A mechanism and method for externally adjusting the mid-valve stiffness is described and enables adjustment of a mid-valve functionality without disassembly of a suspension system incorporating the invention. The effect of this adjustment on the damping curve is far greater than either low-speed compression adjusters or conventional high-speed compression adjusters. The apparatus combines the valve-stiffening system of a high speed compression adjuster with the sensitivity of the mid-valve. Externally accessible adjustment members are operatively coupled to the mid-valve components located internally in a fork so that manipulation of the adjustment members causes adjustment of the mid-valve and the damping force created by the mid-valve. The apparatus may be utilized in closed cartridge suspension forks (CCSF) and open cartridge suspension forks (OCSF) and other shocks or suspension dampers.

Provided is an electric suspension device including an electromagnetic actuator that is provided between a body and wheel of a vehicle and generates a load for damping vibration of the body. It includes: a camera that detects preview image information of a road surface in front of the vehicle; a 3D gyro sensor that detects a sprung speed of the vehicle; a target load computation unit that computes a target load based on the preview image information and the sprung speed; and a load control unit that controls the load of the actuator by using the computed target load. When a detection result based on the preview image information indicates that the front road surface is even but a detection result based on the sprung speed indicates that the front road surface is uneven, the target load computation unit computes the target load based on the sprung speed.

A vehicle may include a sensor configured to acquire detecting data including front road surface information; a suspension including a spring and a damper; and a controller including a processor and a memory; wherein the controller is configured to identify an unevenness of the front road surface based on the detecting data and control the suspension based on damping force setting information corresponding to the unevenness when the vehicle reaches the unevenness.

A control device is configured to control a damping force of a damping device using a difference between a front-rear acceleration of a vehicle main body and a rotational acceleration of a vehicle wheel, the damping device being configured to dampen a force generated between the vehicle main body and the vehicle wheel.

Included are an electromagnetic actuator which includes an electric motor configured to generate drive forces for a damping operation and a telescopic operation; an information acquirer which acquires a stroke velocity of the electromagnetic actuator; a drive force arithmetic part which includes a damping force calculator configured to calculate a target damping force and a telescopic force calculator configured to calculate a target telescopic force, and which obtains a target drive force based on the target damping force and the target telescopic force; and a drive controller which controls drive of the electric motor using the target drive force. The drive force arithmetic part includes an adjuster which performs an adjustment to reduce a telescopic control amount for the target telescopic force based on the stroke velocity acquired by the information acquirer.

Included are an electromagnetic actuator which includes an electric motor configured to generate drive forces for a damping operation and a telescopic operation; an information acquirer which acquires a stroke velocity of the electromagnetic actuator; a drive force arithmetic part which includes a damping force calculator configured to calculate a target damping force and a telescopic force calculator configured to calculate a target telescopic force, and which obtains a target drive force based on the target damping force and the target telescopic force; and a drive controller which controls drive of the electric motor using the target drive force. The drive force arithmetic part includes an adjuster which performs an adjustment to reduce a telescopic control amount for the target telescopic force based on the stroke velocity acquired by the information acquirer.

A plug and play suspension system is disclosed. The plug and play suspension system includes at least one electronically adjustable shock assembly, a controller, and a communications network to communicatively couple said controller with said at least one electronically adjustable shock assembly.

A method for operating a chassis of a motor vehicle according to the principle of a skyhook control, the chassis having at least one adjustable damper according to which body movements of the motor vehicle body resulting from road bumps are damped using the skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky). When driving over a road bump, a classification is made as to whether a critical body movement of the motor vehicle body is to be expected, and that in case of a classification as a critical body movement, the critical classified body movement is compensated for using a stored critical skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky-crit) which is greater than the skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky).

An active suspension device includes: a preview sensor that detects a height of a road surface in front of a wheel; and an ECU that controls a stroke of a suspension to perform a preview control. The ECU includes: a front wheel preview control part that performs a preview control; a preview control success determination part that determines whether the preview control is successful; and a rear wheel control part that controls a stroke of a suspension of a rear wheel. When the preview control of the front wheel is successful, the rear wheel control part performs a preview control and a skyhook control of a rear wheel to control the stroke of the suspension of the rear wheel. When the preview control of the front wheel is unsuccessful, the rear wheel control part cancels the preview control of the rear wheel and perform the skyhook control of the rear wheel.

An apparatus of controlling damping force through road frequency classification may include high pass filters configured to perform high-pass filtering of detecting values of wheel vibration input from wheel vibration sensors according to different cutoff frequencies, a main frequency extraction module configured to determine a main frequency of the wheel vibration based on filtered values output from the high pass filters, a maximum amplitude and amplitude ratio extraction module configured to determine a maximum amplitude and an amplitude ratio of the wheel vibration based on the filtered values, a road gripping force control determination module configured to determine whether or not road gripping force is to be controlled based on the determined main frequency and the determined maximum amplitude and amplitude ratio, and a damper control module configured to determine the damping force of dampers of a vehicle based on results of determination and road roughness.