The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in its ability to improve the road transportation safety. According to Federal Highway Administration, approximately 22% of crashes are weather-related and 73% of those are related to wet pavement. The need to monitor tire health, wear and hydroplaning potential and the road surface condition has been continuously addressed by tire and automotive industry over the past two decades. Advancement of this intelligent tire system has the potential for enhancing the safety and reliability of the transportation system by directly predicting these parameters and providing more accurate information to the on-board advanced chassis control systems. This technology has the potential to be installed on all tires of all vehicles on the roads globally.
This I-Corps project will explore the commercial potential of an intelligent tire system. This innovative system can, in real-time, predict tire pressure and monitor tire health, wear, hydroplaning potential, and provide the road surface friction potential. Implementation of efficient intelligent tire systems will greatly increase knowledge of the road surface friction potential, thereby reducing the number of accidents by allowing the automobile control system to react to varying road conditions. One important feature of the intelligent tire system is to greatly improve the prediction of tire-road contact friction potential. Because intelligent tires can be part of the active chassis control system, this system can potentially be easily integrated with existing vehicle technologies as well as future intelligent transportation systems.
