Patent ID: 8661885

Claim:
A method of estimating a load on a vehicle tire, comprising: (A) attaching at least one deformation measuring sensor to at least one sidewall of the vehicle tire, the deformation measuring sensor generating a cyclical deformation signal having a signal power level indicative of a deformation of the one sidewall in the tire under a rolling condition; (B) attaching a tire inflation pressure measuring sensor to the vehicle tire, the inflation pressure measuring sensor measuring tire inflation pressure within a tire cavity and generating detected inflation level data; (C) electronically storing power-to-load maps adjusted for tire inflation pressure for the tire, the maps correlating a range of load levels to a range of signal power levels whereby operatively enabling a load level to be identified for each signal power level adjusted for tire inflation pressure; (D) measuring a detected signal power level of a deformation signal from the deformation measuring sensor; (E) measuring a detected inflation level from the tire cavity by means of the tire inflation pressure measuring sensor; (F) extracting from the signal power-to-load maps a tire pressure level-adjusted estimated load level corresponding to a detected signal power level.