An independent suspension assembly for a vehicle, said assembly including: a suspension arm pivotally attachable at a first end to a point fast with the vehicle; a support member for rigid attachment of a lower end of a resilient member at a remote end of the suspension arm the resilient member having a remote side and a near side, the remote side being further from said point than the near side; and a pivoting mounting assembly attachable to the vehicle for attachment of an upper end of the resilient member; wherein pivoting of the suspension arm causes the resilient member to elicit pivoting of the pivoting assembly for minimizing a difference in lengthening between the remote and near sides of the resilient member.

Disclosed is a chassis component (1, 38) having a measuring device (9) for determining a relative position of two chassis components connected movably with one another. For example, a first chassis component is a joint (2) with at least one rotation axis (8) and a second chassis component is a structural component (3), the structural component (3) being mounted by means of the joint (2) so that it can pivot around the rotation axis (8) of the joint (2). The measuring device (9) has a signal emitter (13) and a sensor device (10, 28) with a signal receiver (21), where the sensor device (10, 28) is arranged on the structural component (3) and the signal emitter (13) is arranged on the joint (2). To improve an arrangement of the sensor device (10, 28) on the structural component (3), the sensor device (10, 28) extends through a through-opening (11).

A steering system includes an arm, a knuckle, a joint, and a steering sensor. The arm defines a first passage. The knuckle has a knuckle arm defining a second passage. The joint has a ball portion and a shaft portion extending. The ball portion is disposed within the first passage and the shaft portion is disposed within the second passage. The ball portion defines a conical recess that has an opening at an upper end of the ball portion and terminates inside the ball portion with a pocket. The steering sensor has a driveshaft extending along a longitudinal axis into the conical recess. The driveshaft includes a head that engages with the pocket. The ball portion is configured to pivot within the first passage relative to the longitudinal axis and the head. The joint and the driveshaft are configured to rotate together about the longitudinal axis as the knuckle is turned.

A leading-edge steering system is provided for a front suspension of an off-road vehicle. The leading-edge steering system is comprised of a spindle assembly that supports a drive axle assembly to conduct torque from a transaxle to a front wheel. A first rod-end joint pivotally couples an upper suspension arm and the spindle assembly, and a second rod-end joint pivotally couples a lower suspension arm and the spindle assembly. A steering rod-end joint pivotally couples a first end of a steering rod with a leading-edge portion of the spindle assembly. A steering gear is coupled with a second end of the steering rod and configured to move the steering rod, such that the spindle assembly rotates with respect to the upper and lower suspension arms. The leading-edge portion is configured to exert primarily tensile forces on the steering rod during travel over rough terrain.

The ball joint includes a metal ball stud which includes a ball section and a resin housing which rotatably supports the ball section of the ball stud. A limiting member configured to limit molding shrinkage of the housing is embedded in the housing at an interval with respect to an equatorial section of the ball section such that the limiting member is positioned to surround at least the equatorial section of the ball section.

An arrangement of an angle measurement device on the chassis of a vehicle. The chassis includes a control arm (1) and a pivot bearing (2) with a pivot axis. The control arm (1) pivots about the pivot axis and the angle measurement device has a sensor (3) and a signal emitter. The sensor (3) is arranged on the control arm (1), in the area of the pivot axis, and the signal emitter is arranged on the pivot bearing (2).

An apparatus is described for interconnecting a steering knuckle and lower suspension arm. The apparatus includes a ball joint assembly having a height adjustment feature and a non-concentric ball and shaft that together allow for increased range of camber adjustment.

A suspension arm includes a ball stud including a spherical ball; a bearing in which the ball is accommodated; a housing having an inner peripheral portion, an outer peripheral portion, and a lower end portion that connects a lower end of the inner peripheral portion and a lower end of the outer peripheral portion, and configured to accommodate the ball and the bearing in a state in which the ball and the bearing are spaced apart from the inner peripheral portion; an arm body coupled to a portion of the outer peripheral portion of the housing; and an insert molding part formed on an outer peripheral portion of the bearing, the inner peripheral portion of the housing, and the lower end portion of the housing to couple the bearing with the housing. A convex-concave portion is formed on the inner peripheral portion of the housing along a circumferential direction.

Techniques for using ball joint sensor data to determine conditions relevant to a vehicle are described in this disclosure. For example, in one example, the ball joint sensor data may be used to determine estimated steering data. The estimated steering data may be directly used to navigate through an environment, such as by the vehicle relying on the estimated steering data when planning, tracking, or executing a driving maneuver. Also, the estimated steering data may be used to verify the reliability of other steering sensor data used to navigate through the environment.

Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for detecting potentially unsafe wear levels in vehicle suspension systems. An embodiment operates by receiving acoustic signals of a vehicle suspension system, processing, the acoustic signals to generate training data, training a predictive learning algorithm to generate a predictive wear model and classifying the processed acoustic signals to indicate wear levels of one or more components of the vehicle suspension system. The trained predictive wear model subsequently predicts wear levels of the vehicle suspension system for notification to a cloud-based repository. Fleets of driverless vehicles may continuously monitor wear levels for timely maintenance before failure occurs.