Patent ID: 8005592

Claim:
A method of controlling a vehicle having a sprung mass, a spring rate, a wheel assembly mass, a suspension, a body and a suspension point where the suspension couples to the body, a half track, a center of gravity, a longitudinal distance between the center of gravity and an axle, a vertical distance between the center of gravity and a suspension point, said method comprising: determining a relative pitch angle; determining a relative roll angle; determining a vertical acceleration using the vertical distance between the center of gravity and the suspension point; determining a heave motion wheel loading in response to the sprung mass and the vertical acceleration; determining an attitude based wheel loading in response to the spring rate and the half track and the longitudinal distance between the center of gravity and the axle; determining a vertical motion induced wheel loading in response to the wheel assembly mass and the vertical acceleration; determining a total wheel normal loading in response to the heave motion wheel loading, the attitude based wheel loading and the vertical motion induced wheel loading; and controlling a vehicle system in response to the total wheel normal loading.