Vehicle vibration damping force control system

Claim 1

A vehicle vibration damping force control system, comprising: (a) a plurality of double-acting cylinders each formed with two chambers and provided between a vehicle body and a vehicle wheel, respectively; (b) a pipe arrangement for mutually connecting the two chambers of said plurality of double-acting cylinders, respectively, to feed operating fluid to said cylinders; (c) at least one damping force generating mechanism communicating with said pipe arrangement, for generating a damping force when the operating fluid is passed therethrough; (d) at least one switch valve disposed midway of said pipe arrangement, for switching operating fluid flow passage through said pipe arrangement; (e) behavior detecting means for detecting vehicle behavior and generating a behavior signal corresponding to the detected behavior; (f) behavior discriminating means for discriminating whether the detected behavior exceeds a predetermined level on the basis of the detected behavior signal; and (g) switch valve control means for controlling said switch valve so that the operating fluid energized by said plurality of double-acting cylinders due to the detected vehicle behavior may pass through said damping force generating mechanism, when said behavior discriminating means discriminates that the detected vehicle behavior exceeds the predetermined level.

Claim 7

A method of controlling vehicle vibration, comprising the steps of: (a) detecting a first vehicle vibration behavior; (b) checking whether the detected first vibration behavior exceeds a first predetermined level; (c) if the detected first vibration behavior is equal to or less than the first predetermined level, detecting a second vehicle vibration behavior without increasing a vehicle vibration damping force; (d) checking whether the detected second vibration behavior exceeds a second predetermined level; (e) if the detected second vibration behavior is equal to or less than the second predetermined level, detecting a third vehicle vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force; (f) checking whether the detected third vibration behavior exceeds a third predetermined level; (g) if the detected third vibration behavior is equal to or less than the third predetermined level, then not increasing said vehicle vibration damping force; (h) if the detected first vibration behavior is more than the first predetermined level, in step (b) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected first vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said second and third vibration behaviors; (i) if the detected second vibration behavior is more than the second predetermined level in step (d) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected second vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said first and third vibration behaviors; and (j) if the detected third vibration behavior is more than the third predetermined level in step (f) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected third vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said first and second vibration behaviors.

Claim 8

A method of controlling vehicle vibration, comprising the steps of: (a) detecting a first vehicle vibration behavior; (b) checking whether the detected first vibration behavior exceeds a first predetermined level; (c) if the detected first vibration behavior is equal to or less than the first predetermined level, detecting a second vehicle vibration behavior without increasing a vehicle vibration damping force; (d) checking whether the detected second vibration behavior exceeds a second predetermined level; (e) if the detected second vibration behavior is equal to or less than the second predetermined level, detecting a third vehicle vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force; (f) checking whether the detected third vibration behavior exceeds a third predetermined level; (g) if the detected third vibration behavior is equal to or less than the third predetermined level, then not increasing said vehicle vibration damping force; (h) if the detected first vibration behavior is more than the first predetermined level, in step (b) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected first vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said second and third vibration behaviors; (i) if the detected second vibration behavior is more than the second predetermined level in step (d) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected second vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said first and third vibration behaviors; and (j) if the detected third vibration behavior is more than the third predetermined level in step (f) above, increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against only the detected third vibration behavior without increasing said vehicle vibration damping force against said first and second vibration behaviors.