A surface characterization system includes an active suspension a system with a wheel controller to control a first and second wheel of a vehicle where the active suspension causes a difference in loading between the first and second wheel. The wheel controller may cause the first wheel to slow and receive a signal indicative of a change of state of the vehicle. The wheel controller may cause the second wheel to oppose the change of state caused by the first wheel. The surface characterization system may estimate tire-surface parameterization data associated with the first tire and a surface upon which the vehicle is located.

A suspension device includes: a hydraulic damper including a rod provided with a valve for generating a hydraulic pressure when the rod is displaced between a first liquid chamber and a second liquid chamber; and an electric damper configured to electrically displace the rod by an actuator. The electric damper includes: an outer cylinder; an inner cylinder; a piston provided on the rod and configured to stroke in the inner cylinder; and a communication passage disposed inside the inner cylinder at a central portion where the piston strokes. The communication passage establishes communication between the first liquid chamber at one axial end side of the piston and the second liquid chamber at another axial end side of the piston.

A system for testing a suspension system of a vehicle includes an inertial measurement module and a suspension fault detection module. The inertial measurement module is configured to, while the vehicle is not moving, collect sensor data from one or more inertial measurement sensors for different states of the suspension system. The sensor data is indicative of inertial states of the vehicle while the suspension system is in each of the different states. The suspension fault detection module is configured to, based on the sensor data and a set of thresholds, determine whether a fault exists with the suspension system, isolate and identify the fault, and perform a countermeasure based on the detection of the fault.

In various embodiments, methods, systems, and vehicles are provided for determining a fault in a suspension system of a vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment, sensor data is obtained via one or more vehicle sensors during operation of the vehicle; a one or more first coefficients for the vehicle are calculated via a processor using a pitch model with the sensor data; one or more second coefficients for the vehicle are calculated via the processor using a roll model with the sensor data; and a fault in the suspension system is determined via the processor using the first coefficients and the second coefficients.

The present invention achieves a technique that not only makes it possible to reduce sensor-related cost but also makes it possible to estimate a ground contact load of a vehicle with sufficiently high accuracy. A ground contact load estimation device (100) causes an acquisition section to acquire a physical quantity related to a vehicle, causes a reference inertia load calculation section (111) to calculate a reference inertia load with use of the physical quantity, uses the physical quantity to cause a correction value calculation section (112) to calculate an inertia load correction value, and causes an inertia load estimation section (110) to estimate an inertia load by adding the inertia load correction value to the reference inertia load.

An active control system for vehicle suspensions includes a detection module which detects a vehicle running state and a front road condition by means of an advanced mode or a standard mode; a calculation module which comprehensively calculates, in combination with running data and dimensions of a vehicle and the front road condition data collected by the detection module and according to passenger comfort requirements, target data of adjustment; and an implementation module which adjusts a height of each suspension of the vehicle according to the target data obtained by the calculation module.

Suspension systems for recreational vehicles are disclosed. The suspension systems may include at least one adjustable member coupling a sway bar to respective suspensions. The suspension systems may include a torque actuator associated with a sway bar.

An air suspension system which includes the ability to adjust the working air volume, pressure, and spring rate of one or more air springs to reduce or eliminate various types of vehicle oscillations. Switchable or variable volume air spring assemblies have the ability to change air spring volumes, which results in changes in air spring rates, and therefore changes in normal loads applied to each wheel. Changes in wheel normal loads change wheel traction (slip) and vehicle dynamics (pitch, roll, yaw displacement, rate and acceleration). The spring rate of one or more of the air spring assemblies is adjusted automatically when a vehicle oscillation is detected. This vehicle oscillation is calculated from the raw vehicle signals, or another vehicle module may detect the oscillation and send a command to the air suspension module to change the spring rates. This changes the natural frequency of the vehicle, dampening the oscillation.

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 a load for damping vibration of the body. It includes: a camera that detects preview image information of a road surface in front of the vehicle; a 3D gyro sensor that detects a sprung speed of the vehicle; a target load computation unit that computes a target load based on the preview image information and the sprung speed; and a load control unit that controls the load of the actuator by using the computed target load. When a detection result based on the preview image information indicates that the front road surface is even but a detection result based on the sprung speed indicates that the front road surface is uneven, the target load computation unit computes the target load based on the sprung speed.