Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Atsushi Mizuta

Masaaki Tabata

Hideki Ohashi

Toshio Onuma

Takenari Yamaguchi

Masaki Kanatani

Koutaro Okimura

Takashi Yamamoto

Atsushi Umemura

Kiyoto Yonekura

A height controlling apparatus for controlling at least one actual height as a relative position of (a) a body of a vehicle and (b) at least one wheel of the vehicle relative to each other, the apparatus including at least one height controlling actuator which changes the at least one actual height; and an actuator control device which controls the at least one height controlling actuator so that the at least one actual height approaches at least one target height. The actuator control device includes a possibility detecting device which detects, before an absolute value of a difference of the at least one target height and the at least one actual height exceeds a reference value, whether there is a possibility that an object may be present in a direction in which the body is moved to change the at least one actual height, and a movement restraining portion which controls, when the possibility detecting device detects that there is the possibility, the at least one height controlling actuator to restrain a movement of the body in the direction.

Height controlling apparatus

An elliptic gear having a constant velocity portion, wherein a pitch circle is a closed curve composed of: a constant velocity portion pitch curve, in which the radius from the center of rotation is a constant arc; and an inconstant velocity portion pitch curve, which is expressed by a formula of an ellipse in polar coordinates having its pole located at the center of rotation and which merges smoothly into the constant velocity portion pitch curve.

Elliptic gear having a constant velocity portion

Growing community of inventors

Sunto-gun, Japan

Atsushi Mizuta