Granted Patent B2

US 12,576,683 · App. 19/205,927 · Granted Mar 17, 2026

Inventors: Karthik Mohan (Irvine, CA); Mark George Milne (Irvine, CA)

Assignee: Rivian IP Holdings, LLC

B60G17/0182B60G17/0165B60G17/0155B60G2400/204B60G2400/60B60G2400/821B60G2500/10B60G2600/17B60G2600/602B60G2600/70

Abstract

Claims (67)

1 . A vehicle, comprising:

a suspension system comprising a damping system including a plurality of dampers and a plurality of damper valves; and

one or more processors configured to:

determine energy content of an acceleration signal indicative of acceleration of the vehicle;

dynamically tune a cutoff frequency of a high-pass filter based on the energy content of the acceleration signal;

filter, via the high-pass filter, a velocity signal derived from the acceleration signal to output a filtered velocity signal; and

control operation of the damping system based on the filtered velocity signal.

2 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein determining the energy content of the acceleration signal comprises determining a root-mean-square (RMS) value of the acceleration signal.

3 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter comprises:

classifying, based on comparing the RMS value to a threshold RMS value, energy content of the acceleration signal as a primary ride event or a secondary ride event; and

responsive to classifying the energy content of the acceleration signal as the primary ride event, dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency to a first cutoff frequency included in a range of cutoff frequencies, or

responsive to classifying the energy content of the acceleration signal as the secondary ride event, dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency to a second cutoff frequency included in the range of cutoff frequencies, wherein the second cutoff frequency is higher than the first cutoff frequency.

4 . The vehicle of claim 3 , wherein the range of cutoff frequencies is about 0.001 Hertz (Hz) to about 50 Hz.

5 . The vehicle of claim 4 , wherein:

the first cutoff frequency corresponding to the primary ride event is about 0.001 Hz; and

the second cutoff frequency corresponding to the secondary ride event is about 50 Hz.

6 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein controlling operation of the damping system based on the filtered velocity signal comprises adjusting an input current provided to one or more dampers of the plurality of dampers.

7 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine a RMS value of one or more wheel-end velocities of the vehicle based on the RMS value of the acceleration signal;

determine a RMS value of a sprung mass of the vehicle;

determine a RMS value of an unsprung mass of the vehicle;

classify a road surface based on the RMS value of the sprung mass and the RMS value of the unsprung mass; and

control operation of the damping system based on the classified road surface.

8 . The vehicle of claim 7 , wherein:

when the road surface is classified as a first type of road surface, controlling operation of the damping system comprises reducing a base current provided to one or more damper valves of the plurality of damper valves; and

when the road surface is classified as a second type of road surface that is different from the first type of road surface, controlling operation of the damping system comprises increasing a base current provided to the one or more damper valves.

9 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine a load on an axle of the vehicle has increased by a threshold amount; and

based on the load on the axle increasing by the threshold amount, increasing a current provided to one or more damper valves of the plurality of damper valves.

10 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine a speed of the vehicle has exceeded a threshold speed; and

based on the speed of the vehicle exceeding the threshold speed, increasing a base current provided to one or more damper valves of the plurality of damper valves for a duration of time.

11 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine a speed of the vehicle has fallen below a threshold speed; and

based on the speed of the vehicle falling below the threshold speed, increase a base current provided to one or more damper valves of the plurality of damper valves for a duration of time.

12 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more processors are further configured to determine a gain value based on the filtered velocity signal; and

controlling operation of the damping system based on the filtered velocity signal comprises generating a damping force having the determined gain value.

13 . The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein determining the gain value comprises selecting, from a lookup table, a gain value corresponding to a velocity value associated with the filtered velocity signal, the lookup table comprising a plurality of velocity values and associated gain values.

14 . A method for dynamically filtering body velocities for a vehicle, comprising:

determining energy content an acceleration signal indicative of acceleration of the vehicle;

dynamically tuning a cutoff frequency of a high-pass filter based on the energy content of the acceleration signal;

filtering, via the high-pass filter, a velocity signal derived from the acceleration signal to output a filtered velocity signal; and

controlling operation of a damping system based on the filtered velocity signal.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein determining the energy content of the acceleration signal comprises determining a root-mean-square (RMS) value of the acceleration signal.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter comprises:

classifying, based on comparing the RMS value to a threshold RMS value, energy content of the acceleration signal as a primary ride event or a secondary ride event; and

responsive to classifying the energy content of the acceleration signal as the primary ride event, dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency to a first cutoff frequency included in a range of cutoff frequencies, or

responsive to classifying the energy content of the acceleration signal as the secondary ride event, dynamically tuning the cutoff frequency to a second cutoff frequency included in the range of cutoff frequencies, wherein the second cutoff frequency is higher than the first cutoff frequency.

17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

determining a RMS value of one or more wheel-end velocities of the vehicle based on the RMS value of the acceleration signal;

determining a RMS value of a sprung mass of the vehicle;

determining a RMS value of an unsprung mass of the vehicle;

classifying a road surface based on the RMS value of the sprung mass and the RMS value of the unsprung mass; and

controlling operation of the damping system based on the classified road surface.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein:

when the road surface is classified as a first type of road surface, controlling operation of the damping system comprises reducing a base current provided to one or more damper valves of a plurality of damper valves of the damping system; and

when the road surface is classified as a second type of road surface that is different from the first type of road surface, controlling operation of the damping system comprises increasing a base current provided to the one or more damper valves.

19 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

determining a load on an axle of the vehicle has increased by a threshold amount; and

based on the load on the axle increasing by the threshold amount, increasing a current provided to one or more damper valves of a plurality of damper valves of the damping system.

20 . A vehicle comprising:

a suspension system comprising a damping system configured to output a damping force; and

one or more processors configured to:

obtain a velocity signal indicative of a velocity of the vehicle;

select, via a lookup table, a gain value to apply to the damping force based on the velocity of the vehicle, the lookup table including a plurality of different velocity values and a plurality of different gain values, each respective gain value of the plurality of gain values assigned to a respective velocity value of the plurality of velocity values such that a non-linear relationship exists between the velocity values and the gain values; and

control operation of the damping system to apply the selected gain value to the damping force.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (22)