Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd.

Other

Takehiko Fushimi

Hiroyuki Ichikawa

Daichi Mizushima

Naoji Sakakibara

Takayoshi Yasuda

Hiroshi Nakashima

Kenichi Sato

Hideki Oshima

Hisayasu Mase

Takeshi Hatano

Atsushi Muramatsu

Kenji Asano

Kazutaka Kuwana

Shinji Kawai

Akio Hashimoto

Tadaichi Matsumoto

Hiroshi Naito

Katsuyoshi Mizumoto

Hiroshi Kajino

Fumiaki Hirota

Kazutaka Tamura

A vibration damping apparatus actively damping vibration of a vibration source by adding vibration to the vibration source includes a vibrational state detecting means and a vibrator including a magnetic pole, a coil, and a controlling means, and the vibrator adds vibration to the vibration source by controlling a current-supplied state of the coil to vibrate the coil and the magnetic pole relatively, wherein the controlling means selectively switches a vibration generating mode and a regenerative mode based on the vibrational state of the vibration source, the vibration is added to the vibration source to damp the vibration of the vibration source in the vibration generating mode, and regenerative current is caused by an electro motive force generated at the coil by the vibration of the vibration source to flow into a regenerative resistor in the regenerative mode.

Vibration damping apparatus

An active vibration insulator includes an electromagnetic actuator, a controller, and a bad-roads processor. The electromagnetic actuator generates vibrating forces depending on electric-current supplies. The controller carries out vibrating-forces generation control. In the vibrating-forces generation control, the electric-current supplies are made variable so as to actively inhibit vibrations generated by an on-vehicle vibration generating source of a vehicle from transmitting to a specific part of the vehicle based on cyclic pulsating signals output from the on-vehicle vibration generating source. Thus, the controller lets the electromagnetic actuator generate the vibrating forces. The bad-roads processor stops the vibrating-forces generation control effected by the controller when the vehicle travels on bad roads.

Active vibration insulator

A method of setting control data by an active vibration isolation control system includes the steps of selecting, when a frequency of a pulse signal actually detected is superior to a predetermined frequency, appropriate control data selected from among predetermined data maps incorporating control data capable of securing, in accordance with various vehicle driving conditions respectively, a control condition in which operation of the vibrator is preferably controlled, calculating a deviation between the appropriate control data commensurate with the actual vehicle driving condition at the time of controlling and actually detected data representing vibration subjected to a vehicle specific position, the actually detected data obtained in terms of a same physics amount as a physics amount of the control data, and modifying the appropriate control data on the basis of the calculated deviation.

Method of setting control data in an active vibration isolation control system and a control method thereof

An active vibration insulator includes an electromagnetic actuator, a control-signals generating device, a driver, a calculator, and a judging device. The electromagnetic actuator generates vibrating forces depending on electric-current supplies. The control-signals generating device generates cyclic control signals based on cyclic pulsating signals output from a vibration generating source of a vehicle. The cyclic control signals actively inhibit vibrations generated by the vibration generating source from transmitting to a specific part of the vehicle. The driver drives the electromagnetic actuator by making the electric-current supplies variable based on the cyclic control signals. The calculator calculates an estimated transfer function composed of estimated values of a transfer function for a transfer system including the electromagnetic actuator and the driver. The judging device judges an inoperative malfunction of the electromagnetic actuator based the estimated transfer function.

An active vibration insulator includes an electromagnetic actuator, a cyclic-control-signals output device, and an electromagnetic-actuator driver. The electromagnetic-actuator driver includes an asymmetric half-bridge circuit, and an actuating-signals output device. The actuating-signal output device outputs a signal for turning on one of a high-side switch and a low-side switch of the asymmetric half-bridge circuit, and outputs a pulse-width-modulated actuating signal for actuating the other one of them by means of pulse-width modulation based on the cyclic control signals, which the cyclic-control-signals output device outputs, or outputs a pulse-width-modulated actuating signal for actuating both of them by means of pulse-width modulation when the cyclic control signals are positive. Moreover, the actuating-signal output device outputs a signal for turning off one of them, and outputs a pulse-width-modulated actuating signal for actuating the other one of them by means of pulse-width modulation when the cyclic control signals are negative.

A driving system of a bridge circuit for driving an inductance load turns OFF one of switching elements on either an upper arm connected to a power supply or a lower arm connected to a ground and turns ON the other one of the switching elements on the same arm when a pulse width modulation signal is OFF when a phase difference occurs between an electric current of a control signal with a sine wave and a voltage and when a polarity of the electric current differs from a polarity of the voltage, wherein the electric current is circulated via the other one of the switching elements, the flywheel diode connected to the one of the switching elements, and the inductance load.

Driving method of a bridge circuit for driving an inductance load

A plurality of lamps to inclusive are supplied with a voltage one after another in sequence. A time duration during which the voltage is supplied to each of the lamps to inclusive is controlled in PWM fashion to restrict an amount of voltage supplied thereto. A current detect circuit portion solely detects all of the voltages supplied to the lamps to inclusive, respectively. Each of the voltages exceeds a threshold value, a dead band between two adjacent voltage supply durations. Thus, it is possible to restrict possible electromagnetic noises which are generated upon voltage supply to lamps to inclusive in a vehicular lamp control apparatus in which the lamps to inclusive are supplied with voltage from a high voltage battery

Vehicular lamp control apparatus

In a steering control apparatus for an automotive vehicle, there are provided a steering mechanism which is linked with a road wheel to be controlled, an actuator for actuating the steering mechanism, and a steering angle sensor which is arranged in the vicinity of the steering mechanism for detecting a steered position of the road wheel. The apparatus includes a first control circuit which is provided for setting a desired steering angle of the road wheel, and includes a second control circuit which is electrically connected to the first control circuit, and which controls a current to be fed into the actuator in response to a difference between the desired steering angle and an actual steering angle which is produced on the basis of the steered position detected by the steering angle sensor, to control a steering angle of the road wheel. The second control circuit is formed as one body with the steering angle sensor and arranged in the vicinity of the steering mechanism. The second control circuit is electrically connected to the actuator through a connector, without a wiring harness.

Steering control apparatus for an automotive vehicle

The amount of wiring required in a steering control system is reduced, and a power loss which occurs in the wiring of the power system is also reduced. The influences of electric noises upon the wiring between sensors and a control unit is reduced, thus improving the reliability. The control unit 9 connected with sensors and a servo unit SVU each include an independent computer 1, 8, and are connected to each other through a communication line. The control unit 9 is disposed adjacent to the sensors, while the servo unit SVU is disposed adjacent to an actuator. Information relating to a target steer angle and which is transmitted is chosen to be a variance T.DELTA. thereof, and on the receiving end, T.DELTA. is accumulated to obtain a target steer angle T.theta.. A steer angle deviation 0e is transmitted from SVU to the control unit 9. The presence or absence of any abnormality occurring is examined by checking the period of signal reception and signal values.

Steering control system for vehicle

A fail-safe arrangement for an electrical power steering system is directed to providing a control arrangement for a power steering motor which will prevent abnormal operation from having adverse impact. The control system detects the welding or sticking together of closed relay contacs and functions to prevent such a situation by monitoring the motor terminal voltage so as to cut off power above a predetermined value regardless of position of the relay contacts.

Fail-safe means for electrical power steering

A motor driven power steering apparatus includes a steering mechanism having a torque detector for detecting torque applied to the mechanism through a steering wheel. An electric motor is connected to the steering mechanism through an electromagnetic clutch. The current in the electric motor is monitored and if it becomes excessive, a control circuit is activated to deactivate the clutch. The electric motor is disconnected from the steering mechanism at the time the engine of the vehicle is starting and at other times during operation of the vehicle to determine if excess current flows through the motor which would be indicative of a malfunction of the electric motor.

Motor driven power steering apparatus

A motor assisted steering apparatus has its wheels oriented with respect to a car body in response to a combination of a steering force which is supplied by a manual operation and a driving force developed by an electric motor which is energized in accordance with the steering force. The existence of an abnormality is annunciated when the relationship between the manual steering force and the operational condition of the motor deviates from a predetermined relationship. For example, the existence of an abnormality is annunciated when the motor is energized even though a steering wheel is not substantially operated, when the motor is energized for rotation in a direction which causes the wheels to be turned to the left even though the steering wheel is turned to the right or vice versa. The existence of such abnormality is detected by monitoring the manual steering force and the operational condition of the motor, without requiring any addition of sensors which have no direct connection with the operation of the apparatus.

Abnormality detector for motor assisted steering apparatus

A torque detector is provided, which functions in such a manner that as torque is applied between an input shaft and an output shaft, an angular displacement is produced between the input shaft and the output shaft, this angular displacement is converted into an axial displacement by means of a torque-axial displacement converting mechanism to bend a cantilever fixed between a housing and the torque-axial displacement converting mechanism, by means of a strain gage attached to the cantilever the deformation of the cantilever is converted into a change of electric resistance, and by causing a current to flow through the strain gage the torque applied between the input shaft and the output shaft is converted into a voltage.

Torque detector

A water closet with a topical body washing mechanism including a water warmer mounted on the water closet and a spout pipe having a nozzle at the distal end therof for spouting warm water from the water warmer. The spout pipe is movable to and from an inoperative rest position within a bowl of the water closet, a second position advanced over the bowl to direct a jet of warm water toward the anus of the user and a third position further advanced over the bowl to direct a jet of warm water in a direction suitable for use as a bidet. An operating lever has a cam mounted on its rotational axis, the cam being contoured correspondingly to the second and third positions of the spout pipe to actuate a switch thereby starting a motor of a pump which sends forward warm water from the water warmer to the spouting nozzle. The electric circuit which includes the aforementioned motor and switch has in series a switching element and a delay circuit. When the motor switch is closed by the cam, the switching element is actuated starting the emission of water jets with a delay. Therefore, gushing of water at the second position is prevented when the spout pipe is shifted quickly from the first to the third position.

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Kariya, Japan

Takehiko Fushimi