Patent ID: 8116938

Claim:
A vehicle state estimating apparatus for use in a vehicle which includes between a sprung side and an unsprung side a control suspension operable to generate a control force, and outputs a first motion state amount, the vehicle state estimating apparatus operable to estimate a second motion state amount of the vehicle, comprising: a control force estimating unit operable to calculate an estimated static control force from an input into the control suspension based on the static characteristic of the control suspension; and an observer which receives the estimated static control force as an input, the observer comprising a dynamic characteristic providing unit operable to calculate an estimated dynamic control force from the estimated static control force, a vehicle model operable to calculate an estimated first motion state amount and an estimated second motion state amount of the vehicle from the estimated dynamic control force, a dynamic characteristic gain unit operable to calculate a dynamic characteristic compensating signal from an output deviation corresponding to a difference between the first motion state amount provided from the vehicle and the estimated first motion state amount provided from the vehicle model, and a vehicle model gain unit operable to calculate a vehicle model compensating signal from the output deviation; wherein the dynamic characteristic compensating signal and the vehicle model compensating signal are fed back into the dynamic characteristic providing unit and the vehicle model, respectively.