Systems for estimating an axle load of a vehicle wherein axle load is estimated in response to an angle between two components of an axle. The angle may change as weight is added to or removed from the axle such that axle load may be determined as a function of the angle.

The present invention relates to a method for determining a desired speed of a vehicle (1), preferably an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle comprises a shock absorber arrangement (2), preferably an hydraulic shock absorber arrangement, having an elastic hysteresis. The method comprises—obtaining (501) a reference value indicative of the energy dissipated by the shock absorber arrangement (2) in a reference driving condition of a vehicle and—determining (502) a speed of the vehicle for which the value indicative of the energy dissipated by the shock absorber arrangement (2) in a similar driving condition is expected to fall within a predetermined energy dissipation range, using said reference value.

A road surface detection system, in one example the system includes a hydraulic unit of an anti-lock braking system, the hydraulic unit including a preload adjuster, and a plurality of pressure sensors configured to generate pressure sensor data. The system also includes a controller configured to receive the pressure sensor data from the plurality of pressure sensors, determine a target preload pressure level, compare the pressure sensor data with the target preload pressure level to calculate a pressure differential between the pressure sensor data and the target preload pressure level, determine a road surface based upon the calculated pressure differential, and regulate the preload adjuster to change the pressure within the hydraulic unit based upon the road surface.

The present invention relates to a method for determining a functional status of a vehicle shock absorber arrangement (100). The method determines a difference between force values during compression and expansion of the vehicle shock absorber arrangement (100), whereby the shock absorber arrangement (100) can be determined to be degraded if the difference is below a predetermined threshold.

An arrangement for a sensor system for vehicles, in particular motor vehicles, for detecting the vehicle speed, the vehicle level and/or the state of the vehicle suspension, having a sensor for measuring the level of a point on a vehicle body and a vibration damper, the vibration damper comprising a first part and a second part which are movable relative to each other, and wherein the level sensor has an excitation coil, at least one receiver coil and at least one electrically conductive element, wherein the excitation coil and the at least one receiver coil are arranged on the second part of the vibration damper and the electrically conductive element is arranged on the first part of the vibration damper or the first part comprises or forms the electrically conductive element.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle motion state estimation device capable of estimating a vertical momentum of a vehicle with high accuracy from a wheel speed sensor signal during traveling such as acceleration or deceleration, turning, or the like where wheel slips in longitudinal and lateral directions occur. The present invention estimates and removes a variation component caused by a wheel slip from variation components of a wheel speed sensor signal to extract a variation component caused by a displacement of a suspension, and estimates a vertical momentum of a vehicle from the extracted variation component caused by the displacement of the suspension.

A loading amount accumulation device includes a loading amount storage section 403 storing a loading amount, a loading amount calculation section 402 accumulating load weight data about a transport object in a working front to the loading amount, and updating the loading amount by the value after being accumulated, a difference calculation section 404 calculating a difference between a loaded amount of a vessel and the loading amount, an accumulation success/failure determination section 405 comparing an absolute value of the difference and a value Dth, determining that accumulation has failed when the absolute value is larger than the value Dth, and outputting a result, a loading amount correction section 406, when the failure is output as the result, performing correction so as to set the loaded amount data as the loading amount, and updating the loading amount by the corrected loading amount, and an output section outputting the loading amount.

A method for controlling a suspension system of a vehicle, as well as suspension systems, and a vehicle including a suspension system is provided. The suspension system may include at least one adjustable damping device that is controlled via a control signal, such as from a controller of the suspension system, in order to dynamically adjust the damping characteristic of the damping device. The control signal may be generated on the basis of at least one of current driving dynamics data and optically recorded information about an area of a ground surface.

The present invention achieves a technique that not only makes it possible to reduce sensor-related cost but also makes it possible to estimate a ground contact load of a vehicle with sufficiently high accuracy. A ground contact load estimation device (100) causes an acquisition section to acquire a physical quantity related to a vehicle, causes a reference inertia load calculation section (111) to calculate a reference inertia load with use of the physical quantity, uses the physical quantity to cause a correction value calculation section (112) to calculate an inertia load correction value, and causes an inertia load estimation section (110) to estimate an inertia load by adding the inertia load correction value to the reference inertia load.

The present invention achieves a technique that makes it possible to estimate a ground contact load of a vehicle with sufficiently high accuracy. A ground contact load estimation device (100) acquires a wheel angular speed, a steady load, and an inertia load of a vehicle, uses the steady load and the inertia load to cause a first gain calculation section (122) to calculate a first gain, multiplies a variation in wheel angular speed by a second gain so as to cause a tire effective radius variation calculation section (121) to calculate a tire effective radius variation, and multiplies the tire effective radius variation by the first gain so as to estimate a road surface load.