Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Other

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Shinji Ohkuma

Yasuji Shibahata

Akihiro Iwazaki

Tatsuhiro Tomari

Masakatsu Hori

Nobuharu Kuriki

Shinichi Inagawa

Koji Matsubara

Hiromi Inagaki

Kenji Honda

Atsushi Mori

Masaaki Kusumi

Tomoyuki Shinmura

Sunao Ishihara

Kiyoshi Wakamatsu

Yasuo Nekado

Katsuhiro Kitamura

Yutaka Tashiro

Tetsushi Asano

Ken Onoe

Ryuji Asada

Naoki Yajima

Hiroshi Masumoto

Nobuaki Takata

Shoji Akaogi

Satoshi Shimada

A device for driving a solenoid including a power supply, a switching element connected between the power supply and the solenoid in series therewith, a current circulating diode connected in parallel to the solenoid, a current detecting circuit for detecting an actual current flowing through the solenoid, and a PID computing unit for computing an on-duty value and an off-duty value according to a difference between a target current and the actual current detected and for outputting the on-duty value and the off-duty value. The device further includes a PWM duty driving unit for generating a PWM duty signal according to inputting of the on-duty value and supplying the PWM duty signal to the switching element to on/off control the switching element, and a reverse voltage applying circuit capable of applying a voltage of the power supply as a reverse voltage to the solenoid according to inputting of the off-duty value when the switching element is off.

Solenoid driving device

A differential with a differential action limiting mechanism includes a differential mechanism D for distributing the drive force of an internal combustion engine inputted into a differential caseto a left-hand axle shaftand a half shaftwhich continuously connects to a right-hand axle shaft for output therefrom and friction clutchesL,R for limiting differential rotations of the left-hand axle shaftand the half shaftrelative to the differential case. An actuator A for generating an engagement force for bringing the friction clutchesL,R into engagement is provided outside a housingfor accommodating therein the differential case, whereby an engagement force generated by the actuator A is transmitted to the friction clutchesL,R via the half shaft

Limited slip differential

Two sensors are provided on a clutch core. Sensor coils are driven at a high frequency by a high-frequency driving circuit. As the sensors sense a magnetic flux of a magnetic circuit including the clutch core and an armature, the impedance of the sensor coils changes. In accordance with the outputs from the sensor coils at this point, an impedance detecting circuit detects the impedance of the sensor coils. Then, an impedance combining circuit combines the impedance of the sensor coils. On the basis of the combined impedance, a current control circuit controls a current supplied to an exciting coil. Thus, the attracting force of the armature to the core excited by the exciting coil is controlled.

Electromagnetic clutch

The engagement force of an electromagnetic clutch can be precisely controlled at a target engagement force by a simple structure even when an air gap of the electromagnetic clutch varies. An electromagnetic clutch control system includes magnetic flux density sensors, a target engagement force calculating device, a target magnetic flux density calculating device, and a feedback control device. The target magnetic flux density calculating device calculates a target magnetic flux density &phgr;t based on a target engagement force Tt of electromagnetic clutches calculated by the target engagement force calculating device. The current supplied to the electromagnetic clutches is feedback controlled by the feedback control device so that an actual magnetic flux density &phgr; detected by the magnetic flux density sensors agrees with the target magnetic flux density &phgr;t. This allows a target engagement force to be generated in the electromagnetic clutches by making the actual magnetic flux density agree precisely with the target magnetic flux density, even when the air gap varies due to wear of a frictional engagement member, etc. and the relationship between the actual magnetic flux density and the current supplied to the electromagnetic clutches changes.

Electromagnetic clutch control system

A vehicle co-operative control system is provided which suppresses the torque steer phenomenon by co-operatively controlling a driving force and/or braking force distribution device and an electric power steering device without changing the control device of the electric power steering device for a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is not carried out or with the introduction of only a minimal change. The control device can also be applied to a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is carried out. In order to achieve this, the steering torque detected by the steering torque detecting device is input into a corrected steering torque calculating device of a first electronic control unit for controlling the driving force and/or braking force distribution device and a corrected steering torque which has been calculated in the corrected steering torque calculating device is input into the second electronic control unit for controlling the electric power steering device. The second electronic control unit controls the electric power steering device based on the corrected steering torque and thus the torque steer phenomenon caused by the driving force and/or braking force distribution device is suppressed.

Vehicle co-operative control system

A feed-forward control section controls, in a feed-forward manner, left and right hydraulic clutches C.sub.L and C.sub.R of a driving force distributing device by presuming such a driving force distribution amount .DELTA.T that a yaw rate corresponding to a turning state of a vehicle is obtained, based on an engine torque, an engine revolution-number, a vehicle speed, a steering angle and a lateral acceleration. On the other hand, a feedback control section calculates a deviation between a reference yaw rate calculated from the vehicle speed and the lateral acceleration and an actual yaw rate detected by a yaw rate sensor, and corrects the driving force distribution amount .DELTA.T calculating in the driving force distributing device in order to converge the deviation into zero. Therefore, even if the driving force distribution amount becomes excessive due to the feed-forward control to produce an over-steering tendency in the vehicle, this over-steering tendency can be eliminated by the feedback control to stabilize the behavior of the vehicle.

Yaw moment control process and apparatus for a vehicle

In a torque splitting device for distributing an input torque applied to an input member to a pair of output members adapted to be coupled with right and left driven wheels of a vehicle at an adjustable distribution ratio, the distribution ratio is determined in such a way that the understeer and oversteer tendencies of the vehicle under a positive or negative drive condition while turning a curve is appropriately controlled. In particular, it is highly desirable to prevent an understeer tendency from appearing while turning a curve. Therefore, when the vehicle is under a positive drive condition while tuning a curve, a yaw moment is produced by an appropriate torque distribution which assists the vehicle to turn in such a way that the understeerg condition is canceled. Furthermore, when the vehicle moves on from a positively drive condition to a negative drive condition while turning a curve, a slight oversteer tendency is produced with a minimum time delay so as to avoid any transient phase of an understeer condition from appearing.

Torque splitting device with an improved curve turning property

An improvement is made to a torque splitting device employing hydraulic clutches so as to avoid any discontinuity in the control even when the properties of the actuating oil such as the pressure and temperature thereof deviate from standard values. For instance, when the oil temperature is low, the target value of the oil pressure for each of the clutches is modified to a lower value. Thus, it becomes possible to make less pronounced any delay in the response of the torque splitting device which may arise due to the sluggishness of the oil as it flows out of the clutch cylinder. The oil pump is typically actuated by a member rotating at a speed proportional to the vehicle speed, and the pressure output of the pump may be inadequate in a low speed range. In such a case, the target value is again reduced so as to reduce any abrupt change in the property of the torque splitting device when the vehicle is accelerated from a low speed. Because the pressure output of the pump normally drops as the oil temperature rises, it is desirable to take into account the oil temperature in this control action as well.

Torque splitting device using hydraulic clutches

In a vehicle drive system having a torque split arrangement, it is difficult to have all the rotating parts of the system to be properly balanced. In particular, when a rotational speed difference is produced between the two output elements, relatively massive parts which may not be properly balanced may have to be turned at a high speed. According to the present invention, because the power output of the engine is reduced whenever any significant speed difference is produced between the two output elements, no part of the drive system is subjected to any excessive rotational speed, and are therefore not required to have any excessive mechanical strength. This improves the reliability of the system, and reduces the manufacturing cost.

Vehicle drive system including a torque splitter

A motor vehicle has a pair of main drive road wheels, a pair of auxiliary drive road wheels, and a differential disposed between the auxiliary drive road wheels, the main and auxiliary drive road wheels serving as the front and rear road wheels of the motor vehicle. An apparatus for driving the front and rear road wheels includes a speed increasing device disposed in a power transmission path leading to the differential between the auxiliary drive road wheels, detecting means for detecting a speed of travel of the motor vehicle and a steering variable, and control member for enabling the speed increasing device by predicting a turn of the motor vehicle based on the detected speed and the detected steering variable.

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Wako, Japan

Shinji Ohkuma