Tire contact load control system
First Claim
1. A vehicle tire contact load control system, comprising:
- a wheel suspension system for supporting an unsprung mass including a wheel to a sprung mass including a vehicle body;
an active actuator interposed between said unsprung mass and said sprung mass;
a detector for detecting at least one of a traction condition and a braking condition of said wheel; and
a controller for extending said actuator at a prescribed acceleration so as to selectively apply an additional contact load to said wheel in response to an output of said detector.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An active actuator is interposed between the unsprung mass and the sprung mass of a vehicle, and a controller selectively extends and retracts the actuator at a prescribed acceleration so as to selectively apply an additional contact load to the wheel by making use of the inertial force of the sprung mass and/or the unsprung mass of the vehicle. Thus, the tire contact load of each wheel can be increased at will and independently from the other wheels so that the gripping force available to each wheel can be increased as required by appropriately operating the corresponding actuator. Therefore, the braking performance and the accelerating performance for the given road condition can be improved. Additionally, even when a frictional coefficients for the right and left wheels differ from each other, by appropriately applying an additional contact load to the wheel travelling over the more slippery part of the road surface, the stability of the vehicle can be also substantially increased.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A vehicle tire contact load control system, comprising:
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a wheel suspension system for supporting an unsprung mass including a wheel to a sprung mass including a vehicle body;
an active actuator interposed between said unsprung mass and said sprung mass;
a detector for detecting at least one of a traction condition and a braking condition of said wheel; and
a controller for extending said actuator at a prescribed acceleration so as to selectively apply an additional contact load to said wheel in response to an output of said detector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A wheel tire contact load control system for a vehicle, comprising:
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wheel suspension system for supporting an unsprung mass including a wheel to a sprung mass including a vehicle body;
means for selectively applying additional contact load to said wheel at a prescribed rate, including an actuator interposed between the sprung mass and the unsprung mass;
means for detecting at least one of a braking condition of the vehicle, a fore-and-aft acceleration of the vehicle, a slippage of at least one said wheel, and substantially unequal frictional coefficients for right and left ones of said wheels; and
control means for controlling said contact load applying means based on an output of said detecting means;
said control means controls said contact load applying means by extending said actuator at a prescribed acceleration. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification