Methods and apparatus for monitoring system usage and determining or extending system service life in real time

Abstract

A method and system are provided for monitoring operation and predicting service life of an active suspension system or another component or assembly. Sensor data representing operating conditions such as pressure, current, temperature, or actuator position are processed to generate usage indicators derived from binned or weighted values according to a damage function reflecting stress intensity or the frequency of high-load events. Usage indicators may be stored locally or in a cloud-based database and used by a controller to estimate component degradation or remaining service life in real time or retrospectively, and to communicate maintenance recommendations or update reliability models.

Description

Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING SYSTEM USAGE AND DETERMINING OR EXTENDING SYSTEM SERVICE LIFE IN REAL TIMECROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONSThis application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No.63 / 721,103, filed November 15, 2024, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND

[0001] The service life of a product typically refers to the period, after manufacture or sale, during which the product is expected to perform as originally designed. This concept of service life applies across diverse applications and industries, encompassing devices and systems of varying complexity. Service life can directly affect perceived product reliability, maintenance planning, and warranty cost. In practice, inherent variations in manufacturing processes or materials as well as differences in usage or environmental conditions among users may lead to uncertainty in the true service life of each product or system. As a result, components in the field may be replaced prematurely or fail unexpectedly due to premature degradation. Premature degradation can have significant cost and safety implications.SUMMARY

[0002] According to one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method of operating a vehicle that comprises an active suspension system including at least one actuator assembly. During operation of the vehicle, information is received from one or more sensors on board the vehicle relating to one or more operating parameters of the actuator assembly. Based at least in part on the received information, a controller determines a usage indicator of the actuator assembly and estimates a remaining service life of the actuator assembly or one of its components using a model based on the usage indicator. Data corresponding to the usage indicator or the estimate of the remaining service life may be uploaded to a remote or cloudbased data-processing facility operated by or on behalf of a manufacturer, fleet operator, or service provider. In some embodiments, the actuator assembly may operate while the vehicle is traveling on a road surface or during parked operation, where the monitored parameters may include but are not limited to pressure, temperature, or electrical load. Additional sensors may114603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 provide information relating to different operating parameters, such as hydraulic pressure, temperature, current, voltage, or actuator position. The system may determine a plurality of usage indicators and compute a weighted damage function to estimate degradation. Uploading may occur through wired or wireless communication (e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, or vehicle bus), and transmitted data may include either the usage indicator values or predicted time-to-failure estimates. In some examples, usage indicators and models may be updated in real time or retrospectively based on feedback from the remote facility.

[0003] According to another aspect, there is provided a method performed by a remote data-processing facility. The method includes receiving, from a plurality of vehicles, usage-indicator data generated based on information collected by controllers associated with the respective vehicles. The remote facility may update one or more damage-function or reliability models based on the received usage-indicator data and transmit updated models or parameters back to one or more vehicles for use in estimating remaining service life. In certain implementations, the remote facility aggregates crowdsourced data from multiple vehicles to refine reliability predictions or calibrate model parameters. Updated models may then be distributed back to the vehicles, allowing dynamic improvement of onboard life-estimation algorithms over time.

[0004] According to a further aspect, there is provided a method of operating a vehicle in which information from at least one sensor is used to determine at least one usage indicator of an actuator assembly in a suspension system. The operating parameters may include but are not limited to hydraulic pressure, rotational velocity, pressure difference, force, voltage, or current. The method includes estimating the remaining service life of the actuator assembly based on the usage indicator, optionally by calculating a damage function that combines multiple usage indicators with corresponding damage weights that may be adjusted in real time or retrospectively to refine model accuracy. In certain embodiments, electrical bus power is calculated when the actuator assembly applies or resists force, allowing accumulation of energy inflow and outflow indicators to be stored in memory. Pressure measurements may be obtained on one or both sides of a hydraulic piston, incrementing counters when pressure thresholds in bins are exceeded. Differential pressure cycles may be discretized into bins, with zero-crossing events used to record peak pressure amplitudes. The accumulated data across bins can be multiplied by corresponding damage weights to yield damage values. Additional indicators, such as pump rotation under pressure, accumulated temperature-time exposure, and time-at-214603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 temperature binning, may also be determined to form a comprehensive picture of actuator usage.

[0005] According to another aspect, there is provided a method of operating a vehicle comprising receiving information from one or more sensors about an operating parameter of a system on board the vehicle during a period of time, determining, based on the information, a change or impact on an estimated remaining service life of the system, and providing an indication of the impact or the estimated remaining service life to a recipient. The recipient may include an occupant, operator, or owner of the vehicle, a manufacturer, a controller on board the vehicle, or a database associated with the vehicle. In some implementations, the system is an active suspension system, and the calculated impact or remaining life may be determined using a damage function derived from one or more usage indicators. The sensors may include, for example, current, voltage, pressure, temperature, or pump-rotation sensors, such as a differential-pressure transducer for measuring hydraulic-fluid pressures within an actuator.

[0006] According to a further aspect, there is provided a method performed by a remote data-processing facility. The facility receives, from multiple vehicles, usage-indicator data generated from information collected by controllers associated with the respective vehicles, and updates one or more damage-function or reliability models based on the received usage-indicator data. The updated models may then be transmitted to the vehicles for use in predicting remaining service life. The remote facility may operate in a cloud environment and can aggregate, analyze, and weight data from large fleets to improve global life-estimation models and predictive maintenance scheduling.

[0007] According to another aspect, there is provided an active suspension system implemented in a vehicle and configured to perform one or more of the methods described above. The active suspension system comprises a controller configured to control one or more active suspension actuators based on calculated usage indicators or damage functions. The controller may adjust the responsiveness of the actuators — such as by modifying maximum force or torque output, force-command slew rate, or damping setting — based on real-time or historical usage-indicator data, data stored remotely, or aggregated data from a plurality of vehicles. In some embodiments, the controller dynamically modifies actuator responsiveness based on usage-indicator data stored locally, in the cloud, or aggregated from other vehicles to balance performance and longevity in response to current or predicted wear conditions.314603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0008] According to still another aspect, there is provided a method of operating a motor vehicle that includes receiving, in real time, information from at least one sensor representing an operating parameter of a system; determining a usage-indicator value based on the received information by assigning the value to one of a plurality of discrete bins; incrementing a current value associated with the determined bin; adding the current bin value to a previously stored total; and storing the total usage-indicator value in non-volatile memory in response to a trigger event such as a power-off command, fault-detection signal, threshold condition, or elapsed-time period. This aspect allows for robust retention of usage data across power cycles, ensuring continuity of accumulated life-tracking metrics and facilitating accurate long-term degradation analysis.

[0009] According to another aspect, there is provided a method of operating a system in which a controller receives information relating to a usage-indicator value of the system and automatically adjusts one or more system settings to extend the system’s remaining service life. In some embodiments, the system is a vehicle or an active suspension actuator of the vehicle, and the controller adjusts a parameter such as a maximum torque limit, maximum force limit, or another performance constraint. The adjustment may occur in real time and may be triggered when a usage-indicator value derived from binned, accumulated, or weighted sensor data exceeds a threshold. In some examples, the usage-indicator value or the adjusted system setting may be transmitted to a remote data-processing facility for storage, analysis, or model refinement.

[0010] It should be appreciated that the foregoing concepts, and additional concepts discussed below, may be arranged in any suitable combination, as the present disclosure is not limited in this respect. Further, other advantages and novel features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of various non-limiting embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying figures.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0011] The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures may be represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. In the drawings:414603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 Fig. 1 illustrates a block schematic diagram of a fully active actuator (FAA) with a motor pump according to embodiments of the present disclosure.Fig. 2A illustrates a cross section of the motor pump of Fig. 1.Fig. 2B illustrates an embodiment of the FAA of Fig. 1 implemented in an example vehicle. Fig. 3 shows a picture of exemplary spalling of the inner raceway of a ball bearing.Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary vehicle with multiple FAAs of Figs. 1 and 2A, 2B provided in a fully active suspension (FAS) system.Fig. 5 illustrates a diagram of the flow of Figs. 6A-6E.Fig. 6A illustrates a block diagram describing the algorithm to monitor the “electrical energies consumed and generated” usage indicator in the present disclosure.Fig. 6B illustrates a block diagram describing the algorithm of the “pressure vessel” usage indicator in the present disclosure.Fig. 6C illustrates a block diagram describing the algorithm to monitor the “actuator cycling” usage indicator in the present disclosure.Fig. 6D illustrates a block diagram describing the algorithm to monitor the “pump rotation” usage indicator in the present disclosure.Fig. 6E illustrates a block diagram describing the algorithm to monitor the “thermal soaking” and “thermal cycling” usage indicators in the present disclosure.Fig. 7 illustrates an exemplary system and method of sensor monitoring, data recording, and transmission according to the monitoring algorithms disclosed.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0012] To model the service life of their products, manufacturers often use accelerated testing methods that rely on operating their product under exceptional conditions, beyond what is typically encountered in real-world usage. Accelerated life testing (ALT) is often considered necessary in product development because adequate testing under normal service conditions is typically impractical, requiring test durations equivalent to the product’s expected service life. However, practical ALT methods that sufficiently cover the real -world variation of all operating conditions can be difficult to develop, and results from ALT may not always extrapolate to real-514603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 world conditions are outside of those that were present during such ALT. For some manufacturers, like those in the tire industry, effective ALT methods have become so valuable that they are considered closely guarded trade secrets. Unfortunately, the reliability modeling that underpins ALT faces significant challenges in some applications especially when there is a large disparity in the levels and frequency of stress experienced by products during use. Additionally, during product development, especially in the case of new, novel, complex, and / or expensive products, such as, for example, a fully active suspension system, the availability of time and samples to gather failure observations may be insufficient. Through years of experimentation and development, the inventors have recognized that this problem is particularly pronounced in active suspension systems, in which one or more actuators alternately add and absorb large quantities of power within the exceptionally tight confines of the vehicle’s wheel well. For example, individual electro-hydraulic actuators may consume peak power during active operation or regenerate peak power when resisting motion in the range of 1,000 to 2,000 watts at each wheel, with average power levels of 150 to 300 watts during normal operation. Peak power consumption and / or regeneration may occur, for instance, when a wheel of a vehicle strikes a bump at high speed or traverses a pothole. Power consumption and regeneration outside these ranges are possible under certain operating conditions, and the disclosure is not so limited. Additionally, in some embodiments of active suspension systems, hydraulic pumps may operate at high rotational speeds — e.g., 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPM) or higher — and may transition from maximum rotational speed in one direction (e.g., clockwise) to maximum rotational speed in the opposite direction within only a fraction of a second (e.g., 0.2 seconds). Such rapid reversals of rotation in hydraulic pumps may cause momentary metal-to-metal contact in bearings supporting rotating components and result in elevated wear. These reversals may also occur simultaneously with the existence of substantial pressure differentials across the pump (e.g., 20 bar, 40 bar, 50 bar, 60 bar, 100 bar, 200 bar, or any intermediate pressure within this range). Any suitable combination of rotational speeds, reversal times, and pressure differentials may occur, and the disclosure is not limited to the specific examples or ranges provided herein. Severe operating conditions occurring individually or in combination may substantially accelerate wear depending on the frequency of occurrence. During the lifetime of some vehicles, such severe operating conditions may occur frequently, while in other vehicles they may occur rarely or not at all. Therefore, real-time monitoring of usage parameters yields much more accurate usageindicator values than is possible, for example, with conventional ALT methods or reliance on614603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 conventional metrics such as vehicle age or mileage, which cannot reliably account for the occurrence of the wear accelerators discussed above. Such extreme and transient operating conditions underscore the need for monitoring and modeling approaches that can account for high-energy, short-duration events or other exceptional occurrences when estimating component degradation and projected remaining service life.

[0013] . Inventors have further recognized that it is especially difficult to design ALT protocols for complex products such as active suspension that can account for highly consequential but rare events. Additionally, changes to product design and manufacturing processes during development often impact product reliability, sometimes contradicting past failure observations. These realities often lead to a shortage of up-to-date reliability data. In contrast, the availability of data about product failure increases rapidly as production and / or commercialization scales up. Being able to gather and compare reliability data from a large percentage production units, during the early stages of the introduction of complex products, especially under real-world conditions may remedy the shortage.

[0014] During the design of highly complex, highly stressed products, manufacturers cannot predict the product’s future service environment with a high degree of precision, introducing an additional degree of uncertainty. This uncertainty is often reflected in the conservative warranties offered by manufacturers, which may not be closely related to the actual reliability of the system or device. Accordingly, a system and method for estimating the service life of a product or system in real-world environments, in an ongoing manner responsive to and / or based upon actual use (e.g., real-time actual use), is desirable. Such systems and methods are disclosed herein. The inventors have recognized that by monitoring one or more properly identified and selected indicators (e.g., usage indicators) in the field during use and / or until failure occurs, they may develop and refine reliability models of a product and reduce the uncertainty in defining its service life.

[0015] The uncertainty in predicting service life can be reduced by accounting for the effects of varying operating conditions on the product in real-time. The identification and application of one or more usage indicators as described herein can provide information to a microprocessor-based controller, user, manufacturer, and / or technician as to the expected fatigue / wear on a component and / or remaining service life of a component or system. These nontraditional measures referred herein as usage indicators, may be monitored and recorded to provide an ongoing indication of how the product is being used, and in the event of a 714603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 degradation in performance or a failure, the usage indicators, or a damage function based on such usage indicators, may retrospectively provide important detail on potential causes of the degradation or failure.

[0016] As used herein, the term “operating parameter” refers to a measurable or computable quantity that directly characterizes an instantaneous or time-dependent state of a system or component. Examples for electro-hydraulic active suspension systems include, but are not limited to, hydraulic pressure, temperature, electrical current, voltage, rotational speed, displacement, or position; actuator pressures; pump rotor angle; motor and oil temperatures; motor phase and bus currents; motor phase and bus voltages; actuator rod position; vertical accelerations of a vehicle wheel and body; steering angle; and vehicle body yaw, pitch, and roll velocities.

[0017] As used herein, the term “usage indicator” refers to a measurable or computable quantity that represents the cumulative use of a system or component, derived from the values of one or more operating parameters. Usage indicators for electro-hydraulic active suspension systems may include, but are not limited to: actuator cycling usage (e.g., counting positive- and negative-half-cycles of pump pressure and binning by peak value of the half-cycle); pump rotational usage (e.g., counting angle traveled by the pump and binning by pump pressure during the rotation); thermal soaking usage (e.g., counting time and binning by internal temperature during the time); thermal cycling usage (e.g., counting power-on cycles and binning by the temperature range experienced during the cycle); electrical energy usage (e.g., counting electrical energy consumed and generated by the actuator, separately); and pressure vessel usage (e.g., counting cycles in which pressure in the hydraulic actuator exceeds a threshold value).

[0018] As used herein, the term “reliability function” refers to a model representing the probability that a product will survive beyond a certain amount of use, which in some examples may correspond to operating time or time since manufacture. For example, a reliability function may predict that a device is expected to be 95% reliable after ten years of service, meaning the product has a 5% probability of failure within its first ten years of operation.

[0019] As used herein, the term “damage function” refers to a model representing the physical degradation of a material or component after a certain level of use. The value of a damage function, referred to as a “damage value”, may be dimensionless. In some examples, damage814603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 values and / or damage functions may be normalized such that they correspond to, or are defined to equal, a certain value (for example, 1.0) when the material or component is expected to fail. A damage value may be determined based on one or more usage indicators, which are measurable or computable quantities representative of accumulated use, stress, or energy exposure over time.

[0020] As used herein, the term “real-time” refers to the actual time during which a process or event occurs. Real-time systems collect and / or process data effectively contemporaneously with the process being monitored (e.g. within milliseconds, seconds or minutes).

[0021] There are advantages to each type of model: the reliability function and the damage function. A reliability function, unlike a damage function, is probabilistic and therefore can account for the randomness inherent in failure phenomena. A damage function, unlike a reliability function, can be derived from physical principles rather than empirical data. Accordingly, a damage function does not require a large sample of failure observations to be defined for a product. This basis in physical principles allows the same damage function to correlate with a broad category of failure modes, as long as the failure modes share the same or sufficiently similar underlying physical phenomena. Consequently, a single damage function may apply to various designs of an underlying product without modification of the damage function, so long as the underlying causes of failure are similar.

[0022] However, the inventors have recognized that real-time monitoring — whether performed onboard a vehicle or online — of key operating parameters over the lifetime of multiple products may easily generate an unmanageable amount of data and require excessive computational resources for evaluation. This issue is particularly acute for products such as motor vehicles and automotive components because of the considerable volume of vehicles currently in service and the large number sold each year. In the case of monitoring the operating parameters of active suspension systems across a large vehicle population — such as thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of vehicles — the cumulative data volume and processing demands would exceed practical storage and computational capacity. The presently disclosed monitoring systems and methods provide for real-time (e.g., online) monitoring and retrospective (e.g., offline) assessment of systems such as active suspension actuator assemblies without requiring an inordinate amount of computational resources.914603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0023] In some embodiments the methods and systems disclosed herein may be performed by a microprocessor-based controller, and may be performed on-line in real-time or, given a log of outputted signals, calculated offline by a provider (e.g., a manufacturer, vendor, technician, and the like). In some examples, the model of product usage (e.g., the damage function model and / or usage indicators) may also be updated at least partially based on performance of other similar and / or correlated products, such as based on a cloud-based database containing aggregated (e.g. crowdsourced) usage indicators from various other products with similar components (e.g., other fully active suspension systems in other vehicles). Continuous stream operating parameters may be uploaded in real time or stored onboard and up loaded periodically. This could involve transfer of extensive data, histograms of operating parameters or usage indicator values.

[0024] In some embodiments, usage indicators or other operational data may be transmitted from individual products, such as vehicles equipped with active suspension systems, to a cloudbased server or distributed database. The collected data from multiple vehicles may be aggregated and analyzed to identify correlations between usage patterns and component degradation across a large population of similar systems. In such implementations, the damage function or reliability model for a given product may be refined using aggregated, and in some cases anonymized, data obtained from other units (e.g., consumer-owned vehicles operating on public roads) under comparable and / or differing operating conditions. This crowd-sourced approach enables continuous improvement of predictive models without exclusive or primary reliance on accelerated life testing (ALT), thereby enabling earlier and more accurate reliability assessments. Additionally, updates to the refined models may be distributed back to individual vehicles or controllers, allowing for adaptive, fleet-wide optimization of maintenance scheduling and performance prediction. Updated models may also be utilized by researchers and developers in the design of more robust future products, e.g. active suspension systems.

[0025] The inventors have recognized that certain usage indicators may be selected, monitored, and tracked during service of a product (e.g., while the product is being used by consumers in the field) to estimate or account for the effects of operating conditions to which the product has been exposed up to that point in time and, in some embodiments, to predict the remaining service life of the product, as discussed herein. In some embodiments, usage indicator values and / or damage values are used to more accurately estimate the remaining service life of a product based on actual usage history rather than an idealized ALT. With this information, a1014603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 microprocessor-based controller may be configured to temporarily or permanently reduce or degrade system performance or operating range at opportune times to extend the remaining service life of a product, such as an actuator, pump, or circuit board in an active suspension system. Additionally, by monitoring appropriate usage indicators, the disclosed system may improve safety by gracefully degrading performance or adjusting the operating range of the product prior to failure. For example, an active suspension system controller may reduce system responsiveness to vehicle motion, road features, or other stimuli. Reduced responsiveness of a product, such as an actuator system disclosed herein, may include, without limitation, reducing the actuator’s capability (e.g., limiting maximum torque or maximum force to below one or more thresholds) under certain operating conditions, reducing the rate of change (i.e., slew rate) of a force command to the actuator, and / or adjusting a damping rate or damping setting of the actuator. The approaches detailed herein enable a controller to more precisely estimate or predict degradation or impending failure of a product or component compared to traditional indicators (e.g., system age or mileage), thereby narrowing the confidence interval related to failure prediction and improving the accuracy of remaining-life estimation. Additionally, the system may respond to such remaining-life predictions or estimates by automatically adjusting operating parameters or control strategies to further extend service life.

[0026] Fully active suspension (FAS) systems are complex systems which enhance ride quality, handling, and / or safety compared to traditional suspension technologies by incorporating one or more fast-acting actuators. These actuators, e.g., Fully Active Actuators (FAAs), are positioned between the vehicle body (e.g. the sprung mass) and the wheel assembly (e.g. the unsprung mass). While a vehicle is in motion, the FAS system may respond to real-time or a priori information received from sensors in the FAS system, the vehicle’s onboard sensors, road preview systems, cloud-based databases, and / or a user interface. In some embodiments, an FAS system may be activated when the vehicle is stationary (e.g., parked) or in situations where activation does not create hazardous conditions to induce certain specific motions for technician diagnostics, system testing, facilitate vehicle ingress or egress by lowering the entire vehicle or one side of the vehicle, and entertainment purposes. For example, certain modes may enhance the entertainment experience for occupants by inducing motion in synchronization with and / or in response to users watching videos, playing games, listening to music, or for demonstration purposes. In some examples, the present disclosure may refer to this as an “entertainment mode” or a “diagnostic mode” of the FAS system.1114603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0027] A schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a fully active actuator (FAA) 100 is illustrated in Fig. 1. The FAA 100 includes a hydraulically driven piston assembly 110 having a piston body 118 enclosing a piston 114 coupled to a piston rod 112 such that the piston 114 is movably disposed within an internal volume 110a. The internal volume 110a is divided into at least a first volume 113 and second volume 116 by the piston 114. The first volume 113 and second volume 116 contains hydraulic fluid in varying quantities based upon the position of the piston 114 during operation. The first volume 113 may be referred to as the “extension volume” 113 and the second volume 116 may be referred to as the “compression volume” 116. The piston 114 moves through the internal volume 110a during operation in response to road-induced disturbances and / or due to hydraulic forces resulting from hydraulic pressure generated by hydraulic device 120 (i.e. a hydraulic pump or hydraulic motor), onto the hydraulic fluid 119 in fluid communication with the first volume 113 and second volume 116.

[0028] In the embodiment of Fig. 1, FAA 100 includes a first accumulator Illa in direct fluid communication with the first volume 113 via a flow path 115a and port 115 and the hydraulic device 120 via port 122. FAA 100 may be one of several FAA 100’s included in a fully active suspension (“FAS”) system (e.g., FAS 400 in Fig. 4), wherein the FAS may include additional controllers for coordinating the action of one or more FAA 100, as disclosed herein. FAA 100 may additionally or alternatively include a second accumulator 111b in direct fluid communication with the second volume 116 via flow path 117a and port 117 and the hydraulic device 120 via port 124. As used herein, the term “direct fluid communication” refers to fluid communication via a flow path that does not pass through the hydraulic device 120. It is noted that in embodiments where only one accumulator is present (i.e. either accumulator Illa or accumulator 111b) then the portion of internal volume 110a (i.e. either volume 113 or volume 116) that is in direct fluid communication with an accumulator (i.e. either accumulator Illa or accumulator 111b) will be at a substantially constant-pressure relative to the other portion of the internal volume during operation because of the presence of the accumulator, e.g. a gas-charged accumulator. The portion of the internal volume 110a with the substantially constant pressure may be referred to as the constant pressure (CP) volume and the other portion of the internal volume 110a may be referred to as the variable-pressure (VP) volume.

[0029] In some embodiments, the one or more pressurized accumulators Illa, 111b are configured to maintain a baseline pressure greater than an external environmental pressure1214603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 within the FAA 100, e.g. to avoid cavitation during operation. The one or more accumulators Illa, 111b may also operably accommodate expansion or contraction of the volume of hydraulic fluid 119 in system 100 due to temperature change and / or to accommodate a quantity of hydraulic fluid 119 displaced as the piston rod 112 is introduced into or removed from the internal volume 110a during operation of FAA 100. It is noted that in some examples only a first accumulator Illa in fluid communication with the first volume 113 is provided, while in other examples only a second accumulator 11 lb is provided that is in fluid communication with the second volume 116. Further, in some embodiments, restrictions 111c and / or 11 Id (e.g. valves, orifices, shim stacks) are provided to control flow characteristics of hydraulic fluid to and from accumulators Illa and / or 111b, respectively. Restrictions 111c and / or 11 Id may be variable restrictions that are actively or passively controlled.

[0030] In some embodiments, the hydraulically driven piston assembly 110 is fluidly coupled to a motor pump 105 comprised at least of hydraulic device 120 which is driven, for example, by electric device 126 (e.g., an electric motor or an electric generator) via a driveshaft 128. For example, the first volume 113 or extension volume 113 is fluidly coupled to a first hydraulic module port 122 of the hydraulic device 120 via an extension volume port 115 and the second volume 116 or compression volume 116 is fluidly coupled to a second port 124 of the hydraulic device 120 via a compression volume port 117. The ports of the FAA 100, including the extension volume port 115 and the first hydraulic device port 122, and the compression volume port 117 and the second hydraulic device port 124, is fluidly coupled by a conduit (e.g., 115a, 117a) facilitating the flow of any appropriate amount of hydraulic fluid. The conduit includes but one or more flow channels, hoses, tubes, manifolds, direct connections, and / or any other appropriate type of fluid connection and includes any appropriate intervening types of components such as valves, accumulators, and other fluidic components as the disclosure is not limited in this manner. Hydraulic device 120 causes the hydraulic fluid 119 within the various conduits to effectuate a force on other components in the FAA 100, such as to drive the piston 114 in one or both directions depending on the operation of the hydraulic device 120.

[0031] The hydraulic device 120 is operatively coupled to electric device 126 as illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of Fig. 1. For example, a rotor of the hydraulic device 120 is operatively coupled to a driveshaft 128 of the electric device 126. In some examples electric device 126 is an electric motor that rotates a driveshaft 128 which is mechanically coupled to a rotor of hydraulic device 120 to rotate the rotor of the hydraulic device 120. Rotation of the1314603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 rotor of the hydraulic device 120 causes hydraulic fluid 119 to flow in a direction commensurate with rotation of the rotor, which causes in turn a pressure differential between a first volume 113 and second volume 116 to thereby urge the piston 114 in a desired direction. The piston rod 114 is further connected to the unsprung mass (e.g., the wheel assembly 254 in Fig. 2B) or alternatively to the sprung mass (e.g. the vehicle body 256 in Fig. 2B) to cause relative motion between the unsprung mass (e.g., wheel assembly 254) and the sprung mass (e.g., vehicle body 256). The electric device 126 may in some examples be integrated with a portion of the hydraulic device 120 and thus an external driveshaft 128 may be eliminated.

[0032] During at least one or more operating modes, hydraulic fluid 119 may flow between the compression volume 116 and the extension volume 113 through the hydraulic device 120 as the piston 114 moves through the housing 118 of the piston assembly 110. As noted above, the coupled hydraulic device 120 and electric device 126 may be operated by an associated actuator controller 130 which may include a processor, memory, and various interfaces to communicate with a controller area network (CAN) of a vehicle, and the like. The suspension actuator controller 130 may communicate with an active suspension master controller (ASMC), such as ASMC 430 in Figure 4 below.

[0033] It should be noted that the system illustrated in Fig. 1 may be integrated into a single solid housing, which may be a multi-piece housing. Alternatively, the system in Fig. 1 may be housed in multiple housings. For example, the piston assembly 110 and one or more accumulators (e.g., accumulators Illa and 111b) may be housed in a first housing, while the motor pump 105 is housed in a separate second housing. The first and second housings may be hydraulically connected with hydraulic hoses.

[0034] A schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a motor pump 200 is illustrated in Fig. 2A. Motor pump 200 functions in a manner similar to motor pump 105 as described above. Motor pump 200 includes a rotor 202 of an electrical device (e.g. electrical motor, an electrical generator operated as an electrical motor, a Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motor) operatively coupled to a hydraulic device 204 (e.g., a hydraulic pump, a hydraulic motor driven as a pump). In some examples the hydraulic device 204 may be a gerotor pump. Various bearings 206 are provided in the motor pump 200 to support the rotor of the electrical device and / or rotors of the hydraulic device. In some examples the bearings 206 may include one or more ball bearings configured to roll smoothly within an inner raceway and outer raceway (not shown). During operation, the bearings 206 may be exposed to forces 1414603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 that rapidly change in direction and magnitude as torque is applied by or exerted onto the motor pump 200. In the example of an FAS system, such as FAA 100 in Fig. 1, interposed between a vehicle body and a wheel assembly, the amplitude of the forces on one or more of the bearings 206 may be quite large and vary rapidly in magnitude and direction. Likewise, under some operating conditions, the rotors of the hydraulic device 204 (or 120 in Fig. 1) may operate at a very high rotational speed (e.g., 10,000 rpm or higher) and / or change direction of rotation at a high rate (e.g., 12Hz or higher). The combination of high amplitude forces and high frequency forces on the motor pump 200 (motor pump 105 in Fig. 1) can cause significant wear on the bearings 206 during operation.

[0035] A reliability function with a confidence interval is made possible by a sample of failure observations along with data records of usage (such as the usage indicators disclosed herein) measured at or close to the time of each failure. A sufficiently narrow confidence interval allows for the reliability function to guide product design, including design of its control software, or to inform a vehicle owner, operator, technician, and / or manufacturer that preventative maintenance may be appropriate to avoid failure at an inopportune and / or unsafe time or situation. In a complex system or systems, such as an FAS system, the confidence interval on a reliability function, fitted to traditional usage indicators (e.g. age, operating time, or mileage), is often too wide or imprecise to feed into a system function or be informative because the true reliability frequently may differ substantially from the calculated reliability. Non-traditional usage indicators, such as those disclosed herein, can significantly narrow this confidence interval because actual in-use operating conditions are accounted for in the domain of the reliability function (i.e. the amount and severity of use).

[0036] A reliability function based upon usage indicators, largely independent of time or less sensitive operating scenario, can also account for usage variation between units of the same or similar design or vintage. For example, a fleet operator or vehicle manufacturer may compare reliability-function values among different vehicles (with different ages, operating times, or mileage) to investigate which vehicles may have been overused or misused and / or which vehicles may require preventive inspection or maintenance. A reliability function based upon such usage indicators may also be used to schedule a reduction in performance by way of a modification to the actuator controllers 130, active-suspension master controller (ASMC) 430 (see Fig. 4), FAS system 400, and / or FAAs 100. A change in actuator (e.g., FAA 100) or system (e.g., FAS system 400) performance capability may be either mandatory — in which case the1514603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 vehicle 415 may inform the user or owner to expect the scheduled change — or optional, in which case the vehicle 415 may request confirmation to schedule the change or otherwise proceed with reduced service life. In some examples, a reduction in performance may include restricting FAS system 400 characteristics, such as by limiting the maximum torque output, the maximum force of FAA 100, the frequency response of FAA 100, or by limiting other capabilities as discussed above .

[0037] Additionally, or alternatively, by monitoring one or more usage indicators over time, a representation of the severity of use that a product experiences may be determined based on the rate that usage indicators change relative to another measure, such as age, operating time, or mileage. For example, as discussed below, an exemplary usage indicator may be based on the number of revolutions of a rotary component of a pump and the associated pressure level across the pump during those revolutions. If this usage indicator increments to an unexpectedly high level, or increases at an unexpected rate, corrective action may be taken to temporarily reduce performance and / or schedule maintenance to protect the pump from unusual wear. A historically unusual level may be determined, for example, based on a comparison of an actuator unit’s usage-indicator rate of change to an average value for other units with comparable service. A threshold value of a usage indicator may be defined, above which overuse is designated. An unexpected level or rate may also be identified through statistical analysis of usage-indicator records across multiple actuators and / or over time.

[0038] In another non-limiting example, the total electrical energies consumed and generated by the FAS system may be monitored as usage indicators. If the rate-of-change of either energy usage indicator is large, then this may be a sign of increased wear on the FAS system and action can be taken to reduce performance characteristics and recommend action by the user. Historical rate-of-change may be analyzed in near real-time (e.g., online) or may be analyzed offline based on historical usage indicator data stored in memory in the FAS system; remotely stored in a database updated periodically with the data stored on the vehicle through maintenance records; and / or via vehicle telematics. This usage rate, and in some examples the usage indicator data itself, may be displayable to the operator of the vehicle, transmitted to a manufacturer or a technician, or both.

[0039] Additionally or alternatively, control strategies described below and implemented in a microprocessor-controlled product, such as, for example, the motor pump 105 or the FAA 100, may be adapted and updated based on sensor data quantified as the usage indicators disclosed 1614603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 herein. Such control strategies may include monitoring one or more usage indicators over time. This may allow for the damage level of the product to be updated, adjusted, or adapted during service (online or offline), which in some examples may result in extending or shortening the remaining useful life of the product. In some examples, an estimate of the remaining useful life may be determined based on a comparison of current usage indicator levels and a usage indicator level corresponding to a probability of failure according to a reliability function.

[0040] In some embodiments, a failure mode may correlate with a combination of usage indicators. A damage function may be calculated that combines multiple usage indicators (e.g., binned usage data as described below) and generates a damage value for the failure mode. For example, a damage function may be a linear combination of one or more usage indicators and corresponding damage weights (DW). The weights may be modified in real-time (e.g., online), modified periodically (e.g., near real-time), and / or retrospectively (e.g., offline) to update the damage value. Modification of the DWs may be performed at least partially based on online or offline records of one or more usage indicators to adjust the estimated remaining service life of the system or product based on this damage function output. Importantly, as will be discussed, the damage function may be updated after collecting the usage indicator data by adjusting various damage weight indices, but without necessarily needing to adjust or reset the usage indicators, which accumulate over the entire service life of the product.

[0041] Some failure modes may be caused by subtle gradual changes, such as surface wear (e.g., spalling and the like), lubricant breakdown, or fatigue crack growth. These failure modes may be difficult to directly monitor in a product during operation, as they may require disassembly or destructive inspection. For example, many fatigue failure modes may only be directly measured via microscopy, which is typically destructive to the measured specimen. Accordingly, the damage functions discussed herein may provide an indirect estimate of these unmeasurable failure causes.

[0042] FAS and / or FAA failures may be especially difficult to anticipate or diagnose. For example, due to the design requirements of an FAS system and / or an FAA, the components are often not easily serviceable or serviceable at all. Therefore, when a failure or unexpected degraded performance occurs, it may be difficult to determine why the system and / or component failed without destructively disassembling the system and / or component. Further, as will be evident in the disclosure below regarding various usage indicators monitored and1714603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 analyzed, there are many causes for FAS system failure and determining which failure mode occurred or is anticipated to occur is difficult.

[0043] The presently disclosed system and method is directed at providing such insights without the need to destructively diagnose the system. Replicating normal operating conditions of a suspension on a stationary vehicle in a laboratory or repair shop may be prohibitively costly, requiring highly specialized training and equipment. The detectable effects of suspension failures - such as vibration, noise, excessive or harsh vehicle body motions - are often intermittent and may develop gradually and therefore difficult to detect at the early stages of failure. Some of these effects may also be detectable only under specific operating conditions, such as driving at a certain speed, driving over certain road features such as potholes of a given depth, or while performing certain maneuvers such as turning the steering wheel rapidly while travelling at high speed or braking aggressively. Furthermore, an FAS system may mask certain failures by compensating for any degradation effects fed back through its own close-loop control. A warning (which may, for example, take the form of a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) or similar standardized warning protocol) may be generated by the disclosed system and method which may allow for more advanced warning of failure and / or provide a more detailed diagnostic history of usage indicator data recorded before and / or after a failure occurs. Such a prognostic is intended to provide an unambiguous indication of an impending system issue and to help facilitate the scheduling of repairs at the optimal time.

[0044] A dataset collected from such usage indicators during the service life of the FAA 100 or motor pump 105, 200 may be used to fine-tune engineering models and inform existing and future tests traditionally used when determining these failure modes. Such tuned models and tests of the relevant failure modes allow the manufacturer of the vehicle, the FAS system, FAA 100, and / or motor pump 105, 200 to better navigate the necessary design tradeoffs between performance, durability, and cost during product development, as well as make more informed decisions regarding product lifecycles. Furthermore, by better predicting these failure modes before they happen, consumer safety and satisfaction may be improved by preventing failure at inopportune, inconvenient, or unsafe times (e.g., when driving on an interstate or in a remote area).

[0045] The Inventors have recognized that for certain FAAs 100, assessing reliability based on specific usage indicators is more effective than relying on traditional service life assessments such as age (e.g., time period) and mileage commonly used in the automotive industry. Such 1814603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 traditional service life measures fall short of measuring actual usage, especially for complex systems such as FAS systems with one more FAAs 100. For example, an FAS system may be designed to operate over a broad range, with many factors contributing to the potential for different kinds of damage to the FAA components. An FAS system’s reliability strongly depends on its history of operating conditions, such as, for example, regional climate, user-selected preferences, user driving style, ambient temperature, road quality and condition, and operation of the FAS in a stationary vehicle mode (e.g., an entertainment mode). Traditional service life assessment relying upon, for example, product age increases at a constant rate, unaffected by varying operating conditions. Additionally, as discussed above, while a vehicle is stationary (i.e. parked), the FAS system may experience substantial usage and wear which would not be properly reflected in a service life assessment based, for example, on in-service age or mileage. That is, the inventors have recognized that monitoring traditional parameters such as age, mileage, operating time, or ignition cycles of a vehicle doesn’t sufficiently correlate to the wear and fatigue of an FAS system.

[0046] Through intensive testing, modeling and analysis, the inventors have identified several usage indicators that can be used to effectively monitor the wear and fatigue of an FAA 100 and / or motor pump 105, 200 and, therefore, the service life of an FAS system. These usage indicators may include data output from at least one or more of, for example, an actuator cycling monitor, a thermal soaking monitor, a thermal cycling monitor, a pump rotation monitor, an electrical energy consumed monitor, an electrical energy generated monitor, and a pressure vessel monitor, as will be discussed further with respect to Fig. 5. However, other appropriate usage indicators may be used in conjunction with or instead of one or more of the usage indicators described below as the disclosure is not so limited.

[0047] In an FAA 100, each hydraulic device 120 (e.g. pump) may contain multiple bearings (e.g., bearings 206 in Fig. 2A). As discussed above, the assembly 200 in Fig. 2, which is a nonlimiting example of the motor pump 105 in Fig. 1, may include multiple ball bearings 206 although other types of bearings, such as roller bearings and / or journal bearings, may be used and accordingly the disclosure is not limited in this manner. The three bearings 206 shown in Fig. 2A support the rotating subassembly (e.g., rotor 202), of the hydraulic device 204, about a single axis (e.g. axis 207) of rotor shaft 208 while at least partially restricting other degrees of freedom of the subassembly relative to the housing of motor pump 200. Fig. 2B illustrates an exemplary system where an FAA 252, which may be similar to FAA 100 discussed above, is1914603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 provided between a wheel assembly 254 including a wheel 254a and the vehicle body 256. FAA 252 may be configured to cooperate with existing suspension components 258 (e.g., a spring coil assembly, a leaf spring assembly, an airbag suspension assembly, and the like), to control vehicle ride dynamics and responsiveness to road conditions.

[0048] One or more of the bearings 206 may eventually fail, for example, due to the breakdown or degradation of the surface of the raceway of the bearing, e.g., by spalling. Fatigue cracks, caused by cyclic Hertzian contact stresses in the bearing raceway 300 material just below the running surface 302, may gradually grow to cause spalling 306 of the surface as illustrated in Fig. 3. Abearing raceway 300, such as an inner raceway 300 or outer raceway 300, may contain a ball bearing (not shown) and confine its movement within the inner and outer raceway. As the ball bearing repeatedly traverses the surface 302 of the raceway 300 under load, spalling 306 may develop. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this and spalling 306 or other types of degradation or damage may occur in other areas, on other surfaces of the raceway 300. Spalling, such as spalling 306 or other types of degradation, may lead to excessive noise, particulate contamination of the hydraulic fluid or lubricant, and possibly complete loss of hydraulic device (e.g. pump) function, any of which may lead to the failure of an FAA 100, 252 or the motor pump 105, 200.

[0049] With reference to Fig. 4, an exemplary vehicle implementing the present system will be discussed. A Fully Active Suspension (FAS) system 400 may include one or more FAAs 100a, 100b, 100c, lOOd in corresponding comers of the FAS system 400, with the one or more FAAs lOOa-d interposed between the vehicle body 415 and respective wheel assemblies (e.g. unsprung masses) 150a, 150b, 150c, 150d. The FAAs 100a, 100b, 100c, lOOd may be similar to those discussed above with respect to Fig. 1 and may include the integrated exemplary motor pump 105, 200 as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 discussed above. A Controller Area Network (CAN) bus 410 is provided in the FAS system 400 to enable standardized communication infrastructure and protocols to enable various vehicle sensors to be monitored, recorded, and their data shared amongst other controllers in the FAS system 400. Various Electronic Control Units (ECU), of which actuator controller 130 of FAS systems lOOa-d may be an example, are able to exchange information with other ECUs, controllers, and systems in the FAS system 400 in order to facilitate vehicle and FAA lOOa-d operation. For example, CAN bus (not shown) may enable vehicle information, such as wheel speed, vehicle localization information, user parameters, and the like, to be communicated to the FAS system 430 and actuator controller2014603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 130 for use in controlling operation of the FAS system 430 and FAAs lOOa-d. The various usage indicator monitors disclosed below and illustrated in Fig. 6 may therefore rely on data from and contribute data to the CAN bus.

[0050] With reference to Fig. 5, a system-level diagram of a disclosed system and method of measuring, recording, analyzing, and applying various usage indicators will now be discussed. An actuator cycling monitor 502 may receive sensor data from one or more pressure transducers, such as pressure transducer 132 and / or 134 in Fig. 1. Alternatively or additionally, the actuator cycling monitor 502 or another algorithm may estimate the pressure in one or more of the appropriate actuator volumes (e.g. volumes 113, 116) if only one pressure transducer 132, 134 is provided. Based on such sensor measurements of pressure, estimates of pressure, or a combination of measurements and estimates of pressure, the differential pressure across the hydraulic device 120 may be measured, computed, estimated, or otherwise determined and the number of cycles reaching various pump differential pressure intervals (i.e., bins) may be recorded as a binned usage indicator. This binned usage indicator may be combined into a scalar actuator cyclic damage value. Athermal soaking and cycling monitor 504 may receive data from one or more temperature sensors, such as temperature sensors 136, 138. In some examples, the temperature sensor(s) 136 or 138 may provide an estimated temperature of the actuator based on, for example, the temperature of the hydraulic fluid in the FAA. The time that the FAA 100 spends within various temperature level bins may be recorded as a thermal soaking usage indicator. The number of cycles that temperature of the FAA 100 oscillates in various temperature range bins may be recorded as a thermal cycling usage indicator. A pump rotation monitor 506 may receive data from sensors measuring the velocity or angle of the hydraulic device rotor and the pressure across the hydraulic device, such as the variable pressure volume of internal volume 110a as discussed above and an estimate of the pressure of volume 115a to calculate the pressure differential across the device. The number of revolutions accumulated within pump pressure level bins may be recorded as a pump rotation usage indicator. This binned usage indicator may be combined into a scalar pump rotational damage value. An electrical bus monitor 508 may receive sensor data of the power bus voltage (e.g., the voltage across electrical connection between the Energy Storage system in Fig. 4 and the FAA 100) and the power bus current (e.g., electrical current flowing between the Energy Storage system in Fig. 4 and the FAA 100). Electrical energy consumed (such as the energy which is used to actively drive the FAA 100) and electrical energy generated (such as the energy which is generated when the FAA 100 is driven by external conditions) may be accumulated 2114603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 and recorded as respective usage indicators. A pressure vessel monitor 510 may receive sensor data of the pressure of one or more of the volumes 113, 116 of FAA 100. In some examples the monitored pressure may be the pressure in the portion of the internal volume 110a which is not in direct fluid connection with an accumulator Illa, 111b. The number of times the monitored pressure exceeds a threshold may be recorded as a pressure vessel usage indicator. To ensure that usage-indicator values persist across power cycles, the values may be written to onboard non-volatile memory during a shutdown event 501b, or periodically during operation, so that the stored values can be retrieved as initial values upon the subsequent startup event 501a.

[0051] Also, as illustrated in Fig. 5, during operation of the FAS, a communication and abstraction module 512 may encode the outputs of the monitors (502, 504, 506, and 508) into circular buffers for serial transmission over the CAN bus. In one example, binned usageindicator values may be encoded into a circular buffer that includes three fields: an element ID identifying the particular usage indicator, a bin index, and a value. Likewise, scalar damage values may be encoded into a separate circular buffer that includes two fields: an element ID identifying the particular damage metric and a value. The resulting circular-buffer data may be transmitted over the CAN bus to a controller, such as the master controller (ASMC) 430. Additionally, some or all of this information may be uploaded to a remote data-processing facility, such as a cloud-based server, for parallel or supplementary processing and analysis.

[0052] In some embodiments, during startup of the FAS, the usage indicators corresponding to the various monitors discussed herein are read from non-volatile memory, such as non-volatile memory in ASMC 430, may be read from non-volatile memory in the actuator controller 130, or another controller. The usage indicators are then updated according to the respective monitoring algorithm discussed herein. When an FAS is turned off, such as in a power-off event, the usage indicators are stored in, e.g. the non-volatile memory of actuator controller 130 and / or ASMC 430.

[0053] As used herein, a “sampling interval” refers to the periodic time interval at which sensor data is acquired and processed by a controller for determining operating-parameter values. In some embodiments, the term “sampling interval” may also be referred to as a “timestep.”

[0054] Although discussed below with reference to a single exemplary FAA 100 used in an FAS system, the algorithms discussed in the present disclosure are applicable for a system2214603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 having plural FAAs, such as, for example, FAAs lOOa-d of the FAS system 400 in Fig. 4, and / or FAAs and / or FAS systems of any type.

[0055] Turning now to Figures 6A-6E, several algorithms, e.g., software algorithms, which calculate usage indicators, corresponding to the various monitoring operations discussed above, will now be discussed.

[0056] Some failure modes in some embodiments of FAA 100 are correlated with the amount of electrical energy consumed or generated by the FAA 100, such as the electrical energy consumed by motor 126 to drive the hydraulic device 120 to apply a differential pressure across the piston 114. Likewise, during operation in a vehicle, such as FAS system 400 in Fig. 4, the wheel assemblies 150a-d may impart forces onto the piston assembly 110 which cause the motor pump 105 to be driven in response, due to for example the hydraulic device 120 being forced to rotate in response to fluid pressures from the forces imparted onto the piston assembly 110 via the wheel assemblies 150a-d. Exemplary failure modes correlated to energy consumption may include failure of the high-voltage power source (and sink) for the FAS, thermo-mechanical fatigue on components resulting from joule heating of the electric motor coils and its drivers. Different circuits may be energized, or common circuits may be energized differently, when the FAA 100 is consuming electricity from its power supply (e.g., the battery pack of the vehicle (150e in Fig. 4)) or generating electricity from motion of the one or more wheel assemblies 150a-d relative to the vehicle body 415.

[0057] With reference to Fig. 6A, an exemplary energy monitoring algorithm 600 for monitoring electrical energy consumption and / or generation by an FAA 100 will now be discussed. In 602, controller (e.g., actuator controller 130) reads the bus current (Z) and bus voltage (7) sensors (e.g., in electric (motor) device 126) and determines bus power (P) in 604 by multiplying current and voltage together in accordance with P = IV. It is noted that the “bus” is the FAA 100 high-power electrical interface, and when the FAA 100 is generating a force on the piston assembly 110, the current is a positive value (Z+) representing current flow into the FAA 100, and when the piston assembly 110 is being driven by external forces (e.g., a wheel assembly 150a-d being driven in response to a road surface feature) the current is a negative value (Z-) representing current flow out of the FAA 100 (i.e., electrical energy is produced and transmitted out of the system). Accordingly in 606 the power (P+) flowing into the FAA 100 (such as when the FAA 100 draws power from the vehicle) is calculated,2314603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 accumulated in memory (e.g., a memory in actuator controller 130), and added to the usage indicator value in 610a stored in memory during the previous shutdown routine to monitor energy consumed over service life as a usage indicatorin 612a. In 608, power (P-) flowing out of the FAA 100 (such as when the FAA 100 generates power and transmits it to the vehicle, if so equipped) is calculated, accumulated in memory, and added to the usage indicator value in 610b stored in memory during the previous shutdown routine to monitor energy generated over service life as a usage indicator (u^ ) in 612b. It is further noted that the storage of usage indicator values may occur when a power-off event occurs, as discussed above, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. In some examples, the various usage indicator values may be stored and transmitted via the CAN bus after an elapsed period of time, after a fault event is detected in the FAA, after a threshold value is exceeded, and the like. That is, usage indicator data may be stored more often than simply at power-off events to ensure that valuable usage indicator data is retained.

[0058] In certain embodiments, electrical energy usage indicator values are continually monitored, recorded, and accumulated in an ongoing manner as discussed above. In some examples, the total electrical power passing through a system, regardless of direction, may be used as a single usage indicator (that is the absolute value of (P+) and (P-) are combined). In other examples, the (u^ ) usage indicator is recorded and analyzed independently from the (u^ ) usage indicator. Whenever a shutdown event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 or FAA 100 is powered off, energy consumed during the operating mode is stored, e.g. in non-volatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130 or ASMC 430. Usage indicators lie and u~ may be made available external to the FAA 100 periodically when the FAS system 400 can transmit the data to a remote storage location and / or in response to a technician or vehicle operator requesting the information. For example, transceiver 436 components (see Fig.4) may be configured to transmit usage indicator values when communication is available, such as when a vehicle is within reception range of or connected to a communication system conforming to Wi-Fi standards, cellular standards, Bluetooth standards, IEEE standards, USB standards, and similar wireless and wired communication protocols.

[0059] Fig 6B illustrates an exemplary pressure vessel monitoring algorithm 620 for monitoring and recording pressure vessel (e.g., piston assembly 110) conditions during use. In particular, in 622, the pressure P2 in the second volume 116 (which may be referred to as the variable-pressure volume 116) may be measured using a pressure transducer 134. Pressure P22414603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 may be monitored continuously or periodically by actuator controller 130 and compared with a threshold PTH. In 624 if P2 reaches or exceeds the threshold PTH then a counter Cp stored in memory is incremented. In some examples, the pressure vessel monitoring algorithm 620 may compare pressure P2 with more than one threshold (e.g., PTH-I, PTH-2 . . . PTH-«) defining multiple ranges of pressure (e.g., a bin for P<PTH-I, a bin for PTH-I<P<PTH-2, etc.), in which case one or more additional counters (e.g., Cp-i, Cp-2 ... Cp-«) may be incremented, respectively. In some examples the threshold(s) PTH represent a high-pressure event such as pressures exceeding, in a non-limiting example, lOOOpsi, 1250psi, 1500psi, 2000psi, 2500psi, which can therefore exert high pressure forces on various components in FAA system 100 including chamber seals, valves, hydraulic lines, hydraulic device 120, electric device 126, and the like. Accordingly, in 626 and 628 the counter Cp value(s) may be added to previous Cp value(s) from memory. In 630 when a power-off event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 is turned off or the FAA 100 is otherwise disengaged from power (e.g., in a test mode), the counter(s) Cp accumulated (incremented) during the operating mode is stored as a high-pressure usage indicator uPin nonvolatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130.

[0060] It is noted that in some examples, similar to pressure transducer 132 for measuring Pl, pressure transducer 134 used herein may also or alternatively be provided in or proximal to the motor pump 105, such as at a port 122 or 124, to enable measurement of pressure P2. Pressure transducers 132 and / or 134 may alternatively be provided between the accumulators Illa, 111b respectively and the hydraulic device 120. It is further noted that the storage of usage indicator values may occur when a power-off event occurs, as discussed above, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. In some examples, the various usage indicator values may be stored and transmitted via the CAN bus after an elapsed period of time, after a fault event is detected in the FAA, after a threshold value is exceeded, and the like. That is, usage indicator data may be stored more often than simply at power-off events to ensure that valuable usage indicator data is retained.

[0061] With reference now to Fig. 6C, an exemplary actuator cycling monitoring algorithm 640 will be discussed. Several failure modes in an FAA 100, such as an electro-hydraulic FAA, may be caused by its rapidly oscillating hydraulic pressure and / or pressure gradients. That is, in some embodiments the hydraulic pressures in different regions of an FAA vary in amplitude differently, rapidly, and somewhat randomly during normal operation of the FAA 100 because forces transmitted to the FAA 100 from the road (e.g., via a wheel assembly) and the sprung2514603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 vehicle body change rapidly and somewhat randomly. Since the pressure differences throughout the FAA 100 (e.g., across the piston assembly 114 and / or across the pump 120) cause stresses on system components (e.g., hydraulic device 120 which may be a gerotor type hydraulic pump), monitoring the cycling of these pressure differences is a useful indicator of the wear on the FAA system 100 components.

[0062] Cycling of stresses may first initiate and then cause fatigue cracks to grow in components in an FAA 100 (e.g., in the piston assembly 114, the hydraulic device 120, bearings and bearing raceways, electric device 126, and other components), culminating with material fracture and failure. Much like a bearing failure (such as spalling discussed with respect to Fig.3), these failure modes may lead to excessive noise, particulate contamination in the hydraulic fluid, and possibly complete loss of hydraulic module (e.g., hydraulic device 120) function.

[0063] Referring to Fig. 6C, in 642 the pressure P2 in the second volume 116 (which may be referred to as the variable-pressure volume 116) is measured using a pressure transducer 134. In 643, the pressure Pl of the first volume 113 is estimated based on, for example, the pressure measured by a transducer associated with the accumulator Illa. In 644, the amplitude of a differential pressure P3 is calculated by subtracting P2 from Pl (or vice versa). It is noted that in examples when plural pressure transducers 132, 134 are provided, the pressure usage indicator may be determined based on an actual pressure differential between Pl and P2 based on the plural pressure transducers, instead of by estimation. When the sign of differential pressure P3 changes, a zero crossing is detected representing a half cycle. When a zero crossing 646 is detected, the maximum value of the differential pressure P3MAX during the half cycle between zero crossings is recorded. In 648, for each zero-crossing event detected, the P3MAX is discretized into one or more bins representing a range of maximum differential pressure values between zero crossings. For example, and without limitation, a first bin Bl may count maximum pressure P3MAX between lOOOpsi inclusive and 1250psi exclusive (1000 <P3MAX < 1250), a second bin B2 may count pressure cycles between 1250psi inclusive and 1500psi exclusive (1250 < P3MAX < 1500), and a third bin B3 may count pressure cycles between 1500psi inclusive and 1750psi exclusive (1500 < P3MAX < 1750). These bins Bl, B2, B3 are included as non-limiting examples and bins may in some examples include pressures between 251-500psi, 501-750psi, 751-1000psi as well as 1751-2000psi, 2001-2250psi, or 2251-2500psi. Accordingly, in 648, when a zero-crossing is detected, the maximum differential pressure P3MAX is compared to predefined bin edges, such as those discussed above, to2614603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 determine which bin the half-cycle falls within. In 650, in an example where three bins Bl, B2, B3 are selected, if P3MAX falls within bin Bl then a counter CB1 is incremented. Likewise, in another example, if P3MAX is in bin B2 then counter CB2 is incremented. Similarly with bin B3 ... Bn. That is, in 650, the counters CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n accumulate based on which bin each pressure difference amplitude P3MAX falls within. It is noted that in some examples one or more bins may be ignored even if defined with edges, in which case the counters for those bins are not used to update actuator cycling usage indicators uC. In still other examples, there may be more than three bins which would require additional counters CB-n.

[0064] In 652, previously stored usage indicator values are read from electronic memory and added to respective counter values determined in 650 to give the current usage indicator values. In 654a when a power off event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 is turned off or the FAA 100 is otherwise disengaged from power (e.g., in a test mode), the pressure usage values may be stored as a binned actuator cycling usage indicator uCBl+ uCB2+ uCB3+ ... uCBn+, corresponding to counters for bins Bl, B2, B3 ... Bn, in non-volatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130 or ASMC 430.

[0065] Similarly, in 654b when a power off event occurs the counter(s) CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n accumulated (incremented) during the operating mode may be multiplied by a pressure differential damage index (DP) when the FAA 100 has an energy outflow values may be stored as a weighted actuator cycling damage value dCBl+ , dCB2+ , dCB3+ ... dCBn+ in nonvolatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130 or ASMC 430. It is noted that in 654a and 654b, the usage values and damage values correspond to when P3MAX is a positive value, since the damage caused by a positive maximum pressure difference (+P3MAX) may differ from the damage caused by a negative maximum pressure difference (-P3MAX).

[0066] Similarly, in 654c when a power off event occurs the counter(s) CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n accumulated (incremented) during the operating mode when the FAA 100 has an energy in flow (as discussed above with respect to Fig. 6A) may be stored as a actuator cycling usage indicator uCDBl- uCDB2- uCDB3- ... uCDBn- in non-volatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130.

[0067] Similarly, in 654d when a power off event occurs the counter(s) CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n accumulated (incremented) during the operating mode may be multiplied by a pressure differential damage index (DP) when the FAA 100 has an energy in flow values may be stored2714603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 as a weighted actuator cycling usage indicator dCBl- , dCB2- , dCB3- ... dCBn- in nonvolatile memory, such as memory provided to actuator controller 130. It is noted that in 654c and 654d, the usage values and damage values correspond to when P3MAX is a negative value, since the damage caused by a negative maximum pressure difference (-P3MAX) may differ from the damage caused by a negative maximum pressure difference (+P3MAX).

[0068] It is noted that similar to usage and damage values previously discussed, the storage of usage and damage values may occur when a power-off event occurs, as discussed above, but the present disclosure is not limited to this. In some examples, the various usage indicator values and damage values may be stored and transmitted via the CAN bus after an elapsed period of time, after a fault event is detected in the FAA, after a threshold value is exceeded, and the like. That is, usage indicator data and damage value data may be stored more often than simply at power-off events to ensure that valuable usage indicator data is retained.

[0069] Referring to Fig. 6D, a pump rotation monitoring algorithm 660 will be described. The inventors have recognized that the rate of material fatigue may depend on the amplitude and number of contact stress cycles between bearing balls and the bearing raceway.

[0070] In 661, the pressure P2 in the second volume 116 (which may be referred to as the variable-pressure volume 116) is measured using a pressure transducer 134. In 662, the pressure Pl of the first volume 113 is estimated based on, for example, the pressure measured by a transducer associated with the accumulator Illa or at a point more proximal to the hydraulic device 120 along the fluid flow path 115a in Fig. 1. In 663, the rotational speed of a hydraulic device, such as hydraulic device 120, is measured and, in 665, this rotational speed is converted to a degree of rotation (R) traveled in the timestep of the algorithm. The timestep is a predefined period of time selected with enough resolution to determine the rotation amount of the hydraulic device 120 during operation.

[0071] In 664, the pressure difference level P3 calculated by subtracting P2 from Pl (or vice versa) is compared to one or more bins edges. For example, and without limitation, if discrete bin edges may comprise a first bin Bl may count max pressure P3MAX between lOOOpsi inclusive and 1250psi exclusive (1000 < P3MAX < 1250), a second bin B2 may count pressure cycles between 1250psi inclusive and 1500psi exclusive (1250 < P3MAX < 1500), and a third bin B3 may count pressure cycles between 1500psi inclusive and 1750psi exclusive (1500 < P3MAX < 1750). These bins Bl, B2, B3 are included as non-limiting examples and bins may2814603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 in some examples include pressures between 251-500psi, 501-750psi, 751-1000psi as well as 1751-2000psi, 2001-2250psi, or 2251-2500psi. Accordingly, in 664, the differential pressure P3 is compared with the discrete bin values to determine which bin the pressure difference level falls within. In 666, in an example where three bins Bl, B2, B3 may be selected, if P3 is in bin Bl, then a counter CB1 may be increased by the rotations amount R. Likewise, in another example, if P3 is within bin B2, then counter CB2 may be increased by R. Similarly with bin B3 ... Bn. That is, in 660, the counters CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n are accumulated based on rotation amount R and which bin each pressure difference level P3 falls within. Rotation amount R in some examples may be a non-integer value such as 1.2 rotations, 2.3 rotations, 5.5 rotations, and the like, or may be a continuously varying value based on the amount of rotation in degrees or radians. It is noted that in some examples one or more bins may be ignored even if defined with edges, in which case the counters for those bins are not used to update pump rotation usage indicators uR. In 666, the counters CB 1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n are associated with the amount the hydraulic device 120 rotates (e.g., degrees, radians, or revolutions) while pressure difference level P3 falls within the corresponding bin Bl, B2, B3 ... Bn. For example, and without limitation, a measurement of how many revolutions occurring within a differential pressure level P3 bin Bl may be stored and associated with the counter CB1 in a table or a matrix. Similar entries in the table or matrix are used to store the other counters and bins.

[0072] In 668, previously stored usage values uR may be received from memory and added to respective counter values CB1, CB2, CB3 ... CB-n to determine updated usage values. In 669a, when a power off event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 is turned off or the FAA 100 is otherwise disengaged from power (e.g., in a test mode), the pump rotation usage indicators uRBl uRB2 uRB3 ... uRBn corresponding to bins Bl, B2, B3 ... Bn may be stored in nonvolatile memory, such as memory provided for actuator controller 130 or ASMC 430. In 669b, a pump rotation damage index (DR) may be multiplied by the values in the counter matrix created in step 666 to generate pump rotation damage values dRBl, dRBl, dRB3 ... dRBn which are stored in non-volatile memory.

[0073] In some examples, the various usage indicator values and damage values may be stored and transmitted via the CAN bus after an elapsed period of time, after a fault event is detected in the FAA, after a threshold value is exceeded, and the like. That is, usage indicator data and damage value data may be stored more often than simply at power-off events to ensure that valuable usage indicator data is retained.2914603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0074] The bin values of the usage calculations uCBl+ , uCB2+ , uCB3+ ... uCBn+ from the actuator cycling algorithm 640 or uRB 1 uRB2 uRB3 ... uRBn from the pump rotation monitoring algorithm 660 may be stored as a matrix rather than a scalar value to allow for design-specific calibrations, which may be determined after installation and operation of the FAA 100, to adjust the usage indicators after being stored in memory. For example, the damage index DP (from algorithm 640), DR (from algorithm 660) may be calibrated upon manufacture of the FAA 100, but a new damage index value DP, DR may be subsequently determined to be more accurate. Over-the-air software updates of the FAS 400 and FAA 100 may update the various damage indices (including DR in Fig. 6D and DP in Fig. 6C) to generate new weighted usage indicators, respectively. This method has at least three advantages over other more limited methods. First, more detailed information may be collected including the distribution of usage indicators over each dimension for each discrete bin. Second, the monitoring algorithms do not require detailed design knowledge to implement and can be updated as needed and as more information becomes available about potential failure modes. The monitoring algorithm can be implemented before design-specific values are validated, and updated after manufacture. Third, in some examples, a database of usage indicator records may be repurposed for different designs without a need for a software redesign. Design-specific values may still need to fit a reliability model or calibrate a control strategy, but engineering analyses may be updated but still rely on already collected historical records. Careful consideration may be given to how a usage parameter which contributes to a usage indicator (e.g., pump pressure in this example) is discretized so that the original usage indicator is accurately estimated from a combination of bin values.

[0075] Turning now to Fig. 6E, an exemplary thermal soaking monitoring algorithm 680 is illustrated. In 682, a temperature of the hydraulic fluid may be recorded from a temperature sensor 136 and / or 138. In some examples, the temperature sensor 136, 138 may be incorporated in the pressure transducer 132 and / or 134, while in other examples the temperature sensor 136 and / or 138 may be a standalone sensor. It is also noted that a temperature sensor 136 (and additional temperature sensors, not shown) may be used instead of or in addition to temperature sensor 138 (with temperature readings averaged). In 684, the temperature value may be discretized into one or more bins Bl, B2, B3 ... Bn corresponding to one or more nonoverlapping temperature ranges. In 683, a timer is read so that, in 686, the time spent within each bin Bl ... Bn may be calculated. In 688, the time spent in each bin may be added to the previously stored thermal soaking usage indicator values uTL,Bl, uTL,B2, uTL,B3, uTL,Bn,3014603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 which may be received from memory such as at startup in 687. In 689, when a power off event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 is turned off or the FAA 100 is otherwise disengaged from power (e.g., in a test mode), the thermal soaking usage indicator values uTL,B 1, uTL,B2, uTL,B3, uTL, Bn may be stored in non-volatile memory, such as memory provided in actuator controller 130.

[0076] Similarly, in 692, a temperature of the hydraulic fluid may be recorded from a sensor 138. In some examples the temperature sensor 138 may be incorporated with the pressure transducer 134, while in other examples the temperature sensor 138 may be a standalone sensor. It is also noted that a temperature sensor 136 (and additional temperature sensors, not shown) may be used instead of or in addition to temperature sensor 138 (e.g. with temperature readings averaged). In 693, the maximum and minimum values of the temperature readings, T1 and T2, may be monitored during a cycle (e.g., a power cycle from power on to power off, or a predetermined period of time, or between detected faults). The temperature range of the cycle can then be calculated as T3=T1-T2. In 693, the temperature range of the cycling may be discretized into one or more bins Bl, B2, B3 ... Bn corresponding to one or more nonoverlapping temperature ranges. In 698, the relevant temperature range bin for this cycle may be combined with (accumulated or incremented) previously stored thermal cycling usage indicator values uTR,Bl, uTR,B2, uTR,B3, uTR,Bn which may be received from memory e.g. at startup in 697. In 699 when a power off event occurs, such as when FAS system 400 is turned off or the FAA 100 is otherwise disengaged from power (e.g., in a test mode), the thermal cycling usage indicator values uTR,Bl, uTR,B2, uTR,B3, uTR,Bn may be stored in nonvolatile memory, such as memory provided for actuator controller 130. It is noted that similar to other usage indicator values discussed above, the thermal cycling usage indicator values may also be periodically stored in response to a fault detection, after a predetermined time period has elapsed, when a threshold value for the temperature difference is exceeded, and the like.

[0077] As discussed above in the various algorithms in Figs. 6A-6E, the present disclosure provides a method to determine and record various usage indicator values for an FAA system 100. In particular, the present disclosure allows for an FAA 100 to reliably store usage and damage values which represent the accumulated loading and wear on components in the FAA 100 over its lifetime. For example, pressure sensor measurements which allow for pressure difference calculations that contribute to several usage indicators disclosed herein may be collected at a high frequency. In some examples, the pressure sensor 134 may be sampled as a3114603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 single-precision (32-bit) value at 500Hz or higher, yielding 2 kilobytes of data per second or more. If a vehicle and FAA 100 were operated for one hour, this would yield 7.2 megabytes of data per FAA 100 from a single sensor. One month of such operation would yield 5.184 gigabytes per FAA 100 from a single sensor. Considering a multiplicity of vehicles with a multiplicity FAAs 100 per vehicle, the storage of direct sensor measurement data may quickly become difficult or impossible to handle over the lifetime of the product without vast data storage devices and fast data processing and / or communication devices. Similarly, bus voltage and bus current sensors may be measured at the same or higher frequency, adding to the data handling burden. Similarly, the pump rotational speed may be sampled at the same frequency or higher, compounding the data handling burden.

[0078] The present disclosure provides for an alternative approach which determines sensor measurement data accumulated in various use cases of interest, tracking the count of each use case over the lifetime of the product. In one non-limiting testing example, the disclosed binned data approach generating various types of usage indicators discussed above, when sampling the sensor data at 500Hz for two months, resulted in just 100 integer values indicating usage and damage information discussed above. This method produces a relatively small amount of data to process, store, and transmit / receive as needed (e.g., during over-the-air transmission, diagnostic processing, and the like).

[0079] Inventors have recognized that a database of historical usage and damage values generated from the algorithms disclosed herein may be highly valuable information to manufacturers and their suppliers for future product development or software updates to an existing product. These historical usage monitoring algorithm records may be normalized for all units of the same or similar designs — waiving the need for personally-identifiable information like VIN, vehicle age, mileage, or location which helps avoid consumer privacy concerns. Typically, manufacturers use a strict test method to study a product’s reliability because the test is the basis for their reliability model. An online monitor, such as the one disclosed, which properly accounts for variable operating conditions, transforms any product use into reliability testing. Usage indicators may then become the basis for the reliability model instead of, e.g., time or test repetitions. Failure events recorded during development and / or service, associated with the usage values at or around the time of the event, may be used as an observation for reliability analysis. The confidence level of a reliability function estimate tends to increase with the number of observations, but failure events become increasingly difficult to3214603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 induce as a product’s reliability improves, so these observations become increasingly rare and valuable.

[0080] Software control parameter tuning may be a significant factor in the reliability of an FAS system. The sensitivity of these usage indicators can be studied to tune control parameters to correlate their complex relationship with real-world reliability. Fleet-wide usage records can notify users and / or manufacturers of a potential issue while it may still be feasible to fix with an over-the-air software update, avoiding the need for a costly recall.

[0081] Fig. 7 illustrates data flow within a vehicle 750 and a remote data storage and processing facility 700, which may reside in the cloud, as well as data exchange between vehicle 750 and the storage facility 700. The vehicle 750 includes a Fully Active Suspension (“FAS”) system 752 (e.g., FAS system 400 in Figure 4), and the remote data storage and processing facility 700 is operated by or on behalf of a manufacturer, installer, assembler, owner, or fleet operator 710 associated with the FAS system. The FAS system 752, also referred to as an actuation product and / or system, can include one or more FAAs 100, to provide an adaptable suspension capable of exerting an active force on the vehicle body and / or chassis 770. The FAS system 752 includes a master controller 754 (e.g., the ASMC 430 in Fig.4) that receives vehicle body sensor measurements from vehicle sensors located in the vehicle 750, e.g., vehicle 415 in Fig. 4. Master controller 754 also receives software updates 732 from FAS manufacturer, installer, assembler and / or owner 710. Master controller 754 generates and sends actuator commands to one or more actuator controllers 756 (e.g., suspension controller 130 in Fig. 1) based upon the vehicle body sensor measurements input into the master controller 754. The actuator commands generated and sent by the master controller 754 is further based upon calculations based upon the processing of the vehicle body sensor measurements by one or more processors, memory, and other circuitry in master controller 754, including firmware and software (e.g., including as a result of software updates 732). FAS system 752, such as FAS system 400 in Fig. 4, may also include various interfaces that facilitate wired and / or wireless communications circuitry with the CAN bus of the vehicle 750. In some examples the wired and / or wireless communication circuitry may be able to connect to Wi-Fi and / or cellular-based networks to allow direct communication with the FAS manufacturer 710. In other examples, the FAS system 752 may be able to use the vehicle 750 communication abilities to communicate with the FAS manufacturer 710.3314603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0082] The actuator controllers 756 receive the actuator commands and the vehicle body motion data from vehicle body sensors from the master controller 754, and receives actuator sensor measurements from FAS system 752 to use the actuator commands, and the actuator sensor measurements to generate actuator motor driver commands that are sent to the actuators 758 (e.g., piston assemblies 110 in Fig. 1) to control the operation of the FAS system 752. The one or more actuator controllers 756 include one or more processors and / or memory, including circuitry, firmware, and / or software to process the inputs and generate one or more motor driver commands that are sent to one or more actuators 758, for example one FAA at each wheel of the vehicle. The motor driver commands received by FAS system 100 controls the operation of the hydraulic module, e.g. hydraulic device 120 in FAS system 100 to affect the dampers in the suspension system of the vehicle. The actuator controllers 756 generates actuator commands to generate resultant actuator force exerted by the actuators 758 that are applied to the vehicle chassis 770 of the vehicle 750 to affect a desired ride quality or handling in the vehicle 750. The vehicle 750 and vehicle chassis 770 may have one or more sensors that measure vehicle body movement, orientation, and velocity, and those sensor readouts are sent to the master controller 754.

[0083] As illustrated in Figs. 6A-6E, the actuator controllers 756 or other onboard processors may generate and store binned operating-parameter data, usage-indicator data, and / or damagevalue data representing the accumulated operating history of the fully active suspension (FAS) system 752. In some embodiments, as illustrated in Fig. 7, the binned data may also be transmitted from the master controller 754 to a remote data-storage and processing facility 700 (e.g., cloud-based), so that the remote processors can analyze usage indicator and damage values. Such data, or summaries thereof, may be periodically or continuously transmitted to the facility 700 via telemetry 730, operated by or on behalf of e.g., a manufacturer, fleet operator, or service provider 710, for aggregation and analysis. In one or more embodiments, these calculations are performed by the actuator controllers 756 based on actuator-sensor measurements, as described with respect to Figs. 6A-6E, to estimate wear and remaining service life of the FAS system 752. While FAS system 752 in Fig. 7 has been indicated to include a master controller 754 and one or more actuator controllers 756, it can be appreciated that other arrangements are contemplated. For example, master controller 754 and actuator controllers 756 may be combined into a single unit.3414603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0084] FAS manufacturer, installer, assembler, and / or owner-operator 710 may have a usage indicator database 712. Usage indicator database 712 may include service life usage values and other data on usage and wear metrics such as real time usage indicator values from one or more vehicles. In some examples, such usage indicator values may be provided from hundreds and thousands of vehicles, or more. Usage database 712 also includes failure records identifying failure modes and other data, for example usage indicator values at known failures. Usage database 712 can also include reliability testing data including from ALT testing. Usage database 712 can receive usage indicator data and other vehicle telemetry data (collectively vehicle telemetry 730) from vehicle 750 through remote transmission, e.g., as a result of vehicle-based or FAS system-based wired or wireless telemetry. The manufacturer, installer, assembler, and / or owner 710 can use failure records and / or other data, e.g., reliability testing (including ALT), to identify reliability models 714 that best fit the data about known failures, known degraded performance, and the like. The reliability models 714 are used to generate and update software development and controls 716, which can be sent to the vehicle 750 as software updates 732. The collection of usage indicator data (e.g., in vehicle telemetry 730), collection of failure records, the refinement and updating of reliability models 714, the development of software and controls 716, to obtain and develop software updates can be an ongoing process that occurs in real time, near real-time, effectively real-time, or at periodic intervals determined by the manufacturer, owner, service technicians, and the like. In this manner service life estimates can be continually updated based upon real time data and experience, and remaining service life estimates can also be continually updated in real time based upon specific vehicle information and updated reliability modeling.

[0085] As discussed above, the present disclosure addresses many deficiencies in determining failure modes and causes for failures in fully active suspension (FAS) systems. The disclosed system provides a unique method for monitoring various usage parameters (power consumption and generation, pressure differential levels and oscillation cycles, temperature levels and oscillation cycles, pump revolutions, and the like) and recording these usage parameters as binned data points (e.g., usage indicators) allows for the data to be analyzed in real time and also be retroactively adjusted if new damage weight indices are identified and / or determined to be more accurate. Binned usage indicator data may be multiplied with the respective DWs (based on a particular damage model as previously discussed) to generate an overall damage level for the FAS system. This damage level may proactively determine how likely an FAS system is to fail, predict and anticipate potential failures before they occur, and 3514603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 provide an assessment of how much remaining life is expected out of an FAS system or component of an FAS system. For example, if a usage indicator level is at 80% of a known failure level for that usage indicator, then the damage model may predict that the unit has approximately 20% of remaining useful life. Preventive actions, such as reducing performance characteristics of the FAS system, may be automatically implemented by the FAS system controller and / or may be manually triggered based on user or remote input.

[0086] It should be appreciated that a computing device including one or more processors may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computing device may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as a computing device but with suitable processing capabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, tablet, or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

[0087] Also, a computing device may have one or more input and output devices. These devices may be used, among other things, to present a user interface. Examples of output devices that may be used to provide a user interface include display screens for visual presentation of output and speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentation of output. Examples of input devices that may be used for a user interface include keyboards, individual buttons, and pointing devices, such as mice, touch pads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computing device may receive input information through speech recognition or in other audible format.

[0088] Such computing devices may be interconnected by one or more networks in any suitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network, such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and may operate according to any suitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks or fiber optic networks. Also, the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. These methods may be embodied as processor executable instructions stored on associated non-transitory computer readable media that when executed by the one or more processors perform any of the methods disclosed herein. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and / or programming or scripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine.3614603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00

[0089] In this respect, the embodiments described herein may be embodied as a computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs (CD), optical discs, digital video disks (DVD), magnetic tapes, flash memories, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments discussed above. As is apparent from the foregoing examples, a computer readable storage medium may retain information for a sufficient time to provide computer-executable instructions in a non-transitory form. Such a computer readable storage medium or media may be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon may be loaded onto one or more different computing devices or other processors to implement various aspects of the present disclosure as discussed above. As used herein, the term "computer-readable storage medium" encompasses only a non- transitory computer-readable medium that may be considered to be a manufacture (i.e., article of manufacture) or a machine. Alternatively or additionally, the disclosure may be embodied as a computer readable medium other than a computer-readable storage medium, such as a propagating signal.

[0090] The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that may be employed to program a computing device or other processor to implement various aspects of the present disclosure as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present disclosure need not reside on a single computing device or processor but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0091] Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

[0092] The embodiments described herein may be embodied as a method, of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable 3714603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

[0093] Further, some actions are described as taken by a “user.” It should be appreciated that a “user” need not be a single individual, and that in some embodiments, actions attributable to a “user” may be performed by a team of individuals and / or an individual in combination with computer-assisted tools or other mechanisms.

[0094] While the present teachings have been described in conjunction with various embodiments and examples, it is not intended that the present teachings be limited to such embodiments or examples. On the contrary, the present teachings encompass various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only.3814603351.1

Claims

Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00CLAIMS1. A method of operating a vehicle that comprises an active suspension system that includes an actuator assembly, the method comprising:during operation of the vehicle, receiving, from a first sensor on board the vehicle, information relating to a first operating parameter of the actuator assembly;determining, based at least in part on the information, a value of a usage indicator of the actuator assembly;estimating, based on the value of the usage indicator, a remaining service life of the actuator assembly or a component of the actuator assembly; anduploading data selected from the group consisting of the usage indicator and the estimate of the remaining service life to a remote data processing facility.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly operates while the vehicle is traveling along a road surface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the actuator assembly operates while the vehicle is parked or stopped, and determining the usage indicator comprises monitoring at least one of pressure, temperature, or electrical load during parked operation.

4. The method of any one of claims 1-3, further comprising receiving, from a second sensor on board the vehicle, information relating to a second operating parameter of the actuator assembly that is different from the first operating parameter.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first operating parameter comprises hydraulic pressure and the second operating parameter comprises temperature, current, voltage, or actuator position.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the remote data-processing facility comprises a cloud-based server or distributed database operated by or on behalf of a manufacturer, fleet operator, or service provider associated with the vehicle.3914603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 7. The method of any one of claims 1-6, wherein the at least one operating parameter is selected from the group consisting of: hydraulic pressure in a chamber of the actuator assembly, electrical current or voltage supplied to a motor of the actuator assembly, temperature of hydraulic fluid or electronic components, and rotational speed or angular position of a pump or motor shaft.

8. The method of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the usage indicator is selected from the group consisting of: cumulative electrical energy transferred to or from the actuator assembly, number of pressure cycles above one or more defined thresholds, cumulative pump rotation within defined pressure bins, accumulated time spent within defined temperature bins, and number of thermal cycles within defined bins of temperature range experienced by the actuator assembly.

9. The method of any one of claims 1-8, wherein uploading the usage indicator comprises transmitting the value to the remote data-processing facility through a wired or wireless communication interface selected from Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, or vehicle-bus communication.

10. The method of any one of claims 1-9, wherein uploading the estimate of the remaining service life comprises transmitting, to the remote data-processing facility, data indicating a predicted time-to-failure or degradation level of the actuator assembly.

11. The method of any one of claims 1-10, wherein estimating the remaining service life comprises using a model that is a damage function representing cumulative degradation of the actuator assembly as a function of one or more usage indicators.

12. The method of any one of claims 1-11, wherein the model or one or more damage weights used to estimate the remaining service life are updated based on data received from the remote data-processing facility.

13. The method of any one of claims 1-12, wherein the usage indicator or model is updated in real time or near real time during operation of the vehicle.

14. The method of any one of claims 1-12, wherein the actuator assembly comprises an electro-hydraulic actuator configured to alternately absorb and supply energy between a vehicle body and a wheel assembly.4014603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 15. The method of any one of claims 1-15, further comprising determining a plurality of usage indicators based on respective operating parameters of the actuator assembly.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein estimating the remaining service life comprises calculating a damage function based on the plurality of usage indicators, the damage function comprising a weighted combination of the usage indicators with respective damage weights.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein one or more of the damage weights are updated in real time or retrospectively based on historical usage data or feedback from the remote data-processing facility.

18. A method performed by a remote data-processing facility, comprising:receiving, from a plurality of vehicles, usage-indicator data generated based on information collected by controllers associated with the respective vehicles; and updating one or more damage-function models or reliability models based on the received usage-indicator data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising transmitting, to the plurality of vehicles, an updated damage-function model or an updated reliability model.

20. The method of any one of claims 18-19, further comprising updating, at the remote data-processing facility, a model of remaining service life based on crowdsourced usage-indicator data received from a plurality of vehicles.4114603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 21. A method of operating a vehicle, the method comprising:receiving information from at least one sensor configured to measure a value of an operating parameter of an actuator assembly in a suspension system of the vehicle during a period of time, wherein the operating parameter is selected from the group consisting of a pressure, a rotational velocity, a pressure difference, a force, a voltage, a current and a temperature;determining at least one usage indicator of the actuator assembly based at least in part on the received information; andestimating a remaining service life of the actuator assembly based upon the at least one usage indicator.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising calculating a plurality of usage indicators and calculating a damage function based upon the plurality of usage indicators.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the damage function value is calculated as the sum of one or more usage-indicator values multiplied by respective damage weights.

24. The method of any one of claims 21-23, wherein estimating the remaining service life comprises obtaining a previously determined service-life value of the actuator assembly and subtracting a damage value determined based on a damage function.

25. The method of any one of claims 21-24, wherein estimating the remaining service life comprises updating the estimate based on real-time or historical usage-indicator data.

26. The method of any one of claims 21-25, wherein the damage weights corresponding to the usage indicators are adjusted retrospectively to recalibrate the damage function.

27. The method of any one of claims 21-26, further comprising calculating electrical bus power when a force is reactively applied to or actively applied by a hydraulic piston assembly of the actuator assembly to calculate electrical power flowing into or out of the actuator assembly, respectively.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising calculating the electrical power flowing into the actuator assembly, accumulating the power over time, and adding this value to a value in memory as an electrical-energy-inflow usage indicator.4214603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 29. The method of claim 27, further comprising calculating the electrical power flowing out of the actuator assembly, accumulating the power over time, and adding this value to a value in memory as an electrical-energy-outflow usage indicator.

30. The method of any one of claims 21-29, further comprising measuring a first pressure on at least a first side of a hydraulic piston assembly using a pressure transducer.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising incrementing a first counter value in response to the measured first pressure reaching or exceeding at least a first threshold and adding the counter value to a previously stored value in memory as a pressure-vessel usage indicator.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising incrementing a counter value in one of multiple counters in response to the measured pressure reaching or exceeding a respective threshold for a respective pressure bin, and adding the counter value to a previously stored value corresponding to that pressure bin.

33. The method of any one of claims 30-32, further comprising:measuring a second pressure on the opposite side of the hydraulic piston assembly using a second pressure transducer or estimating the second pressure;calculating a differential pressure between the first and second pressures; detecting a zero-crossing event in response to the differential pressure changing sign;recording, in response to the zero-crossing event, a peak value of the differential pressure achieved since a previous zero-crossing event; anddiscretizing the peak value of differential pressure into one of multiple bins corresponding to mutually exclusive ranges dividing the operating range of the differential pressure.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising incrementing a respective maximumdifferential-pressure counter value corresponding to the bin for each zero-crossing event as a running actuator-pressure-cycling usage indicator and adding the running value to a value stored in memory to form a total actuator-pressure-cycling usage indicator.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising multiplying the total cycling-pressure usageindicator value by a pressure-differential damage weight to calculate one or more differentialpressure damage values.4314603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 36. The method of any one of claims 33-35, further comprising:measuring a rotational speed of a pump in the actuator assembly;converting the rotational speed to a rotation amount traveled in a timestep; measuring or estimating a differential pressure across the pump;discretizing the differential pressure into one of multiple bins corresponding to mutually exclusive pressure ranges;adding the rotation amount to a running accumulated-rotation value for the bin associated with the differential pressure; andadding the accumulated-rotation value to a previously stored value in memory to form a total pump-rotation usage indicator.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising multiplying the total pump-rotation usageindicator value by a rotation damage weight and storing the result as a pump-rotation damage value.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the pump-rotation damage weight is updated in real time or retrospectively.

39. The method of any one of claims 21-38, further comprising measuring a temperature of a hydraulic fluid used in the actuator assembly.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:determining a running maximum temperature by comparing a current measured temperature value to a previously stored maximum, and updating the stored maximum when the current value exceeds it;determining a running minimum temperature by comparing the current measured temperature value to a previously stored minimum, and updating the stored minimum when the current value is lower; andcalculating a running temperature range as a difference between the running maximum temperature and the running minimum temperature.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising discretizing the running temperature range into one of multiple bins corresponding to mutually exclusive temperature-range bins.4414603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 42. The method of claim 41, further comprising incrementing, at shutdown, a value of the bin corresponding to the running temperature range by one to form a total thermal-cycling usage indicator.

43. The method of claim 39, further comprising discretizing the measured temperature into one of multiple bins corresponding to mutually exclusive temperature ranges.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising incrementing the value of the bin corresponding to the measured temperature by a timestep of measurement as an accumulated time-at-temperature-level value and adding the accumulated value to a value stored in memory to form a total thermal soaking usage indicator.

45. The method of any one of claims 21-44, wherein the usage-indicator values or the damage-function model are updated in real time or near real time during operation of the vehicle.

46. The method of any one of claims 21-45, wherein the actuator assembly comprises an electro-hydraulic actuator configured to alternately absorb and supply energy between a vehicle body and a wheel assembly.

47. The method of any one of claims 21-46, further comprising transmitting, from the vehicle, the usage-indicator data or remaining-service-life data to a remote data-processing facility.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the remote data-processing facility comprises a cloudbased server or distributed database operated by or on behalf of a manufacturer, fleet operator, or service provider associated with the vehicle.

49. The method of any one of claims 47-48, wherein the remote data-processing facility aggregates usage-indicator data from a plurality of vehicles for model refinement.

50. The method of any one of claims 21-49, further comprising:receiving information from at least one sensor about an operating parameter of a system on board the vehicle during a period of time;determining, based on the information, a change or impact on an estimated remaining service life of the system; and4514603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 providing an indication of the impact or of the estimated remaining service life to a recipient selected from the group consisting of: an occupant of the vehicle, an operator of the vehicle, an owner of the vehicle, a manufacturer of the vehicle, a controller on board the vehicle, and a database associated with the vehicle.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the system on board the vehicle is an active suspension system.

52. The method of claim 50 or 51, wherein the change or impact on the estimated remaining service life is determined based on a damage function calculated using one or more usage indicators or damage values.

53. The method of any one of claims 50-52, wherein the at least one sensor is selected from the group consisting of: a current sensor, a voltage sensor, a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a pump-rotation sensor, and a pump-velocity sensor.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the active suspension system includes a hydraulic actuator, and the at least one sensor is configured to measure a pressure or a differential pressure of hydraulic fluid in the actuator.

55. A method performed by a remote data-processing facility, comprising:receiving, from a plurality of vehicles, usage-indicator data generated based on information collected by controllers associated with the respective vehicles; and updating one or more damage-function or reliability models based on the received usage-indicator data.

56. The method of claim 55, further comprising transmitting, to one or more of the plurality of vehicles, an updated damage-function model or reliability model for use in estimating remaining service life.

57. An active suspension system provided in a vehicle and configured to implement the one or more usage indicators calculated according to any one of claims 21-56, the active suspension system comprising:a controller configured to control one or more active suspension actuators based on one or more usage indicators or one or more damage functions;4614603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 wherein the controller is further configured to adjust a responsiveness of the one or more active suspension actuators based on the one or more usage indicators or damage functions; andwherein the responsiveness is adjusted by controlling one or more performance characteristics selected from the group consisting of a maximum force output parameter, a maximum torque output parameter, a force-command slew rate, and a damping setting.

58. The active suspension system of claim 57, wherein the controller is configured to adjust the responsiveness based on one or more of: real-time usage-indicator data stored in the vehicle; historical usage-indicator data stored in an onboard database; usage-indicator data stored in a database remote from the vehicle; or usage-indicator datasets aggregated from multiple vehicles and stored in a database in the vehicle or remote from the vehicle.

59. A method of operating a motor vehicle, the method comprising:receiving, in real time, information from at least one sensor on board the vehicle representing an operating parameter of a system;determining a usage-indicator value based on the received information by assigning the value to one of a plurality of discrete bins;incrementing a current value associated with the determined bin;adding the current value of the bin to a previously stored value in memory to form a total usage-indicator value; andstoring the total usage-indicator value in non-volatile memory in response to a trigger event, the trigger event comprising one or more of: a power-off command, a fault-detection signal, a usage-indicator-threshold condition, or an elapsed-time period.

60. A method of operating a system having a remaining service life, the method comprising:receiving, by a controller, information relating to a usage-indicator value of the system; andautomatically adjusting, by the controller and based at least in part on the usageindicator value, at least one system setting selected to extend the remaining service life of the system.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the system comprises a vehicle.4714603351.1Attorney Docket No. L0710.70114WO00 62. The method of claim 61, wherein the system comprises an active suspension actuator of the vehicle.

63. The method of any one of claims 60-61, wherein the system comprises an electric motor and automatically adjusting the at least one system setting comprises adjusting a maximum torque limit of the motor under certain operating conditions.

64. The method of any one of claims 60-63, wherein the system comprises an actuator and automatically adjusting the at least one system setting comprises adjusting a maximum force limit of the actuator under certain operating conditions.

65. The method of any one of claims 60-64, wherein the controller automatically adjusts the system setting in real time during operation of the system.

66. The method of any one of claims 60-65, wherein the usage-indicator value is derived from binned, accumulated, or weighted sensor data representing historical loading of the system.

67. The method of any one of claims 60-66, wherein automatically adjusting the system setting is performed in response to the usage-indicator value exceeding a threshold.

68. The method of any one of claims 60-67, further comprising transmitting the usageindicator value or the adjusted system setting to a remote data-processing facility.4814603351.1

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