A method for reshaping an electric drive signal of a real-time damper in a sprung mass system includes detecting a periodic frequency and magnitude of a target periodic vibration of a sprung mass. The periodic vibration has velocity and elasticity components that are 90 degrees out-of-phase. An electric drive signal to the real-time damper is reshaped by a controller depending on polarity of the velocity component to thereby generate a composite drive signal. The damper is energized using the composite drive signal to modify a damper force. Reshaping the electric drive signal includes injecting a force and/or an intermittent drive suppression component onto the electric drive signal based on the frequency and magnitude. The sprung mass system may have a frame and body, motion and wheel speed sensors, the real-time dampers, road wheels, and a controller programmed to perform the method.

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.

A vibration damping control apparatus of a vehicle obtains first data from a road surface information in which position information, a road surface displacement related value, and speed information are rerated to one another. The first data represents a time series change of the road surface displacement related value on a predicted route of a wheel. The vibration damping control apparatus obtains speed information at a predicted passage position from the road surface information. In the case where the speed of the vehicle at the present point in time is higher than a speed represented by the speed information, the vibration damping control apparatus executes a first process (low-pass filter process) on the first data, obtains preview information from the first data having been subjected to the first process, and controls a control force generating apparatus on the basis of a target control force computed by using the preview information.

A damping control system comprises a first vehicle, a second vehicle, and a storage device. The first vehicle provides, to the storage device, travel information including a change value of a road surface, position information, and position reliability of the position information. The storage device executes first update processing of updating related value information based on a road surface displacement-related value identified based on the change value, when the position reliability is equal to or higher than a threshold reliability, and executes second update processing of updating the related value information, when the position reliability is lower than the threshold reliability. The second vehicle executes preview damping control using a target control force calculated based on a control related value being a road surface displacement-related value at a predicted passing position.

A controller as a control apparatus controls a shock absorber of a control target wheel (a rear wheel) located in back of a detection target portion (a front wheel) of an unsprung acceleration sensor based on a detection value detected by the unsprung acceleration sensor on the front wheel side provided on a vehicle. In this case, the controller identifies a movement distance (a delay distance) from the detection target portion (the front wheel) and controls the shock absorber of the control target wheel (the rear wheel) located in back thereof based on the detection value of the unsprung acceleration sensor and a vehicle speed for each control period.

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.

To obtain a controller capable of controlling a regular circular turning characteristic of a vehicle during turning. A controller according to the present invention is a controller that is mounted to a vehicle including a shock absorber of a damping force adjustment type provided between a vehicle body and a wheel and outputs a command signal corresponding to a damping force of the shock absorber to an actuator that adjusts the damping force of the shock absorber. The controller is configured to output the command signal to the actuator to adjust the damping force of the shock absorber and control a regular circular turning characteristic of the vehicle when the vehicle is brought into a stable turning state where the vehicle turns in a state where a degree of a change in a physical quantity associated with a travel posture is smaller than that in a reference state.

In a method of creating a database for preview vibration damping control, road surface displacement-associated information detected by a detection device is acquired, positional information capable of identifying a position where the road surface displacement-associated information is detected is acquired, a road surface displacement-associated value associated with a vertical displacement of a road surface is calculated based on the road surface displacement-associated information, and a set of data obtained by linking the road surface displacement-associated value and the positional information with each other is stored into a storage device as part of a database. When it is determined that the magnitude of the road surface displacement-associated value exceeds a permissible reference value set in advance, the magnitude of the road surface displacement-associated value is corrected in a reducing manner, prior to the step of storing the set of data into the storage device.

A suspension device includes: a suspension including a damping device which damps a force generated between a vehicle body and a wheel; and a damping force control unit that increases a damping force of the damping device so as to be greater than the damping force generated when an acceleration of change in a stroke amount is less than a predetermined value determined in advance, when the acceleration of the change in the stroke amount is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, in which the stroke amount is an amount of displacement from a reference position of the wheel with respect to the vehicle body in an extension direction of the suspension.

A vehicle control method includes a step of executing preview vibration damping control for controlling a control force generating apparatus, when a wheel passes a predicated passage position, on the basis of a target control force computed by using a road surface displacement related value at the predicated passage position. The control method further includes a step of determining whether or not a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition being satisfied when a time series change of the road surface displacement related value on a predicted route of the wheel falls within a controllable range of the control force generating apparatus, and a step of executing a particular process for reducing the magnitude of the road surface displacement related value at the predicted passage position when the predetermined condition is not satisfied.