Thursday, July 11, 2019

there's a company that took over Bose Ride, and is trying to make activated shock absorbers smooth out the ride for cars and trucks

“When a truck hits a pothole, it’s sensed by the Bose Ride as the floor of the cab accelerates downward,” explained Bose chief engineer Mike Rosen at the time. “The computer tells the linear actuator to provide an upward force, carrying the driver comfortably over the pothole. At the other end, the force will be pushing up, and the actuator will tell the chair to go down with the truck floor, keeping the driver level.”

The device anticipates driver and road inputs in order to stop vibrations before they occur. Less than five milliseconds after the wheels begin to move, the devices work together to counter the motion, filtering out the vibrations that instigate motion sickness and creating a much smoother ride.

the company’s technology — an electrically powered hydraulic device meant to complement the venerable shock absorber and keep the passenger compartment as level as possible.

The difference was stark. ClearMotion’s technology greatly smoothed the way, significantly reducing not just the movement up and down, but also the right-left lurch from bumps on either side. And while the system doesn’t make speed bumps obsolete, its goal is to become the kind of system that car owners won’t be able to live without once self-driving technology turns them from drivers into passengers.

In November 2017, ClearMotion snapped up Bose Ride, alongside an arsenal of more than 300 patents, as the company sought to become the “leading motion control company in mobility,” according to its post-acquisition statement.

The innovations since have been variations — some fairly sophisticated — on those early breakthroughs. Packard, for example, offered Torsion-Level Ride in 1955 and 1956, and Citroën famously used a four-wheel hydropneumatic suspension and automatic leveling on its innovative DS 19, also introduced in 1955. But neither system was known for reliability.

Automakers are actively pursuing the holy grail of a level ride. Mercedes, of course, offers its Airmatic air suspension as a standard feature on some models, including the S-Class, and as on option on others. Mercedes also offers a Magic Body Control system, which uses a high-precision camera to scan the road ahead and prepare the suspension components at each wheel for the surface it’s about to encounter. Keith Sharp, director of chassis engineering at Bentley Motors, said the new Bentayga sport-utility vehicle uses a 48-volt system solely to power motors on its active front and rear stabilizer bars to resist the roll motion of the vehicle.

“The system measures the disturbance of the wheel, then reduces the amount of force that would normally be driven into the vehicle itself,” he said. “The result is an increase in ride comfort.”

Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst at Navigant Research, said the new Audi A8 incorporates an electromechanical active suspension, enabled by the car’s standard 48-volt architecture. The system uses electric motors at all four corners, and a front camera for early detection of bumps in the road.

“It appears to do much of what ClearMotion offers, and it will also raise the side of the car if the sensors detect a pending impact,” he said. “Using sensors to look ahead for potholes can be beneficial, and that’s what Audi is doing.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/business/digital-chassis-autonomous-cars.html
https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/09/clearmotion-raises-115-million-for-digital-chassis-that-makes-car-rides-smoother/

2 comments:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw

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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cffHXhbIfaU

    theyve made 18 wheeler seats for a few years
    very good technology, just lso very expensive

    ReplyDelete