Patent ID: 11897479
Assignee: THE PENN STATE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A device for estimating a friction coefficient between a road surface and an automotive tire through determination of a steering moment during a steering maneuver of a slow-rolling or stationary vehicle, comprising:
a computer configured for constructing a brush model for a description of the steering moment across a contact patch between the automotive tire and road surface, the steering moment being a moment acting on a steering axis required to overcome resistance to tire twisting on the road surface at a wheel velocity and a steering rate, the steering moment depending on a tire brush vertical load distribution and relative motion of tire brushes on the tire and the road surface;
sensors for measuring the wheel velocity and the steering rate; and
mechanism for measurements or estimation of the steering moment;
the computer further adapted for estimating the friction coefficient based on the measurements or estimation of the steering moment and the brush model;
wherein the wheel velocity is not greater than a predetermined value.