Priority-based suspension control apparatus and method

A priority-based suspension control method comprising:

• receiving forward situation information of a road;
• determining a priority of a forward situation that influences behavior of a vehicle on the road;
• generating a schedule for controlling a suspension system of the vehicle, according to the determined priority, by a priority queue scheduler;
• and
• controlling, at a suspension system control start point before a designated control section of the road, where the forward situation exists, is reached by the vehicle, the suspension system according to a suspension control mode outputted based on the schedule generated according to the priority of the forward situation by the priority queue scheduler, by a suspension system control module,
• wherein:
• the priority-based suspension control method further comprises:
• controlling the suspension system in a default suspension control mode until the suspension system control start point before the designated control section is reached,
• from a period of time after the suspension system control start point before the designated control section is reached until a suspension system control end point after the designated control section is passed, performing a navigation-based suspension system control using the suspension control mode, and
• from a period of time after the suspension system control end point after the designated control section is passed, controlling the suspension system in the default suspension control mode again,
• the priority queue scheduler is configured to identify information with different levels of priority among the forward situation information of the road, each of the different levels of priority being higher than a priority of the default suspension control mode, and to manage the forward situation information as a queue based on the different levels of priority,
• when a second priority situation with a second priority higher than a first priority of a first priority situation is successively included while suspension control is being performed in the first priority situation using a first suspension control mode, the priority queue scheduler is configured to control the suspension system in a second suspension control mode corresponding to the second priority rather than controlling the suspension system in the first suspension control mode corresponding to the first priority, and
• the priority queue scheduler is configured to generate a schedule to control the suspension system in the first suspension control mode corresponding to the first priority again when the second priority situation is ended.