Patent ID: 7706941

Claim:
A method for coordinating a vehicle stability control system of a vehicle with a suspension damper control sub-system that is in electrical communication with the vehicle stability control system, the vehicle having a plurality of dampers, each of the dampers controlled directly by the suspension damper control sub-system, the method comprising: generating vehicle damper commands for each of the dampers, the vehicle damper commands being generated by the vehicle stability control system for controlling vehicle stability, said vehicle damper commands being received by the suspension damper control sub-system; generating sub-system damper commands for each of the dampers, the sub-system damper commands being separately generated by the suspension damper control sub-system for controlling vehicle suspension; determining if any of the vehicle damper commands for any one of the dampers has authority over the corresponding sub-system damper command, which further comprises determining if any one of the dampers is traveling in a direction deemed critical for vehicle yaw control; determining a modified sub-system damper command for each of the dampers in which the corresponding vehicle damper command has authority, the modified sub-system damper command being determined based on the vehicle damper command and the sub-system damper command; and controlling each of the plurality of dampers based on: (i) the corresponding sub-system damper command, when the corresponding vehicle damper command has been determined not to have authority over the corresponding sub-system damper command, and (ii) the corresponding modified sub-system damper command, when the corresponding vehicle damper command has been determined to have authority over the corresponding sub-system damper command.