Granted Patent B2

US 8,108,103 · App. 12/243,080 · Granted Jan 31, 2012

Abstract

Claims (41)

1. A method for facilitating ride and stability control of a vehicle, the vehicle including a plurality of suspension displacement sensors where a suspension displacement sensors is positioned proximate to a suspension element of the vehicle, said method comprising:

obtaining a suspension velocity corresponding to at least one of the plurality of suspension displacement sensors;

filtering out a wheel hop frequency from the suspension velocity to obtain a resultant suspension velocity, where the filtering is done using a nonlinear filter; and

determining at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle based on the filtered resultant suspension velocity.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the suspension velocity is obtained by differentiating a measurement of the suspension displacement sensor.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the resultant suspension velocity is obtained using a base function.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the base function is a sum of linear and periodic functions.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the base function is C 1 Sin ωt+C 2 Cos ωt+C 3 +C 4 t, where ω is the roll or pitch or heave frequency, t is time, and C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are constants.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the constants C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are determined by minimizing the difference between the suspension velocity and the base function.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the resultant suspension velocity is calculated at a first instant of time occurring later than a second instant of time for obtaining the corresponding suspension velocity.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle is determined using the expressions:

Roll_Velocity_deg/sec=0.047442( V — RF−V — LF )+0.034669( V — RR−V — LR )

Pitch_Velocity_deg/sec=0.0032906( V — LF−V — LR+V — RF−V — RR )

Heave_Velocity_mm/sec=( V — LF+V — LR+V — RF+V — RR )/4

where V_LF is the suspension velocity of a suspension element placed proximate to a left front end of the vehicle, V_LR is the suspension velocity of a suspension element placed proximate to a left rear end of the vehicle, V_RF is the suspension velocity of a suspension element placed proximate to a right front end of the vehicle, and V_RR is the suspension velocity of a suspension element placed proximate to a right rear end of the vehicle, and the resulting roll velocity, pitch velocity, and heave velocity are in degree/second.

9. A method for facilitating ride and stability control of a vehicle, the vehicle including a plurality of suspension displacement sensors where a suspension displacement sensors is positioned proximate to a suspension element of the vehicle, said method comprising:

obtaining a suspension velocity corresponding to at least one of the plurality of suspension displacement sensors, where the suspension velocity is obtained by differentiating a measurement of the corresponding suspension displacement sensor;

filtering out a wheel hop frequency from the suspension velocity to obtain a resultant suspension velocity, where the filtering is done using a nonlinear filter, wherein the resultant suspension velocity is obtained using a base function, and wherein the base function is a sum of linear and periodic functions; and

determining at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle based on the resultant suspension velocity.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the base function is C 1 Sin ωt+C 2 Cos ωt+C 3 +C 4 t, where ω is the roll or pitch or heave frequency, t is time, and C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are constants.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the constants C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are determined by minimizing the difference between the suspension velocity and the base function.

12. The method according to claim 9 wherein the at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle is determined using any of the expressions:

Roll_Velocity_deg/sec=0.047442( V — RF−V — LF )+0.034669( V — RR−V — LR )

Pitch_Velocity_deg/sec=0.0032906( V — LF−V — LR+V — RF−V — RR )

Heave_Velocity_mm/sec=( V — LF+V — LR+V — RF+V — RR )/4

wherein V_LF is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the left front end of the vehicle, V_LR is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the left rear end of the vehicle, V_RF is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the right front end of the vehicle; and V_RR is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the right rear end of the vehicle, and the resulting roll velocity, pitch velocity; and heave velocity are in degree/second.

13. A system for facilitating ride and stability control of a vehicle, said system comprising:

a plurality of suspension displacement sensors, wherein a suspension displacement sensor is positioned proximate to a suspension element of the vehicle;

a nonlinear filter for filtering out a wheel hop frequency from the suspension velocity corresponding to at least one of the plurality of suspension displacement sensors to obtain a resultant suspension velocity; and

a control unit for determining at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle based on the resultant suspension velocity corresponding to at least one of the plurality suspension displacement sensors.

14. The system according to claim 13 wherein a second-order digital differentiator is used to obtain the suspension velocity by differentiating a reading of the corresponding suspension displacement sensor.

15. The system according to claim 13 wherein the resultant suspension velocity is obtained by using a base function.

16. The system according to claim 15 wherein the base function is a sum of linear and periodic functions.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein the base function is C 1 Sin ωt+C 2 Cos ωt+C 3 +C 4 t, where ω is the roll or pitch or heave frequency, t is time, and C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are constants.

18. The system according to claim 17 wherein the constants C 1 , C 2 , C 3 , and C 4 are determined by minimizing the difference between the suspension velocity and the base function.

19. The system according to claim 13 wherein the resultant suspension velocity is calculated at a first instant of time occurring later than a second instant of time of obtaining of the corresponding suspension velocity.

20. The system according to claim 13 wherein the at least one of a pitch velocity of the vehicle, a roll velocity of the vehicle, and a heave velocity of the vehicle is determined using any of the expressions:

Roll_Velocity_deg/sec=0.047442( V — RF−V — LF )+0.034669( V — RR−V — LR )

Pitch_Velocity_deg/sec=0.0032906( V — LF−V — LR+V — RF−V — RR )

Heave_Velocity_mm/sec=( V — LF+V — LR+V — RF+V — RR )/4

wherein V_LF is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the left front end of the vehicle, V_LR is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the left rear end of the vehicle, V_RF is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the right front end of the vehicle; and V_RR is the suspension velocity of the suspension element placed proximate to the right rear end of the vehicle, and the resulting roll velocity, pitch velocity and heave velocity are in degree/second.

Assignments (12)