Denso Corporation

Hideyuki Ikemoto

Takatoshi Sekizawa

Masashi Mori

Nobuya Watabe

Yoichiro Suzuki

A hydroplaning determination device that determines occurrence of a hydroplaning phenomenon in a vehicle includes a tire mount sensor including a vibration detection unit, a signal process unit and a transmission unit, and a vehicle body system including a receiver, a condition determination unit and a hydroplaning determination unit. The vibration detection unit is attached to a rear surface of a tire provided in a vehicle and outputs a detection signal according to a magnitude of vibration of the tire. The signal process unit generates a vibration data based on the detection signal. The hydroplaning determination unit determines, based on the vibration data, whether a hydroplaning phenomenon has occurred when the condition determination unit determines that a road surface condition is a wet condition in which a water film exists between the tire and a road surface.

Hydroplaning determination device

A tire mount sensor detects a road surface condition such as a type of a road surface and a road surface &#x3bc;, and transmits road surface data indicating a detection result to a communication center. The communication center collects road surface data more precisely, and the vehicle receives the more precise road surface data from the communication center. Based on received more precise road surface data, the risk of the vehicle is determined. Thus, the road surface condition is detected using the tire mount sensor, so that the road surface condition is detected without braking. Accordingly, it is possible to detect the road surface condition with high frequency, so that the road surface condition is detected in wider area, and it is possible to perform the control more appropriately for avoiding the risk based on the road surface condition during a travel.

Vehicle risk avoidance device

A protruding portion is provided on a molded resin portion of a tire mount sensor, and the longitudinal direction of the protruding portion is aligned with the longitudinal direction of an antenna. Further, the longitudinal direction of the antenna is set at a predetermined angle with respect to the acceleration detection direction of the G sensor. For example, with a predetermined angle of 0&#xb0;, the longitudinal direction of the antenna may be matched with the acceleration detection direction of the G sensor.

Growing community of inventors

Kariya, Japan

Hideyuki Ikemoto