Nissan Motor Company Limited

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Shigeki Sato

Kazuhiro Doi

Yoshiharu Nakaji

Hirofumi Aoki

Hiroshi Kawazoe

Hirotoshi Watanabe

Masayasu Shimakage

On Sadano

Tsutomu Aisaka

Tsutomu Hamabe

A touch sensor of this disclosure includes: a printed circuit board having a connection terminal; a substrate portion having a mounting portion on which the printed circuit board is mounted; a conductive layer disposed on the mounting portion of the substrate portion; and an adhesive agent connecting the connection terminal and the conductive layer to each other. A plurality of linear projections arranged in a first direction and extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction are disposed on a surface of the substrate portion at the mounting portion, and the conductive layer is disposed on a groove portion positioned between the linear projections disposed adjacently to each other out of the plurality of linear projections.

Touch sensor

In lane keeping assistance system and method for an automotive vehicle, a control current (Iout) to be outputted to a motor during an automatic steering mode is detected, a filter is provided for the detected control current to pass only signal components of the detected control current whose frequencies are lower than a predetermined cut-off frequency value (fstr, fstr_low, fstr_mid, fstr_hi) to derive a filtered control current (Iout_lpf), a determination of whether a manual steering intervention to the automatic steering occurs is made according to a magnitude of the filtered control current, and the control current outputted to the motor is reduced toward zero when the manual steering intervention is determined to occur according to a result of determination that the magnitude of the filtered control current (Iout_lpf) is in excess of a predetermined threshold current value (Iout_lpf_th).

Lane keeping assistance system and method for automotive vehicle

In order to attenuate vibration which tends to be transmitted from a power unit to a vehicle passenger during the idling mode of engine operation, ERF filled engine mounts are arranged so that when neither of two orifice passages are restricted by impressing a voltage on ERF viscosity control electrodes included therein, the frequency at which the dynamic spring constant exhibits a minimum value is the same as the frequency at which the vibration transmission phase maximizes while one of the two orifice passages is restricted by the application of a voltage on the set of electrodes disposed therein. Rapid cyclic control of the dynamic spring constant and the vibration transmission phase for each mount used to support a power unit is carried out. This enables a desirable compromise in the control of the two different parameters.

Suspension device for use with automotive power unit

A vibration sensor is disposed at an evaluation point on the vehicle floor proximate the driver's seat. This sensor, in combination with one disposed on a electrically controllable engine mount, is used to determine the magnitude and orientation of a vector of vibration which reaches the evaluation point and which combines with other vibrational vectors in a manner which results in the generation of vibration at the evaluation point. A mount control signal is controlled in a manner which modifies the vibration vector and attenuates the vibration at the evaluation point.

Automotive power unit mounting system

A U-shaped bracket supports an elastomeric bush type vibration damping mount on a power unit (ICE plus transmission). The inner tubular member of the damper is mounted on the arms of the bracket by way of a bolt. First and second tubular piezoelectric/electrostrictive strain generating elements are symmetrically disposed about the bolt and housed within the inner tubular member of the mount. A control unit which is responsive to crank angle and engine speed, produces a AC current and applies the same to the first strain generating element. The phase of the same current is shifted by 90.degree. before being applied to the second strain generating element. The voltage and frequency of the AC current are selected in accordance with a predetermined schedule which is based on engine speed and crank angle and which enables the AC currents to be applied in a manner which generate vibrations which tend to negate the vibrations which are transmitted from the power unit to the bolt by way of the arms of the U-shaped bracket.

Power plant suspension device

A vibration damping device disposed between a vibrating body such as an internal combustion engine and a base such as a vehicular chassis, comprises an accelerometer which is mounted on the vibrating body and detects an acceleration in the vertical direction of the vibrating body, and a control unit which controls the viscosity of rheopectic fluid within a flow restricting member disposed in the damping device in response to an acceleration signal from the accelerometer. The control unit operates in such a manner that, when the control unit receives an acceleration signal whose value is smaller than a preset value, voltage is applied to the electrodes disposed in the flow restricting member and as a result the dynamic damping effect is gained. Further the control unit operates in such a manner that, when the control unit receives a signal whose value is equal to or larger than the preset value, no voltage is applied to the electrodes and as a result the relationship between the damping force and the spring force is varied from a state in which they act in the same direction to one in which they act in opposite directions rapidly.

Vibration damping device

A manually operable switch can induce the shock absorbers of a vehicle suspension system to be set to produce one of plurality of different damping characteristics and further induce one of a plurality of different predetermined voltages to be applied to the electrodes in the orifice passage of one or more electrorheopatic fluid filled vibration damping mounts which support a vehicle power unit on a vehicle chassis.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Shigeki Sato