Vehicle behavior control apparatus

A vehicle behavior control apparatus comprising:

• a force generation mechanism provided between a vehicle body side and a wheel side of a vehicle and configured to generate an adjustable force between the vehicle body side and the wheel side;
• a road surface state detection portion configured to be able to detect a road surface state ahead of the vehicle as a feedforward road surface state value;
• a vehicle body behavior information calculation portion configured to detect or estimate a state of a behavior of a vehicle body of the vehicle and calculate behavior information of the vehicle body as a feedback road surface state value;
• and
• a generation mechanism control portion configured to determine a value to be generated by the force generation mechanism based on the value of the vehicle body behavior information calculation portion and output an instruction signal therefor to the force generation mechanism,
• wherein the generation mechanism control portion includes a base control portion configured to determine a lower limit value on the instruction signal, the lower limit value serving as a lower limit on the force to be generated by the force generation mechanism,
• wherein the generation mechanism control portion corrects the lower limit value on the instruction signal that is determined by the base control portion based on a result of the detection by the road surface state detection portion, and
• wherein, when the road surface state detection portion determines that the road surface lying ahead of the vehicle is a pothole, the vehicle behavior control apparatus increases the instruction signal for the force to be generated by the force generation mechanism that is controlled by the base control portion.

A vehicle behavior control apparatus comprising:

• a force generation mechanism provided between a vehicle body side and a wheel side of a vehicle and configured to generate an adjustable force between the vehicle body side and the wheel side;
• a road surface state detection portion configured to be able to detect a road surface state ahead of the vehicle as a feedforward road surface state value;
• a vehicle body behavior information calculation portion configured to detect or estimate a state of a behavior of a vehicle body of the vehicle and calculate behavior information of the vehicle body as a feedback road surface state value;
• and
• a generation mechanism control portion configured to determine a value to be generated by the force generation mechanism based on the value of the vehicle body behavior information calculation portion and output an instruction signal therefor to the force generation mechanism,
• wherein the generation mechanism control portion includes a base control portion configured to determine a lower limit value on the instruction signal, the lower limit value serving as a lower limit on the force to be generated by the force generation mechanism,
• wherein the generation mechanism control portion corrects the lower limit value on the instruction signal that is determined by the base control portion based on a result of the detection by the road surface state detection portion, and
• wherein, when correcting the lower limit value on the instruction signal that is determined by the base control portion based on the result of the detection by the road surface state detection portion, the vehicle behavior control apparatus increases the instruction signal to be output by the generation mechanism control portion.