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.

A method for detecting a defective damper device of a vehicle, including the following steps: monitoring the specific damper travel values (DW) of at least two wheel carriers of the vehicle in a monitoring period (UZ), determining the specific damper speeds (DG) and the specific damper accelerations (DB) on the basis of the monitored specific damper travel values (DW) in the monitoring period (UZ), acquiring the specific damper work values (DA) on the basis of the determined specific damper speeds (DG) and on the basis of the determined specific damper accelerations (DB), generating a comparison result (VE) from a comparison of the acquired specific damper work values (DA) with one another, and generating at least, one specific status signal (SS) on the basis of the comparison result (VE) for the at least two wheel carriers.

A system for minimizing data transmission latency between a sensor and a suspension controller of a vehicle is described. The system includes: a state determination module that determines a physical state of the vehicle; a plurality of data paths for transmitting a first signal from the sensor to the suspension controller; a data path configurator of the controller that selects a first data path of the plurality of data paths based on at least one characteristic of the first data path and the physical state and configures the first data path to transmit the first signal; and an actuation module that generates an actuation signal to control a damping characteristic of the suspension actuator based on at least the first signal.

A vehicle damper control method to reduce a contact shock includes: S10) estimating a future displacement of a damper of a vehicle; and S20) controlling a damping force of the damper based on the estimated future displacement of the damper.

A valve control device is configured to execute a specific valve control when a valve switching condition at high pressure is satisfied. The specific valve control switches the spring constant change valves for front wheel to a blocking state and switches a spring constant change valves for rear wheel to a communication permission state. The valve switching condition at high pressure is satisfied when oil pressure of hydraulic oil of rear wheel side oil hydraulic cylinders, which is detected by rear wheel side oil pressure detection means, is more than or equal to a predetermined oil pressure threshold and the traveling state determination means determines that a vehicle is in a predetermined traveling state.

A shock absorber for a vehicle having a damper and a first and second springs mounted coaxially around the damper and a preload adjuster for partially compressing at least one of the springs independently of the compression stroke. In one embodiment the preload adjuster is remotely controllable. In another embodiment the shock absorber includes an additional mechanism for preloading at least one of the springs.

A damper control device feeds back a pressure within an extension-side chamber to control an extension-side solenoid valve that adjusts the pressure within the extension-side chamber, and feeds back a pressure within a compression-side chamber to control a compression-side solenoid valve that adjusts the pressure within the compression-side chamber. The damper control device performs a compression-side reduction correction which reduces a compression-side current supplied to the compression-side solenoid valve during extension of a damper, and performs an extension-side reduction correction which reduces an extension-side current supplied to the extension-side solenoid valve during contraction of the damper.

Embodiments of the invention address the area of predictive suspension control system for a vehicle, particularly a two-wheel vehicle such as a motor cycle or a scooter. The system includes a stereo sensor unit which for generating image data, a computing unit which extracts a relevant image portion from the image data based on future vehicle path data, and calculates road unevenness on a future vehicle path of the vehicle based on the generated image data. A suspension control unit generates an adaptation signal for adapting the suspension based on the calculated road unevenness. The computing unit adapts a search direction of a stereo algorithm or a correlation area of the stereo algorithm based on a lean angle of the vehicle to generate the three-dimensional partial image data from the relevant image portion, and fits a road model to the three-dimensional partial image data to calculate the road unevenness.

A shock absorber for a vehicle having a damper and a first and second springs mounted coaxially around the damper and a preload adjuster for partially compressing at least one of the springs independently of the compression stroke. In one embodiment the preload adjuster is remotely controllable. In another embodiment the shock absorber includes an additional mechanism for preloading at least one of the springs.

A system for damping control for a vehicle includes a parameter component and a damping adjustment component. The parameter component is configured to determine one or more driving parameters of a vehicle. The one or more driving parameters include a velocity of the vehicle. The damping adjustment component is configured to adjust damping of suspension of the vehicle during driving based on the one or more driving parameters. The damping adjustment component is also configured to adjust damping of suspension at a zero velocity for a threshold time period in response to transitioning from a non-zero velocity to the zero velocity.