Patent ID: 7956797

Claim:
A system for measuring relative distance between a first component on a vehicle and a second component on the vehicle, the system comprising: a wireless ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver attached to the first component, the wireless UWB transceiver being configured to transmit a UWB measurement pulse toward the second component, and to receive a reflected UWB pulse from a reflective surface of the second component, wherein the reflected UWB pulse represents a reflected version of the UWB measurement pulse; a processor coupled to the wireless UWB transceiver, the processor being configured to derive a relative distance between the first component and the second component, based upon characteristics of the UWB measurement pulse and the reflected UWB pulse; and a power generating system for the wireless UWB transceiver, the power generating system being configured to generate operating voltage for the wireless UWB transceiver from kinetic energy associated with motion of the first component relative to the second component.