Bluetooth Tire Failure Warning Systems

The public awareness of recent auto fatalities has brought to the forefront the danger associated with tread separation tire failures. Current tires and vehicles do not have a means of warning the operator of imminent tire failure. If a system were implemented to provide such a warning to the operator, action could be taken to prevent a potentially disastrous accident. A design team led by Luna Innovations with the interest and support of a Major Tire Manufacturer (MTM) is proposing to develop in-tire fiber-optic sensors and a wireless, ¿Bluetooth¿ link to implement such a system. Luna Innovations has experience in designing and manufacturing sensors, which measure strain within the tread of an automobile tire and with support of the MTM, has successfully demonstrated measurement of the onset of a skid in a tire, manufactured by the MTM, in laboratory conditions. Theory suggests that these strain forces change significantly under normal operation as the tire nears a failure event. Luna Innovations proposes to build on this experience in strain and wireless sensing, to further develop the direct measurement of the strain forces in a tire in the Phase I Effort for implementation of a failure warning system in Phase II