A novel wireless piezoelectric tire sensor for the estimation of slip angle

This paper introduces a simple approach for the analysis of tire deformation and proposes a new piezoelectric tire sensor for physically meaningful measurements of tire deformations. Tire deformation measurements in the contact patch can be used for the estimation of slip angle, tire forces, slip ratio and tire-road friction coefficient. The specific case of a wireless tire deformation sensor for the estimation of slip angle is taken up in this paper. A sensor in which lateral sidewall deformation can be decoupled from radial deformation is designed. The slope of the lateral deflection curve in the contact patch is used to calculate slip angle. A specially constructed tire test rig is used to experimentally evaluate the performance of the developed sensor. Results show that the developed sensor can accurately estimate slip angles up to values of 5 degrees.