A damper control method for a vehicle may achieve normal control of dampers by maintaining the ride comfort enhancement effect of the ECS while reducing manufacturing costs in accordance with a reduction in the number of sensors through elimination of wheel G-sensors.

A damping control device is configured to acquire, as a preview condition amount, an unsprung condition amount at a predicted passing position where a wheel of a vehicle is predicted to pass, based on preview reference data being sets of data in which unsprung condition amounts and pieces of positional information of the wheel are linked to each other. The unsprung condition amounts indicate a displacement condition of an unsprung portion displaced in a vertical direction due to a displacement of a road surface acquired when the vehicle has traveled on the road surface. The damping control device is configured to execute, at a timing when the wheel passes through the predicted passing position, preview damping control to cause control force to agree with a target control force.

An apparatus includes a generator and a control unit. The generator generates a vertical controlling force between a vehicle body and one wheel for damping a vehicle sprung mass vibration. The control unit changes the controlling force by controlling the generator based on an unsprung mass state quantity at an estimated passage position of the wheel at time after a predetermined time from current time; when a condition that a sprung mass of a sampling vehicle is highly likely to be resonating when the sampling vehicle passes through the estimated passage position is satisfied, compute a target controlling force based on a value less than the unsprung mass state quantity acquired by the sampling vehicle at the estimated passage position; and, at the time at which the wheel passes through the estimated passage position, control the generator such that a controlling force is equal to the target controlling force.

A communication and power transmission module includes a communication connection portion adapted for communicative coupling with an associated controller. A wireless power and communication portion is adapted for communicative coupling with an associated sensing device operatively associated with an associated suspension component and/or an associated wheel. The wireless power and communication portion is operable to communicate wireless data and/or signals to and/or from the associated sensing device and operable to wirelessly transmit power to the associated sensing device. Gas spring assemblies and vehicles including one or more of such communication and power transmission modules are also included.

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 method for estimating damping characteristics of shock absorbers in an active or semi-active suspension involves providing a reference model of a nominal relation between a road severity index related to vertical acceleration values, and the mean driving current of the control valves of the shock absorbers, acquiring respective relative acceleration or speed data of at least the front wheels of the vehicle with respect to the vehicle body, determining a value of the road severity index starting from relative acceleration or speed data of the front wheels of the vehicle with respect to the vehicle body, acquiring values representative of the mean driving current of the control valve of each shock absorber, comparing acquired value of the mean driving current with an expected value of the nominal mean driving current determined as a function of the road severity index according to the reference model, and determining a degradation condition if the acquired value does not correspond to the expected value.

A control device controls a damping force of a damping device, which damps a force generated between a vehicle body of a two-wheeled vehicle and at least one of a front wheel and a rear wheel, by using an angular velocity of rotational movement in a front-rear direction of an unsprung part of the two-wheeled vehicle, which is generated due to a difference between a velocity in an up-down direction of the front wheel and a velocity in the up-down direction of the rear wheel.

A suspension system includes a primary actuator, an inertial actuator, and a controller. The primary actuator applies force between a sprung mass and an unsprung mass of a vehicle to control movement therebetween. The inertial actuator applies force between the unsprung mass and a reaction mass to damp movement of the unsprung mass. The inertial actuator has a threshold capacity. The controller controls the primary actuator and the inertial actuator. The controller determines a required damping of the movement of the unsprung mass, and apportions the required damping between the primary actuator and the inertial actuator.

provided is an information processing device comprising: a map database in which a control parameter for controlling the behavior of the vehicle is recorded for each vehicle type at each point on a road; a data reading unit that acquires vehicle information including at least vehicle type information and positional information of the vehicle and reads the control parameter corresponding to the travel point of the vehicle from the map database based on the vehicle information; a parameter setting unit that sets an application control parameter to be applied to control of the vehicle based on the control parameter read by the data reading unit; and a data update unit that acquires an observation value related to the behavior of the vehicle controlled based on the application control parameter from the vehicle and updates the map database based on the observation value.

Provided is an electric suspension device including an electromagnetic actuator that is provided between a body and wheel of a vehicle and generates damping force for damping vibration of the body. It includes: an information acquisition unit that acquires information on a wheel speed and a sprung speed of the vehicle; an estimation unit that estimates a stroke speed of the actuator based on the wheel speed; a determination unit that determines whether a wheel slip has occurred; and an orientation control unit that performs orientation control of the vehicle based on the sprung speed and the estimated stroke speed. When a wheel slip occurs, the orientation control unit performs orientation control of the vehicle based on a fixed stroke speed whose direction is the same as a direction of the sprung speed and whose magnitude is set at a predetermined fixed value, instead of the estimated stroke speed.