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Honda announced an independent right and left rear toe control system (first generation) in 2013 and presented it as the world's first. As stated in a previous paper, “Independent Left and Right Rear Toe Control System,” with this system Honda has achieved a balance between an enjoyable driving experience in which handling is performed at the driver's will (“INOMAMA” handling) and stable driving performance.(1) This first generation is optimally designed to the vehicle specifications such as suspension axial force and steering gear ratio of the vehicle to which the system is applied. For more widespread application of independent rear toe control technology, a next generation system (second generation) has been developed, which achieves both cost reduction and flexible system performance which can be adapted to a variety of vehicles. The system development began by setting the required target performance with consideration for adaptation to various car models.

A compact, low-cost fuel pump module has been developed for use in motorcycles with a small-displacement engine. Various considerations are given to make the module as compact as possible. The pump motor, which is one of the major component parts, is down-sized specifically for applications to small-displacement engines. The pressure regulator uses a simple construction consisting only of a ball and a spring without a diaphragm. Especially noteworthy is that with the volume reduced by approximately 40% from the conventional pressure regulator while using the construction that reduces self-excited vibrations caused by fuel pressure pulsations, the pressure regulator contributes significantly to the down-sizing and cost reduction of the module. Furthermore, the down-sized module remarkably reduces the size of fuel pump mount surface, allowing a modification from the flat-surface sealing to the radial sealing.

Recently, much research has been carried out on secondary O2 feedback which performs control based on the output from a secondary O2 sensor (HEGO sensor). In this research it has been found that, regardless of catalyst aging conditions, the HEGO sensor output indicates 0.6 V when the catalyst reduction rate is maintained at the optimum level. Therefore, based on this relationship, we designed an accurate secondary O2 feedback with the aim of reducing emissions by stabilizing the HEGO sensor output to 0.6 V. In order to realize this control, it was necessary to solve the three problems of nonlinear catalyst characteristics, dead time characteristics, and changes in dynamic characteristics due to catalyst aging conditions. Therefore, these problems were solved using the modeling approach of robust control and a new robust adaptive control named Prediction and Identification Type Sliding Mode Control.