Apparatus and method for controlling damping force characteristic of vehicular shock absorber
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:
- a) a plurality of shock absorbers, each shock absorber being interposed between a vehicle body as a sprung mass and a corresponding one of front left and front right road wheels and rear left and rear right road wheels as an unsprung mass and being arranged so as to enable a variable modification of its damping force characteristic;
b) sprung mass vertical acceleration sensors, each arranged on the vehicle body adjacent to the corresponding one of the front left, front right, rear left and rear right road wheels so as to detect a vertical acceleration of the sprung mass at the vehicle body corresponding to one of the shock absorber.;
c) a control unit arranged for extracting vehicular bouncing components, a vehicular pitching component, and a vehicular rolling component from sprung mass acceleration signals derived by said sprung mass vertical acceleration sensors, for developing a control signal to be supplied to each shock absorber on the basis of at least the bouncing components, the pitching component, and the rolling component extracted from said sprung mass vertical acceleration signals, for variably adjusting said damping force characteristic of the corresponding one of the shock absorbers so as to provide a target damping force characteristic on the basis of a corresponding one of the developed control signals; and
d) a vehicular running state detector arranged for detecting a variation rate of a vehicular running velocity, andwherein said control unit determines whether the vehicle body is inclined with respect to a running road surface on which the vehicle runs according to the variation rate of the vehicular running velocity and nullifies the bouncing components from among the components on the basis of which the control signals are developed when determining that the vehicle body is inclined.
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Abstract
In apparatus and method for controlling a damping force characteristic of each vehicular shock absorber, when such a vehicular acceleration or deceleration as to determine an occurrence in an inclination of a vehicle body with respect to a road surface on which the vehicle runs occurs, bouncing components from among components constituting each of control signals to control the damping force characteristic of each shock absorber are nullified to prevent signal drifts from being generated due to the influence of the vehicle body inclination and due to the vehicular acceleration or deceleration.
48 Citations
14 Claims
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1. An apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:
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a) a plurality of shock absorbers, each shock absorber being interposed between a vehicle body as a sprung mass and a corresponding one of front left and front right road wheels and rear left and rear right road wheels as an unsprung mass and being arranged so as to enable a variable modification of its damping force characteristic; b) sprung mass vertical acceleration sensors, each arranged on the vehicle body adjacent to the corresponding one of the front left, front right, rear left and rear right road wheels so as to detect a vertical acceleration of the sprung mass at the vehicle body corresponding to one of the shock absorber.; c) a control unit arranged for extracting vehicular bouncing components, a vehicular pitching component, and a vehicular rolling component from sprung mass acceleration signals derived by said sprung mass vertical acceleration sensors, for developing a control signal to be supplied to each shock absorber on the basis of at least the bouncing components, the pitching component, and the rolling component extracted from said sprung mass vertical acceleration signals, for variably adjusting said damping force characteristic of the corresponding one of the shock absorbers so as to provide a target damping force characteristic on the basis of a corresponding one of the developed control signals; and d) a vehicular running state detector arranged for detecting a variation rate of a vehicular running velocity, and wherein said control unit determines whether the vehicle body is inclined with respect to a running road surface on which the vehicle runs according to the variation rate of the vehicular running velocity and nullifies the bouncing components from among the components on the basis of which the control signals are developed when determining that the vehicle body is inclined. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for controlling a damping force characteristic for each vehicular shock absorber, each vehicular shock absorber being interposed between a vehicle body as a sprung mass and a corresponding one of front left and front right road wheels as an unsprung mass and being arranged so as to enable the damping force characteristic to be modified, comprising the steps of:
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a) detecting a sprung mass vertical acceleration on a part of the vehicle body adjacent to the corresponding one of the front left and front right road wheels; b) determining vehicular bouncing components, a vehicular pitching component, a vehicular rolling component, and a vehicular rolling component according to the detected sprung mass vertical accelerations at the step a); c) developing control signals for the respective shock absorbers, each of said control signals being developed on the basis of said bouncing components, said pitching component, and said rolling component determined at the step b); d) controlling the damping force characteristic for the corresponding one of the shock absorbers on the basis of the corresponding one of said developed control signals; e) detecting whether the vehicle body is inclined with respect to a running road surface on which the vehicle is running; f) nullifying the bouncing components from hi among the components constituting the respective control signals when detecting that the vehicle body is inclined with respect to the running road surface.
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Specification