Japanese tyre and rubber company Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI) has developed a new tyre sensing technology that can detect road conditions, tyre load and other information by analysing the wheel speed signals that are generated by the rotation of the tyres.
The company said the new tyre testing technology, called Sensing Core, was developed through the technical know how they have gained from the development of its proprietary DWS (Deflation Warning System) technology, which analyses wheel speed signals from the rotation of tyres to detect and notify the driver of decreases in tyre air pressure. SRI’s DWS technology has been adopted by many automobile manufacturers and can now be found as a factory standard feature in countless vehicles throughout the world, the company said.
Describing Sensing Core as “the next evolution in DWS technology”, SRI said the technology is an advancement that eliminates the need for additional dedicated sensors by instead utilising cutting-edge software to detect tyre pressure directly from existing wheel speed signals, thereby reducing the cost of installation and eliminating the need for maintenance.
As the only part of a vehicle that comes into direct contact with the road, tyres must support a vehicle’s entire weight. SRI’s Sensing Core technology uses a proprietary algorithm to detect various types of information based on information about each specific tyre so that it can be shared with the driver and with the vehicle itself.
Sensing Core is able to detect not only decreases in tyre air pressure by analysing and performing statistical processing of wheel speed signals, but can also estimate road conditions (slipperiness), the load applied to each tyre and other information in real time.
The company said it is also looking forward to further advancements to this technology in the future, including the ability to estimate tyre damage and wear as well as the ability to collect and analyse data on the cloud for sharing this information with other vehicles.