Appeal No. 1997-2478
Application 08/361,554
to teach using road roughness for any purpose whatsoever.
Turning to Kawagoe, this reference pertains to a control
system for suppressing nose-dive of an automotive vehicle by
changing the suspension system between “hard” and “soft”
suspension characteristics in accordance with road surface
conditions. In particular, the control system monitors a
preselected suspension control parameter (e.g., steering angle
displacement or engine acceleration/deceleration) and switches
the characteristic of the suspension system when the
preselected parameter surpasses a threshold value (column 5,
lines 4-16;
column 7, lines 45-61). In order to make the system more
precisely suited to vehicle driving conditions, the control
system also monitors road roughness or smoothness and adjusts
said threshold value based on road conditions. A
determination of road roughness or smoothness is made based on
a measurement of the vehicle height relative to the road
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