Prospective Powering Strategy Development for Intelligent-Tire Sensor Power Charger Application

Abstract

Tire sensors embedded in a vehicle tire are stand-alone autonomous devices. A tire sensor reserve power strategy is crucial due to sensor energy sources limitations for long operational periods. This paper presents an innovative tire sensor powering strategy for the intelligent-tire system. The powering strategy offers a green concept, maintenance-free, and low-cost method in order to extend the tire sensor lifetime for long operating periods. The proposed strategy adopts wireless power transfer (WPT) technology to transfer power to an electrical load mounted on the rotational system without an interconnection cable. It is composed of a power transmitter designed to be mounted on the vehicle’s inner fender liner, and a power receiver that provides power to recharge the tire sensor battery/energy storage. The transmitter transfers power from the vehicle battery/accumulator to a power receiver coupled with the tire sensor which is mounted on the vehicle tire inner wall. WPT devices were designed based on induction electromagnetic coupling and can provide an output current up to 1A at 5 V. The proposed powering strategy was verified using a vehicle tire simulator model to emulate rotational motion. A voltage and current sensor module as well microcontroller and data logger modules were utilized as the load for the developed WPT system. The verification experimental and preliminary test results reveal that the proposed strategy can provide constant power to the load (in this case, the voltage is around 4.3 V and the current is around 21.1 mA) although the vehicle tire model was rotated at different speeds from 0 rpm to 800 rpm. The proposed system has the potential and feasibility for implementation in tire sensor power applications in the intelligent-tire system.