System for vehicle body roll control detecting and compensating for changes of loaded vehicle weight
First Claim
1. For a vehicle comprising a body and a plurality of wheels upon which said vehicle runs, a vehicle roll control system, comprising:
- a plurality of suspension means, one provided corresponding to each one of said vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending said one of said vehcile wheels from the vehicle body, each of said suspension means, as a result of a control signal being supplied thereto, being adapted to alter the suspension characteristic provided for its corresponding vehicle wheel at least between a first relatively hard characteristic and a second relatively soft characteristic;
a vehicle speed detecting means for sensing the road speed of the vehicle;
a steering angle detecting means for sensing the steering angle of the vehicle;
a vehicle body total weight detecting means for determining the total weight of said vehicle body; and
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a means for computing and control, which;
computes a predictive roll angle of the vehicle body based upon the vehicle speed sensed by said vehicle speed detecting means and the steering angle sensed by said steering angle detecting means;
controls said plurality of suspension means to provide their said first relatively hard suspension characteristic for their corresponding vehicle wheels, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold roll angle value, while controlling said plurality of suspension means to provide their said second relatively soft suspension characteristic for their corresponding vehicle wheels, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is less than said threshold roll angle value; and
varies said threshold roll angle value according to the total weight of said vehicle body as detected by said vehicle body total weight detecting means, so as to decrease said threshold roll angle value along with increase of said total weight of said vehicle body.
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Abstract
In this system for vehicle roll control, a suspension device or an actuator is provided corresponding to each wheel of a vehicle, and resiliently suspends it from the vehicle body. Each such suspension device can alter its hardness or softness characteristics according to a control signal, while similarly the actuators are adapted to alter the suspended height of their wheels. A vehicle speed detecting device senses road speed, a steering angle detecting device senses steering angle, and a device detects the total vehicle body weight. A computing control device computes a predictive roll angle of the vehicle body from road speed and steering angle, and: if suspension devices are provided, controls them to be relatively hard when the absolute value of the predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold value, while controlling them to be relatively soft when the absolute value of the predictive roll angle is less than this threshold value; while, if actuators are provided, when the absolute value of the predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold value, it controls them in accordance with this predictive roll angle. Particularly, this computing device varies the threshold roll angle value according to the total vehicle body weight as detected by the weight detector, so as to decrease the threshold roll angle value along with increase of the total vehicle body weight.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. For a vehicle comprising a body and a plurality of wheels upon which said vehicle runs, a vehicle roll control system, comprising:
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a plurality of suspension means, one provided corresponding to each one of said vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending said one of said vehcile wheels from the vehicle body, each of said suspension means, as a result of a control signal being supplied thereto, being adapted to alter the suspension characteristic provided for its corresponding vehicle wheel at least between a first relatively hard characteristic and a second relatively soft characteristic; a vehicle speed detecting means for sensing the road speed of the vehicle; a steering angle detecting means for sensing the steering angle of the vehicle; a vehicle body total weight detecting means for determining the total weight of said vehicle body; and
;a means for computing and control, which;
computes a predictive roll angle of the vehicle body based upon the vehicle speed sensed by said vehicle speed detecting means and the steering angle sensed by said steering angle detecting means;
controls said plurality of suspension means to provide their said first relatively hard suspension characteristic for their corresponding vehicle wheels, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold roll angle value, while controlling said plurality of suspension means to provide their said second relatively soft suspension characteristic for their corresponding vehicle wheels, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is less than said threshold roll angle value; and
varies said threshold roll angle value according to the total weight of said vehicle body as detected by said vehicle body total weight detecting means, so as to decrease said threshold roll angle value along with increase of said total weight of said vehicle body. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. For a vehicle comprising a body and a plurality of wheels upon which said vehicle runs, a vehicle roll control system, comprising:
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a plurality of actuator assemblies, one provided corresponding to each one of said vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending said one of said vehicle wheels from the vehicle body, each of said actuator assemblies being adapted to increase or decrease vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding vehicle wheel as results of control signals being supplied thereto; a plurality of control means which are provided corresponding to said actuator assemblies and which serve to supply control signals to said actuator assemblies; a vehicle speed detecting means for sensing the road speed of the vehicle; a steering angle detecting means for sensing the steering angle of the vehicle; a vehicle body total weight detecting means for determining the total weight of said vehicle body; and
;a means for computing and control, which;
computes a predictive roll angle of the vehicle body based upon the vehicle speed sensed by said vehicle speed detecting means and the steering angle sensed by said steering angle detecting means;
controls said plurality of actuator assemblies, via said plurality of control means, in accordance with said predictive roll angle, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold roll angle value; and
varies said threshold roll angle value according to the total weight of said vehicle body as detected by said vehicle body total weight detecting means, so as to decrease said threshold roll angle value along with increase of said total weight of said vehicle body. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. For a vehicle comprising a body and a plurality of wheels upon which said vehicle runs, a vehicle roll control system, comprising:
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a plurality of actuator assemblies, one provided corresponding to each one of said vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending said one of said vehicle wheels from the vehicle body, each of said actuator assemblies being adapted to increase or decrease vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding vehicle wheel as results of control signals being supplied thereto; a plurality of control means which are provided corresponding to said actuator assemblies and which serve to supply control signals to said actuator assemblies; a plurality of vehicle height detecting means which are provided corresponding to said vehicle wheels and which serve for sensing parameters representative of the heights of the vehicle body over said vehicle wheels; a vehicle speed detecting means for sensing the road speed of the vehicle; a steering angle detecting means for sensing the steering angle of the vehicle; a vehicle body total weight detecting means for determining the total weight of said vehicle body; and
;a means for computing and control, which;
computes vehicle height differences between the vehicle heights sensed by said vehicle height detecting means and reference vehicle heights;
computes a predictive roll angle of the vehicle body based upon the vehicle speed sensed by said vehicle speed detecting means and the steering angle sensed by said steering angle detecting means;
controls said plurality of actuator assemblies, via said plurality of control means, in accordance with said predictive roll angle, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is larger than a threshold roll angle value;
controls said plurality of actuator assemblies, via said plurality of control means, in accordance with said vehicle height differences, so as to keep said vehicle height differences within determinate ranges, when the absolute value of said predictive roll angle is less than said threshold roll angle value; and
varies said threshold roll angle value according to the total weight of said vehicle body as detected by said vehicle body total weight detecting means, so as to decrease said threshold roll angle value along with increase of said total weight of said vehicle body. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification