Vehicle height adjustment apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9783018-B2
Application number	US-201615071940-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2016
Priority date	Mar 27, 2015
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle height adjustment apparatus includes: vehicle height adjustment units respectively provided to correspond to wheels of a vehicle body, and changing a vehicle height according to supply and discharge of a working fluid; a supply source of the working fluid; opening and closing valves interposed between the vehicle height adjustment units and the supply source; a control unit configured to execute vehicle height adjustment such that the vehicle height of the vehicle height adjustment units reaches a target vehicle height; and a storage unit configured to store state information indicating a changed state of an actual vehicle height with respect to a current target vehicle height, wherein the control unit modifies a subsequent target vehicle height when subsequent control is executed, based on the state information stored in the storage unit, and executes vehicle height adjustment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle height adjustment apparatus comprising:
a plurality of vehicle height adjustment units that are respectively provided to correspond to wheels of a vehicle body, and change a vehicle height according to supply and discharge of a working fluid;
a supply source of the working fluid;
a plurality of opening and closing valves interposed between the vehicle height adjustment units and the supply source;
a control unit configured to execute vehicle height adjustment via controlling of the opening and closing valves such that the vehicle height of the vehicle height adjustment units reaches a target vehicle height; and
a storage unit configured to store state information indicating a changed state of an actual vehicle height with respect to a current target vehicle height after execution of current control by the control unit is ended,
wherein the control unit modifies a subsequent target vehicle height when subsequent control is executed, based on the state information stored in the storage unit, and executes vehicle height adjustment,
wherein the control unit determines an acquisition time required to acquire the state information according to the pressure of the supply source.

2. The vehicle height adjustment apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the storage unit stores a convergence time from when the control unit ends the controlling of the opening and closing valves to a time when a changed vehicle height converges with the target vehicle height, and
wherein the control unit modifies the subsequent target vehicle height based on the convergence time and the change speed of the actual vehicle height when the subsequent control is executed.

3. The vehicle height adjustment apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein in a case where the actual vehicle height for the current target vehicle height exceeds an allowable vehicle height determined for the current target vehicle height, the state information stored in the storage unit is updated.

4. The vehicle height adjustment apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where the actual vehicle height for the current target vehicle height exceeds an allowable vehicle height determined for the current target vehicle height, the state information stored in the storage unit is updated.

Assignees

• Aisin Seiki

Inventors

• Ogino Atsuto
• Suzuki Takanori

Classifications

• B60G2800/01

  Attitude or posture control · CPC title

• B60G17/0155 Primary

  pneumatic unit · CPC title

• B60G2500/30

  Height or ground clearance · CPC title

• B60G11/27

  wherein the fluid is a gas · CPC title

• B60G17/052

  Pneumatic spring characteristics (B60G17/048 takes precedence {; valves per se F16K}) · CPC title