A method for detecting a malfunction of a component of a motor vehicle and/or a state change of the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has a plurality of wheels, a plurality of active wheel suspension systems, a plurality of sensors, a control unit, an evaluation unit and a body, wherein the wheels are each fastened to the body via one of the active wheel suspension systems. The sensors capture sensor information which is used by the control unit to control the active wheel suspension systems. The sensor information is likewise used by the evaluation unit to detect the malfunction and/or the state change.

Disclosed is a mobile robot including: at least three wheels; a sensing unit configured to measure a weight of the mobile robot applied to each of the three wheels; a support member connected to at least one of the at least three wheels; a length adjustment member connected to the support member so as to adjust a length of the support member; and a processor control the length adjustment member for effectively controlling a center of mass of a mobile robot. In addition, disclosed are a method implemented by the mobile robot to control a center of mass of the mobile robot, and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in which a computer program for implementing the method for controlling the center of mass of the mobile robot.

A chassis component (1) for a wheel suspension having at least two pivot points (3, 4), at least one connecting structure (7) which interconnects the pivot points (3, 4) with one another, and at least one sensor (9). The at least one sensor (9) is embodied as a piezoresistive thin film (19) arranged on a section of a surface (8) of the connecting structure (7). A thin film interconnects contact points (15, 16), of at least two conductive sections (13, 14) which are integrated in the connecting structure (7), to one another.

A damper assembly to harvest energy from road deflections including a housing with a first shell, a second shell affixed to the first shell and to a vehicle body, a generator assembly with a first generator nested in the first shell, and a second generator nested in the second shell, a ball screw crossing the housing and with a first terminal portion that protrudes from the first shell and affixed to a wheel assembly of the vehicle, a second terminal portion that protrudes from the second shell, and a central portion extending between the first terminal portion and the second terminal portion, wherein the central portion actuates the first generator to provide a first electrical current when the wheel assembly is displaced in a first direction and the second generator to provide a second electrical current when the wheel assembly is displaced in a second direction.

The present invention achieves a technique that makes it possible to estimate a ground contact load of a vehicle with sufficiently high accuracy. A ground contact load estimation device (100) acquires a wheel angular speed, a steady load, and an inertia load of a vehicle, uses the steady load and the inertia load to cause a first gain calculation section (122) to calculate a first gain, multiplies a variation in wheel angular speed by a second gain so as to cause a tire effective radius variation calculation section (121) to calculate a tire effective radius variation, and multiplies the tire effective radius variation by the first gain so as to estimate a road surface load.

A force sensor diagnosis apparatus performs a process of diagnosing a malfunction of a force sensor to detect external force applied to a wheel of a vehicle. The force sensor diagnosis apparatus acquires, based on a sensor signal of the force sensor, a vehicle-height direction force component detection value that is a force component in a height direction of the vehicle of external force applied to the wheel, calculates a vehicle-height direction force component estimation value on the basis of a sensor signal of a displacement sensor provided in a part of a suspension of the wheel and detects a state quantity corresponding to a stroke displacement of the suspension due to external force received by the wheel from a road surface, and performs malfunction determination of the force sensor by comparing the vehicle-height direction force component detection value and the vehicle-height direction force component estimation value.

An inertial regulation method and control system of vehicle active suspension based on a supporting force of each wheel comprises an inner loop control and an outer loop control. The inner loop control is to calculate, according to the dynamics, a theoretical supporting force of each wheel when the vehicle is driving on a virtual slope plane with a 6-dimensional acceleration and a pitch angle measured by an inertial measurement unit; compare the theoretical supporting force with the measured supporting force of each wheel; and control the expansion of each suspension cylinder according to the difference value, so that the supporting force of each wheel changes according to the theoretical supporting force. The outer loop control is to control each suspension cylinder for the same expansion of displacement, so that the average value of all the suspension cylinder strokes tends to a median value.

A load based tire pressure regulation system for trucks or trailers employing an air spring maintained at a variable pressure P.sub.AS depending upon the load on the truck or trailer, includes an air pilot pressure regulator receiving air at pressure P.sub.AS and air at the pressure of at least one tire of a truck or trailer, and configured to feed air to and bleed air from the at least one tire of the truck or trailer as a function of the load on the truck or trailer. The pressure regulator is configured to feed air to and bleed air from the at least one tire of the truck or trailer based upon the pressure of the air spring P.sub.AS as a function of the load on the air spring (F.sub.AS), and further upon the recommended pressure P.sub.T of the at least one tire as a function of the load on the tire (F.sub.T).

A pressurized top mount assembly is described wherein a pressurized fluid volume receives an end of a piston rod and is configured to counteract a net static force on a top mount by a suspension component which may be an active suspension actuator, a passive suspension damper or a semi active suspension damper. The pressurized fluid volume may be in fluid communication with one or more of fluid volumes in the suspension component.

A device includes a plurality of tires, a suspension system operatively connected to the plurality of tires, at least one suspension sensor operatively connected to the suspension system and configured to provide suspension data (S), and a controller operatively connected to the at least one suspension sensor and having a processor for executing a method for determining respective tire normal forces (F.sub.zi(t), i=1 . . . n) for one or more of the plurality of tires, based at least partially on the suspension data (S), the respective tire normal forces being operative to adjust operation of the wheeled device. Execution of the instructions by the processor causes the controller to determine a transformation matrix (T.sub.s) based on a plurality of predefined parameters. The controller is configured to obtain the respective tire normal forces (F.sub.zi(t), i==1 . . . n) via the following equation:
{tilde over (F)}.sub.z=[T.sub.S+.sub.S(p)]{tilde over (S)}+T.sub.u.