Vehicle damping force control with roll angle and pitch angle

A vehicle damping force control apparatus comprising:

• shock absorbers disposed between a vehicle body and each of four wheels suspended to the vehicle body by a suspension system, each of which can individually change generated damping force in accordance with a turning state of the vehicle;
• a front-wheel and rear-wheel damping force calculating unit that calculates the total of the damping forces required for the front-wheel-side shock absorbers corresponding to the front wheels and the total of the damping forces required for the rear-wheel-side shock absorbers corresponding to the rear wheels as a front-wheel-side target damping force and a rear-wheel-side target damping force respectively to suppress a pitching caused on the vehicle body during the turning of the vehicle;
• a damping coefficient calculating unit that calculates damping coefficients for the shock absorbers corresponding to the four wheels by using the front-wheel-side target damping force and the rear-wheel-side target damping force respectively to suppress roll exerted on the vehicle body during the turning of the vehicle;
• a shock absorber control unit that controls the damping forces generated by the shock absorbers corresponding to the four wheels respectively in accordance with the calculated damping coefficients;
• a roll angle detecting unit that detects a roll angle of the vehicle body during the turning of the vehicle;
• a pitch angle detecting unit that detects a pitch angle of the vehicle body during the turning of the vehicle;
• a target pitch angle calculating unit that calculates a target pitch angle of the vehicle body in accordance with the detected roll angle;
• and
• a target damping force determining unit that determines the total of the damping forces required for the front-wheel-side shock absorbers and the total of the damping forces required for the rear-wheel-side shock absorbers as the front-wheel-side target damping force and the rear-wheel-side target damping force respectively to make the detected pitch angle coincide with the calculated target pitch angle.