A damper control system for a vehicle may include a damper-relative-velocity estimation module measuring a vertical acceleration of a vehicle body through a sensor mounted on the vehicle and estimating a damper velocity of a suspension based on the measured vertical acceleration, and a control module reducing movement of the vehicle body by actuating a damper using the damper velocity of the suspension estimated through the damper-relative-velocity estimation module.

An electrically powered suspension system 11 achieves vibration control of a vehicle without disturbing a vehicle behavior and impairing riding comfort even if an electric motor 31 of an electromagnetic actuator 13 generates excessive heat, wherein the electromagnetic actuator 13 includes the electric motor 31 generating a driving force for vibration damping and extension/contraction; a target damping force setting part 51 setting a target damping force; a target extension/contraction setting part 53 setting a target extension/contraction force; and a drive controller 49 performing the drive control of the electric motor 31 using a drive force based on the target damping force and target extension/contraction force by limiting the motor current not to exceed a current threshold that is an addition of a damping current threshold and extension/contraction current threshold, which thresholds are separately configured considering a priority of riding comfort and steering stability.

An electrically powered suspension system includes: an electromagnetic actuator configured to generate a driving force related to vibration damping of the vehicle; an information acquisition unit configured to acquire information on a stroke velocity of the electromagnetic actuator; a target damping force calculation unit configured to calculate a target damping force based on the stroke velocity; a drive control unit configured to control driving of the electromagnetic actuator based on the target damping force; and a filter processing unit configured to perform a filtering process by applying a predetermined filtering characteristic to the stroke velocity. The filter processing unit has a plurality of filtering characteristics set in a second frequency region, which has a frequency higher than that of a first frequency region. The filter processing unit selectively applies, among the plurality of filtering characteristics, one filtering characteristic that is based on the stroke velocity to the stroke velocity.

A vibration damping control apparatus for a vehicle executes preview vibration damping control while obtaining, from preview reference data, a road surface displacement related value relating to a vertical displacement of a road surface at a predicted passage position of a wheel of the vehicle. In the preview reference data, relationships are established among the road surface displacement related value obtained when a measurement vehicle actually traveled on the road surface, position information representing the position of a wheel of the measurement vehicle when the road surface displacement related value was obtained, and speed information representing the speed of the measurement vehicle when the road surface displacement related value was obtained or representing a speed range in which the speed of the measurement vehicle is contained.

A damping force control apparatus for a vehicle in which road surface displacement-related information detected by an in-vehicle detection device is transmitted to a preview reference database control device together with detection position information, a preview reference database including road surface displacement-related values is made, preview damping control that reduces vibration of a sprung of the vehicle is performed using the road surface displacement-related values in the preview reference database, and it is assumed that a road surface displacement-related value in a predetermined adjacent region located in a direction crossing a traveling direction of the vehicle with respect to a point where the road surface displacement-related information was detected by the in-vehicle detection device is the same as the road surface displacement-related value at the above point.

A damping force control apparatus for a vehicle in which road surface displacement-related information corresponding to left and right wheels detected by a pair of in-vehicle detection devices is transmitted to a preview reference database control device together with the detection position information, a preview reference database including road surface displacement-related values is created, preview damping control that reduces vibration of a sprung of the vehicle is performed using the road surface displacement-related values in the preview reference database, and it is assumed that road surface displacement-related values in predetermined adjacent regions located in a direction crossing a traveling direction of the vehicle with respect to two points where the road surface displacement-related information was detected by the pair of in-vehicle detection devices are the same as an in-phase component of the road surface displacement-related values at the two points.

A vibration damping control apparatus of a vehicle executes preview vibration damping control for controlling a control force generating apparatus on the basis of a final target control force including a first target control force computed by using preview information. When the vibration damping control apparatus determines that the probability that a road surface condition has changed after a past point in time is high, the vibration damping control apparatus executes particular control for setting the magnitude of the first target control force to become smaller.

The present invention relates to a control unit for determining a value indicative of a load bearing capability of a ground segment supporting a vehicle. The control unit is configured to issue a control signal to the vehicle to thereby impart a motion change of the vehicle, and receive response information from the vehicle indicative of the vehicle's response to the imparted motion change. The control unit is further configured to, based on the response information, determine a vertical position change of at least one wheel of the vehicle, and based on the determined vertical position change and the imparted motion change, determine the value indicative of the load bearing capability of the ground segment.

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.

System and method for improving braking efficiency by increasing the magnitude of a frictional force between a tire of a vehicle wheel and a road surface. Braking efficiency may be improved by controlling the normal force applied on the wheel, with an active suspension actuator, based on the wheel's slip ratio.