Patent ID: 11912090
Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 8:
9. A damping control method for a vehicle, the vehicle having wheels including right and left front wheels and right and left rear wheels, and a control force generating device configured to generate a vertical control force for damping a sprung portion of the vehicle between each of the wheels and a portion of a vehicle body that corresponds to a position of each of the wheels, the damping control method comprising:
acquiring pieces of road surface displacement related information related to vertical displacements of a road surface at a predicted passing position where each of the wheels is predicted to pass at a timing when a predetermined period has elapsed from a current time, each piece of the road surface displacement related information including at least one of road surface displacements that are the vertical displacements of the road surface at the predicted passing position, a road surface displacement speed that is a time derivative of the road surface displacements at the predicted passing position, an unsprung displacement that is a vertical displacement of an unsprung portion of the vehicle at the predicted passing position, and an unsprung speed that is a time derivative of the unsprung displacement at the predicted passing position; and
controlling the control force generating device to change the control force, wherein the controlling includes
calculating a first-situation control force adapted to a first situation in which a waveform of the road surface displacements on a right side of the vehicle and a waveform of the road surface displacements on a left side of the vehicle have opposite phases, based on the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the right front wheel, the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the left front wheel, the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the right rear wheel, and the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the left rear wheel,
calculating a first front wheel control force for the right and left front wheels adapted to the first situation and a first rear wheel control force for the right and left rear wheels adapted to the first situation by distributing the first-situation control force at a predetermined distribution ratio,
calculating a second front wheel control force for the right and left front wheels adapted to a second situation in which the waveform of the road surface displacements on the right side of the vehicle and the waveform of the road surface displacements on the left side of the vehicle have identical phases, based on the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the right front wheel and the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the left front wheel,
calculating a second rear wheel control force for the right and left rear wheels adapted to the second situation based on the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the right rear wheel and the road surface displacement related information at the predicted passing position of the left rear wheel,
calculating a first final target control force that is a final target value of the control force for the left front wheel and a second final target control force that is a final target value of the control force for the right front wheel based on the first front wheel control force and the second front wheel control force,
calculating a third final target control force that is a final target value of the control force for the left rear wheel and a fourth final target control force that is a final target value of the control force for the right rear wheel based on the first rear wheel control force and the second rear wheel control force,
controlling the control force generating device such that the control force generating device generates the control force that agrees with the first final target control force in the left front wheel at the timing when the left front wheel passes through the predicted passing position of the left front wheel,
controlling the control force generating device such that the control force generating device generates the control force that agrees with the second final target control force in the right front wheel at the timing when the right front wheel passes through the predicted passing position of the right front wheel,
controlling the control force generating device such that the control force generating device generates the control force that agrees with the third final target control force in the left rear wheel at the timing when the left rear wheel passes through the predicted passing position of the left rear wheel, and
controlling the control force generating device such that the control force generating device generates the control force that agrees with the fourth final target control force in the right rear wheel at the timing when the right rear wheel passes through the predicted passing position of the right rear wheel.