Gas spring sensors including a millimeter wave radar source and a target surface disposed in spaced relation to the radar source. The sensors also include a millimeter wave radar receptor operable to generate a signal upon receiving the radar waves reflected off the target surface. The radar source is operable to direct millimeter-length radar waves of a frequency greater than or equal to 120 gigahertz (GHz) and a wavelength of 2.5 millimeters or less toward the target surface. A processor is communicatively coupled with the radar source and the radar receptor, and is operable to determine a displacement and a relative velocity using pulsed Doppler or continuous wave frequency modulation radar methods that rely on time of flight and frequency phase shifts of pulsed or continuous radar waves. Gas spring assemblies including such sensors, and suspension systems including one or more of such gas spring assemblies are also included.

A vehicle height adjustment device includes a changer, a detector, a vehicle height controller, and a malfunction detector. The changer is configured to change a relative position of a body of a vehicle relative to an axle of a wheel of the vehicle. The detector is configured to detect the relative position of the body of the vehicle relative to the axle of the wheel of the vehicle. The vehicle height controller is configured to control the changer based on a detection value detected by the detector to change the relative position to control a vehicle height, which is a height of the body. When the detection value detected by the detector changes by a predetermined amount or more in a predetermined period of time, the malfunction detector is configured to determine that there is a possibility of a malfunction occurring in the detector.

A vehicle height adjustment device includes a changer, a vehicle height controller, and a malfunction detector. The changer is configured to change a relative position of a body of a vehicle relative to an axle of a wheel of the vehicle. The vehicle height controller is configured to change the relative position based on a detection value detected by a detector configured to detect the relative position so as to control a vehicle height, which is a height of the body. The malfunction detector is configured to detect a malfunction in at least one of the changer and the detector, the malfunction causing the vehicle height controller to continue to control the vehicle height to increase.

The disclosed is a damping force control apparatus for a vehicle which has a control device that stores a reference time that is set to a value within a predetermined range including the resonance period time of the front wheel. When determining that the predetermined vertical displacement portions are present in front of the front wheel on the basis of the detection result of a road surface sensor, the control device sets the damping coefficient of the shock absorber is set to the minimum value by the timing at which the front wheel reaches a predetermined vertical displacement portion, and returns the control of the damping coefficient to the control in accordance with a predetermined control law when a predetermined elapsed time based on the reference time has elapsed from the above timing.

An abnormality detection method for a vehicle body tilt control device makes it possible to determine which air spring has an air supply/exhaust abnormality. A model creation step prepares a state estimation model for each of the front and rear vehicle halves into which a vehicle is divided, and an abnormality detection step applies a state estimation technique to the state estimation model to detect which one of the air springs has an air supply/exhaust abnormality. When flow rate command values for air supplied to/exhausted from the air springs included in each vehicle half are input, each of the input flow rate command values for air supplied to/exhausted from the air springs is multiplied by a virtual gain and the results are averaged. Based on the averages, the average of the heights of the air springs is output, where each virtual gain is included as a state variable.

A suspension control apparatus includes a damping force adjustable shock absorber disposed between a vehicle body and a wheel of a vehicle and capable of adjusting a damping force to be generated, a vertical movement detection device configured to detect a state regarding a vertical movement of a vehicle, and a controller including: a target damping force calculation section configured to calculate a target damping force based on a detection result of the vertical movement detection device, a correction section configured to calculate a corrected damping force, which is acquired by reducing the target damping force when a relative speed is a low speed between a sprung side and an unsprung side of the damping force adjustable shock absorber, and a control signal output section configured to output the control signal corresponding to the corrected damping force to the damping force adjustable shock absorber.

A system for controlling an active suspension of a vehicle may include a sensor device mounted on the vehicle to detect a state of the vehicle, and a vehicle controller that estimates a pitch angle of the vehicle using the state information related to the vehicle when pulling of the vehicle occurs in a pitch control situation based on a willingness of a driver to accelerate or decelerate the vehicle, determines a sum of a control force of a front wheel of the vehicle and a control force of a rear wheel of the vehicle for minimizing the pitch angle, and compares a steering intention of the driver with a yaw rate signal of the vehicle to determine control amounts of a left active suspension of the vehicle and a right active suspension of the vehicle based on a magnitude of pulling of the vehicle.

The fluid supply device comprises a screw, which has a male thread formed thereon and rotates, and a nut, which has a female thread formed therein that meshes with the male threading and which, by the screw rotating in a first direction, i.e., the circumferential direction, moves towards a first end in the rotation axis direction, and which, by moving with said movement a piston that forms a reservoir chamber, discharges a fluid stored in the reservoir chamber, wherein, if the fluid is discharged and if the screw is not rotating, first surfaces which form the threading of the male screw and second surfaces which form the threading of the female screw are in contact with each other, and second surfaces which form the threading of the male screw and first surfaces which form the threading of the female screw are not in contact with each other.

A calibration device includes: a first coefficient calculation unit, a first output unit, an ideal value calculation unit, a second coefficient calculation unit configured to calculate a second coefficient by dividing a second output value by the ideal value, the second output value being an actual output value of the detector when the extension/contraction amount of the suspension device is the first extension/contraction amount, and a calibration unit configured to calculate a calibration value which is an output value after calibration of the detector when the suspension device has the minimum extension/contraction amount, by using the second output value, the first extension/contraction amount, the operation amount, the first output value, and the second coefficient.

This motor shaft state detection method has: a rotation determination step for determining, using a detected current waveform of a motor, whether or not to be a non-rotational state in which the rotational speed of the motor is smaller than a predetermined speed; a current determination step for determining whether or not to be a supply state in which the absolute value of current supplied to the motor is larger than a predetermined reference value; and a determination step for, when it is determined to be the non-rotational state in the rotation determination step and it is determined to be the supply state in the current determination step, determining that the motor is in a shaft locked state.