Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshikazu Konishi

Yoshihiro Kanamaru

Tetsuro Hamada

Tetsurou Hamada

Kazuhiro Nakano

Naoki Hayashibe

Kouji Kuroda

Mitsuhiro Iwata

Ryuichi Kawanaka

Hideaki Fukui

A process for controlling a yaw moment in a vehicle by generating a braking force in one of the left and right wheels of the vehicle and by generating a driving force in the other wheel. When a vehicle is accelerated during the turning thereof, grounding loads of rear wheels are increased in order to generate a yaw moment in a direction opposite from a turning direction. However, such yaw moment can be eliminated in order to enhance the turning performance by bringing one of the hydraulic clutches into an engaged state with a torque which is proportional to a product of longitudinal and lateral accelerations. Consequently, a braking force and a driving force in inner and outer wheels during turning of the vehicle, respectively, are generated. When the vehicle is decelerated during turning thereof, grounding loads of front wheels are increased to a yaw moment in the same direction as the turning direction. However, such yaw moment can be eliminated in order to enhance the high-speed stable performance by bringing one of the hydraulic clutches into an engaged state with a torque which is proportional to longitudinal and lateral accelerations. Thus, when the vehicle is accelerated or decelerated during the turning thereof, the generation of an undesired yaw moment can be avoided in order to insure the turning performance and the high-speed stable performance.

Process for controlling yaw moment in vehicle

A gearbox and two hydraulic clutches are disposed between left and right follower wheels of a vehicle. The torque transfer capacity of the hydraulic clutches is controlled to effect the distribution of a torque between the follower wheels. In a low lateral acceleration range, the torque transfer capacity is increased in accordance with an increase in lateral acceleration to enhance the turning performance and the high-speed stability performance. In a high lateral acceleration range, the torque transfer capacity is decreased in accordance with an increase in lateral acceleration, such that it does not exceed a largest frictional force of a wheel acting as an inner wheel during turning movement of the vehicle, thereby insuring a cornering force.

Torque distribution control system in vehicle

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Wako, Japan

Yoshikazu Konishi