A damper control system includes a controller configured to estimate a temperature of a damper fluid based on data relating to heat added to and heat removed from the fluid. At least one damper is operatively coupled to the controller, and the controller is configured to control a size of a damper flow path of the at least one damper based on the estimated temperature. Methods relate to controlling at least one damper based on an estimated temperature of a damper fluid.

The present disclosure relates to a frequency sensitive type shock absorber configured to generate a soft damping force using one dividing disk to change the damping force on the basis of a traveling speed of a vehicle and a state of a road surface, improve ride comfort and steering stability, and decrease a manufacturing cost.

This motor shaft state detection method has: a rotation determination step for determining, using a detected current waveform of a motor, whether or not to be a non-rotational state in which the rotational speed of the motor is smaller than a predetermined speed; a current determination step for determining whether or not to be a supply state in which the absolute value of current supplied to the motor is larger than a predetermined reference value; and a determination step for, when it is determined to be the non-rotational state in the rotation determination step and it is determined to be the supply state in the current determination step, determining that the motor is in a shaft locked state.

A regenerative shock absorber that include a housing and a piston that moves at least partially through the housing when the shock is compressed or extended from a rest position. When the piston moves, hydraulic fluid is pressurized and drives a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor, in turn, drives an electric generator that produced electric energy. The electric energy may be provided to a vehicle, among other things. The regenerative shock absorber may also provide ride performance that comparable to or exceeds that of conventional shock absorbers.

A method of controlling a suspension system of a vehicle includes identifying an amplitude and a frequency of at least one harmonic event in a topology of a surface to be traversed by the vehicle, and, with a controller, altering at least one response characteristic of at least one adjustable component of the suspension system based on at least one of the amplitude and frequency of the harmonic event. Systems and methods relate to controlling vehicle suspension systems.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a ride height sensing system that includes an encoded electromagnetic source as an input unit for a Hall Effect sensors and the signal from the electromagnet is encoded to enable the rejection of ambient magnetic field. In various embodiments, the ride height sensing system includes a self-calibration system including at least one Hall effect sensor mounted at a fixed distance and orientation with respect to the electromagnetic source to provide for continuous calibration of the system. In one embodiment, the enhanced ride height sensing system includes at least two inertial measurement units, such as accelerometers mounted to each of the body frame of the vehicle and the axle frame of the vehicle. This enables the system to optimize power usage by more accurately and efficiently measuring the ride height at high frequency rates with relatively lower power consumption.

An exemplary method to detect a wear condition of a suspension system component of a vehicle includes the steps of receiving suspension system component data from a vehicle sensor, calculating an amplitude of the suspension system component data as a function of frequency, monitoring the amplitude of the suspension system component data within a predetermined frequency range, determining whether the amplitude of the suspension system component data is greater than a predetermined threshold, and, if the amplitude is greater than the predetermined threshold, transmitting a diagnostic notification.

A method for determining vehicle characteristic variables of a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has active dampers which can set adjusting forces at the respective wheel suspensions in order to be able to raise and/or lower the body of the motor vehicle and which can also measure the acting forces. Specific predefined adjusting forces of the active dampers are imparted in order to ascertain vehicle characteristic variables from the resulting adjustment and the resulting measured forces.

An apparatus includes a generator and a control unit. The generator generates a vertical controlling force between a vehicle body and one wheel for damping a vehicle sprung mass vibration. The control unit changes the controlling force by controlling the generator based on an unsprung mass state quantity at an estimated passage position of the wheel at time after a predetermined time from current time; when a condition that a sprung mass of a sampling vehicle is highly likely to be resonating when the sampling vehicle passes through the estimated passage position is satisfied, compute a target controlling force based on a value less than the unsprung mass state quantity acquired by the sampling vehicle at the estimated passage position; and, at the time at which the wheel passes through the estimated passage position, control the generator such that a controlling force is equal to the target controlling force.

A regenerative shock absorber that include a housing and a piston that moves at least partially through the housing when the shock is compressed or extended from a rest position. When the piston moves, hydraulic fluid is pressurized and drives a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor, in turn, drives an electric generator that produced electric energy. The electric energy may be provided to a vehicle, among other things. The regenerative shock absorber may also provide ride performance that comparable to or exceeds that of conventional shock absorbers.