Patent ID: 7035836

Claim:
A method for controlling a vehicle's semi-active suspension system including a suspension coupled to a non-suspended mass, the method comprising: detecting vehicle dynamic quantities during a ride of the vehicle; using the detected dynamic quantities, determining an index of ride comfort and an index of roadholding; applying a weight factor to the index of ride comfort and to the index of roadholding and, based on a Sky Hook control model, determining target damping force characteristics for the suspension of the suspension system that are suitable to substantially minimize vehicle body acceleration and to substantially minimize a variation of a force transmitted by the suspension to a road surface; and controlling the suspension to put respective damping force characteristics in accordance with the determined target damping force characteristics; wherein the weight factor is calculated dynamically during the vehicle ride using the detected dynamic quantities; and wherein determining the target damping force characteristics includes minimizing a weighted sum of the vehicle body acceleration and of a variation of a force exerted by the non-suspended mass onto the road surface, the weighted sum being based on the dynamically calculated weight factor.