Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1995-05-10
1997-05-06
Zanelli, Michael
Boots, shoes, and leggings
364424046, 280707, B60G 17015
Patent
active
056277512
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vehicle suspension systems and more particularly to vehicle suspension system in which a plurality of wheel and hub assemblies are each connected to the body of a vehicle by one of a plurality of actuators and the operation of each actuator is controlled by an electronic or electrical processor.
Suspension systems according to the invention have been described as "active" suspension systems, Such suspension systems are well known and have been described in patent applications such as European patent publication Nos. 0114757 and 0190944.
It is a problem with an active suspension system to control the suspension system upon failure of one of the sensors. Obviously, it is very undesirable for the suspension system to fail completely on failure of a sensor. This can be highly dangerous in a situation where the vehicle is manoeuvering at high speed and can lead to accidents.
In fly-by-wire systems in aircraft generally several identical control systems are run in parallel and the output of each control system is checked against the output of the others. If one control system has a different output from the others then it is assumed to be faulty and therefore shut down. The costs of such an approach and the limited space in a motor vehicle make the approach impractical for controlling a land vehicle suspension system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a land vehicle suspension system in which a plurality of wheel and hub assemblies are each connected to the body of the vehicle by one of a plurality of actuators and the operation of each actuator is controlled by an electronic or electrical processor in response to signals received from a plurality of sensors which generate output signals indicative of the attitude of the vehicle body and the forces on the body, wherein the processor has failure detection means for detecting failure of a sensor and on detection of the failure of the sensor replaces the output signal of the failed sensor with a replacement signal and operates in response to the replacement signal and the output signal or output signals generated by a functioning sensor or functioning sensors of the plurality of sensors.
Preferably the processor on detection of failure of a sensor replaces the output signal generated by the failed sensor with a replacement signal derived from an output signal or output signals generated by a functioning sensor or sensors of the plurality of sensors.
In this specification the word derives should be construed such that it includes calculation of a replacement signal as a function of one other signal, calculation of a replacement signal as a function of a plurality of other signals, simple replacement of a failed sensor's signal with the signal generated by another sensor, filtering of a signal to produce a replacement signal and differentiating or integrating a signal to produce a replacement signal.
Preferably the processor generates control signals to control the actuators in response to signals received from a plurality of sensors comprising two or more of a sensor for measuring lateral acceleration of the vehicle, a sensor for measuring the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, a sensor for measuring the speed of the vehicle, sensors for measuring the loads transmitted from the actuators to the vehicle body, sensors for measuring the extension and contraction of the actuators, and a sensor for measuring the yaw rate of the vehicle, and when the failure detections means detects failure of one or more of the sensors for measuring; the lateral acceleration of the vehicle; the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle; loads transmitted to the vehicle body; or the extensional and contraction of the actuators; the processor replaces the output signal of the failed sensor or sensors with a replacement signal or replacement signals derived from an output signal or output signals generated by a functioning sensor or functioning sensors of the plurality of sensors.
It will be seen th
REFERENCES:
patent: 4718695 (1988-01-01), Kawagoe
patent: 4743000 (1988-05-01), Karnopp
patent: 4939654 (1990-07-01), Kouda et al.
patent: 5042833 (1991-08-01), Kawabata
patent: 5170343 (1992-12-01), Matsuda
Bliss Jeremy H. A.
Davis John P.
Lotus Cars Limited
Zanelli Michael
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