Distributed active suspension control system

• US 9,694,639 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2014
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ClearMotion, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ClearMotion, Inc.
• Inventors: Near, William G., Gorelik, Vladimir, Cole, Matthew D., Giovanardi, Marco, Leehey, Jonathan R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, John Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sood, Anshul
• Application Number:
  US14/242,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20140297117A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 701 37
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 11/265 hydraulic springs
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 13/14 having dampers accumulating utilisable energy, e.g. compressing air fluid springs with an accumulator B60G11/30
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/00 Resilient suspensions having means for adjusting the spring or vibration-damper characteristics, for regulating the distance between a supporting surface and a sprung part of vehicle or for locking suspension during use to meet varying vehicular or surface conditions, e.g. due to speed or load levelling or stabilising systems for tippers B60P1/045
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/015 the regulating means comprising electric or electronic elements B60G17/002, B60G17/005 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/0152 characterised by the action on a particular type of suspension unit B60G17/01941 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/018 characterised by the use of a specific signal treatment or control method
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/019 characterised by the type of sensor or the arrangement thereof B60G17/01941 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/0195 characterised by the regulation being combined with other vehicle control systems conjoint control of vehicle sub-units including control of suspension systems B60W10/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 17/08 Characteristics of fluid dampers adjusting fluid dampers in general F16F9/44 - F16F9/53
• CPC Class Codes: B60G 2400/90 Other conditions or factors
• CPC Class Codes: F16F 9/06 using both gas and liquid F16F9/486 take precedence; self-pumping fluid springs B60G17/044
• CPC Class Codes: F16F 9/19 with a single cylinder and of single-tube type
• CPC Class Codes: F16F 9/512 Means responsive to load action, i.e. static load on the damper or dynamic fluid pressure changes in the damper, e.g. due to changes in velocity F16F9/504, F16F9/516 take precedence; non-automatic damper adjustment from a distance using servo control, the servo pressure being created by the flow of damping fluid F16F9/465; self-pumping fluid springs in vehicle suspensions B60G17/044
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 11/215 Magnetic effect devices, e.g. Hall-effect or magneto-resistive elements
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 11/22 Optical devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 11/33 Drive circuits, e.g. power electronics H02K11/38 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 29/08 using magnetic effect devices, e.g. Hall-plates, magneto-resistors H02K29/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 29/10 using light effect devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 5/12 specially adapted for operating in liquid or gas combined with cooling arrangements H02K9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 7/14 Structural association with mechanical loads, e.g. with hand-held machine tools or fans with fan or impeller for cooling the machine H02K9/06
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 7/1823 : structurally associated with turbines or similar engines
• CPC Class Codes: H02P 6/16 : Circuit arrangements for detecting position

Abstract

A distributed active suspension control system is provided. The control system is based on a distributed, processor-based controller that is coupled to an electronic suspension actuator. The controller processes sensor data at the distributed node, making processing decisions for the wheel actuator it is associated with. Concurrently, multiple distributed controllers on a common network communicate such that vehicle-level control (such as roll mitigation) may be achieved. Local processing at the distributed controller has the advantage of reducing latency and response time to localized sensing and events, while also reducing the processing load and cost requirements of a central node. The topology of the distributed active suspension controller contained herein has been designed to respond to fault modes with fault-safe mechanisms that prevent node-level failure from propagating to system-level fault. Systems, algorithms, and methods for accomplishing this distributed and fault-safe processing are disclosed.

Claims

1. A distributed suspension control system, comprising:

at least a first and a second active suspension actuator associated with a first wheel and a second wheel of a vehicle respectively;

a first and a second actuator controller associated with the first and the second active suspension actuator respectively;

a communication network that exchanges vehicle control and/or sensing information among at least the first and the second actuator controllers;

at least one sensor associated with the first actuator controller to provide at least one of vehicle chassis motion information and vehicle wheel motion information to the first actuator controller, wherein the first actuator controller processes information provided by the at least one sensor to execute a wheel-specific suspension protocol to control the first vehicle wheel, and wherein the first actuator controller also processes information received over the communication network from at least the second actuator controller to execute a vehicle-wide suspension protocol to at least partially control vehicle motion; and

wherein a magnitude of actuator inertia of the first actuator attached to the first wheel is used by the first controller as a control parameter to control a motion of the first wheel.

2. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the first actuator controller also processes information received over the communication network from a central vehicle dynamics controller.

3. The distributed suspension control system of claim 2, wherein a portion of the communication network is constructed to exchange information between the first actuator controller and the second actuator controller without passing through a central controller associated with both the first actuator controller and the second actuator controller.

4. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein each active suspension actuator is interposed between the vehicle chassis and a vehicle wheel.

5. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the wheel-specific suspension protocol includes wheel suspension actions that reduce vertical motion of the vehicle chassis during at least one control mode, while maintaining wheel contact with the road surface.

6. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the wheel-specific suspension protocol includes wheel suspension actions that dampen wheel movement while mitigating an impact of road surface based wheel movements on the vehicle.

7. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the wheel-specific suspension protocol includes a wheel control algorithm and an algorithm for vehicle chassis/body control.

8. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein at least two controllers run substantially similar control algorithms.

9. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle-wide suspension protocol is used to control at least one of vehicle roll, pitch, and vertical acceleration.

10. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein at least the first active suspension actuator includes an electric motor for controlling suspension activity of the first wheel.

11. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle chassis comprises one of a car body, a truck chassis, and a truck cabin.

12. The distributed suspension control system of claim 1 wherein control of vehicle motion is control of the vehicle chassis.

13. A distributed active suspension system, comprising:

a plurality of active suspension system actuators disposed throughout a vehicle so that an active suspension system actuator is attached to each vehicle wheel, wherein each actuator comprises an electric motor operatively coupled to a hydraulic pump that is in hydraulic communication with a housing that includes a piston;

an actuator controller associated with each active suspension system actuator, wherein each actuator controller provides commands to the associated electric motor to operate the hydraulic pump to assist the motion of the piston;

a communication network that exchanges information among two or more actuator controllers, wherein a portion of the communication network is constructed to exchange information between a first actuator controller and a second actuator controller without passing through a central controller associated with both the first actuator controller and the second actuator controller; and

at least one sensor that provides at least one of vehicle chassis motion information and vehicle wheel motion information to at least one actuator controller, wherein each actuator controller executes wheel-specific suspension protocols and/or vehicle-wide suspension protocols to at least partially and/or cooperatively control vehicle motion.

14. The distributed active suspension system of claim 13, wherein wheel-specific suspension protocols perform groundhook control of at least one of the plurality of active suspension system actuators attached to at least one wheel.

15. The distributed active valve system of claim 13, wherein wheel-specific suspension protocols are used to control the at least one of the plurality of active suspension system actuators attached to at least one wheel at wheel frequencies.

16. The distributed active suspension system of claim 13, wherein vehicle-wide suspension protocols perform at least one of skyhook control, active roll control, and pitch control.

17. The distributed active suspension system of claim 13, wherein vehicle-wide suspension protocols control at least one actuator at body frequencies.

18. The distributed active valve system of claim 13, wherein at least some information exchanged between the first actuator controller and the second actuator controller passes through the portion of the communication network.

19. The distributed active valve system of claim 13, wherein control of vehicle motion is control of the vehicle chassis.

20. A distributed active suspension system, comprising:

a plurality of active suspension system actuators, wherein each active suspension actuator is associated with a vehicle wheel, wherein each actuator is operated in one of an active mode and a regeneration mode;

a plurality of active suspension actuator controllers, wherein each active suspension actuator is associated with a separate controller of the plurality of controllers;

a vehicle communication network electrically connecting the plurality of actuator controllers;

a centralized energy storage facility associated with the plurality of active suspension system actuators; and

a plurality of localized energy storage facilities each of which associated with at least one of the plurality of active suspension system actuators, wherein in a first mode of operation, energy is supplied to a first localized energy storage facility that is associated with a first actuator, and in at least a second mode of operation, when energy from the centralized energy storage facility to the first actuator is disrupted, the first actuator operates by consuming at least some energy from the first localized energy storage facility.

21. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein the localized energy storage facility is at least one capacitor operatively coupled to the controller.

22. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, further comprising a hydraulic pump, wherein the controller comprises a motor controller which applies torque to the hydraulic pump in the active suspension system actuator.

23. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein each active suspension actuator of the plurality of active suspension actuators operates in the first and second modes of operation independently of other active suspension actuators of the plurality of active suspension system actuators during a power distribution bus fault condition.

24. The distributed active suspension system of claim 23, wherein supplying energy comprises transferring energy harvested from an electric motor operating within an actuator.

25. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein the system further comprises a central vehicle dynamics controller that issues commands to the plurality of active suspension actuator controllers.

26. The distributed active suspension system of claim 25, wherein sensor data is communicated from the plurality of active suspension actuator controllers to the central vehicle dynamics controller via the communication network.

27. The distributed active suspension system of claim 25, wherein the system further comprises sensors connected to the central vehicle dynamics controller that sense at least one of wheel movement, body movement, and vehicle state.

28. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein the communication network comprises at least one of a CAN bus, FlexRay, Ethernet, RS-485, and data-over-power-lines communication bus.

29. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein energy can flow from the centralized energy storage facility to the plurality of active suspension system actuators over a power distribution bus.

30. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein energy flow into the energy storage facility comes from at least one of a vehicular high power electrical system, the vehicle primary electrical system, a DC-DC converter, and a regenerative active suspension actuator.

31. The distributed active suspension system of claim 20, wherein each controller of the plurality of controllers independently detects and/or responds to a power distribution bus fault condition.

32. The distributed active suspension system of claim 31, wherein responding to a power distribution bus fault condition includes providing power to the controller by harvesting power from wheel motion and making the harvested power available to the controller.

33. The distributed active suspension system of claim 31, wherein responding to a power distribution bus fault condition includes applying a preset impedance on the terminals of a motor that controls the active suspension actuator.

34. A method of controlling a distributed vehicle suspension system, comprising:

collecting information about a motion of a vehicle body and/or a first wheel of the vehicle;

exchanging information over a communication network between a controller of a first actuator interposed between the vehicle body and the first wheel, and a second controller of a second actuator interposed between the vehicle body and a second wheel;

executing a protocol using the controller of the first actuator;

providing energy to the first actuator from a first localized energy storage facility; and

controlling at least one aspect of the motion of the vehicle body and/or first wheel with the first actuator; and

wherein a magnitude of actuator inertia of the first actuator is used by the first controller as a control parameter to control a motion of at least the first wheel.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising exchanging information over the communication network with a central vehicle dynamics controller.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the communication network is a private network for the active suspension system, and further contains a gateway to the vehicle'"'"'s communication network.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising sensing at each actuator at least one of, wheel displacement, velocity, and acceleration with respect to the vehicle chassis.

38. The method of claim 34, further comprising measuring a velocity of the first wheel by sensing the velocity of an electric motor operatively coupled to a hydraulic motor pump that moves in relative lockstep with a piston in the first actuator.

39. The method of claim 34, further comprising a vehicle-wide suspension protocol that is implemented at least partially by the controller of the first actuator and the controller of the second actuator.

40. The method of claim 34, further comprising at least one actuator interposed between the vehicle body and each vehicle wheel.

41. The method of claim 34, wherein the protocol implemented with the controller of the first actuator comprises wheel suspension actions that facilitate maintaining wheel compliance with a road surface over which the vehicle is operating while mitigating an impact of road surface based wheel movements on the vehicle.

42. The method of claim 34, wherein the vehicle-wide suspension protocol facilitates control of vehicle roll, pitch, and vertical acceleration.

43. The method of claim 34, wherein the first actuator includes at least one multi-phase electric motor for controlling suspension activity of the first wheel.

44. The method of claim 34, further comprising generating electric energy with an electric motor operatively coupled to a hydraulic motor pump in fluid communication with a volume in the first actuator and storing at least some of the generated energy in the first localized energy storage facility.

45. A fault-tolerant electronic suspension system, comprising:

a plurality of electronic suspension dampers disposed in a vehicle, wherein each suspension damper is associated with a different vehicle wheel;

a plurality of electronic damper controllers disposed so that each suspension damper has a separate controller;

a communication facility of each of the damper controllers for sending and/or receiving information to and/or from at least one other controller;

at least one sensor associated with each damper controller to provide at least one of vehicle motion information and vehicle wheel motion information to the associated damper controller;

a centralized energy storage facility accessible to each damper controller under non-fault conditions; and

at least one localized energy storage facility accessible to each damper controller, wherein the at least one localized energy storage facility is distinct from the central energy storage facility;

wherein at least one damper controller uses energy from at least one localized energy storage facility to at least partially perform at least one function.

46. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 45, wherein the at least one damper controller harvests energy regenerated in the electronic suspension damper from wheel motion and uses the regenerated energy to at least partially perform the at least one function.

47. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 45, wherein one localized energy storage device is operatively connected to and proximal to each suspension damper controller.

48. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 45, wherein the electronic suspension damper is a semi-active damper.

49. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 45, wherein the electronic suspension damper is a fully active suspension actuator.

50. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 49, wherein when energy from the centralized energy storage facility is disrupted by a bus fault condition, energy to the damper controllers is provided at least partially from the localized energy storage facilities and/or from energy generated by the plurality of electronic suspension dampers.

51. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 50, wherein the bus fault condition is one of a total bus-wide failure and a partial bus.

52. The fault-tolerant electronic suspension system of claim 45, wherein the at least one damper controller uses energy from the at least one localized energy storage facility to at least partially perform the at least one function when the power distribution bus is in a fault condition.

53. A distributed active suspension control system, comprising:

a plurality of active suspension actuators disposed in a vehicle so that an active suspension actuator is associated with each vehicle wheel;

a plurality of active suspension actuator controllers disposed in the vehicle so that active suspension actuators that are associated with a single vehicle axle share a single active suspension actuator controller;

at least one central vehicle dynamics controller;

a communication facility of each actuator controller for exchanging over a communication network vehicle and/or sensing information between the plurality of active suspension actuator controllers; and

at least one sensor associated with each active suspension actuator controller to provide at least one of vehicle chassis and vehicle wheel motion related information to the active suspension actuator controller with which the at least one sensor is associated, wherein each active suspension actuator controller processes information provided by the at least one sensor to execute a wheel-specific suspension protocol to control at least one vehicle wheel with which the active suspension actuator controller is associated, and at least two active suspension actuator controllers of the plurality of active suspension actuator controllers process at least one of vehicle motion related information and wheel motion related information received over the communication network to execute a vehicle-wide suspension protocol to cooperatively control vehicle motion.

54. The distributed suspension control system of claim 53, further comprising a localized energy storage facility that is operatively connected to at least an active suspension actuator controller.

55. The distributed active suspension control system of claim 53, wherein the at least one of vehicle motion related information and wheel motion related information received over the communication network by the at least two active suspension actuator controllers is received from a separate active suspension controller.

56. A distributed suspension control system, comprising:

a first active suspension actuator associated with a first wheel and a first actuator controller;

a second active suspension actuator associated with a second wheel and a second actuator controller;

a communication network that exchanges vehicle control and/or sensing information between at least the first actuator controller and the second actuator controller; and

at least one sensor associated with the first actuator controller to provide at least one of vehicle chassis motion information and vehicle wheel motion information to the first actuator controller, wherein the first actuator controller processes information provided by the at least one sensor to execute a wheel-specific suspension protocol to control the first vehicle wheel, and wherein the first actuator controller also processes sensor information received over the communication network from at least the second actuator controller to execute a vehicle-wide suspension protocol to at least partially control vehicle motion.