Damper control device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9718324-B2
Application number	US-201414780027-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2014
Priority date	Apr 25, 2013
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

A damper control device includes a speed conversion unit configured to convert a damper speed to a control damper speed, and if the damper is accelerating, the damper speed is converted so that signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and an absolute value of the control damper speed becomes an absolute value of the damper speed or more, and if the damper is decelerating, the damper speed is converted so that the signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and the absolute value of the control damper speed becomes the absolute value of the damper speed or less, and a damping force of the damper is controlled by using the control damper speed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A damper control device for controlling a damping force of a damper on the basis of a damper speed, the damper being interposed between a sprung member and an unsprung member in a vehicle, the damper control device comprising:
a speed conversion unit that converts the damper speed to a control damper speed, wherein while the damper is accelerating, the speed conversion unit converts the damper speed so that signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and an absolute value of the control damper speed becomes an absolute value of the damper speed or more, and while the damper is decelerating, the damper speed is converted so that the signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and the absolute value of the control damper speed becomes the absolute value of the damper speed or less; and
a control unit that controls the damping force of the damper by using the control damper speed acquired in the speed conversion unit.

2. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein the speed conversion unit converts the damper speed on the basis of damper acceleration.

3. The damper control device according to claim 2 , wherein the larger the damper acceleration is, the larger the speed conversion unit converts the damper speed.

4. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein as the result of conversion of the damper speed to the control damper speed when the damper speed is decelerating, if the sign of the damper speed and the sign of the control damper speed are different from each other, the speed conversion unit sets the control damper speed to a predetermined value with which the sign of the damper speed accords or 0.

5. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein the speed conversion unit is provided with an acceleration/deceleration determination unit,
the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines whether the damper is accelerating or decelerating, and
if the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is decelerating, the control damper speed is acquired by subtracting a subtraction value from the damper speed.

6. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein the speed conversion unit includes:
an acceleration/deceleration determination unit that determines whether the damper is accelerating or decelerating;
a multiplication value calculation unit that acquires a multiplication value by which the damper speed is to be multiplied if the damper is accelerating;
a subtraction value calculation unit that acquires a subtraction value to be subtracted from the damper speed if the damper is decelerating; and
a control damper speed calculation unit that acquires the control damper speed by multiplying the damper speed by the multiplication value when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is accelerating and acquires the control damper speed by subtracting the subtraction value from the damper speed when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is decelerating.

7. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein the speed conversion unit includes:
an acceleration/deceleration determination unit that determines whether the damper is accelerating or decelerating;
a multiplication value calculation unit that acquires a multiplication value by which the damper speed is to be multiplied if the damper is accelerating;
a deceleration multiplication value calculation unit that acquires a deceleration multiplication value at 0 or more and 1 or less by which the damper speed is to be multiplied if the damper is decelerating; and
a control damper speed calculation unit that acquires the control damper speed by multiplying the damper speed by the multiplication value when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is accelerating and acquires the control damper speed by multiplying the damper speed by the deceleration multiplication value when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is decelerating.

8. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein the speed conversion unit includes:
an acceleration/deceleration determination unit that determines whether the damper is accelerating or decelerating;
a multiplication value calculation unit that acquires a multiplication value by which the damper speed is to be multiplied if the damper is accelerating;
a subtraction value calculation unit that acquires a subtraction value to be subtracted from the damper speed if the damper is decelerating;
a deceleration multiplication value calculation unit that acquires a deceleration multiplication value at 0 or more and 1 or less by which the damper speed is to be multiplied if the damper is decelerating; and
a control damper speed calculation unit that
acquires the control damper speed by multiplying the damper speed by the multiplication value when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is accelerating, and
acquires a first control damper speed by subtracting the subtraction value from the damper speed, acquires a second control damper speed by multiplying the damper speed by the deceleration multiplication value, and acquires the control damper speed on the basis of the first control damper speed and the second control damper speed, when the acceleration/deceleration determination unit determines that the damper is decelerating.

9. The damper control device according to claim 1 , wherein if the damping force of the damper is to be controlled so that a damping coefficient when the damper speed is in a low-speed region becomes higher than the damping coefficient when it is in a high-speed region, the damping force of the damper is controlled by using the control damper speed.

10. A damper control method for controlling a damping force of a damper on the basis of a damper speed, the damper being interposed between a sprung member and an unsprung member in a vehicle, the damper control method comprising:
converting the damper speed to a control damper speed,
wherein while the damper is accelerating, the damper speed is converted so that signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and an absolute value of the control damper speed becomes an absolute value of the damper speed or more, and while the damper is decelerating, the damper speed is converted so that the signs of the control damper speed and the damper speed accord with each other and the absolute value of the control damper speed becomes the absolute value of the damper speed or less; and
controlling the damping force of the damper by using the control damper speed.

Assignees

• Kayaba Industry Co Ltd
• Kyb Corp

Inventors

• Kubota Tomoo
• Okumura Masatoshi

Classifications

• B60G2500/11

  Damping valves · CPC title

• B60G17/08

  Characteristics of fluid dampers (adjusting fluid dampers in general F16F9/44 - F16F9/53) · CPC title

• B60G2400/252

  vertical · CPC title

• B60G17/018 Primary

  characterised by the use of a specific signal treatment or control method · CPC title