Damping control apparatus and method for a vehicle

A damping control apparatus for a vehicle which comprises:

• a control force generating device configured to generate a vertical control force for damping a sprung of the vehicle between at least one wheel and a vehicle body portion corresponding to a position of the wheel;
• an electronic control unit configured to control the control force generating device;
• and
• a road surface displacement-related information acquisition device configured to acquire road surface displacement-related information related to a vertical displacement of a road surface, wherein
• the electronic control unit is configured to:
• determine a predicted wheel passage position where a wheel is predicted to pass,
• perform a high-pass filter processing on a first road surface displacement-related value,
• perform a low-pass filter processing on a second road surface displacement-related value,
• calculate a target control force for reducing a vibration of the sprung when the wheel passes through the predicted wheel passage position based on a sum of the first road surface displacement-related value after the high-pass filter processing and the second road surface displacement-related value after the low-pass filter processing, and
• control the control force generating device so that a control force generated by the control force generating device when the wheel passes through the predicted wheel passage position becomes the target control force,
• the first and second road surface displacement-related values are two different road surface displacement-related values among a road surface displacement-related value acquired based on road surface displacement-related information stored in a storage device that stores road surface displacement-related information acquired based on a vertical motion state quantity of the vehicle or other vehicles when the vehicle or the other vehicles travels in association with the information of a position where the vertical motion state quantity is detected, a road surface displacement-related value calculated by a calculation unit based on the vertical motion state quantity of the vehicle, and a road surface displacement-related value acquired by a preview sensor that acquires a road surface displacement-related value in front of the vehicle,
• the second road surface displacement-related value has a higher possibility that a position where a control force corresponding to the target control force is generated misaligns with the predicted wheel passage position as compared with the first road surface displacement-related value, and
• the road surface displacement-related information acquisition device includes at least two devices for acquiring the first and second road surface displacement-related values among the storage device, the calculation unit, and the preview sensor.