Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, Inc.

Delta Tooling Co., Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shunichi Doi

Yasutaka Hayashi

Hiroyuki Ikemoto

Eiichi Yasuda

Nobutaka Oowa

Yuzo Yamamoto

Osamu Yasuike

Yasuji Arai

Noboru Sugiura

Etsunori Fujita

Shuuichi Buma

Yumi Ogura

Seiji Kawasaki

Toshio Aburaya

Takashi Yonekawa

Junzo Hasegawa

Osamu Takeda

Satoru Matsushima

Shingo Urababa

Nobutaka Owa

Katsuya Ibaraki

Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

Yasushi Amano

Hideo Arakawa

Kazuo Miki

Katsuhiko Fukui

Kazukata Takei

Michio Ishiguro

Takeo Ogasawara

Masahiko Mizuno

Shigeru Sakuma

Yoshiteru Mizutani

Etsuko Kato

Mutsuo Sawa

Hayashi Yasutaka

Shigewo Takayanagi

A seat provides a band-like support for the body sides of a user so as to reduce the supporting pressure on the user's lumbar and to hold the user's upper body stably. In this seat, the center of a load to be received in regions symmetrically divided to a vertical central line of the seat are positioned outside of a back region defined by left and right angulus inferior scapulae and by the upper ends of iliac bones. Moreover, the load ratios in the individual regions are not more than 25% in the region corresponding to a region extended downward from the back region.

Seat

A seat includes a seat frame, and a cushion material supported by the seat frame and having a three-dimensional knitted fabric which is formed by joining, with connecting threads, a pair of ground knit fabrics which are disposed so as to be separated from one another. The cushion material includes a first region whose elastic compliance when a reaction force is applied to an extending side of the cushion material when an occupant is seated on the seat is substantially equivalent to an elastic compliance of a portion of the occupant's body pressing the cushion material and a second region whose elastic compliance is larger than that of the first region. Accordingly, a thin and light seat can be provided, load concentration on the occupant's tuber ishiadicum bottom portion when seated for a long period of time can be mitigated, and vibration-transmitting characteristics can be improved.

An upper end portion of a seat backrest and a lower end portion of a head rest are superposed together. A rear end portion of an upper portion cushion member and a lower end portion of the seat backrest are superposed together. These superposed portions are sewn together by thin threads which break when pressing force of a predetermined value or greater is applied to the seat backrest. Thus, when pressing force of the predetermined value or greater is applied to the seat backrest, the thin threads break. A portion of the seat backrest which a shoulder portion of a seated occupant contacts, and a portion of the seat backrest which buttocks of the seated occupant contact, are enlarged, and impact force can be damped.

Vehicle seat

A tire uniformity measuring apparatus having: a drum for rotating a tire; an oscillating member disposed parallel to a drum rotating shaft and pivotally supported on a machine base through a fulcrum; a movable member disposed in parallel to the drum rotating shaft in the plane including the drum rotating shaft and a tire rotating shaft, the movable member being laterally movable in response to a load acting on the tire in a lateral direction perpendicular to the radial direction of the tire; a load applying member for applying in advance a predetermined load to the tire; and a displacement detecting member for detecting as a displacement of the movable member the displacement of the tire rotating shaft which is dependent on variation in the lateral load; thereby detecting a variation in the lateral load of the tire. The apparatus may comprise a further movable member which is a shaft member constituting the fulcrum, the movable member being slidably movable along the longitudinal axis only in response to a variation in the tangential load, and a further displacement detecting member for detecting a displacement of the movable member, thereby detecting a variation in the tangential load acting on the tire.

Apparatus for measuring tire uniformity

An electronic controlled fluid suspension system in which a change in a vehicle attitude is expected in advance by an advance control means responsive to a driving state detected by a driving state detection means, and the current vehicle attitude is feedback-controlled by a feedback control means. The shares of the advance control amount and the feedback control amount are calculated by a share determination means so that final control amount is determined based on the shares. Fluid flow to and from the fluid suspension is controlled by a fluid flow control means in response to the final control amount. In such control system, the advance control and the feedback control are smoothly switched, which results in improved maneuverability and stability of the vehicle.

Electronic controlled fluid suspension system with an advance control

An electronic controlled suspension system detects a load on the fluid actuators and calculates a torsional load on the vehicle. Responsive to the calculated torsional load, corrective control is executed on the fluid flow to and from the fluid actuators, eliminating torsional load on the vehicle. Therefore, the driving characteristic is prevented from changing due to an unbalanced load on the vehicle. On the other hand, the electronic controlled suspension system detects a vehicle's cornering state. Responsive to the cornering state detected, control signals are output to increase the roll stiffness distribution to the front wheels. As a result, the roll stiffness distribution to the front wheels while the vehicle is about to corner becomes larger than that while the vehicle is steadily cornering. Responsive to the control signals, the vehicle attitude is controlled by supplying and discharging fluid to and from fluid actuators. Consequently, when the vehicle is just starting to corner, laterally moving load is controlled, and quick-responsive steering is realized.

Electronic controlled fluid suspension system

A vibration control apparatus detects a physical value influencing characteristics of a suspension supporting a vibrating body and a state value representing movement of the suspension, calculates an optimal target control force in consideration of an external force or disturbance acting on the suspension on the basis of the physical and state values as outputs from a state detecting system, calculates the detection control force corresponding to the detected physical value, and continuously variably controls the suspension characteristics so as to generate a control force corresponding to the difference between the target and detection control forces in consideration of the external force or disturbance acting on the suspension, whereby vibrations are prevented by equivalently applying the target control force on the suspension.

Vibration control apparatus

In a vibration control apparatus, a physical value influencing characteristics of a suspension for supporting a vibrating body and a state value representing movement of the suspension are detected. A frequency distribution of these values with respect to levels is calculated every predetermined period of time. A target control force is calculated on the basis of the frequency distribution in consideration of a continuous change in external state. An actual control force (detection control force) is calculated by the detected physical value. The suspension characteristics are continuously, variably controlled so as to equivalently generate a control force corresponding to a difference between the target and detection control forces. As a result, the target control force is equivalently applied to the suspension, thereby damping the vibrations. The vibration control apparatus can generate an optimal target control force free from the influence of an external state change on the basis of the frequency distribution of the state and physical values of the suspension.

In controlling roll and pitch of a vehicle body responsive to a displacement signal produced at each wheel of the vehicle, each signal is low-pass-filtered with a certain threshold frequency to prevent hunting of the control due to an excessively high frequency component (such as noise or a component corresponding to road irregularities) of the signal. According to this invention, the threshold frequency is changed to a higher value in order to get quick attitude control when the roll or pitch of the body is expected, while it is set at a lower value when no such attitude change is expected in order to prevent hunting of the control.

Electronic controlled fluid suspension system for controlling roll and

An apparatus for controlling steering of wheels of a vehicle comprises a control means, a driving means, and an actuator means. The control means comprises a feed forward signal operating means, a feed back signal operating means for generating signals for variables representing vehicle behaviors and output from a vehicle behavior sensor, and a control signal operating means for calculating a difference or sum of the signals output from the feed forwad and feedback signal operating means. The feed forward signal operating means comprises a steering angle signal circuit, a steering angular velocity signal operating circuit, a steering angle signal operating circuit having a first coefficient circuit for multiplying a steering angle signal with a coefficient, and an adder for adding the outputs from the steering angle signal circuit, the steering angle signal operating circuit, and the steering angular velocity operating circuit. A behavior correction capacity against a side wind or disturbance is very high, and a steering system can be controlled to shorten the response time for changes in vehicle behaviors with respect to a steering input, thereby providing optimal steering. The control means further comprises a gain changing means to supply optimal coefficients to the feed forward and feedback signal operating means.

Apparatus for controlling steering of wheels of a vehicle

In this vehicle height adjustment system, a plurality of actuator assemblies are provided, one corresponding to each one of the vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending it from the vehicle body. These actuator assemblies have pressure chambers, and each is adapted to increase or decrease the vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding wheel as respective results of supplying or discharging of working fluid to or from its pressure chamber. Working fluid supply/discharge means are provided corresponding to the actuator assemblies and supply and discharge working fluid to and from their pressure chambers. Wheel loading detection means are provided for sensing parameters representative of the loadings imposed by the vehicle body on the wheels, and vehicle height detection means are provided for sensing the heights of the vehicle above the wheels. A means for computing and control controls the working fluid supply/discharge means, based on the deviations of the actual wheel heights from standard wheel heights, and carries out control adjustment of the actual wheel heights to the standard wheel heights by, at least when the vehicle speed is below a determinate value, carrying out a correction to the adjustment control of the working fluid supply/discharge means, based upon the deviations of the actual wheel loadings from standard wheel loadings, by an amount appropriate substantially to eliminate the loading deviations.

System for vehicle height adjustment with loading deviation correction

In this vehicle height adjustment system, a plurality of actuator assemblies are provided, one corresponding to each one of the vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending it from the vehicle body. These actuator assemblies have pressure chambers, and each is adapted to increase or decrease the vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding wheel as respective results of supplying or discharging of working fluid to or from its pressure chamber. Working fluid supply/discharge means are provided corresponding to the actuator assemblies and supply and discharge working fluid to and from their pressure chambers. Vehicle height detection means are provided for sensing the heights of the vehicle above the wheels. A means detects the rate of change of the steering angle of the vehicle. And a means for computing and control controls the working fluid supply/discharge means, based on the deviations of the actual wheel heights from standard wheel heights, and carries out control adjustment of the actual wheel heights to the standard wheel heights, by performing a prediction calculation of the fluctuations in wheel heights caused by vehicle rolling from the rate of change of steering angle as detected by the means for detecting the rate of change of steering angle and from the vehicle speed as detected by the vehicle speed detecting means, and by carrying out a correction to the adjustment control of the working fluid supplying and discharging means, based upon the calculation result, by an amount appropriate substantially to eliminate the wheel height fluctuations.

System for vehicle height adjustment with steering angle change rate

In this system for vehicle roll control, a plurality of duty radio controlled actuator assemblies are provided, one corresponding to each one of the vehicle wheels, and resiliently suspended from the vehicle body. These actuator assemblies have pressure chambers, and each is adapted to increase or decrease the vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding vehicle wheel as a result of the supplying or discharging of working fluid to or from its pressure chamber. Working fluid supplying and discharging means supply working fluid to and discharge working fluid from the pressure chambers of the actuator assemblies. The system further includes means for sensing the road speed of the vehicle, and means for sensing the steering angle of the vehicle. Vehicle height detection means are also provided for sensing the heights of the vehicle above the vehicle wheels. A means for computing and control calculates the deviations of the actual detected vehicle body heights from standard vehicle body heights; when a certain condition is satisfied, it controls the working fluid supplying and discharging means according to a first duty ratio according to the deviations of the actual vehicle body heights, so as to maintain the deviations of the actual vehicle body heights within predetermined ranges; and then it controls the working fluid supplying and discharging means in the reverse order according to a second duty ratio.

System for vehicle body roll control with overshoot prevention

In this system for vehicle roll control, one actuator assembly is provided corresponding to each vehicle wheel and resiliently suspends it from the vehicle body. Each of these actuator assemblies is adapted to increase or decrease the vehicle height at its vehicle wheel as a result of a control signal being supplied. Control means are provided corresponding to the actuator assemblies and serve to supply control signals to them. A vehicle speed detecting means senses road speed, a steering angle detecting means senses steering angle, a means senses the rate of change of steering angle, and a means detects the actual roll angle .phi..sub.t of the vehicle body. A computing and control means computes a steady state roll angle .phi..sub..infin. of the vehicle body from the vehicle speed and the steering angle, advances the phase of a signal representative of the steady state roll angle .phi..sub..infin. to thereby compute a compensating value .PHI..sub..infin. of roll angle, computes an amendment value .phi..sub.x of roll angle in accordance with the rate of change of steering angle, computes the difference .phi. based upon the desired roll angle .phi..sub.a of the vehicle body, the compensating value .PHI..sub..infin., the amendment value .phi..sub.x, and the actual roll angle .phi..sub.t following the equation: .phi.=.phi.a- (k.sub.1 .PHI..sub..infin. +k.sub.2 .PHI.t+k.sub.3 .PHI.x), where k1, k2 and k3 are positive constants; and controls the actuator assemblies, via the control means, in accordance with the difference .phi., when the absolute value of the difference .phi. is larger than a predetermined value.

System for vehicle body roll control detecting and compensating for

In this system for vehicle roll control, a plurality of actuator assemblies are provided, one corresponding to each one of the vehicle wheels and resiliently suspending it from the vehicle body. Each of these actuator assemblies is adapted to increase or decrease the vehicle height at a location corresponding to its corresponding vehicle wheel as results of control signals being supplied to it. A plurality of control means are provided corresponding to the actuator assemblies and serve to supply control signals to them. A vehicle speed detecting means senses the road speed of the vehicle, a steering angle detecting means senses the steering angle of the vehicle, and a lateral acceleration detecting means detects the lateral acceleration of the vehicle body. A means for computing and control predictingly computes the roll angle of the vehicle body from the vehicle speed sensed by the vehicle speed detecting means and the steering angle sensed by the steering angle detecting means, and controls the plurality of actuator assemblies, via the plurality of control means, in accordance with the computed roll angle, so as to reduce the rolling of the vehicle body to keep the vehicle body rolling within a determinate range. This computing and control means is further adapted to compare the direction of vehicle steering as detected by the steering angle detecting means with the direction of lateral acceleration of the vehicle body as detected by the lateral acceleration detecting means, and does not effect such controlling of the plurality of actuator assemblies, when the direction of vehicle steering is opposite to the direction of lateral acceleration of the vehicle body.

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Nagoya, Japan

Shunichi Doi