Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kawasaki Motors, Ltd.

Takenori Terada

Kazuya Nagasaka

Hiroshi Ishii

Isao Fujii

Taichi Inaba

Akihito Abe

Atsushi Sano

Takunobu Nishida

Taku Nishihira

A control requirement determiner includes: a storage that stores at least one piece of location information and one piece of behavior information as past data in which the location information and the behavior information are associated with each other, the location information indicating a geographic location, the behavior information being related to a behavior exhibited by a vehicle body of a vehicle at the location indicated by the location information when the vehicle traveled in the past; and processing circuitry that calculates, based on the vehicle speed information, the acceleration information, and the sprung weight information of the past data, a degree of unevenness of a road surface, and determines, based on the calculated degree of unevenness of the road surface, a control requirement to be imposed on a control target of a rough terrain vehicle at the location indicated by the location information of the past data during travel.

Control requirement determiner, rough terrain vehicle, and control requirement determining method for calculating surface unevenness

A planetary carrier includes: a first plate and a second plate which pivotally support planetary gears between opposing plate surfaces of the first and second plates such that the planetary gears are located on a circular path so as to be spaced apart from each other, the circular path being a path of rotational centers of the planetary gears; and coupling plates which are located between the opposing plate surfaces, are spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction of the circular path, couple the first plate and the second plate, and are coupled to external members at positions away from the planetary gears in the circumferential direction. The coupling plates are coupled to the external members at an outside of the circular path in a radial direction. Each of the coupling plates is coupled to the first plate and the second plate only at a first side in the circumferential direction.

Planetary carrier and planetary gear mechanism

A tire force estimator includes a measuring unit configured to measure an acceleration of a vehicle body of a four-wheeled vehicle in a horizontal direction and an acceleration of at least one of four wheels of the four-wheeled vehicle in a vertical direction; and a processing unit configured to estimate a tire force acting on the at least one wheel from a ground surface in the vertical direction based on the acceleration of the vehicle body in the horizontal direction and the acceleration of the at least one wheel in the vertical direction.

Tire force estimator, four-wheeled vehicle, and tire force estimation method

A saddle type vehicle includes two front wheels, a left front wheel supporting member and a right front wheel supporting member which are turned around a left front wheel turning axis and a right front wheel turning axis respectively, and an upper lean arm and a lower lean arm which are rotated around an axis perpendicular to a vehicle width direction. The upper arm is connected to the left and right members via first and second connecting parts. The lower arm is connected to the left and right members via third and fourth connecting parts. The first and third parts are provided in the left front wheel turning axis. The second and fourth parts are provided in the right front wheel turning axis. A distance between the first and second parts is equal to the distance between the third and fourth parts.

Saddle type vehicle

A saddle type vehicle includes two front wheels, a left front wheel supporting member and a right front wheel supporting member which are turned around a left front wheel turning axis and a right front wheel turning axis respectively, an upper lean arm and a lower lean arm which are rotated around an axis perpendicular to a vehicle width direction, and a steering rod. The upper arm is connected to the left and right members via first and second connecting parts which are provided on the left front wheel turning axis. The lower arm is connected to the left and right members via third and fourth connecting parts which are provided on the right front wheel turning axis. The steering rod is arranged forward of the steering spindle. In a front view of the vehicle body, the steering rod is arranged between the upper and lower arms.

Growing community of inventors

Kobe, Japan

Takenori Terada