SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTO-LOCATION OF TIRES EMPLOYING FOOTPRINT LENGTH

An auto-location system and method for locating a position of a tire supporting a vehicle is disclosed. The system (10) comprises a tire sensor unit (26) including a footprint length measurement sensor to measure a length of a footprint of the tire, and electronic memory capacity to store identification information for the tire sensor unit (26); a vehicle sensor unit (34) for measuring a lateral acceleration (36) and a longitudinal acceleration (38) of the vehicle; a processor (40) in electronic communication with the tire sensor unit (26) and the vehicle sensor unit (34) for receiving the measured footprint length, the identification information, the lateral acceleration, and the longitudinal acceleration; a virtual footprint length estimator (52) for execution on the processor (40), the footprint length estimator employing the lateral acceleration and the longitudinal acceleration to estimate a virtual footprint length (60) of the tire; a correlation module (54) for execution on the processor (40), the correlation module receiving the virtual footprint length (60) and the measured footprint length to generate correlation values; and a decision arbitrator (56) for execution on the processor (40), the decision arbitrator applying a set of decision rules (84) to the correlation values to generate a wheel position indication (58) that correlates the tire sensor unit (26) to a position of the tire (12a, 12b, 12c, 12d) on the vehicle (14).