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. 18, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 20, 2002
Hiroaki Kawasaki, Kobe, JP;
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd., Hyogo-ken, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for judging road surface gradients including a speed detector for periodically detecting wheel speeds of four wheels of a vehicle, a vehicle body speed calculator for obtaining a vehicle body speed of the vehicle, a slip rate calculator for obtaining a slip rate, a vehicle body acceleration calculator for obtaining an acceleration of the vehicle body of the vehicle, a determining device for determining whether the acceleration of the vehicle body is within a specified range proximate to zero, and a gradient judging device for judging a gradient of a road surface depending on the determination of the determining device. The gradients of road surfaces might be judged without using various sensors but only on the basis of information which can be obtained from a speed detector for detecting wheel speeds.