Brake Pad Monitoring via Multiplexed Sensor Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle monitoring systems, particularly for brake pad wear, lack accuracy and fail to provide timely warnings, necessitating manual checks and leading to vehicle downtime and increased maintenance costs.
Innovation Solution
An electronic vehicle monitoring system with sensors, a control unit, and a multiplexer that sequences and averages sensor inputs, allowing for precise data collection and identification of trigger events such as brake pad wear, enabling anticipatory maintenance and reducing unnecessary checks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a wire is run around to each brake calliper in series to monitor brake pad wear, then a basic good/bad indication can be obtained, but the system lacks accuracy and cannot provide timely warnings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensor inputs from different brake callipers into a single communication channel using a multiplexer. This merging approach maintains monitoring accuracy for each individual brake pad while eliminating the need for separate wire routing to each calliper, thus resolving the contradiction between measurement precision and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The communication channel is designed to serve multiple functions by receiving inputs from multiple sensors through a multiplexer. This universal channel handles data from all brake callipers sequentially, providing accurate wear detection for each component without requiring dedicated wiring for each sensor, thereby achieving both precision and simplicity
2Reliability
If manual checks of individual components are performed to monitor vehicle condition, then basic maintenance can be carried out, but vehicle downtime increases and maintenance costs rise
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system performs preliminary detection of brake pad wear conditions continuously during vehicle operation. By detecting wear trends and predicting failure before it occurs, the system enables proactive maintenance scheduling that minimizes unplanned downtime and allows maintenance to be performed at convenient times rather than when failures occur
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides continuous feedback on brake pad wear status to the control centre, enabling real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance scheduling. This feedback mechanism allows fleet managers to plan maintenance activities in advance, reducing unexpected vehicle downtime and optimizing maintenance resource allocation
3Measurement precision
If continuous monitoring of multiple sensors is implemented to improve detection accuracy, then timely warnings can be provided, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The multiplexer implements periodic sampling of sensor inputs in a sequential manner, with each sensor being read at regular intervals. This periodic action allows the system to maintain accurate monitoring data from multiple sensors while using a single communication channel, avoiding the complexity of continuous simultaneous monitoring of all sensors
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a single communication channel that handles all sensor inputs sequentially rather than providing dedicated channels for each sensor. This partial action approach (using one channel for multiple purposes) achieves sufficient monitoring accuracy while dramatically reducing communication channel complexity and cost
Data Source
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AI summary
An electronic vehicle monitoring system (10) including a plurality of sensors (12), each sensor (12) being configured to monitor a component, assembly or system of a vehicle, a control unit (14) configured to receive data relating to the or each monitored component, assembly or system, and a communication channel (16) between each sensor (12) and the control unit (14), wherein the communication channel (16) is configured to receive inputs from two or more of the sensors (12) and to provide outputs relating to each of the sensor inputs to the control unit (14) via a common output, and a method of monitoring vehicle data.