A method for operating a chassis of a motor vehicle according to the principle of a skyhook control, the chassis having at least one adjustable damper according to which body movements of the motor vehicle body resulting from road bumps are damped using the skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky). When driving over a road bump, a classification is made as to whether a critical body movement of the motor vehicle body is to be expected, and that in case of a classification as a critical body movement, the critical classified body movement is compensated for using a stored critical skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky-crit) which is greater than the skyhook damping value (d.sub.sky).

A multi-mode air shock is disclosed herein. The air shock includes an air spring having a primary air chamber, and a damper having an insertion end to telescope within the primary air chamber and a coupler to couple with a portion of a vehicle. An adjuster housing is fixedly coupled to an end of the air spring opposite of the damper, the adjuster housing having a secondary air chamber in communication with the primary air chamber and a mounting structure to couple with a different portion of the vehicle. There is a bulkhead with a valve to open or close the fluid communication between the primary air chamber and the secondary air chamber. The air shock also includes a tertiary air chamber in fluid communication with the secondary air chamber but not in fluid communication with the primary air chamber except via the secondary air chamber.

An electro-dynamically controlled leveling system having a plurality of air springs mounted on at least one axle of a vehicle for supporting the weight of the vehicle; one or more electro-pneumatic valves; and one or more sensors that monitor one or more characteristics of the vehicle and transmit the one or more characteristics as a sensory input. The electro-dynamically controlled leveling system includes a central control module in electrical communication with the one or more sensors and the one or more electro-pneumatic valves. The central control module receives the sensory input from the one or more sensors, calculates a dynamic condition of the vehicle based on the sensory input, determines a desired air pressure for each air spring based on the calculated dynamic conditions of the vehicle, and transmit a command to the electro-pneumatic valves to adjust the air pressure of the air springs.

A suspension device includes an actuator capable of generating a thrust force and a controller. The controller includes a first vibration suppression force computation unit configured to obtain a first vibration suppression force from a vertical velocity of a sprung member, a second vibration suppression force computation unit configured to obtain a second vibration suppression force from a vertical velocity of the unsprung member or a relative velocity between the sprung member and the unsprung member, a low-pass filter having a breakpoint frequency between a sprung resonance frequency and an unsprung resonance frequency and processing a signal in the course of obtaining the second vibration suppression force using the second vibration suppression force computation unit, and a target thrust force computation unit configured to obtain a target thrust force of the actuator on the basis of the first vibration suppression force and the second vibration suppression force.

Provided is a damper control device that exerts appropriate damping force to improve ride quality in a vehicle even when the vehicle gets over a projection on a road surface, the damper control device including a correction unit that corrects the damping force of a damper based on information from which a temporal variation amount of a damper velocity of the damper can be grasped and level information from which a damping force characteristic level that is the magnitude of a damping force characteristic of the damper can be grasped. The damper control device can suppress occurrence of distortion in a characteristic of transmission damping force regardless of the magnitude of the damping force characteristic level, and does not cause a lack of the damping force by reducing the damping force more than necessary when the damping force characteristic level is small.

A suspension controller includes a target current setting unit configured to set a target current value, a current limitation setting unit configured to set a current limitation value, a current detector configured to detect a current value of a first current supplied to a solenoid that is configured to control a damping force of a suspension, a duty ratio setting unit configured to set a duty ratio based on the target current value, based on the current limitation value, and based on the current value detected by the current detector; and a current outputting unit configured to supply the solenoid with a second current that corresponds to the duty ratio set by the duty ratio setting unit and to a power supply voltage. The current limitation setting unit is configured to change the current limitation value based on the duty ratio set by the duty ratio setting unit.

An active vehicle suspension system includes an active damping mechanism operatively coupled to a vehicle wheel and configured for controlling a damping force applied to the wheel responsive to a control signal. A controller is operatively coupled to the damping mechanism and configured for generating a control signal to the damping mechanism responsive to velocity of the wheel in a downward vertical direction. At least one of a timer threshold and velocity threshold, used to determine whether a vehicle wheel has encountered a depression in a road surface, may be varied on a basis of a speed of the vehicle. A damping mechanism for a rear wheel of a vehicle may be controlled on a basis of how a damping mechanism for a front wheel is controlled.

Provided a suspension control appratus including a vehicle behavior detection unit (acceleration sensors), an electrorheological damper provided between a vehicle body (1) and each wheel (2), and a controller configured to execute control so that a damping force of each electrorheological damper is adjusted based on a detection result obtained by the vehicle behavior detection unit. The controller includes a target voltage value setting unit (damping force command calculation unit) configured to obtain a target voltage value to be applied to an electrode tube based on the detection result obtained by the vehicle behavior detection unit, a temperature estimation unit configured to detect or estimate temperature of ERF, and a target voltage value correction unit (output limiting unit) configured to change the target voltage value so that a piston speed (V) is adjusted based on a value obtained by the temperature estimation unit.

Gas spring sensors including a millimeter wave radar source and a target surface disposed in spaced relation to the radar source. The sensors also include a millimeter wave radar receptor operable to generate a signal upon receiving the radar waves reflected off the target surface. The radar source is operable to direct millimeter-length radar waves of a frequency greater than or equal to 120 gigahertz (GHz) and a wavelength of 2.5 millimeters or less toward the target surface. A processor is communicatively coupled with the radar source and the radar receptor, and is operable to determine a displacement and a relative velocity using pulsed Doppler or continuous wave frequency modulation radar methods that rely on time of flight and frequency phase shifts of pulsed or continuous radar waves. Gas spring assemblies including such sensors, and suspension systems including one or more of such gas spring assemblies are also included.

[Object] To provide a suspension control apparatus, a suspension control method, and a program, by which unsprung vibrations or sprung vibrations of each wheel can be efficiently suppressed.

[Solving Means] A suspension control apparatus (20) includes a signal generator (40) and a control unit (50). The signal generator (40) generates a first state signal regarding unsprung vibrations of a first wheel and a second state signal regarding unsprung vibrations of a second wheel. The control unit (50) generates, on the basis of the first and second state signals, a control signal for mutually and cooperatively controlling a first damper mounted on the first wheel and a second damper mounted on the second wheel.