An electrically powered suspension system includes: an actuator that is provided between a vehicle body and a wheel of a vehicle and generates a load for damping vibration of the vehicle body; an information acquisition part that acquires information on a sprung state amount and a road surface state; a target load calculation part that calculates a first target load related to skyhook control based on the sprung state amount and calculates a second target load related to preview control based on the road surface state; and a load control part. The target load calculation part calculates a third target load related to pitch generation control based on a target pitch angle and calculates a combined target load into which the first target load, second target load, and third target load have been combined. The load control part performs load control of the actuator using the combined target load.

An embodiment composite material spring for a suspension device of a vehicle includes a leaf spring configured to be installed in a body of the vehicle and a wheel of the vehicle, a first fluid container installed at a left side of a center of the leaf spring and including a first magnetorheological fluid, and a second fluid container installed at a right side of the center of the leaf spring and including a second magnetorheological fluid.

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.

Methods and systems are provided for adjusting a height of an electric vehicle with an adjustable suspension system. In one example, a method comprises: during a vehicle stop event, adjusting a height of a skateboard frame of an electric vehicle via an adjustable suspension system, based on at least one sensor input indicative of a desired skateboard frame height. In this way, user activities, including loading and unloading, may be facilitated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle motion state estimation device capable of estimating a vertical momentum of a vehicle with high accuracy from a wheel speed sensor signal during traveling such as acceleration or deceleration, turning, or the like where wheel slips in longitudinal and lateral directions occur. The present invention estimates and removes a variation component caused by a wheel slip from variation components of a wheel speed sensor signal to extract a variation component caused by a displacement of a suspension, and estimates a vertical momentum of a vehicle from the extracted variation component caused by the displacement of the suspension.

An apparatus for controlling a suspension of a vehicle to improve high-speed driving stability of the vehicle includes: a sensor that obtains information about a road surface ahead the vehicle during travel of the vehicle; and a controller that derives a height value of the road surface from the information about the road surface, determines a state of the road surface based on a differential value of the derived height value, predicts vehicle behavior corresponding to the determined state of the road surface, and controls a damping force of the suspension based on the predicted vehicle behavior.

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.