Patent ID: 11945273
Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 6:
7. The A preview damping control apparatus for a vehicle comprising:
an in-vehicle control device including a road surface displacement-related information detection device that detects road surface displacement-related information related to a vertical displacement of at least one of a position of a wheel and a position in front of the wheel while the vehicle is travelling, and a first control unit that controls the road surface displacement-related information detection device,
a preview reference database control device including a storage device that stores a preview reference database and a second control unit that controls the storage device,
the first control unit is configured to associate the road surface displacement-related information detected by the road surface displacement-related information detection device with a position information capable of identifying a position where the road surface displacement-related information was detected, and send the associated information to the second control unit,
the second control unit is configured to calculate a road surface displacement-related value related to a vertical displacement of a road surface based on detected road surface displacement-related information transmitted from the vehicle or other vehicles, and store a set of data of the road surface displacement-related value and corresponding position information associated with each other in the storage device as a part of the preview reference database, and
the first control unit is further configured to perform preview damping control for reducing vibration of a sprung of the vehicle by using the road surface displacement-related value and the position information in the preview reference database, wherein
at least one of the first and second control units is configured to assume that a road surface displacement-related value in a predetermined adjacent region located in the direction crossing a traveling direction of the vehicle with respect to a point where the road surface displacement-related information was detected by the road surface displacement-related information detection device is the same as a road surface displacement-related value at the point, wherein
the vehicle has a control force generator configured to generate a control force acting between the sprung and an unsprung, and
the first control unit is configured to determine a predicted wheel passage position through which a wheel is predicted to pass, acquire a road surface displacement-related value or an assumed road surface displacement-related value at the predicted wheel passage position in the preview reference database by communication, calculate a target preview damping control force for reducing a vibration of the sprung when the wheel passes through the predicted wheel passage position based on the acquired road surface displacement-related value or the acquired assumed road surface displacement-related value, and control the corresponding control force generator so that a control force generated by the control force generator when the wheel passes through the predicted wheel passage position becomes the target preview damping control force.