Method for determining at least one displacement state of a vehicle body

A vehicle suspension system for a vehicle with a vehicle body having at least one wheel which is spring-mounted on the vehicle body via a wheel suspension, the vehicle suspension system comprising:

• an acceleration sensor arranged at one of the wheel or in the wheel suspension;
• one of a path or angle sensor arranged in the wheel suspension for measuring an inward deflection of the wheel;
• a differentiator receiving measurements from said one of said path and angle sensor, said differentiator generating a deflection velocity of the wheel with respect to the vehicle body;
• an integrator integrating measurements from said acceleration sensor to create a wheel velocity of the wheel;
• and
• a subtracter element subtracting said deflection velocity from said wheel velocity to determine a vertical body velocity.

A process for controlling a suspension of a vehicle, the process comprising the steps of:

• providing a wheel spring mounted on a vehicle body movable in a suspension travel direction via a wheel suspension;
• providing an acceleration sensor, said acceleration sensor being arranged one of at the wheel and in said wheel suspension;
• providing one of a path sensor and an angle sensor, said one of said path sensor and said angle sensor being arranged in said wheel suspension;
• repetitively measuring a deflection position of the wheel with respect to the vehicle body in the suspension travel direction with said one of said path sensor and said angle sensor;
• differentiating said deflection position to determine a deflection velocity of the wheel with respect to the vehicle body in the suspension travel direction;
• repetitively measuring an acceleration of the wheel in the suspension travel direction of the wheel with said acceleration sensor;
• integrating said acceleration to determine a wheel velocity in the suspension travel direction;
• determining a vehicle body velocity in the suspension travel direction from a difference between said wheel velocity and said deflection velocity;
• and
• controlling the suspension of the vehicle based on said vehicle body velocity.