Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Subaru Corporation

Yuichiro Tsukasaki

Masaru Kogure

Hidehisa Tomizawa

Toshi Ishida

Yoshiaki Utsugi

Toshiyuki Hyuga

Kensuke Ohshima

Masahiro Saito

Daisuke Yamada

Yasushi Takaso

Mitsuharu Minami

Toyokazu Ogasawara

Kazuya Morota

Kazuya Ando

Kenji Watanuki

Noritaka Hayashi

Masato Nakatake

Hajime Terasaki

Hiroyuki Ooiwa

Takashi Kogure

Masashi Imoto

An automatic steering control apparatus includes a road information recognition device, a travel state detector, and a steering angle control device. The road information recognition device recognizes road information ahead of a vehicle. The travel state detector detects information regarding a travel state of the vehicle. The steering angle control device controls a steering angle of the vehicle, on the basis of the road information and the information regarding the travel state, to allow the vehicle to move toward a target position ahead of the vehicle. The steering angle control device controls the steering angle, to allow at least a portion of a steering angle waveform to have a non-sinusoidal wave. The steering angle waveform represents a time change in the steering angle in a case where the vehicle travels while crossing repetitively an ideal travel locus to be obtained from the target position.

Automatic steering control device

A steering apparatus for use in a vehicle equipped with a steer-by-wire system includes a shaft, a first reaction force member, and a second reaction force member. The shaft is configured to be able to rotate with rotation of a steering wheel disposed in a vehicle compartment. The first reaction force member is configured to apply a first reaction force in a direction opposite to a direction of the rotation of the shaft. The second reaction force member is configured to be able to apply and stop applying a second reaction force to the shaft. The second reaction force is different from the first reaction force and applied in a direction opposite to the direction of the rotation of the shaft. The second reaction force member applies the second reaction force when there is a decrease in the first reaction force.

Steering apparatus

A conveyance amount controlling apparatus includes a control state detector, a road surface state detector, and at least one conveyance amount controller including a conveyance device conveying, to a driver, information representing a road surface state and a conveyance amount controlling device controlling a vibration conveyance amount as a conveyance amount of a vibration caused by a road surface irregularity. A second conveyance amount, as the vibration conveyance amount obtained when a road surface state amount less than a first threshold is detected by the road surface state detector, is less than a first conveyance amount, as the vibration conveyance amount obtained when execution of an automatic driving control is not detected by the control state detector. A third conveyance amount, as the vibration conveyance amount obtained when the road surface state amount equal to or greater than the first threshold is detected, is greater than the second conveyance amount.

Conveyance amount controlling apparatus

A coupling structure for vehicle chassis members couples a ball joint member and an axle housing used for a vehicle to each other. The structure includes a socket that has a substantially columnar external shape, is provided in the ball joint member, and has a socket bolt groove throughout a circumference in an outer circumferential surface of the socket. The structure also includes a collar that has a substantially cylindrical shape and is disposed so as to surround an outer circumferential surface of the socket. The axle housing has a coupling hole having a substantially columnar internal shape into which the socket is inserted. The ball joint member and the axle housing are coupled to each other by disposing the socket in the coupling hole while the socket is surrounded by the collar.

Coupling structure for vehicle chassis members

A steering apparatus includes: a pinion shaft coupled to a steering wheel and having a pinion; a rack shaft having a rack engaged with the pinion and a shaft back located on opposite side of the rack with an axial center of the rack shaft in between; a rack shaft housing that houses and slidably supports the rack shaft; and a rack shaft supporting mechanism having a pressure applying member that applies a pressure onto the shaft back toward the pinion. The shaft back includes a predetermined region provided across a midpoint of the rack which corresponds to a neutral position of the steering wheel. The predetermined region is a right-to-left steering wheel angle region having a height higher than a height of any other region of the shaft back.

A suspension device has longitudinal force compliance steer properties to steer a rear wheel to toe-in or toe-out according to increase in longitudinal force applied to wheel treads of a rear wheel. The suspension device includes: a hub bearing housing; suspension links having both edges pivotally attached to a vehicle body and a hub bearing respectively, to support the hub bearing housing; a suspension spring generating reaction force corresponding to relative displacement amount in the longitudinal direction of the hub bearing housing as to the vehicle body; a damper generating damping force corresponding to relative speed in the longitudinal direction of the hub bearing housing as to the vehicle body; and a toe change generating unit generating toe change in a direction where toe change due to longitudinal force compliance properties is temporarily cancelled out or suppressed at an early stage of turning of the vehicle.

Suspension device

In a vehicle steering device, extendable portions whose elastic properties corresponding to a force acting in a compressing direction and whose elastic properties corresponding to a force acting in a stretching direction are asymmetrical are disposed in a symmetric fashion at intermediate sections of tie rods. Thus, an effective steering gear ratio with respect to leftward and rightward steering can be properly changed in accordance with a vehicle speed by using a simple configuration that does not use a complex mechanism having a motor. In this case, a steering gear ratio can be mainly changed for one of the wheels, while a linear lateral force corresponding to steering can be generated at the other wheel. Moreover, since the steering gear ratio can be changed mechanically without performing motor control, the occurrence of control delay can be prevented, thereby reliably preventing deterioration of the driver's operational feel.

Vehicle steering device

A small-size, highly-reliable left-right independent steering device is provided without having to make significant modifications to existing vehicles or to develop dedicated vehicles. The device includes tie rods linked to left and right front wheels and axially expandable and contractible by means of small-size telescopic mechanism portions defined by ball-screw-type linear actuators. Each telescopic mechanism portion mainly includes a main body to which a tie-rod end of the corresponding tie rod is fixed, and an electric motor serving as an actuator attached substantially perpendicularly to the main body. The other end of the tie rod is coupled to a steering rod and functions as a piston rod that can advance or recede in the axial direction by means of the telescopic mechanism portion. Thus, the telescopic mechanism portions are mountable within tire wheels at positions free of, for example, suspension arms and stabilizers located near the tie rods.

Left-right independent steering device for steering left and right wheels independently

When a vehicle is turning, it is determined whether an inside turning wheel has sufficient grip force. If the inside wheel has sufficient grip force, left and right forces orthogonally input to the vehicle body are calculated based on longitudinal and lateral tire forces, and are checked if there is a difference in the left and right forces. If there is such a left-right force difference and the vehicle is not undergoing a braking operation, the turning angle of the inside wheel is corrected using a left-right independent steering device that independently controls the turning angles of left and right wheels, so that the difference becomes zero. Thus, the difference in left and right forces laterally input to the vehicle body is reduced to minimize a jack-up force. This improves the driving stability and achieves a good roll feel by means of a jack-down force, thereby achieving improved driving feel.

Vehicle-body behavior control apparatus

A control unit sets a current total risk function for each of white lines, guardrails, side walls, and three-dimensional objects existing around a vehicle, estimates a temporal change in the position of each object, and calculates a minimum of the total risk function at the vehicle position for each time. An objective function is generated for the time, and a turning control amount that minimizes the objective function at the time is calculated as a turning control amount of the vehicle. Risk functions provided when the vehicle moves by the turning control amount are set for respective routes. A final avoidance route is selected from the risk functions of the routes, and steering and braking are controlled.

Vehicle drive assist system

The objective of the present invention is to provide a vehicle motion control device capable of controlling the driving force distribution to the wheels with superior stability and response while effectively utilizing the tire grip. Specifically, the present invention provides a vehicle motion control device for a vehicle, the vehicle having a plurality of wheels and a driving device for driving the wheels based on a driving force/load distribution ratio, having: a force detection unit for detecting forces that act on the wheels; a target distribution ratio calculating unit for obtaining nonlinear terms by use of a group of parameters including the forces detected by the force detection unit, and obtaining a target value of the driving force/load distribution ratio so as to minimize the nonlinear terms, the nonlinear terms being included in elements of a system matrix of equations of state that describe a state of motion of the vehicle; and a driving device control unit for controlling the driving device based on the target value of the driving force/load distribution ratio.

Vehicle motion control device and method

A control unitcalculates, by a statistical processing, the current front/rear-directional acceleration, the current front/rear-directional velocity, and the current front/rear-directional position of the three-dimensional object to be determined while considering an error caused by a camera. These values are used in the statistical processing so as to calculate the front/rear-directional acceleration after &#x394;t seconds, the front/rear-directional velocity after &#x394;t seconds, and the front/rear-directional position after &#x394;t seconds, and so as to obtain a probability of contact after &#x394;t seconds based on the front/rear-directional position after &#x394;t seconds.

Collision determination device and vehicle behavior control device

In wheel ground-contact state judging device and method, a detector directly detects a lateral force acting in a direction perpendicular to the wheel center plane of a wheel. An acceleration sensor detects an acceleration in the lateral direction of a vehicle. A calculator calculates a cornering force acting on each wheel on the basis of the acceleration in the lateral direction thus detected. A judging unit compares the detected lateral force with the calculated cornering force to judge whether the ground-contact state of the wheel is good or not.

Wheel ground-contact state judging device and method

A steering control device can shorten a braking distance during straight-traveling deceleration and can efficiently acquire the acceleration performance during straight-traveling acceleration with a simple control while maintaining the stability of a vehicle by steering the wheel on a higher road surface friction coefficient road side with a predetermined steering angle when either one of the straight-traveling braking state and the straight-traveling acceleration state of the vehicle is detected.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuichiro Tsukasaki