An electrically powered suspension system includes: an electromagnetic actuator; an information acquisition unit configured to acquire time-series information related to stroke position of the electromagnetic actuator, information on stroke velocity, and an amount of change in stroke of the electromagnetic actuator and information on a stroke direction based on the time-series information; a damping force calculation unit configured to calculate target damping force based on the information on the stroke velocity; and a drive control unit configured to control driving of the electromagnetic actuator using target driving force obtained based on the target damping force. The damping force calculation unit calculates equivalent friction compensation force based on the amount of change in the stroke and the information on the stroke direction, and corrects the target damping force based on the calculated equivalent friction compensation force. The equivalent friction compensation force has elastic force component and dynamic friction force component.

The invention relates to a method for determining a parameter indicative of a road capability of a road segment (18) supporting a vehicle (10). The vehicle (10) comprises a plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42). The method comprises: —for each ground engaging member (14, 42) in a sub-set of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42), setting a contact force (N.sub.14,S, N.sub.42,S) between the ground engaging member (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) and the road segment (18); —determining a target global load vector (G) to be imparted to the vehicle (10), the target global load vector (G) comprising at least a vertical load and an inclining moment, —determining contact forces (N.sub.12, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40) for the ground engaging members (12, 16, 38, 40) of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) which are not in the sub-set such that the contact forces (N.sub.12, N.sub.14,S, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40, N.sub.42,S) for the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42) together result in a resulting global load vector (R), a difference measure (DM) between the resulting global load vector (R) and the target global load vector (G) being equal to or lower than a predetermined difference measure threshold, —applying the contact force (N.sub.12, N.sub.14,S, N.sub.16, N.sub.38, N.sub.40, N.sub.42,S) to each ground engaging member of the plurality of ground engaging members (12, 14, 16, 38, 40, 42), —for at least one ground engaging member (14, 42) in the sub-set, determining a parameter indicative of the road capability of the road segment (18) associated with the ground engaging member (14, 42).

A real-time commercial vehicle weight loading system is disclosed. The system employs a number of vehicle weight sensors, configured to provide vehicle weight data for a respective zone of the vehicle. The system may also utilize at least one cargo weight sensor to provide weight data of not-yet loaded cargo. A system controller is in communication with the weight sensors and is configured to, upon receiving cargo to be loaded information, send an indication of optimal cargo placement including identifying the cargo to be loaded, the location on the vehicle the cargo is to be loaded, and monitoring the loading of the vehicle. This same system may also provide total vehicle weight and broadcast real-time vehicle weights when pinged by a query device, which will allow for uninterrupted transit of the vehicle and cargo. This system may also provide data for improved vehicle stability.

A suspension control device which controls an operation of a suspension of a vehicle includes an operation-induced state quantity estimation portion which estimates an operation-induced state quantity caused by an operation of a vehicle, a road surface-induced state quantity estimation portion which estimates a road surface-induced state quantity caused by a road surface, an operation-induced state quantity conversion portion which converts the operation-induced state quantity into an operation-induced required damping force, a road surface-induced state quantity conversion portion which converts the road surface-induced state quantity into a road surface-induced required damping force, and a current value calculation portion which determines a current value to be applied to the suspension with reference to the operation-induced required damping force and the road surface-induced required damping force.

A control unit that controls control currents supplied to shock absorbers that generate damping forces according to the control currents determines coefficients of two functions that functionally identify an equivalent damping coefficient and an equivalent spring constant of each suspension based on relationships between the control current supplied to each shock absorber and the coefficients of the two functions that change according to the control current and a frequency of a relative vibration between a sprung and an unsprung of a vehicle, and calculates a relative displacement or a relative velocity between the sprung and the unsprung based on a vertical acceleration detected by a detection device and the two functions in which the coefficients are determined.

An electronic control unit containing a microcomputer performs: calculating operation variables of left and right air springs of air suspensions based on a steering angle and a roll angle of a vehicle; and controlling air pressures of the left and right air springs in accordance with the calculated operation variables.

A method for determining vehicle characteristic variables of a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has active dampers which can set adjusting forces at the respective wheel suspensions in order to be able to raise and/or lower the body of the motor vehicle and which can also measure the acting forces. Specific predefined adjusting forces of the active dampers are imparted in order to ascertain vehicle characteristic variables from the resulting adjustment and the resulting measured forces.

The present disclosure discloses a preview vehicle height control system and a method of controlling the same. The system includes a monitoring device configured to detect the road surface condition of a driving path of a vehicle, an active suspension configured to adjust a vehicle height, a memory configured to store a plurality of data maps distinguished based on a type of bump, each data map having a vehicle dynamic characteristic as an input and a tuning factor as an output, and a controller configured to derive the tuning factor based on a data map, among the plurality of data maps of the memory, corresponding to the bump detected by the monitoring device, derive a target vehicle height in a form of a Gaussian distribution by substituting the tuning factor, and control the active suspension to follow the derived target vehicle height.

A suspension system includes a spring assembly including a gas spring and an accumulator, and a controller. The accumulator is coupled to the gas spring and includes a bladder. The accumulator has a compressed state and an uncompressed state. The controller is configured to a) determine a target amount of gas in the spring assembly and b) adjust the amount of gas in the spring assembly towards the target amount of gas based on a pressure difference across the bladder.

A system and method are provided for configuring suspension ratios in a multi-rear axle vehicle, the vehicle having a drive axle suspension and at least one tag axle suspension, each suspension having one or more air springs. The timing of the performance of an adjustment cycle series of steps for adjusting the suspension height and air spring pressure readings is optimized by monitoring the acceleration of the vehicle and conducting the adjustment cycle steps when the vehicle acceleration is below an acceleration threshold. Additionally, air spring pressure adjustments may be scaled based on a confidence factor of the air spring pressure readings. Finally, a method is provided for configuring suspension ratios in a multi-rear axle vehicle, the vehicle having a drive axle suspension and at least one tag axle suspension, and for adjusting the air suspension pressures.