DISTRIBUTED ACTIVE SUSPENSION CONTROL SYSTEM

摘要

A distributed active suspension control system is provided. The control system is based on a distributed, processor-based controller that is coupled to an electronic suspension actuator. The controller processes sensor data at the distributed node, making processing decisions for the wheel actuator it is associated with. Concurrently, multiple distributed controllers on a common network communicate such that vehicle-level control (such as roll mitigation) may be achieved. Local processing at the distributed controller has the advantage of reducing latency and response time to localized sensing and events, while also reducing the processing load and cost requirements of a central node. The topology of the distributed active suspension controller contained herein has been designed to respond to fault modes with fault-safe mechanisms that prevent node-level failure from propagating to system-level fault. Systems, algorithms, and methods for accomplishing this distributed and fault-safe processing are disclosed.

主权项

1. A distributed suspension control system, comprising:
a plurality of active suspension actuators disposed throughout a vehicle so that each active suspension actuator is associated with a single vehicle wheel; a plurality of active suspension actuator controllers disposed so that each active suspension actuator is associated with a separate controller; a communication network for facilitating communication of vehicle control and sensing information among the plurality of controllers; and at least one sensor disposed with each controller to provide at least one of vehicle chassis motion information and vehicle wheel motion information to the controller, wherein each controller processes information provided by its sensors to execute a wheel-specific suspension protocol to control the single vehicle wheel with which it is associated, and each controller of the plurality of controllers processes information received over the communication network from any of the other controllers in the plurality of controllers to execute a vehicle-wide suspension protocol to cooperatively control vehicle motion.