Active suspension of vehicle having system of compensation for cornering force
AssigneesToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMasaaki Tabata, Toshiaki Hamada
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Abstract
In an active suspension of a vehicle suspending a vehicle body on vehicle wheels by actuators in combination with a suspension mechanism which converts cornering forces acting at the vehicle wheels during a turn of the vehicle to a vertical force exerted to the vehicle body, the suspension force to be generated by the actuators is modified based upon an active suspension calculation taking the lateral acceleration due to the turn of the vehicle into consideration, so as to compensate for the vertical force, so that the active suspension control is not undesirably exaggerated by the effect of the cornering forces.
Claims7
An active suspension of a vehicle suspending a vehicle body on vehicle wheels with a suspension force generated therein in combination with a suspension mechanism which converts cornering forces acting at the vehicle wheels during a turn of the vehicle to a vertical force exerted to the vehicle body, comprising actuators each provided for each of said vehicle wheels so as to generate said suspension force while increasing or decreasing the height of the vehicle body at a portion thereof corresponding to each of said vehicle wheels, vehicle height detection means each detecting the height of the vehicle body relative to each of said vehicle wheels at a portion thereof corresponding thereto, a lateral acceleration detection means for detecting lateral acceleration of the vehicle body, and a control means for controlling said actuators based upon the detected vehicle body heights and the detected lateral acceleration to obtain a desired attitude of the vehicle body with a modification of said suspension force generated by each of said actuators for compensating for a roll of the vehicle body due to the lateral acceleration thereof, wherein said control means further modifies said suspension force generated by each of said actuators according to the lateral acceleration of the vehicle body so as to change said suspension force generated by each of said actuators in compensation for said vertical force exerted to the vehicle body through said suspension mechanism due to the cornering forces.
A method of converting, with an active suspension in combination with a suspension mechanism, cornering forces acting at vehicle wheels of a vehicle during a turn of the vehicle to a vertical force exerted to a vehicle body, the method comprising the steps of:
- generating, with actuators each provided for each of said vehicle wheels, a suspension force while increasing or decreasing the height of the vehicle body at a portion thereof corresponding to each of said vehicle wheels;
- detecting the height of the vehicle body relative to each of said vehicle wheels at a portion thereof;
- detecting lateral acceleration of the vehicle body;
- and
- controlling said actuators based upon the detected vehicle body heights and the detected lateral acceleration to obtain a desired attitude of the vehicle body with a modification of said suspension force generated by each of said actuators for compensating for a roll of the vehicle body due to the lateral acceleration thereof, wherein said controlling step further comprises the step of modifying said suspension force generated by each of said actuators according to the lateral acceleration of the vehicle body so as to change said suspension force generated by each of said actuators in compensation for said vertical force exerted to the vehicle body through said suspension mechanism due to the cornering forces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.