Camber modification for different driving surfaces

Abstract

A control system (300) for controlling an actuator arrangement (104) of a vehicle (100), the actuator arrangement being capable of modifying a camber angle of at least one wheel of the vehicle, the control system comprising one or more controllers (301), wherein the control system is configured to: receive (1004) surface information indicative of a low traction surface on which the vehicle is travelling; and control (1012) the actuator arrangement of the vehicle in dependence on the received surface information such that a wheel and surface contact footprint of the at least one wheel moves laterally relative to the vehicle as a result of the camber modification.

Claims

1. A control system for controlling an actuator device of a vehicle, the actuator device comprising an active suspension actuator of an active suspension system, the active suspension actuator being configured to dynamically control force-displacement relationships for individual wheels of the vehicle, the force-displacement relationships being relationships between restoring forces of each wheel and wheel-to-vehicle displacements, the control system comprising one or more controllers, wherein, The control system is configured to: Receive surface information indicating that the vehicle is traveling on a low-traction surface; The triggering conditions are monitored based on one or more criteria other than which surface is indicated by the surface information; as well as The force-displacement relationship for each wheel is controlled based on the surface information indicating a low traction surface and the satisfaction of the triggering condition, such that the wheel-to-surface contact imprint of at least one wheel moves laterally relative to the vehicle due to the camber angle modification.

2. The control system according to claim 1, wherein, The monitoring of the triggering conditions includes at least one of the following: Activate the human-machine interface, wherein the triggering condition is met by detecting the activation of the human-machine interface; and Based on the received traction information, determine whether the vehicle's traction force is predicted or detected to be below a traction force threshold.

3. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, Monitoring the triggering conditions includes determining whether the vehicle's forward movement is below a threshold based on traction information, wherein the forward movement is indicated by the vehicle speed and / or by the derivative of the vehicle speed.

4. The control system according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein, The actuator device includes an active tilt actuator.

5. The control system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein, Controlling the actuator device includes controlling the active suspension system to modify the camber angle at one or more wheels of each group by changing the ground clearance at each group of wheels, wherein changing the ground clearance at each group of wheels depends on at least one of: the current ground clearance; wheel articulation; or the steering angle of each wheel.

6. The control system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein, The surface information includes one or more of the following: The selected terrain mode of the vehicle is indicated for the low-traction surface; as well as Information indicating the low-traction surface is obtained from one or more terrain sensors.

7. The control system according to any of the preceding claims, configured to enable the camber angle modification based on the surface information indicating a low traction surface, and configured not to enable the camber angle modification based on the surface information indicating a high traction surface.

8. The control system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the camber angle modification includes yaw camber angle modification.

9. The control system of claim 8, configured to initiate the yaw angle modification when the surface information indicates a first surface but not when the surface information indicates a second surface.

10. The control system according to claim 8 or 9, configured to control the frequency of the camber angle modification based on the surface information and / or based on traction information indicating vehicle forward movement.

11. The control system according to claim 10, wherein, The controlled frequency for modifying the outward tilt angle of the swing is less than 15Hz.

12. The control system according to any one of claims 8 to 11, configured to determine the phase mode for modifying the yaw angle based on traction information, wherein, Determining the phase mode includes determining at least two of the following options: This causes the vehicle body to sway and laterally move; This causes the vehicle body to sway and yaw; or Symmetrical camber angle change without causing movement of the vehicle body.

13. The control system of claim 12, configured to determine yaw when the traction information indicates that the vehicle has traction, and to determine lateral movement or camber change when the traction information indicates that the vehicle lacks traction.

14. A vehicle comprising a control system according to any of the preceding claims.

15. A method of controlling an actuator device for a vehicle, the actuator device comprising an active suspension actuator of an active suspension system, the active suspension actuator being configured to dynamically control a force-displacement relationship for each wheel of the vehicle, the force-displacement relationship being a relationship between the restoring force of each wheel and the wheel-to-vehicle displacement, the method comprising: Receive surface information indicating that the vehicle is traveling on a low-traction surface; The triggering conditions are monitored based on one or more criteria other than which surface is indicated by the surface information; as well as The force-displacement relationship for each wheel is controlled based on the surface information indicating a low traction surface and the satisfaction of the triggering condition, such that the wheel-to-surface contact imprint of at least one wheel moves laterally relative to the vehicle due to the camber angle modification.

16. A computer program product, which, when executed, is configured to perform the method according to claim 15.

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