Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho

Kazushi Fujii

Kazuo Ishikawa

Hisashi Kuriya

Shunichi Shibasaki

Yoshitaka Kouketsu

An attitude control apparatus, for a vehicle having a body and a plurality of wheels, has an actuator operated by a fluid for expanding each suspension of the vehicle to control the stroke of each wheel. A first detecting device detects a variation of incline of the body of the vehicle when the body inclines from a horizontal position. A second detecting device detects the vertical position of each wheel relative to the body. A third detecting device detects the load applied to each wheel. A first control device controls the volume and direction of the fluid to be supplied to the actuator. A calculating device calculates the vertical displacement of each wheel, the current average height of the body, and the variation of the load on the wheel based on the variation of the inclined angle of the body, the vertical position of each wheel, and the load on each wheel. A setting device sets a target value for the average height. A second control device controls the actuator via the first control device in response to results calculated by the calculating device to cause the current average height to approach the target value and to cause the variation of the load on each wheel to approach substantially zero.

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Kariya, Japan

Kazushi Fujii