Wireless Sensor Network for Automobile Tire Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring of automobile tires has been an active area of research in the last few years. Tire manufacturers are looking to develop a sensor system that can monitor the health of an automobile tire. A sensor system that can measure the overall strain of a tire is known as a centralized strain sensing system. However, a centralized strain sensing system cannot find the location and severity of the damage on the tire, which is a basic requirement. Various sensors such as acceleration and optical sensors have also been proposed to be used together to get more local damage information on the tire but a tire equipped with multiple sensors is neither practical nor cost effective. We have developed a strain sensing system that performs accurate, local strain measurements on the tire and transmits them to a console inside the vehicle wirelessly. We have also developed a reliable and an energy efficient geographic routing protocol for transporting strain data wirelessly from a tire surface to the driver of the automobile.