Active Suspension Damping Control for Durability Event Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Adaptive suspension systems struggle to react quickly to large external disturbances due to the inability of existing sensors to robustly predict road profiles, leading to inadequate control of damping forces and compromising both comfort and vehicle durability.
Innovation Solution
A control system that uses sensed displacement parameters to determine the transition from a displacing phase to a restoring phase, adjusting damping force accordingly, with thresholds dependent on displacement and its derivative, and considering vehicle speed and direction, to differentiate between durability and non-durability events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If adaptive suspension systems use sensors to measure body or wheel motions, then the system can detect road inputs, but the system cannot robustly predict the road profile ahead and react quickly enough to effectively control durability events
Solution Approach 1:
The control system determines a trigger condition during the suspension displacing phase (compression or extension) that predicts an upcoming durability event. By identifying the trigger condition before the actual durability event occurs (when the suspension transitions from displacing to restoring phase), the system can prepare and apply increased damping force in advance, reducing the reaction time loss and improving reliability of durability event control.
2Reliability
If the suspension increases damping force to improve durability, then vehicle durability is enhanced, but comfort is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The control system applies increased damping force only partially - specifically during the suspension restoring phase and only when a trigger condition is determined. This partial application of excessive damping force (increased from the normal setting) provides sufficient protection against durability events while maintaining comfort during normal operating conditions, thus resolving the contradiction between durability and comfort.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system dynamically changes the damping force parameter based on the determined trigger condition. When the trigger condition is met, the damping force is increased from the normal comfort-oriented setting to a higher durability-protection setting. This parameter change allows the system to optimize between comfort and durability based on real-time suspension state, improving both vehicle durability and maintaining comfort.
Data Source
AI summary
A control system configured to control a damping force of an actuator of an active suspension system of a vehicle in response to an external disturbance of a wheel with which the actuator is associated, includes one or more controllers and configured to: receive a sensed displacement parameter indicative of suspension displacement associated with the wheel; determine whether a condition is satisfied, wherein satisfaction of the condition requires the sensed displacement parameter to indicate a transition from a suspension displacing phase associated with the external disturbance to a suspension restoring phase associated with the external disturbance, and wherein satisfaction of the condition depends on an amount of suspension displacement indicated by the sensed displacement parameter; and output a signal to control the damping force to be greater, during the suspension restoring phase associated with the external disturbance, than if the condition is not satisfied, in dependence on satisfaction of the condition.