desirable to describe a diagram as shown in FIG. Thus, for example, a worker or a car owner can easily know how to install each tire by referring to the manual. Also, as described in the prior art, the transmission unit 10 is mounted in the vicinity of the valve portion of the tire, so that the position of the transmission unit 10 can be seen by looking at the valve, but some mark is attached to the wheel / tire, etc. It is desirable to keep it.

  As described above, when each tire is attached to the vehicle so as to be in the state shown in FIG. 2 (b) at the time of tire replacement or tire rotation, the tire position determination process is executed as it is. The trigger for starting the processing may be, for example, instructing the processing to start by operating the remote controller, or when the tire is installed in a state where there is not much air, the air pressure changes by inserting air into the tire. Therefore, the process may be triggered by the air pressure sensor 13 detecting this air pressure change.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the tire position determination process according to the first embodiment.
In the first embodiment, the tire position determination process is executed on each transmission unit 10 side. In this case, naturally, the application program and the position-angle registration table 30 for executing this process are included in the processor 11. Stored in the internal memory. On the other hand, in a second embodiment to be described later, the tire position determination process is executed on the receiving unit 20 side. In this case, an application program and a position-angle registration table 30 for executing this process are stored in the processor 21. Stored in the memory.

  In the process of FIG. 4, first, the processor 11 samples the tilt angle data detected by the tilt sensor 12 (step S11), and when the trigger is generated (step S12, YES), the tilt angle data at this time Is used to refer to the position-angle registration table 30 to determine which of FR, FL, RR, and RL the mounting position of the tire on which the own unit 10 is provided (step S13). The determination result (self tire position information) is recorded (step S14), and the self tire position information is wirelessly transmitted to the receiving unit 20 side (step S15). FIG. 5A shows a configuration example of this transmission frame.

  The transmission frame 50 shown in FIG. 5A includes data items of a header 51, a type 52, an ID 53, a pressure 54, a temperature 55, and tire position information 56. The type 52 is a type of trigger occurrence. In this case, data indicating that the tire position determination process has occurred is stored. ID 53 is the identification code of the transmission unit 10 described above, and transmits its own identification code to the reception unit 20 side. The pressure 54 is air pressure data detected by the air pressure sensor 13, but is not particularly relevant in this processing. Moreover, although temperature etc. may be detected, this is not related to this processing. The tire position information 56 is the determination result (self tire position information).

  On the receiving unit 20 side, the position-ID correspondence table 40 shown in FIG. 3B is stored, and the tire position information 56 is stored in the tire position 42 of the record whose ID 41 matches the ID 53 of the received transmission frame 50. (Or if there is no matching record, ID 53 and tire position information 56 are stored in a new record). When all the transmission units 10 perform the tire position determination process and register the determination result in the position-ID correspondence table 40, the tire position registration process is completed. Thereafter, an operation as a general TPMS (direct tire pressure monitoring system) is performed, and if an abnormal air pressure occurs in any tire, refer to the position-ID correspondence table 40 using the ID. The position of the tire in which the air pressure abnormality has occurred is recognized, and this is displayed on the display device 22. For example, when the ID is ID1, for example, a message such as “the air pressure of the right front tire is abnormal” is displayed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the tire position determination process according to the second embodiment. FIG. 6A is a process of the transmission unit 10, and FIG. 6B is a process of the reception unit 20.
First, in the processing of the transmission unit 10 shown in FIG. 6A, the illustrated steps S21 and S22 are the same as the above steps S11 and S12. If a trigger occurs (step S22, YES), the transmission frame 60 shown in FIG. 5B is wirelessly transmitted to the reception unit 20. The transmission frame 60 shown in FIG. 5B is different from the transmission frame 50 shown in FIG. 5A in that an inclination value 66 is stored instead of the tire position information 56. Of course, the tilt value 66 is tilt angle data detected by the tilt sensor 12.

On the other hand, the processing of the receiving unit 20 shown in FIG. 6B is executed every time there is any wireless data transmission from the outside.
When receiving the arbitrary transmission data (step S31), the receiving unit 20 first refers to the ID 63 of the received transmission frame 60 and determines whether this is an ID used in the present system (step S32). ). This is because there is a possibility of transmission data from other than the transmission unit 10. Therefore, if it is not the ID of this system (step S32, NO), this processing is not executed (return to step S31).

  On the other hand, when the transmission data transmitted by any of the transmission units 10 is received (step S32, YES), the type 62 of the received transmission frame 60 is referred to, and this is the “tire position determination process occurs”. If it is not “data indicating that it has been done” (step S33, NO), another process corresponding to this type is executed (step S36). When the type 62 is the “data indicating that the tire position determination process has occurred” (step S33, YES), the same process as the step S13 (tire attachment position determination process) is executed (step S34). Then, the determination result is stored in the position-ID correspondence table 40 in association with the ID 63 of the transmission frame 60 (step S35). The effect of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment.

  The other processing in step S36 is, for example, normal tire pressure monitoring processing in TPMS. In this case, the configuration of the transmission frame is changed from that shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) to the tire. The position information 56 and the inclination value 66 are excluded (it is not necessary to add an inclination value or the like to the transmission frame each time).

  As described above, according to the tire position determination system of the present invention, a factory worker, a car owner, etc. can be positioned as shown in FIG. 2B in normal tire replacement work or tire rotation work. The tire position can be easily discriminated and registered with a little time and effort. In addition, as described above, the tire position determination system of the present invention can be applied to the existing TPMS only by adding a slight change (adding an application program, data, etc. for providing the above-mentioned processing by providing a tilt sensor in each transmission unit) This is easy to achieve.

  Further, in the invention of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, two reception antennas are always required. However, in the tire position determination system of the present invention, only one reception antenna is required (of course, a configuration in which two or four reception antennas are provided). As well). Furthermore, in the invention of the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, the tire position cannot be determined unless the vehicle is actually run. However, in the present invention, such extra work is not necessary.

  Also, when the setting of the tire mounting position is wrong (when it is not performed as shown in FIG. 2B), it is possible to recover easily because the resetting operation is performed.

(A), (b) is a block diagram of the transmission unit and the receiving unit in a tire pressure monitoring system. (A), (b) is a figure which shows an example of the correspondence of each tire attachment position and the inclination angle detected by an inclination sensor. (A) is an example of a registration table of a correspondence relationship between each tire attachment position and an inclination angle, and a storage table of a correspondence relationship between each tire attachment position and each transmission unit ID. It is a flowchart figure of the tire position discrimination | determination process by 1st Example. (A), (b) is a configuration example of a transmission frame, (a) corresponds to the first embodiment, and (b) corresponds to the second embodiment. It is a flowchart figure of the tire position discrimination | determination process by 2nd Example, (a) is a transmission unit side process, (b) is a reception unit side process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Transmission unit 11 Processor 12 Inclination sensor 13 Air pressure sensor 14 Electromagnetic induction receiving circuit 15 Radio transmission circuit 16 Radio transmission antenna 20 Reception unit 21 Processor 22 Display device 23 Radio reception circuit 24 Radio reception antenna 25 Power supply circuit 30 Position-angle registration table 31 Tire mounting position 32 Angle range 40 Position-ID correspondence table 41 ID
42 Tire position 50 Transmission frame 51 Header 52 Type 53 ID
54 Pressure 55 Temperature 56 Tire position information 60 Transmission frame 61 Header 62 Type 63 ID
64 Pressure 65 Temperature 66 Inclination value

Claims (9)

A tire position determination method in a system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
A tilt sensor is provided for each tire,
Each tire is attached to the vehicle body so that the inclination sensor has a predetermined inclination angle according to the attachment position of the tire,
When shifting to the tire position registration mode, each wireless transmission unit wirelessly transmits the inclination angle data detected by the inclination sensor to the wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
The wireless reception unit determines a mounting position of each wireless transmission unit based on the received inclination angle data and a correspondence relationship between each mounting position and inclination angle registered in advance. How to determine. Each wireless transmission unit wirelessly transmits its own unit ID together with the tilt angle data to the wireless reception unit,
The tire determination method according to claim 1, wherein the wireless reception unit stores the determined attachment position in association with the ID. A tire position determination method in a system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
A tilt sensor is provided for each tire,
Each tire is attached to the vehicle body so that the inclination sensor has a predetermined inclination angle according to the attachment position of the tire,
When shifting to the tire position registration mode, each wireless transmission unit, based on the inclination angle data detected by the inclination sensor, and the corresponding relationship between each attachment position and inclination angle registered in advance, A tire position discriminating method characterized by discriminating the tire.   The tire position determination method according to claim 1, wherein the system is a direct tire pressure monitoring system. In a tire position determination system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
When each of the wireless transmission units shifts to the tire position registration mode, the wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side receives the inclination angle data detected by the inclination sensor attached to the tire provided with the unit. Inclination angle detection / notification means for wireless transmission to the unit,
The wireless receiving unit is based on the storage means in which the correspondence between each mounting position and the inclination angle is stored in advance, the received inclination angle data, and the correspondence stored in the storage means. A tire position determination system comprising: an attachment position determination means for determining an attachment position of the wireless transmission unit. In a tire position determination system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
Each wireless transmission unit includes a storage means in which a correspondence relationship between each attachment position and an inclination angle is stored in advance, and an inclination sensor attached to the tire in which the unit is provided when the tire position registration mode is entered. Tire position, comprising: a discriminating means for discriminating a mounting position of a tire provided with the own unit based on the inclination angle data detected by the storage means and the correspondence relation stored in the storage means. Discriminating system.   The tire position determination system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein there is one reception antenna provided on the vehicle main body side to receive a radio signal transmitted from each of the radio transmission units. In the wireless reception unit in the tire position determination system having a wireless transmission unit provided in each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
Storage means in which the correspondence between each mounting position and the inclination angle is stored in advance;
When the tilt angle data detected by the tilt sensor attached to the tire is transmitted from the wireless transmission unit, based on the received tilt angle data and the correspondence stored in the storage means, An attachment position discriminating means for discriminating the attachment position of the transmission source wireless transmission unit;
A wireless receiving unit comprising: In the wireless transmission unit in the tire position determination system having a wireless transmission unit provided on each tire and a wireless reception unit provided on the vehicle body side,
Storage means in which the correspondence between each mounting position and the inclination angle is stored in advance;
When shifting to the tire position registration mode, the own unit is determined based on the inclination angle data detected by the inclination sensor attached to the tire provided with the own unit and the correspondence stored in the storage means. A discriminating means for discriminating the mounting position of the provided tire;
A wireless transmission unit comprising:

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