A damping system of a two-track vehicle includes a passive stabilizer having a torsion bar which runs in a vehicle transverse direction and having lever elements which adjoin the torsion bar at the end sides and which are connected to mutually oppositely situated wheel suspension arrangements of an axle of the vehicle. Two actuators are assigned to respective wheels of the wheel suspension arrangements and are mounted on the vehicle body. Each actuator has a drive by way of which a torque can be exerted on that section of the stabilizer which faces toward the respective wheel. Here, the actuators are in the form of electric motors and are designed to dampen vertical vibrations of the respective wheel or of the so-called unsprung mass, and/or vibrations of the vehicle body in a frequency range between 0 Hertz and at least 20 Hertz, through suitable regulation of the drive of the actuators and thus also through active introduction of forces into the system.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for cooling damping fluid in a vehicle suspension damper unit. A damping unit includes a piston mounted in a fluid cylinder. A bypass fluid circuit having an integrated cooling assembly disposed therein is fluidly coupled to the fluid cylinder at axial locations that, at least at one point in the piston stroke, are located on opposite sides of the piston. The cooling assembly may include a cylinder having cooling fins thermally coupled to an exterior surface of the cylinder and made of a thermally conductive material. The bypass channel may include a check valve that permits fluid flow in only one direction through the bypass channel. The check valve may be remotely operated, either manually or automatically by an electronic controller. A vehicle suspension system may implement one or more damper units throughout the vehicle, controlled separately or collectively, automatically or manually.

An object of the present invention is to obtain an electromagnetic suspension apparatus capable of meeting a request to improve ride comfort irrespective of a magnitude of a spring constant preset in a spring member. The electromagnetic suspension apparatus includes an electromagnetic actuator that generates a driving force related to vibration damping of the vehicle body, an information acquisition unit that acquires information on a stroke position of the electromagnetic actuator, and an ECU that calculates a target driving force of the electromagnetic actuator and controls a driving force of the electromagnetic actuator using the calculated target driving force. When the stroke position acquired by the information acquisition unit is in a neutral range including a neutral position, the ECU corrects the target driving force so as to reduce a spring force related to the spring member as compared with when the stroke position is in a non-neutral range.

In a vehicle provided with an in-wheel motor disposed below a spring of a front wheel, an anti-dive angle of a front suspension is set to form an angle which is inclined towards an upper side of the vehicle with respect to a horizontal line drawn from a ground contact point of the front wheel to a rear side of the vehicle, and an arc-shaped trajectory of a wheel center resulting from displacement of the front suspension is set to be movable towards the upper side of the vehicle and towards the rear side of the vehicle.

A hydraulic device includes a tubular housing containing a rod to which a plunger is rigidly secured that separates an upper chamber and a lower chamber both filled with a hydraulic fluid such that the plunger and the rod move together in a relative manner axially inside the tubular housing, thereby moving the hydraulic fluid from one chamber to the other and varying the volumes thereof. The hydraulic device further includes a spring that operates under compression resisting the movement of the plunger in one direction when the plunger moves toward a maximum extension position of the hydraulic device. The hydraulic device also includes an open elastic ring, the ends of which define an adjustable intermediate passage for the hydraulic fluid in order to adjust damping at the end of maximum extension of the hydraulic device and in other relative positions.

Example ride control systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a request to initiate a drive session to help a baby fall asleep in a vehicle. The method identifies a driving route for the drive session and implements the drive session by following the driving route. One or more vehicle-mounted sensors determine whether the baby in the vehicle has fallen asleep during the drive session.

An object of the present invention is to obtain an electromagnetic suspension apparatus capable of meeting a request to improve ride comfort irrespective of a magnitude of a spring constant preset in a spring member. The electromagnetic suspension apparatus includes an electromagnetic actuator that generates a driving force related to vibration damping of the vehicle body, an information acquisition unit that acquires information on a stroke position of the electromagnetic actuator, and an ECU that calculates a target driving force of the electromagnetic actuator and controls a driving force of the electromagnetic actuator using the calculated target driving force. When the stroke position acquired by the information acquisition unit is in a neutral range including a neutral position, the ECU corrects the target driving force so as to reduce a spring force related to the spring member as compared with when the stroke position is in a non-neutral range.

A wireless active suspension system is disclosed. The system includes at least one sensor mounted to an unsprung mass of a vehicle, the sensor having a low power wireless communication capability, the at least one sensor to send a sensor data transmission. The system also includes a controller in wireless communication with the at least one sensor, wherein the controller receives the sensor data from the at least one sensor and communicates an adjustment command to modify at least one damping characteristic of at least one damper.

A hydraulic suspension damper includes a tube having an opened end and a closed end defining a compartment. A main piston is disposed in the compartment dividing the compartment into a compression chamber and a rebound chamber. A piston rod is attached to the main piston. A rod guide is disposed at said opened end. A stroke stop arrangement includes an insert and an additional piston attached to the piston rod. The insert has a narrowed section including an inner surface defining at least one recess between the distal end and the rod guide and extends axially along the insert in fluid communication with the compression chamber for allowing working liquid flow from the rebound chamber to the compression chamber during the rebound stroke. The at least one recess includes three recesses disposed equidistantly and spaced from one another.

In a vehicle height adjustment device, an operation amount of an actuator increases in accordance with supplied current, a detector detects a vehicle height, and a changer changes the vehicle height in accordance with the operation amount of the actuator. The changer shifts to a vehicle height increasing state or to a vehicle height decreasing state based on whether the operation amount is not higher than a predetermined amount. A controller controls the current supplied to the actuator to make the relative position have a target value. The controller determines a target current supplied to the actuator based on a control map that correlates a deviation between the target value of the relative position and a detection value to the target current.