Patent ID: 8914193
Filing Date: 2014-12-16
Classification: B60G

Abstract:
1. A damping force control apparatus that controls a damping force for a vibration in a suspension apparatus including a damper and a spring interposed between a sprung member and an unsprung member, the damping force control apparatus comprising: a nonlinear weight determination means for determining a magnitude of a nonlinear weight that is set when a nonlinear H-infinity control theory is applied to a control system designed based on the motion of the suspension apparatus; a variable damping coefficient calculation means for calculating a variable damping coefficient which is a coefficient of a variable damping force to be generated by the damper relative to a vibration speed by applying the nonlinear H-infinity control theory to the control system in which the nonlinear weight determined by the nonlinear weight determination means has been set; a linear damping coefficient determination means for determining a linear damping coefficient which is a coefficient of a linear damping force to be generated by the damper relative to the vibration speed based on a magnitude of a vibration in the sprung member having a frequency within a specific frequency band determined in advance as a frequency band that is greater than a sprung member resonation frequency; a requested damping force calculation means for calculating a requested damping force which is a target damping force generated by the damper based on the variable damping coefficient and the linear damping coefficient; and a damping force characteristic control means for controlling a damping force characteristic of the damper based on the requested damping force, wherein the nonlinear weight determination means determines the magnitude of the nonlinear weight based on the magnitude of the linear damping coefficient determined by the linear damping coefficient determination means so that the requested damping force corresponds to a damping force that is within a range of variation for the damping force characteristic of the damper.