JPH055662A - Wheel ground load detection device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To easily detect the ground contact load of a wheel. [Composition] A front switch portion 14 and a rear switch portion 18 attached to a front suspension portion and a rear suspension portion of a motorcycle detect compression and extension of each of the suspensions, and when a predetermined threshold value or more is exceeded. A signal is led to the control unit 20 from the switch units 14 and 18. The control unit 20 measures the time during which the signal is derived, and derives a control signal to the motor control unit 30 to control the brake device 24 when the signal is derived for a certain time or longer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wheel ground load detecting device, and more particularly, for example, a wheel ground contact detecting a rear wheel ground load during braking from displacement of suspensions of front and rear wheels of a motorcycle. The present invention relates to a load detection device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, there is a suspension equipped with a load measuring device (for example, a load cell) in order to obtain a ground contact load of a wheel.

[0003]

Here, in order to directly determine the wheel ground load by the load measuring device, for example, in the case of a two-wheeled vehicle, the load measuring device is mounted on the lower mounting portion of the coil spring which constitutes the suspension. Must be installed.

In this case, since an excessive external force is frequently applied to the load measuring device, considerable durability or reliability is required. Therefore, the load measuring device becomes very expensive. Further, a load measuring instrument that satisfies the above requirements is inevitably a heavy object, and in order to cover this, it is expected that the weight and cost will increase due to the strength improvement of the spring. Further, the load measuring device restricts the arrangement of other components of the vehicle, resulting in the inconvenience that the vehicle body structure needs to be changed.

The present invention has been made in order to overcome the above-mentioned inconvenience, and can reliably detect the wheel ground load with an extremely simple structure and does not require any structural modification to the vehicle. An object is to provide a wheel ground load detection device.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a compression detecting means for detecting a predetermined amount of compression of a suspension supporting a first wheel, and a suspension supporting a second wheel. Of the predetermined amount of expansion and the compression detecting unit detects the predetermined amount of compression of the suspension, and measures the time during which the expansion detecting unit detects the predetermined amount of expansion of the suspension. And a determination unit that compares the measured time with a set time and determines that the ground load of the first or second wheel is within a predetermined range when the time is equal to or longer than the set time, It is characterized by including.

[0007]

In the wheel ground load detecting device according to the present invention, it is detected that the suspension supporting the first wheel is compressed by a predetermined amount and the suspension supporting the second wheel is extended by a predetermined amount. When this state continues for the set time or longer, it is determined that the ground load of the wheel is within the predetermined range.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, preferred embodiments of the wheel ground contact load detecting device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a motorcycle B equipped with a wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram in which a brake control device is combined with the wheel ground load detection device.

As shown in FIG. 1, the wheel ground load detecting device 10 includes a front switch portion 14 (compression detecting means) attached to a portion of a front suspension 12 for a front wheel Wf and a rear suspension 16 for a rear wheel Wr. The rear switch portion 18 (extension detecting means) attached to the above portion and the control unit 20 attached to the lower side of the tail end of the seat. The front switch unit 14 is, for example, a limit switch that detects that the front suspension 12 is compressed by a predetermined amount, and the rear switch unit 18 is, for example, the rear suspension 16.
Is a limit switch for detecting that a predetermined amount has been extended. Then, the detection signals from the switch units 14 and 18 are introduced into the control unit 20. The control unit 20 functions as a time measuring unit that measures the compression time of the front suspension 12 and the extension time of the rear suspension 16, and also functions as a determining unit that determines whether the ground load is within a predetermined range.

Next, an outline of the brake control device 26 will be described.
It has a motor control unit 30 for controlling the drive of the DC motor 28 by energizing and deenergizing the current to the.
The motor control unit 30 is electrically connected to the control unit 20,
The signal derived from is introduced. The brake device 24 is a brake lever 22 provided on the handle 31.
The master cylinder 32 driven by the master cylinder 3 and the caliper cylinder 34 for braking the front wheels Wf are provided.
2 and the caliper cylinder 34 are connected to each other via a brake control device 26. This master cylinder 32
Adjusts the hydraulic pressure under the action of the brake lever 22,
This is transmitted to a cut valve 56, which will be described later, while the caliper cylinder 34 controls the disc plate 33 based on the hydraulic pressure controlled by the cut valve 56.
The braking force is applied to.

The brake control device 26 is described in detail in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, it has a DC motor 28 as a drive source,
A pinion 36 is connected to the drive shaft of the DC motor 28, and a gear 38 is provided so as to mesh with the pinion 36. A crank shaft 40 is fixed to the center of the gear 38, and one end of a crank pin 44 is connected to the crank shaft 40 via a crank arm 42. In addition,
A crank arm 46 is connected to the other end of the crank pin 44, and a potentiometer 48 that detects a deviation angle of the crank pin 44 is connected to the crank arm 46. A cam bearing 50 is rotatably mounted on the outer circumference of the crank pin 44. The cam bearing 50 is pressed upward via a return spring 52. On the upper surface of the cam bearing 50, the cam bearing 50
The expander piston 54, which is displaced vertically due to the displacement of the expander piston 54, abuts, and the cut valve 56 opens and closes under the action of the vertical motion of the expander piston 54. The cut valve 56 is arranged in the cut valve housing 58 so as to be vertically displaceable. On the upper surface of the cut valve 56,
An input port 60 that communicates with the master cylinder 32 is provided, and a caliper cylinder 34 is provided at a connection portion of the cut valve housing portion 58 and the expander piston 54.
Is provided with an output port 62 communicating with. The input port 60 and the output port 62 communicate with each other through a communication hole 64 defined in the outer peripheral surface of the cut valve 56.

A wheel ground load detecting device 10 according to the present invention.
Is basically configured as described above. Next, its operation will be described in relation to the brake device 24.

3 and 4 are a relational explanatory view showing the operation of the apparatus 10 and a control block diagram thereof. In FIG. 3, the graph of (a) is the front suspension 12
And the graph of (b) shows the amount of displacement of the rear suspension 16.

While the motorcycle B is traveling, the brake lever 2
When the brake device 24 of the front wheel Wf is driven by gripping the wheel 2, the front suspension 12 and the rear suspension 16 are compressed or expanded as compared with the constant speed running state, as shown in FIG. That is, by driving the brake device 24 of the front wheels Wf, the front suspension 12 is displaced in the compression direction, and the rear suspension 1
6 is displaced in the extending direction. The predetermined amounts of displacement of the front suspension 12 and the rear suspension 16 are output from the front switch unit 14 and the rear switch unit 18, respectively, when the compression threshold value of the front suspension 12 and the extension threshold value of the rear suspension 16 have been set. Detected by the signal (FIGS. 3 (c) and (d)). The control unit 20 measures the time during which the ON signal is derived from the front switch unit 14 and the rear switch unit 18.
That is, the time when the displacement of the front suspension 12 exceeds the compression threshold is measured as T ₁ , and the time when the displacement of the rear suspension 16 exceeds the expansion threshold is measured as T ₂ .

Therefore, the control unit 20 is
Front switch part 14 and rear switch part 18
Time T from which the ON signal is derived₁, T₂Each
T₁, T ₂Braking when ≧ 1 / fs
It is determined that the vehicle body is tilted due to. Where fs is a car
Indicates the natural frequency of the body. Note that the compression threshold and
And the extension threshold are set at the center of gravity of the vehicle body as shown in FIG.
It is desirable to set it accordingly.

The ground load of the rear wheel Wr detected in this way is introduced from the device 10 to the brake control device 26 and used as judgment data when controlling the brake device 24.

Next, the operation of the brake control device 26 will be described.

During normal braking, the brake control device 26 forms a state in which the cam bearing 50 mounted on the crank pin 44 is held at the top dead center by the elastic force of the return spring 52 and the expander piston 54 is pushed up. (State of FIG. 2). As a result, the cut valve 56 is pushed up by the expander piston 54, and the input port 60 and the output port 62 are in communication. Therefore, the brake hydraulic pressure generated in the master cylinder 32 by gripping the brake lever 22 is
It is transmitted to the caliper cylinder 34 through the input port 60, the communication hole 64, the output port 62, and the passage 68 via the passage 66. At this time, the brake oil pressure on the output port 62 side acts so as to push down the expander piston 54, but the cam bearing 50 contacting the back surface of the expander piston 54 is held at the top dead center by the pressing force of the return spring 52. Therefore, the expander piston 54 is not displaced.

Next, as described above, when the control unit 20 determines that the ground load of the rear wheel Wr is 0, the control unit 20 energizes the DC motor 28 via the motor control unit 30. , Control to depress. When the DC motor 28 is energized, the rotating shaft (not shown) of the DC motor 28 is rotationally driven, and the pinion 36 coaxially connected is rotated. With the rotation of the pinion 36, the crank pin 44 is displaced via the gear 38 meshing with the pinion 36, the crank shaft 40 fixed to the gear 38, and the crank arm 42. Due to the displacement of the crank pin 44, the cam bearing 50 moves from the top dead center and the brake oil pressure acting on the expander piston 54 acts so as to be added to the torque of the DC motor 28. Cam bearing 5
Press 0 to descend quickly. When the expander piston 54 descends by a predetermined amount, the cut valve 56 opens the communication hole 6
4 is blocked, so that the input port 60 and the output port 62 are disconnected from each other. When the expander piston 54 further descends, the volume on the output port 62 side increases, the hydraulic pressure applied to the caliper cylinder 34 decreases, and the front wheel W
The braking force of f decreases.

As a result, it is possible to avoid a decrease in the ground contact load of the rear wheel Wr due to braking and to secure a sufficient ground contact load of the rear wheel Wr. Next, when the braking force of the front wheels Wf is sufficiently reduced, the power supply to the DC motor 28 is stopped, the crank pin 44 is returned to the original position by the elastic force of the return spring 52, and the brake hydraulic pressure is increased again. As described above, the brake oil pressure is controlled by repeating the energization and deenergization of the DC motor 28, and it is possible to detect the decrease in the ground load of the rear wheel Wr accompanying the braking of the front wheel Wf.

The position of the expander piston 54 is detected as a crank angle by the potentiometer 48 and introduced into the motor control section 30 to control the DC motor 28.

In the present embodiment, the case where the brake device 24 for the front wheels Wf is driven has been described. However, when the brake devices for the front wheels Wf and the rear wheels Wr are simultaneously driven, the ground load of the rear wheels Wr is shown. It is of course possible to detect and control. Further, it is possible to detect an arbitrary ground load by adjusting the set positions of the front switch section 14 and the rear switch section 18.

[0024]

The wheel ground load detecting device according to the present invention has the following effects.

That is, the tilt of the vehicle body can be detected by detecting the compression of the suspension on the first wheel and the extension of the suspension on the second wheel, and the ground load can be obtained from this. In this case, compression and extension of the suspension can be detected by a simple sensor such as a limit switch arranged at a predetermined position, and therefore, there are advantages that the configuration is simple and the durability is improved. Further, there is no need to change the structure of the vehicle body at all.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a motorcycle equipped with a wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram in which a brake control device is combined with a wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a relationship explanatory view showing the operation of the wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation control block diagram of the wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the relationship between the displacement amount of the suspension and the vehicle body center of gravity position in the wheel ground load detection device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Wheel ground load detection device 14 ... Front switch part 18 ... Rear switch part 20 ... Control unit 26 ... Brake control device 28 ... DC motor 30 ... Motor control part 32 ... Master cylinder 34 ... Caliper cylinder 54 ... Expander piston

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A compression detecting means for detecting a predetermined amount of compression of a suspension supporting a first wheel, and an extension detecting means for detecting a predetermined amount of extension of a suspension supporting a second wheel. A time measuring means for measuring a time during which the compression detecting means detects a predetermined amount of compression of the suspension and the extension detecting means detects a predetermined amount of extension of the suspension; and the measured time. And a determination means for determining that the ground load of the first or second wheel is within a predetermined range when the time is equal to or longer than the set time. apparatus.