A rough road detection system is disclosed. The system includes a sensor data receiver to receive sensor data from one or more sensors monitoring a vehicle. A sensor data evaluator to: identify a repeating pattern in the sensor data, the repeating pattern indicative of a terrain type being traversed by the vehicle, determine a value of the repeating pattern, obtain a present set of operational values for at least one damping characteristic of an active valve damper coupled with the vehicle, and modify the present set of operational values for the at least one damping characteristic of the active valve damper based on the value of the repeating pattern to develop a modified set of operational values for the at least one damping characteristic of the active valve damper.

A shock-absorber has a cylindrical body having an inner and an outer cylindrical tubes enclosing a reservoir chamber containing oil, and a rod. A piston divides the internal volume of the inner cylindrical tube into a rebound chamber and a compression chamber. The cylindrical body has an intermediate cylindrical tube enclosing with the inner cylindrical tube an intermediate chamber. A first electronically-controlled valve is arranged inside the inner cylindrical tube, so as to be drivingly connected to the rod, and hydraulically connected to the rebound chamber and to the compression chamber to adjust, during rebound phase, flow of the damping fluid from the rebound chamber to the compression chamber. A second electronically-controlled valve is arranged outside the cylindrical body and is hydraulically connected to the reservoir chamber and to the intermediate chamber to adjust, during compression phase, flow of the damping fluid from the compression chamber to the reservoir chamber via the intermediate chamber.

A suspension control device including an electrorheological damper, a high voltage output circuit, a connection portion, and a control unit. The electrorheological damper includes a cylinder sealingly containing electrorheological fluid, a piston, a piston rod, and a positive electrode provided in a portion through which a flow of the electrorheological fluid is generated by a slide of the piston in the cylinder, and configured to apply a voltage to the electrorheological fluid. The connection portion includes an electrode connection portion configured to connect the high voltage output circuit and the positive electrode to each other, and a ground connection portion configured to connect the cylinder and a ground to each other. A resistor member, which has a resistance value set to a load resistance value of the electrorheological fluid in a regular-use temperature range of the electrorheological damper, is provided between the electrode connection portion and the ground connection portion.

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.

[Problem] The present invention provides a damping force adjustable shock absorber capable of reducing manufacturing cost. [Means for Solving] A shock absorber 1 is configured in such a manner that a main valve 32 is disposed below a piston valve 5, and a sub valve 68 for variably adjusting a set load of the main valve 32 is provided in a piston case 21 above the piston valve 5, with a first valve body 53 of the sub valve 68 slidably sealed to a case member 60 by a metal seal at only one portion. Due to the configuration, the shock absorber 1 can ease precision of components of the sub valve 68, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost.

A liquid gas supporting shock absorber. An oil path of the liquid gas supporting shock absorber, mainly composed of a liquid gas accumulator (4) and a single-acting hydraulic cylinder (7), is divided into a liquid inlet oil path (9) flowing into the single-acting hydraulic cylinder (7) and a liquid outlet oil path (6) flowing out of the single-acting hydraulic cylinder (7). A supporting force value of the liquid gas supporting shock absorber on an item supported thereby is measured using a force measuring element. A control component (1) compares the supporting force value to a set force value or a gravity value of the item supported by the supporting shock absorber, and the damping of the liquid inlet oil path (9) and the liquid outlet oil path (6) of the liquid gas supporting shock absorber is controlled by means of a mechanical, hydraulic or electronic control mode according to the result of the comparison, so as to adjust the supporting force value of the supporting shock absorber, so that the supporting force value of the supporting shock absorber is equal to or close to the set force value or the gravity value of the item supported by the supporting shock absorber.

A cylinder apparatus is provided with a stopper mechanism that operates when a piston rod extends and moves toward an upper end portion in an inner cylinder. This stopper mechanism includes a second cylinder provided movably relative to the piston rod and including a bottom portion on an upper end side in the inner cylinder and a cylinder portion extending from the bottom portion toward a lower end side, and a second piston provided so as to be able to move along with a movement of the piston rod to be fitted to the second cylinder. While being configured in this manner, the cylinder apparatus is configured in such a manner that a spring member 21 is provided between the second cylinder and a rod guide.

Presented herein, inter alia, are suspension system components having tuned accumulator sizing and/or stiffness. Such suspension system components are envisioned for use in a distributed active suspension system of a vehicle. In particular, through appropriate sizing of accumulators of a suspension system component of a vehicle, ride quality of the vehicle may be improved and so called “rough ride” issues may be precluded. Alternatively or additionally, various valves or alternative compliant mechanisms may be included in the suspension system component, so that desirable performance may be obtained for a range of operating conditions.

The electromagnetic suspension apparatus includes: an electromagnetic actuator provided in parallel with a spring member between a vehicle body and a wheel of a vehicle and configured to generate driving force involving vibration damping of the vehicle body; an information acquisition unit configured to acquire, through a high-pass filter, time-series information about a stroke position of the electromagnetic actuator; and an ECU configured to calculate target driving force of the electromagnetic actuator and use the calculated target driving force to execute driving force control of the electromagnetic actuator. The ECU corrects the target driving force such that when the stroke position on the basis of the high-pass-filter-processed time-series information, from which low-frequency components (steady state deviation) have been removed, is present in a neutral region including a neutral position, spring force of the spring member is made weaker than when the stroke position is present in a non-neutral region.

A method for controlling a vertical vibration damping of a wheel of a vehicle, in which the wheel has a suspension including a vibration damper with a control element including an actuating element for adapting a damping characteristic of the vibration damper includes a series of steps. The vehicle includes a first sensor for detecting roadway anomalies, a second sensor for detecting a vertical displacement of the wheel, and a control unit connected to the first and second sensors and the control element. The method steps include detecting roadway anomalies with the first sensor, detecting the vertical displacement with the second sensor and switching the vibration damper with the control element at a first point in time from a first state with a first damping characteristic into a second state with a second damping characteristic when a first sensor signal generated by the first sensor indicates a roadway anomaly with a minimum height.