Indirect IRI estimation through smart tyre technology

In the last decades smart tyre technology has generated growing interest towards different fields of application. The main reason lies in the opportunity to turn passive elements like tyre into active sensors. Moreover, being the tyre a crucial element for vehicle dynamics and the only vehicle part directly in contact with the road, it provides the best monitoring location of road and vehicle interaction. This paper demonstrates how smart tyres can provide information about road surface. In particular, the work investigates how a vehicle fitted with smart tyres can enhance the monitoring of road conditions through the estimation of road unevenness, which is one of the most critical aspects for vehicle ride comfort. The presented solution represents a flexible and widely usable system capable of providing an indication of the IRI index (International Roughness Index), the most worldwide used road unevenness index. The solution is based on a generic vehicle fitted with four smart tyres, each equipped with an accelerometer sensor.