Ground load estimation device, control device, and ground load estimation method

A ground contact load estimation device for estimating a ground contact load of a vehicle with reference to a road surface load of the vehicle,

• said ground contact load estimation device comprising:
• an acquisition section including a wheel speed sensor that acquires a wheel angular speed of the vehicle, and configured to acquire a physical quantity which is related to the vehicle and includes the wheel angular speed, a jerk of the vehicle, a steady load of the vehicle, and an inertia load of the vehicle;
• and
• a road surface load estimation section including (i) a first gain calculation section configured to use at least the steady load and the inertia load, which are included in the physical quantity that has been acquired by the acquisition section, to calculate a first gain indicative of at least rigidity of a wheel of the vehicle, (ii) a second gain correction section configured to use a value of the wheel speed sensor to calculate a slip ratio-related value of the vehicle so as to correct, in accordance with at least the slip ratio-related value and the jerk, a second gain for reducing an influence of a variation in wheel angular speed on an estimation result, and (iii) a tire effective radius variation calculation section configured to calculate a tire effective radius variation by multiplying, by the second gain, a variation in wheel angular speed, which has been acquired by the acquisition section, the road surface load estimation section being configured to estimate the road surface load of the vehicle by multiplying the tire effective radius variation by the first gain.