Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60N—SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60N2/00—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles
  • B60N2/50—Seat suspension devices
  • B60N2/501—Seat suspension devices actively controlled suspension, e.g. electronic control
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60K—ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES
  • B60K5/00—Arrangement or mounting of internal-combustion or jet-propulsion units
  • B60K5/12—Arrangement of engine supports
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60K—ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES
  • B60K5/00—Arrangement or mounting of internal-combustion or jet-propulsion units
  • B60K5/12—Arrangement of engine supports
  • B60K5/1283—Adjustable supports, e.g. the mounting or the characteristics being adjustable
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60N—SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60N2/00—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles
  • B60N2/02—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles the seat or part thereof being movable, e.g. adjustable
  • B60N2/0224—Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation
  • B60N2/0244—Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation with logic circuits
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F16—ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16F—SPRINGS; SHOCK-ABSORBERS; MEANS FOR DAMPING VIBRATION
  • F16F15/00—Suppression of vibrations in systems; Means or arrangements for avoiding or reducing out-of-balance forces, e.g. due to motion
  • F16F15/002—Suppression of vibrations in systems; Means or arrangements for avoiding or reducing out-of-balance forces, e.g. due to motion characterised by the control method or circuitry
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60N—SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60N2/00—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles
  • B60N2/02—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles the seat or part thereof being movable, e.g. adjustable
  • B60N2/0224—Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation
  • B60N2/0244—Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation with logic circuits
  • B60N2/0272—Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation with logic circuits using sensors or detectors for detecting the position of seat parts
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60N—SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60N2220/00—Computerised treatment of data for controlling of seats
  • B60N2220/10—Computerised treatment of data for controlling of seats using a database
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60W—CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
  • B60W2552/00—Input parameters relating to infrastructure

Definitions

• This disclosure relates to active suspension of a plant in a moving vehicle.
• a method includes establishing a confidence in a vehicle position determined by a vehicle position determination system and using the established confidence to change a behavior of an active suspension system of a plant in the vehicle.
• Embodiments may include one of the following features, or any combination thereof.
• the active suspension system may have a controller that outputs commands to an actuator to control motion of the plant.
• the established confidence may be used to weight the controller commands, so as to weight plant motion.
• the controller may comprise a feed-forward architecture.
• the controller may further comprise a feedback architecture.
• the established confidence may be used to weight the relative contribution to the controller commands from the feed-forward and feedback architectures. In one non-limiting example, when the confidence is high the weight from the feed-forward contribution to the controller is higher than it is when the confidence is low.
• Embodiments may include one of the following features, or any combination thereof.
• the vehicle position determination system may determine an initial vehicle position estimate based on GPS data, record a sequence of sensor data from a sensor located with the vehicle, and refine the initial vehicle position estimate by performing pattern matching that looks for the presence of a known sequence of data obtained from the measured data, in the recorded sequence of sensor data. Pattern matching may be performed by multiplying a sequence consisting of n numbers obtained from the known sequence of data by a corresponding sequence of n numbers obtained from the recorded sequence of sensor data, summing the results of the n multiplications, and determining when the sequences match by identifying when the sum of the n multiplications has a peak.
• the controller commands can be based on the GPS data and the recorded sensor data.
• the controller may comprise both a feed-forward architecture and a feedback architecture, both of which are involved in creating the controller commands, and when the confidence is high the weight from the feed-forward input to the controller is higher than it is when the confidence is low.
• the plant may comprise a vehicle seat.
• a method in another aspect includes establishing a confidence in a vehicle position along a path that is determined by a vehicle position determination system, and using the established confidence to change a behavior of an active suspension system of a seat in the vehicle.
• the active suspension system comprises a controller that outputs commands to an actuator to control motion of the plant.
• the controller comprises both a feed-forward architecture and a feedback architecture, both of which are involved in creating the controller commands.
• a system that suspends a plant relative to a floor of a vehicle that is adapted to travel along a road includes an active suspension, a sensor that senses at least one of motion or position of the plant relative to the floor, where the sensor has an output, a memory that holds road trajectory information, a vehicle position determination system, and a controller that is input with the sensor output, road trajectory information from the memory, and vehicle position information from the vehicle position determination system.
• the controller has first and second feed-forward variable weighting determinators and a feedback variable weighting determinator.
• the road trajectory information is provided to the first and second feed-forward variable weighting determinators
• the vehicle position information is provided to the first and second feed-forward variable weighting determinators and the feedback variable weighting determinator.
• Embodiments may include one of the following features, or any combination thereof.
• Outputs of the first feed-forward determinator and the feedback determinator may be summed and provided to the active suspension.
• the output of the second feed-forward determinator and the output of the sensor may be differenced and inputted to the feedback determinator.
• the road trajectory information may comprise low frequency content of the road contour.
• the road trajectory information may be obtained by filtering measured road signals using a zero-phase filter to maintain the trajectory in phase with the road.
• the system may operate as both as a reactive active suspension system and as a feed-forward based active suspension system, wherein a behavior of the system is changed based on a confidence in the vehicle position that is determined by the vehicle position determination system.
• Fig. 1 is schematic diagram of a vehicle plant active suspension control system that can be used to accomplish the methods of the present disclosure.
• FIG. 2 is a more detailed schematic diagram showing components of an example of the controller.
• Fig. 3 shows an example alignment of measured and stored data to produce a confidence.
• Vehicles can include active suspension systems for a plant that is part of or is carried by the vehicle.
• active suspension systems for a plant that is part of or is carried by the vehicle.
• Different types of vehicles and plants, and plant active suspension systems e.g., actively-suspended motor vehicle seats
• plant active suspension systems e.g., actively-suspended motor vehicle seats
• the referenced patents also disclose vehicle position determination and the storage and use of vehicle trajectory plans.
• the control system control the seat top (i.e., the part of the seat that a user sits on) to have zero acceleration at all frequencies. For example, if the seat top were to have zero acceleration at DC, as the vehicle would start up a hill the seat top would not move inertially. At some point, the seat top would move to the bottom of its permitted range of travel and would sit against the end stops. This issue can be ameliorated by limiting the low frequency bandwidth that is controlled. That is, zero acceleration is not commanded at very low frequencies. Rather, at low frequencies the seat top is allowed to follow the truck floor. However, when the seat top follows the floor there is no vibration isolation.
• phase offset contributes to the "floating" sensation.
• the phase offset can be reduced by increasing the low frequency bandwidth, at the expense of vibration isolation.
• Figure 1 schematically depicts system 10 that actively suspends plant 14 (e.g., the seat top in a motor vehicle such as a truck) relative to vehicle floor/platform 16, using active suspension 12 under control of controller 18 that is input with data from sensor 20.
• Sensor 20 may be an accelerometer that detects accelerations of the top of a motor vehicle seat, or may be a position sensor that senses the relative position of the seat top with respect to the suspension base, as two non-limiting examples.
• System 10 can be used to remove or reduce the effect on a person sitting in the seat from vibrations and other motions of a truck floor.
• Vehicle plant active suspension control is known in the art, for example as described in the patents incorporated herein by reference.
• road contour information is provided to controller 18 by trajectory plans held in memory 24.
• the road trajectory may be comprised of the low frequency content of the road contour.
• Road trajectory information can be obtained by filtering the measured road signals using a zero-phase filter to maintain the trajectory in phase with the road. Trajectory information of the road contour along a path to be traveled by the vehicle is provided to controller 18 before the vehicle encounters the contours.
• the seat top is then commanded by controller 18 to follow the road trajectory that it has received.
• the control loop is controlling seat top motion to follow the road, rather than just having the passive seat suspension support the seat at low frequencies. A result is that vibration isolation is maintained, while the seat top floating problem is reduced or eliminated.
• Advance information about road contour is fed into the active seat controller 18.
• the active suspension system is thus able to operate both as a reactive active suspension system and as a feed-forward based active suspension system.
• a behavior of the system is changed based on a confidence in the vehicle position that is determined by a vehicle position determination system 22.
• the weight for the feed-forward input(s) from controller 18 is higher than it is when the confidence is low.
• the weight for the feedback input(s) may be lower when the confidence is low.
• the weightings can individually affect the gain and frequency content for both feed-forward inputs as well as the feedback input, including a gain of zero. This varies dynamically as the vehicle travels along a path.
• FIG. 2 is a more detailed schematic diagram of a system 10a that suspends plant 14 relative to floor 16.
• System 10a differs from system 10, figure 1, only as to the detail of controller 18a, which is a non-limiting example of a controller that can be used in the subject system.
• Trajectory plans 24 and vehicle position 22 are provided to feed-forward variable weighting determinators 41 and 42.
• Vehicle position 22 is also provided to feedback variable weighting determinator 43.
• the outputs of determinators 41 and 43 are summed and provided to active suspension 12.
• the outputs of determinator 42 and sensor 20 are differenced and inputted to determinator 43.
• the weight for the feed-forward inputs 41 and 42 is higher than it is when the confidence is low.
• weight for the feedback input 43 may be higher when the confidence is low.
• the weightings 40 can individually affect the gain and frequency content for both feed-forward inputs 41 and 42 as well as the feedback input 43, including a gain of zero. This varies dynamically as the vehicle travels along a path.
• the vehicle position on the path can be determined by position determination 22 in a desired, known fashion (e.g., using GPS data), for example as set forth in the prior art that is incorporated by reference herein.
• the confidence is determined in one non-limiting example by performing a cross correlation between position data being measured in real time by position determination module 22, and stored data describing the road contour. Note that it is possible to use some other data that can be correlated with road data without ever back calculating the actual road contour. For example, vehicle floor acceleration could be used, such as might be measured by an accelerometer (not shown) coupled to the floor. In each case there is stored data that is location tagged (e.g., a trajectory plan), and the measured data is compared to the stored data.
• location tagged e.g., a trajectory plan
• the measured data stream is aligned with the stored data stream by doing a correlation measurement, and when the correlation spikes the data sets are aligned. Location can then be determined based on the stored data set. The higher the correlation measure the more confidence there can be in the location determination, and this correlation can be used as the confidence measure.
• the stored data and measured data are in alignment perfectly and thus produce the highest confidence shown by the circle marker in the bottom subplot.
• the location of the bump is precisely known and the feed forward commands are weighted high to follow a desired trajectory and the feedback commands can be weighted low.
• the stored data and measured data are in partial alignment and produce a medium confidence shown by the triangle marker in the bottom subplot.
• the location of the bump is known with some uncertainty and the feed forward commands are weighted at a mid-level to influence the desired trajectory but also rely on the feedback commands to react to the difference in the expected bump and the measured bump.
• the range of alignment confidence for all alignment offsets between the stored and measured bump named Confidence
• a goal of the command weighting is to leverage the available information of the trajectory plan to augment the performance of the feedback controller. This strategy allows for maximum leverage of the stored information.
• This strategy allows for maximum leverage of the stored information.
• Embodiments of the systems and methods described above comprise computer components and computer-implemented steps that will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
• the computer-implemented steps may be stored as computer-executable instructions on a computer-readable medium such as, for example, floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, Flash ROMS, nonvolatile ROM, and RAM.
• the computer-executable instructions may be executed on a variety of processors such as, for example, microprocessors, digital signal processors, gate arrays, etc.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Transportation (AREA)
• Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Seats For Vehicles (AREA)
• Vibration Prevention Devices (AREA)
• Feedback Control In General (AREA)
• Vehicle Body Suspensions (AREA)
• Navigation (AREA)

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Citations (5)

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• 2016
  • 2016-03-02 US US15/059,010 patent/US10035439B2/en active Active
• 2017
  • 2017-03-01 EP EP17711869.2A patent/EP3423303B1/en active Active
  • 2017-03-01 JP JP2018545844A patent/JP7391509B2/ja active Active
  • 2017-03-01 WO PCT/US2017/020120 patent/WO2017151720A1/en not_active Ceased
• 2018
  • 2018-06-22 US US16/016,490 patent/US10369908B2/en active Active
• 2019
  • 2019-06-10 US US16/435,602 patent/US12122271B2/en active Active
• 2023
  • 2023-08-08 JP JP2023129463A patent/JP2023144014A/ja active Pending

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