Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidoshi Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Jidosha Kaisha

Yasuhiro Tsutsumi

Yutaka Suzuki

Yuji Yokoya

Yoshimichi Hara

Akira Fukami

Hiroyuki Kawata

Eiju Matsunaga

Makoto Shiozaki

Hiroshi Katou

Nobuyoshi Onogi

Masaya Watanabe

Toru Ochi

Kenji Marunaka

Daisuke Tsuji

Noriyuki Imanishi

Akira Hukami

Kazuo Takasou

A motive power stoppage guidance apparatus includes at least one of a display device configured to be disposed in a compartment of a vehicle, and a sound output device configured to output a sound in the compartment of the vehicle; and an indication control unit configured, when the vehicle is traveling in a state where a motive power stops, or when the likelihood is high in that the vehicle is traveling in the state where the motive power stops, to execute at least one of having the display device display at least one of that the motive power is in a stopped state, and a recommended operational method, and having the sound output device output an indication sound.

Motive power operation guidance apparatus

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping coefficient controller which alters the setting of the damping coefficient on the basis of a relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a damping coefficient alteration holding unit which continuously maintains the setting of the damping coefficient at a first level for a holding period after the damping coefficient controller alters the setting of the damping coefficient from a second level to the first level less than the second level, and a road surface condition judgement unit which judges whether or not a road surface on which the vehicle has traveled for the holding period is rough. Further, the system includes a holding period correction unit which elongates the holding period which is to be supplied to the damping coefficient alteration holding unit when the road surface condition judgment unit determines that the road surface is rough.

Suspension control system having damping coefficient discretely varied

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for each wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of a relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface.

Suspension control system

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force detector which generates a damping force detection signal which indicates a change of a damping force of the shock absorber based on a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running. The system also includes a sprung resonance component extraction unit which extracts a sprung resonance component signal from the damping force detection signal. The sprung resonance component signal includes components having frequencies around a sprung resonance frequency of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a determining part which determines whether or not the sprung resonance component signal exceeds a first level range provided for detecting a sign of the occurrence of a long-term vehicle vibration and which outputs a determination result. Moreover, the system includes a damping force controller which controls the shock absorber so that when the determining part determines that the sprung resonance component signal exceeds the first level range, the damping force of the shock absorber is altered to and maintained at an increased level and thus the suspension is maintained at a state which corresponds to the increased level and which is harder than before.

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of the relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects, for every first period, the condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning, for every second period, the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface. Further, the system includes a period adjustment unit which adjusts the first period on the basis of a vehicle speed.

A shock absorber control system having shock absorbers provided respectively between wheels of a vehicle and a body thereof includes road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers, and damping force characteristic alteration units provided for the respective shock absorbers. The shock absorber control system also includes a correction unit for separately generating signals indicative of detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers on the basis of road surface condition detection signals generated by the road surface condition detecting units and for separately correcting either reference values used for determining whether or not the road surface is rough by the damping force characteristic alteration units or the road surface condition detection signals on the basis of the detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers.

Shock absorber control system

An apparatus for controlling a damping force of a shock absorber provided between a wheel of a vehicle and a body thereof includes a road surface condition detecting unit for detecting a roughness of a road surface on which the vehicle is traveling, and a damping force characteristic alteration unit for altering the setting of the damping force of the shock absorber on the basis of the roughness of the road surface detected by the road surface condition detecting unit. The apparatus also includes a damping force detecting unit, for detecting a magnitude of the damping force of the shock absorber, and an alteration speed control unit for controlling, on the basis of the magnitude of the damping force detected by the damping force detecting unit, an alteration speed at which the setting of the damping force is altered so that the alteration speed decreases as the magnitude of the damping force increases.

Apparatus for controlling damping force of shock absorber

A suspension control system controls suspensions provided for wheels of a vehicle includes a driving condition detecting part for detecting a driving condition of the vehicle, and a determination part for determining whether or not the driving condition detected by the driving condition detecting part coincides with a predetermined driving condition. The suspensions are grouped into a plurality of groups. Also the system includes a control part for separately controlling the suspensions on the basis of the driving condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition does not coincide with the predetermined driving condition and for controlling the suspensions for each of the groups so that the suspensions in an identical group are set to an identical condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition coincides with the predetermined driving condition.

A drive system of a piezo-type actuator for use in a motor vehicle, which piezo-type actuator is constructed with a piezoelectric device which is expandable and contractible in accordance with application of a voltage thereto. The drive system includes a voltage-increasing section for increasing an output voltage of a power source mounted on the motor vehicle so as to develop a drive voltage for the piezo-type actuator and a voltage-application section for applying to the piezoelectric device of the piezo-type actuator the drive voltage. Also included in the drive system is an abnormality detection section which is arranged so as to an abnormality of the drive voltage developed by the voltage-increasing section. A safety controller is responsive to an abnormality signal from the abnormality detection section for prohibiting the application of the drive voltage to the piezoelectric device thereof and further discharging charges accumulated in the piezoelectric device thereof when the abnormality detection section detects the abnormality of the developed drive voltage. With this arrangement, it is possible to prevent troubles due to the abnormality of the drive voltage to be applied to the piezoelectric device of the piezo-type actuator.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Yasuhiro Tsutsumi