Patent ID: 7739905

Claim:
A method of estimating a height of water (h w ) present on a ground of a road when wet, the water being in contact with a tread of a tire of a vehicle travelling on the ground of the road, and the tread of the tire being equipped with one or more sensors each capable of measuring a characteristic quantity of stresses that the tread experiences locally when the tire is rolling on the ground, the method comprising: obtaining measurements of a characteristic quantity when a tire is rolling on a ground, the measurements being obtained from one or more sensors; producing a signal corresponding to the measurements; extracting a portion of the signal relating to a passing of the one or more sensors into an apparent area of contact between the tire and the ground; determining an instantaneous value (ΔL) corresponding to a length of an indirect contact region of the apparent area of contact between the tread of the tire and the ground, based at least in part on the extracted portion of the signal; and estimating the height of the water (h w ) from a calculation that takes into account the determined instantaneous value.