Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1990-04-03
1991-08-06
Dixon, Joseph L.
Boots, shoes, and leggings
36442405, 280707, 188299, 188278, B60G 1700
Patent
active
050383060
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to electronic controller units.
In particular, the present invention is concerned with controller units for use with transducers associated with intelligent suspension systems for road vehicles.
Suspension systems for motor vehicles are intended to enhance, inter alia, passenger comfort, road holding of the vehicle, and to reduce stress and stains induced into the mechanical components of the vehicle during motion of the vehicle. Present day vehicles generally speaking employ a compliant suspension system in which the vertical motion of the vehicle body is, to a greater or lesser extent, isolated from the vertical motion of the wheels of the vehicle. While, in practice, the conventionally provided springs will achieve the required isolation they are almost universally used in conjunction with some kind of energy absorbing device(s) to control vibrations of the resonant frequency of the body mass acting upon the spring compliance. In most suspension systems presently used the spring rates and energy absorption parameters are determined during the manufacture of the vehicle and are not normally subsequently capable of being varied to accommodate different or varying road conditions.
With a view to overcoming this inability to vary the energy adsorption parameter constraints so called active suspension systems have been proposed in which energy is injectable into the wheel/body system of the vehicle, by way of fast acting hydraulic rams connecting the wheel suspensions to the vehicle body and which are also able to absorb energy entering the system from the vertical motions produced by the linear progression of the vehicle along a surface with vertical humps or the like.
It has been suggested that improvements in passenger comfort etc., may be obtained by introducing arrangements for allowing the damping of the vehicle to be varied in response to road conditions, and that such variations should be effected automatically by the provision of devices for sensing the damping rate and for adjusting the damping accordingly.
The arrangements provided to control the damping rate and other factors considered to be involved or associated with the enhancing of passenger comfort, road holding, and reducing mechanical stress and strain etc., are commonly referred to as intelligent suspension systems.
Such intelligent suspension systems comprise, in general, devices such as transducers which measure certain physical parameters associated with the suspension system, and actuators to modify the suspension system behavior. In addition, an intelligent suspension system requires some form of controller circuit which is responsive to the parameters measured and which is arranged to produce a control signal or signals for use in the operation of the devices i.e., actuators of the suspension system.
The present invention is particularly concerned with a controller utilizable with the transducers likely to be involved in intelligent suspension systems.
The particular transducers with which the controller/transducer combination of the invention is intended to be used are accelerometers or other transducers which are required to form part of intelligent control arrangements for vehicle suspension systems. For such systems the accelerometers will operate at frequencies in the range extending from D.C to 500 Hz. Within this range it is desirable that the lower limit should be selectively variable at least within the range 0 to 20 Hz. In the case of the upper range limit such selective adjustment should be at least possible between 10 Hz and 500 Hz. In so far as the question of ambient temperature conditions is concerned the accelerometers need to be capable of operating over a wide temperature range of for example -40 to +85 degrees Celsius.
The output signals of transducers are subject to two major `error` factors, a first of which can be termed the zero offset and is represented by the level of the output in the absence of input, and the second of which can be regarded as the input to output gain relationship o
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