The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 02, 1989
Filed:
Sep. 12, 1986
Kenji Kawagoe, Yokosuka, JP;
Satoru Ishihara, Yokosuka, JP;
Hideo Ito, Zushi, JP;
Masatsugu Yokote, Yokohama, JP;
Kazunobu Kawabata, Yokosuka, JP;
Nissan Motor Company, Limited, Kanagawa, JP;
Abstract
A suspension control system employs a road sensor monitoring road roughness or smoothness and producing a road condition indicative signal. The control system also employs other sensor or sensors for monitoring at least one preselected suspension control parameter, such as vehicle speed, steering angular variation and so forth, other than road roughness. The suspension switches between relatively hard and relatively soft characteristics based on the preselected suspension control prameters. In order to make suspension control more precisely suited to the vehicle driving conditions, the control characateristics of the suspension system are adjusted depending upon the road condition. With this arrangement, even when the suspension is controlled so as to suppress vehicular roll based on the steering angular displacement and when rough road conditions cause steering angular displacement due to kick-back from the road input through the steering mechanism, the erroneous judgement that steering adjustments are about to cause vehicular roll can be avoided. In case of acceleration responsive suspension control, rough road conditions tend to cause a driver to unconsciously operate the accelerator pedal so as to increase and decrease throttle valve angular position relative to the fully closed position. According to the present invention, by adjusting the control characteristics, erroneous detection that the vehicle is accelerating, which would normally cause winding-up, can be successfully avoided.