Project Summary
Tyre faults remain a leading cause of breakdowns, downtime and road accidents, yet manual checks are often skipped and on-board systems are costly or incomplete. TyreGates introduces a depot-based scanning approach that gives fleet operators an affordable, automated way to identify safety risks every time a vehicle enters or leaves a site. By generating real-world trial data, the project will show how proactive tyre monitoring can cut operating costs, reduce emissions from avoidable failures, and improve overall road safety.
Project Achievements
TyreGates explored the feasibility of infrastructure-based tyre condition monitoring for fleet environments. The project investigated whether tyre-related signals could be captured reliably using a fixed, drive-through sensing configuration positioned within a depot setting. Through the TRIG programme, the project progressed from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2 to TRL 3, achieving experimental proof of concept for key sensing elements and their interaction within a controlled setup. Structured testing and analysis demonstrated that relevant tyre-related signals can be observed under defined conditions, while also highlighting the practical challenges associated with calibration stability, environmental variability and vehicle usage patterns. The work generated a structured experimental dataset and significantly reduced technical uncertainty around the concept. These results provide a clearer understanding of what is technically feasible and establish a foundation for further development and real-world validation.
Conclusions
The TRIG project confirmed that infrastructure-based approaches to tyre monitoring warrant further development but require careful sequencing of technical validation before operational deployment. The feasibility work demonstrated that useful tyre-related signals can be captured using a fixed sensing configuration, but also showed that signal quality is sensitive to environmental conditions, calibration stability and vehicle behaviour. One of the most important outcomes of the project was a clearer understanding of the practical constraints associated with real-world deployment. This evidence allows future work to focus on stabilising sensing performance and improving data consistency before progressing to larger trials. By addressing these feasibility questions early, the project reduced technical risk and provided a more credible pathway towards pilot deployments. The findings contribute to a small but growing body of knowledge around infrastructure-based sensing approaches for vehicle condition monitoring.
Next Steps
The next phase of development will focus on progressing from feasibility towards controlled real-world validation. Immediate priorities include refining sensor configuration and mounting geometry, improving calibration stability and expanding structured data collection across a wider range of operating conditions. Once sensing performance is sufficiently stable, the project will move towards carefully scoped pilot trials in operational environments such as fleet depots. Initial discussions with transport stakeholders have helped identify potential locations where early trials could be conducted in a controlled and monitored way. Alongside technical development, intellectual property protection is being pursued to safeguard the system architecture developed during the project. Future exploitation may involve collaboration with fleet technology providers, infrastructure partners or transport operators to support deployment. These steps provide a staged pathway from experimental feasibility to operational trials and eventual commercial deployment.
