A system for controlling the stability of a vehicle equipped with semi-active dampers includes: an actuator, a plurality of sensors, a low-level control unit, a high-level control unit and a mid-level control unit adapted to execute an algorithm for calculating a damping level (C.sub.ref).

A vehicle suspension system includes: a road surface sensor provided in a vehicle body portion ahead of a front wheel to detect an unevenness of a road surface; an electromagnetic damper that applies a damping force and a propulsive force along a stroke direction to a vehicle body and the front wheel with the aid of a motor element; and an ECU. The road surface sensor includes: a first road surface sensor; and a second road surface sensor that overlaps the first road surface sensor in a vehicle width direction and is provided at a position behind the first road surface sensor. The ECU includes: a road surface height calculation unit that calculates a road surface height based on detection values from the road surface sensors and a movement amount of the vehicle; and a damper control unit that controls the motor element based on the calculated road surface height.

A vehicle suspension control apparatus includes a mode determination device that determines a mode of a shock absorber for a vehicle, corresponding to an identified speed bump, when the speed bump is identified in front of the vehicle, a suspension control amount calculation device that calculates an amount of suspension control for passing over the speed bump, based on the determined mode of the shock absorber, and a controller that controls a suspension of the vehicle based on the calculated amount of suspension control.

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 control method of a vehicle includes determining a look-ahead time, calculating a predicted passage position by using specific vehicle information having at least a position of a wheel at the current time point, velocity of the vehicle, and the proceeding direction of the vehicle, acquiring a road surface displacement-associated value at the predicted passage position, calculating a final target control force based on the road surface displacement-associated value at the predicted passage position, and controlling a control force generator based on the final target control force.

The cloud includes a server and a storage device. The storage device includes a road surface information map. When a first sampling distance is equal to or longer than a first distance threshold, the server performs re-sampling to interpolate data in such a manner that sampling positions located at a second sampling distance and unsprung mass member displacements of the respective sampling positions exist so as to produce re-sampled data-for-producing-map. The server stores a sub-sectional unsprung mass displacement in a storage area corresponding to a sub-section of the road surface information map, based on the re-sampled data-for-producing-map.

Systems and methods for determining the location of a vehicle are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for localizing a vehicle includes driving over a first road segment, identifying by a first localization system a set of candidate road segments, obtaining vertical motion data while driving over the first road segment, comparing the obtained vertical motion data to reference vertical motion data associated with at least one candidate road segment, and identifying, based on the comparison, a location of the vehicle. The use of such localization methods and systems in coordination with various advanced vehicle systems such as, for example, active suspension systems or autonomous driving features, is contemplated.

An electronically controller external damper reservoir assembly (eRESI) can be connected to a passive damper and/or substituted for an existing external reservoir to provide semi-active damping control. The eRESI includes a reservoir and a variable base valve assembly actuated by an actuator. A controller is in communication with the actuator and a sensor providing input signal indicative of vehicle movement and is programmed to generate a damping control signal to the actuator based on the input signal, to dynamically control the damping force outputted by a passive damper hydraulically connected to the eRESI. A P/T sensor can be installed to a gas chamber of a vehicle damper to generate a P/T signal indicative of the pressure and temperature of the gas. The controller is programmed to determine a damper position of the damper based on the P/T signal.

A damping control system for a vehicle having a suspension located between a plurality of ground engaging members and a vehicle frame includes at least one adjustable shock absorber having an adjustable damping characteristic. The system also includes a controller coupled to each adjustable shock absorber to adjust the damping characteristic of each adjustable shock absorber, and a user interface coupled to the controller and accessible to a driver of the vehicle. The user interface includes at least one user input to permit manual adjustment of the damping characteristic of the at least one adjustable shock absorber during operation of the vehicle. Vehicle sensors are also be coupled to the controller to adjust the damping characteristic of the at least one adjustable shock absorber based vehicle conditions determined by sensor output signals.

A control device applies a target control force to a variable damping force damper in a suspension mechanism based on a damping coefficient of the variable damping force damper to eliminate unsprung tramp sensations and feelings of hardness when the stroke speed decreases in a conventional skyhook control. The control device includes a state estimation unit for calculating the sprung mass speed of the sprung mass based on a value detected by several of a plurality of sensors, an application control unit for calculating and outputting a damping coefficient of the variable damping force damper based on the calculated sprung mass speed, and a target control amount management unit for determining the target control force based on the damping coefficient output by the application control unit.