The original application for the term ‘smart’ tyre was aimed at tyres with imbedded
chips that can report real time pressure and temperature data, along with an identity
code for each individual tyre, as well as the potential to store a history of this type of
data for periodic retrieval. Goodyear has developed an experimental version of an aircraft
tyre with these capabilities for the Joint Strike Fighter [80], though the most immediate
market for this technology is in the trucking industry in which each rig typically rides on
18 tyres and for which the cost of tyres is a significant portion of overall operating costs.
Most recently, however, the technology behind the term ‘smart’ tyre has been expanded
to include automobile, truck or motorcycle tyres that provide information directly to the
vehicle’s on-board microprocessors, becoming an integral part of the vehicle’s control
systems. Continental has developed the Side Wall Torsion (SWT) sensor system that
utilises a tyre sidewall impregnated with magnetised powder. The sidewall of this
‘intelligent’ tyre incorporates magnetic markers, such as radial stripes of alternating
magnetic poles, that are detected by a pair of sensors mounted on the wheel’s suspension
system. A similar system has also been developed by Freudenberg [81]. The signals from
the pair of sensors, which monitor the upper and lower sidewall respectively, provide
information (such as time difference between the signals) that can be analysed to determine how the tyre is reacting at any given moment. This information about the tyre’s movements and deformations can be fed directly to on-board systems such as abs and electronic stability programmes (ESP). An essential part of this technology is the development of the algorithms for analysing these complex signals.
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