Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Kayaba Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shuuichi Buma

Toshio Onuma

Kaoru Ohashi

Toshio Aburaya

Takashi Yonekawa

Osamu Takeda

Nobutaka Ohwa

Ken Asami

Kunihito Sato

Hiroyuki Ikemoto

Masaki Kawanishi

Toshiaki Hamada

Masami Itou

Kouichi Kokubo

Shingo Urababa

Yoshiyuki Yasui

Hajime Kamimae

Shinichi Tagawa

Shunichi Doi

Yuji Yokoya

Tsukasa Watanabe

Hitoshi Araki

Jaesung Cho

Hiroshi Miyata

Katsuhiko Hattori

Osamu Komazawa

Daisuke Yamada

Katsuyuki Sano

Yutaka Iguchi

Masanori Hirose

Takami Sugiyama

Osamu Horiyama

Masaaki Tabata

Katsumi Suzuki

Nobuyasu Suzumura

Shigetaka Isogai

Akiya Taneda

Hideyuki Kobayashi

Yuuki Ohta

Toshio Oonuma

Kazuaki Sugiyama

Sigetaka Isogai

Masaaki Kawashima

Kinihito Sato

Satoshi Naganawa

Tetsuaki Kawata

An emitting device emits parallel light beams which impinge on a road surface, forming marks. An imaging device takes an image of an image pickup object containing the marks to obtain a picked-up image. A longitudinal distance between mark images respectively corresponding to the marks is detected. A larger gradient can be obtained in the case where the distance is long than in the case where the distance is short. While the gradient of the road surface is obtained based on the distance as described above, a relative positional relationship between the two mark images is not changed as long as the gradient of the road surface is the same even when the height position of an over-spring member provided with the emitting device and the imaging device is changed. Accordingly, the gradient of the road surface can be obtained without consideration of the displacement of the over-spring member.

Road surface state obtaining device and suspension system

A colloidal damper disposed between two members for damping a relative movement of the two members, including: (I) a cylinder device including a housing and a piston which are connected to one and the other of the two members and which define a chamber; (II) a colloidal-solution sealed body accommodated in the chamber and including: (A) a colloidal solution in which are mixed a first working fluid and porous bodies each having pores; and (B) a hermetically sealed container which has flexibility and which hermetically seals the colloidal solution contained therein; and (III) a second working fluid contained in the chamber together with the colloidal-solution sealed body, wherein the colloidal damper is configured to damp the relative movement of the two members by the inflow and the outflow of the first working fluid into and out of the pores upon the relative movement of the two members.

Suspension apparatus for vehicle

A suspension system including: (a) a suspension spring; (b) a shock absorber; and (c) a generator for generating a displacement force forcing sprung and unsprung members of a vehicle to be displaced toward or away from each other. The generator includes (c-1) an elastic body connected one of the sprung and unsprung members and (c-2) an actuator disposed between the elastic body and the other of the sprung and unsprung members. The actuator includes a motor, and is operable to generate an actuator force based on a motor force generated by the motor, such that the generated actuator force acts on the elastic body and such that the generated actuator force is transmitted to the sprung and unsprung members via the elastic body so as to act as the displacement force. The suspension system further includes (d) a controller for controlling operation of the motor so as to control the displacement force. The controller performs a damping-force control for controlling the displacement force as a damping force for damping vibration of the spring member and/or the unsprung members.

Vehicle suspension system

In a suspension system for a vehicle, a suspension spring, an absorber for controllably changing the damping coefficient becoming the reference of amount of its own generating damping force, a displacement force generator for controllably generating a displacement force are arranged in parallel between sprung and unsprung members. A vibration damping control is executed based on a so-called skyhook damper theory by utilizing the displacement force. In execution of the vibration damping control, when a sign of sprung-member absolute velocity Vu and a sign of sprung/unsprung-members velocity difference &#x394;V are the same to each other, a damping-coefficient increasing control is executed to set a target damping coefficient C* of the absorber to a coefficient value Cthat is larger than a coefficient value Cto which the target damping coefficient C* is set when the sign of sprung-member absolute velocity Vu and the sign of sprung/unsprung-members velocity difference &#x394;V are different from each other. Vibration of the sprung member can be effectively damped by cooperation of the absorber and the displacement force generator.

Suspension system for vehicle

A stabilizer system for a vehicle includes a stabilizer bar and an actuator and that executes a control actively changing stiffness of the stabilizer bar in accordance with roll moment acting on a body of the vehicle. Each of a situation in which the vehicle is running straightforward and a situation in which a torque generating direction of a motor of the actuator changes in opposite direction plural times is identified as a specific situation. In the specific situation, a control of changing an operation mode of the motor such that presence or absence of occurrence of resistance of the actuator against its operation by external input force is changeable, and a control of limiting a supply current to the motor such that the torque generating direction of the motor is inhibited from coinciding with a direction away from a neutral position are executed.

Vehicle stabilizer system

A vehicle stabilizer system including: (a) a stabilizer bar () including (a-1) a torsion bar portion (), and (a-2) an arm portion () that extends from the torsion bar portion in a direction not parallel to the torsion bar portion; (b) an actuator () configured to rotate the stabilizer bar about an axis of the torsion bar portion; and (c) a link rod () interconnecting the suspension arm () and one of opposite ends of the arm portion that is remote from the torsion bar portion. The stabilizer bar generates a stabilizing force which is dependent on a reaction that is generated as a result of torsion of the torsion bar portion, and which forces the wheel () and the body in a selected one of a direction toward each other and a direction away from each other. The actuator allows the stabilizer bar to generate the stabilizing force whose magnitude is changeable by operation of the actuator. The link rod is inclined with respect to the suspension arm to which the link rod is connected, such that an angle defined by the link rod and the suspension arm is not 90&#xb0;.

A stabilizer system for a vehicle, including: (a) a stabilizer bar () including (a-1) a torsion bar portion (), and (a-2) an arm portion () that extends from the torsion bar portion toward a wheel () of the vehicle; and (b) an actuator () including (b-1) a motor (), and (b-2) a speed reducer () that reduces a speed of the motor while transmitting a force of the motor to the torsion bar portion of the stabilizer bar. The stabilizer bar generates a stabilizing force which is dependent on a reaction generated as a result of torsion of the torsion bar portion, and which forces the wheel and the vehicle body in a direction toward each other or a direction away from each other. The actuator allows the stabilizer bar to generate the stabilizing force whose magnitude is dependent on a magnitude of the motor force and is changeable depending on an amount of rotation of the torsion bar portion. The actuator includes an actuator-efficiency changing mechanism changing a negative efficiency of the actuator, depending on a direction of the force of the motor.

An adjuster device includes (a) a shaft held by a vehicle body; (b) an arm extending from the shaft in a direction intersecting an axial direction of the shaft; (c) an actuator causing one of rotation of the shaft and axial movement of the shaft in the axial direction; and (d) a motion converter converting the one of the rotation of the shaft and the axial movement of the shaft, into the other of the rotation of the shaft and the axial movement of the shaft. The arm is connected at a distal end portion thereof to one of at least one suspension arm, so as to enable the rotation of the shaft to cause change in a vertical distance between a wheel and the vehicle body. The shaft is connected to one of the at least one suspension arm or to an axle carrier, so as to enable the axial movement of the shaft to cause change in an alignment of the wheel. Also disclosed is an adjusting system including the adjuster device.

Device for changing distance between wheel and vehicle body, and system including the device

In a stabilizer control apparatus for controlling a torsional rigidity of a stabilizer of a vehicle, an actual lateral acceleration and a calculated lateral acceleration are obtained. Then, influence amount caused by the calculated lateral acceleration is set to be greater than influence amount caused by the actual lateral acceleration, when the vehicle is moving straight, whereas the influence amount caused by the actual lateral acceleration is set to be increased, with the turning operation of the vehicle being increased, to actively control the rolling motion of the vehicle body.

Stabilizer control apparatus

A stabilizer system for a vehicle including: a stabilizer bar connected to left and right wheels at respective opposite ends thereof; an actuator which has an electric motor and which changes elastic force to be exhibited by the stabilizer bar, as a result of control of an operation of the electric motor; and a control device which controls the operation of the electric motor, wherein the control device includes an operation-mode changing portion which changes an operation mode of the electric motor that depends on a motor-phase-connecting formation and a power-supply status of the electric motor, on the basis of at least one of a vehicle running state and road surface condition.

In a stabilizer control apparatus for a vehicle, a stabilizer includes a pair of stabilizer bars disposed between a right wheel and a left wheel of the vehicle, and an actuator having an electric motor disposed between the stabilizer bars. A turning determination device is provided for determining a turning operation of the vehicle. And, a controller is provided for controlling the electric motor in response to the result determined by the turning determination device. The electric motor is substantially prohibited from being fed with electric current, when the turning operation of the vehicle is being decreased.

In a stabilizer control apparatus for a vehicle, a stabilizer includes a pair of stabilizer bars disposed between a right wheel and a left wheel of the vehicle, and an actuator having an electric motor and a speed reducing mechanism disposed between the stabilizer bars. A turning determination device is provided for determining change in turning operation of the vehicle. And, a controller is provided for changing a control parameter of the electric motor in response to the result determined by the turning determination device, to control a torsional rigidity of the stabilizer. As for control parameters of the electric motor, may be employed a desired value of electric current for actuating the electric motor, for example.

A stabilizer control device for vehicle includes a pair of stabilizer bars () provided between a left wheel and a right wheel of a vehicle, and an actuator including a reduction mechanism (RD) connecting between said pair of stabilizer bars () and a motor (M) connected to the reduction mechanism (RD) for providing torsion force to said pair of stabilizer bars () through the reduction mechanism (RD) wherein the reduction mechanism (RD) comprises a first gear () and a second gear () for generating relative rotational speeds differential therebetween, the first gear () and the second gear () are coaxially placed adjacent to each other, and opposed side faces of stabilizer bars () are adjacently connected with the first gear () and the second gear () respectively and disposed in the reduction mechanism (RD).

Stabilizer control device for vehicle

In a stabilizer apparatus for a vehicle, an electronic control unit calculates a target current of an electric motor from vehicle speed, steering angle, and lateral acceleration, and increases and decreases actual current such that the calculated target current flows through the motor. The control unit decreases the actual current by a predetermined amount when the difference between the target current and the actual current becomes smaller than a predetermined value during control of increasing the actual current. The predetermined amount is equal to the difference between the determined target current at the time of the detection of the difference and current which is necessary to obtain, during control of decreasing the actual current, an output torque equal to the output torque of the speed reduction mechanism obtained as a result of the target current flowing through the electric motor.

Stabilizer apparatus for vehicle

A control system of an automotive vehicle including a vehicle height control apparatus for adjusting height of the vehicle under control of fluid under pressure supplied from a first fluid pump and a brake control apparatus for regulating braking forces applied to a set of road wheels of the vehicle under control of fluid under pressure supplied from a second fluid pump, wherein a single source of driving force in the form of an electric motor is adapted in common to the first and second control apparatuses to drive both the first and second fluid pumps.

Control system of automotive vehicle

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Toyota, Japan

Shuuichi Buma