System for control of vehicle suspension

A control system for a vehicle suspension system having a combination of a spring and a damper which is associated with each wheel, said control system comprising:

• first means for detecting at least one of a pitching angle and a rolling angle of said vehicle;
• second means, associated with each wheel, for detecting a relative displacement in the distance between each wheel and a body of said vehicle;
• means for discriminating a cause of pitching and rolling from among a plurality of predetermined sorted causes on the basis of the detected pitching angle, rolling angle and distance displacement;
• means for determining a target value of the distance between each wheel and the body on the basis of said discriminated cause and said distance displacement;
• means for adjusting the distance between each wheel and the body to said target value;
• means for receiving said at least one of the pitching angle and the rolling angle detected by said detecting means;
• said discriminating means including means for determining a plurality of regions corresponding to said sorted causes including a first region determined by a predetermined range of combinations of values of the pitching angle and said distance displacement, a second region determined by a predetermined range of combinations of values of the rolling angle of said vehicle and said distance displacement, and a third region determined by a predetermined range of combinations of values of one of the pitching angle and the rolling angle of said vehicle and said distance displacement that is not within the predetermined ranges of said first and second regions;
• means for determining whether a combination of the detected values of said pitching angle and said rolling angle detected by said first detected means and said distance displacement detected by said second detecting means is within one of said regions, wherein one of said sorted causes corresponding to said one of said regions is said discriminated cause;
• said first region corresponding to a first one of said sorted causes that relates to a motion change in the running of said vehicle and said second region corresponding to a second one of said sorted causes that relates to changes in a road surface encountered by said vehicle;
• and
• said target value determining means calculating target values in accordance with different target value determination equations.