Suspension system wear extent estimation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016339757-A1
Application number	US-201615160889-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 20, 2016
Priority date	May 22, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present subject matter relates to a method for estimating extent of wear of a suspension system in a vehicle using a computing device. The baseline operational parameters of the suspension system are received, and motion parameters of vehicle are detected. Actual operational parameters of the suspension system are estimated based on the detected motion parameters. An alert to indicate the extent of wear of the suspension system is generated based on determining a deviation of the actual operational parameters from the actual operational parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for estimating extent of wear of a suspension system in a vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving baseline operational parameters of suspension system over a communication channel, wherein the baseline operational parameters correspond to an unused suspension system; detecting motion parameters of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, by a computing device fixedly deployed within the vehicle; estimating actual operational parameters for the suspension system, based on the detected motion parameters; monitoring periodically to determine whether the actual operational parameters deviate from the baseline operational parameters of the suspension system; and on determining the actual operational parameters deviating from the baseline operational parameters beyond a predefined threshold, generating an alert to indicate the extent of wear of the suspension system.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the motion parameters of the vehicle are determined using at least one sensor of the computing device.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the motion parameters of the vehicle is one of roll, pitch, heavy motion, accelerations, and braking pitch.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the actual operation parameters of the vehicle is one of Eigen-frequencies, temperature, yaw, and pitch movement.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , the method comprising determining the extent of wear of the suspension system based on the actual operational parameters data.

6 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the generated alert is directed to a third party service provider relating to the vehicle.

7 . The method as claimed in claims 1 , the method further comprising, on determining the rate of actual operational parameters to vary at a rate greater than a predefined value, generating another alert to the user.

8 . A computing system for estimating extent of wear of a suspension system in a vehicle, the computing system comprising:
a processor; a detection module coupled to the processor, to receive baseline operational parameters of the suspension system over a communication channel, wherein the baseline operational parameters correspond to an unused suspension system; sensors coupled to the processor, to detect motion parameters of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion; a wear estimation module coupled to the processor, to estimate actual operational parameters for the suspension system, based on the detected motion parameters; a monitoring agent coupled to the processor, to periodically monitor whether the actual operational parameters deviate from the baseline operational parameters of the suspension system; and an alert generating module coupled to the processor, to generate an alert to indicate the extent of wear of the suspension system, on determining the actual operational parameters deviating from the baseline operational parameters beyond a predefined threshold.

9 . The computing system as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the received baseline operational parameters of the suspension system, the detected motion parameters of the vehicle and the estimated actual operational parameters for the suspension system are communicated to an external storage repository.

10 . The computing system as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the wear estimation module is to determine the extent of wear of the suspension system based on the actual operational parameters data.

11 . The computing system as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the wear estimation module, on determining the rate of actual operational parameters to vary at a rate greater than a predefined value, is to generate another alert to the user.

12 . The computing system as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the computing system is a handheld computing device.

13 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by a processing resource of a computing device to:
receive baseline operational parameters of suspension system over a communication channel, wherein the baseline operational parameters correspond to an unused suspension system; detect motion parameters of the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, by the computing device fixedly deployed within the vehicle; estimate actual operational parameters for the suspension system, based on the determined motion parameters; monitor periodically to determine whether the actual operational parameters deviate from the baseline operational parameters of the suspension system; and on determining the actual operational parameters deviating from the baseline operational parameters beyond a predefined threshold, generate an alert to indicate the extent of wear of the suspension system.

14 . The storage medium as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising instructions to generate another alert to the user on determining the rate of actual operational parameters to vary at a rate greater than a predefined value.

15 . The storage medium as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the motion parameters of the vehicle is one of roll, pitch, heavy motion, accelerations, and braking pitch.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Gussen Uwe
• Arndt Christoph
• Stefan Frederic

Classifications

• B60G17/0185 Primary

  for failure detection · CPC title

• B60G2800/80

  Detection or control after a system or component failure · CPC title

• G07C5/0816

  Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction · CPC title

• B60G2800/802

  Diagnostics · CPC title