Adaptive Suspension Concepts for Road Vehicles

Most vehicle suspensions are composed of passive spring and damper devices, although improved suspension performance is possible if an active system is used to control forces or relative velocities. The complexity, power requirements, and cost of fully active suspensions have restricted their use. Various partially active suspensions have been proposed and suspensions with slow load levelers and variable dampers are in widespread use. Here we analyze a class of basically passive suspensions the parameters of which can be varied actively in response to various measured signals on the vehicle. These suspensions can come close to optimal performance with simpler means than many of the active or semi-active schemes previously proposed.     

Optimal Performance of Variable Component Suspensions

SUMMARY

Most vehicle suspension systems use fixed passive components that offer a compromise in performance between sprung mass isolation, suspension travel, and tireroad contact force. Recently, systems with discretely adjustable dampers and air springs been added to production vehicles. Active and semi-active damping concepts for vehicle suspensions have also been studied theoretically and with physical prototypes. This paper examines the optimal performance comparisons of variable component suspensions, including active damping and full-state feedback, for “quartercar” heave models. Two and three dimensional optimizations are computed using performance indicators to find the component parameters (control gains) that provide “optimal” performance for statistically described roadway inputs. The effects of performance weighting and feedback configuration are examined. Active damping is shown to be mainly important for vehicle isolation. A passive vehicle suspension can control suspension travel and tire contact force nearly as well as a full state feedback control strategy.     

Theoretical Limitations in Active Vehicle Suspensions

SUMMARY

Vehicle suspensions in which forces are generated in response to feedback signals by active elements obviously offer increased design flexibility compared to conventional suspensions using passive elements such as springs and dampers. It is often assumed that if practical difficulties are neglected, active systems could in principle produce arbitrary ideal, behavior. It is shown, using a simple linear two degree-of-freedom suspension system, model that even using complete state feed back and in the case of in which the system is controllable in the control theory sense, there still are limitations to suspension performance in the fully active case. If the ideal suspension performance is defined based on low-pass filtering of roadway unevenness inputs, an active suspension may not offer much better performance than a partially active or adaptive passive suspension depending upon the values of certain vehicle parameters.     

Active Control of Non-stationary Response of Vehicles with Nonlinear Suspensions

SUMMARY

Active control of non-stationary response of a single degree of freedom vehicle model with nonlinear passive suspension elements is considered in this paper. The method of equivalent linearization is used to derive the equivalent linear model and the optimal control laws are obtained by using stochastic optimal control theory based on full state information. Velocity squared quadratic damping and hysteresis type of stiffness nonlinearities are considered. The effect of the nonlinearities on the active system performance is studied. The performance of active suspensions with nonlinear passive elements is found to be superior to the corresponding passive suspension systems.     

The Response of Active and Semi-active Suspensions to Realistic Feedback Signals

SUMMARY

A simple vehicle model is presented incorporating passive, active, and semi-active suspensions. When the desired feedback variables are ideally available, the system response is well understood and excellent sprung mass isolation results. More often than not, the measured variables must be signal processed in some manner prior to their use in some control algorithm. This paper presents the expected response of a simple vehicle with an active and/or semi-active suspension, subject to non-ideal feedback information.     

DISCUSSION NOTE on Karnopp's article “Active Damping in Road Vehicle Suspension Systems”

SUMMARY

In this paper, an optimal suspension system is derived for a quarter-car model using multivariable integral control. The suspension system features two parts. The first part is an integral control acting on suspension deflection to ensure zero steady-sate offset due to body and maneuvering forces as well as road inputs. The second is a proportional control operating on the vehicle system states for vibration control and performance improvement. The optimal ride performance of the active suspensions based on linear full-state feedback control laws with and without integral control together with the performance of passive suspensions are compared.     

Adaptive Control of Vehicle Suspension

SUMMARY

An adaptive control scheme for a two-degree-of-freedom vehicle model with active suspension is proposed. The performance goal is to minimize the variance of vehicle body acceleration under inequality constraints imposed on the variance of either tire or suspension deflection. An active suspension is adapted to the changes in vehicle velocity and the type of road (or terrain) surface which is assumed to be reconstructable from the accelerometer measurements. The control gain factors are obtained by the iterative method taking advantage of stochastic linear control theory. The performance of the system is evaluated and compared to that of an active system with constant gain factors and a passive system with adjustable parameters.     

Semi-Active Control of Wheel Hop in Ground Vehicles

ABSTRACT

A two degree-of-freedom vehicle model is developed which incorporates passive, active, and semi-active secondary suspensions. The model is used to demonstrate the trade-offs which are inherent in attempting to provide desirable sprung weight isolation while at the same time controlling unsprung weight motions.

A linear model is used first in order to compare passive and active suspensions in an analytically understandable configuration. The semi-active suspension is inherently nonlinear and is compared to the others through computer simulation. The passive suspension is, of course, the most restrictive in providing simultaneous isolation of sprung and unsprung weight; however, the active suspension is also compromised in providing both functions. The semi-active suspension does an excellent job of tracking its active counterpart.     

Optimal Performance of Variable Component Suspensions

Most vehicle suspension systems use fixed passive components that offer a compromise in performance between sprung mass isolation, suspension travel, and tireroad contact force. Recently, systems with discretely adjustable dampers and air springs been added to production vehicles. Active and semi-active damping concepts for vehicle suspensions have also been studied theoretically and with physical prototypes. This paper examines the optimal performance comparisons of variable component suspensions, including active damping and full-state feedback, for “quartercar” heave models. Two and three dimensional optimizations are computed using performance indicators to find the component parameters (control gains) that provide “optimal” performance for statistically described roadway inputs. The effects of performance weighting and feedback configuration are examined. Active damping is shown to be mainly important for vehicle isolation. A passive vehicle suspension can control suspension travel and tire contact force nearly as well as a full state feedback control strategy.     

Observer Design for Electronic Suspension Applications*

SUMMARY

This paper proposes a new methodology for designing observers for automotive suspensions. Automotive suspensions are disturbance-affected dynamic systems. Semi-active suspensions are bilinear while active suspensions with hydraulic actuators are nonlinear. The proposed methodology guarantees exponentially convergent state estimation for both these systems. It uses easily accessible and inexpensive measurements. The fact that sprung mass absolute velocity of the suspension cannot be estimated in an exponentially stable manner with such measurements is also demonstrated.

Controllers using estimated states are implemented experimentally on the Berkeley Active Suspension Test Rig. Experimental results for two cases are presented : use of observer states to improve ride quality in an active suspension and use of observer states to reduce dynamic tire loading in a semi-active heavy vehicle suspension.     

Magneto-rheological suspensions for improving ground vehicle’s ride comfort,stability, and handling

ABSTRACT

A state-of-the-art discussion on the applications of magneto-rheological (MR) suspensions for improving ride comfort, handling, and stability in ground vehicles is discussed for both road and rail applications. A historical perspective on the discovery and engineering development of MR fluids is presented, followed by some of the common methods for modelling their non-Newtonian behaviour. The common modes of the MR fluids are discussed, along with the application of the fluid in valve mode for ground vehicles’ dampers (or shock absorbers). The applications span across nearly all road vehicles, including automobiles, trains, semi-trucks, motorcycles, and even bicycles. For each type of vehicle, the results of some of the past studies is presented briefly, with reference to the originating study. It is discussed that Past experimental and modelling studies have indicated that MR suspensions provide clear advantages for ground vehicles that far surpasses the performance of passive suspension. For rail vehicles, the primary advantage is in terms of increasing the speed at which the onset of hunting occurs, whereas for road vehicles – mainly automobiles – the performance improvements are in terms of a better balance between vehicle ride, handling, and stability. To further elaborate on this point, a single-suspension model is used to develop an index-based approach for studying the compromise that is offered by vehicle suspensions, using the H₂ optimisation approach. Evaluating three indices based on the sprung-mass acceleration, suspension rattlespace, and tyre deflection, it is clearly demonstrated that MR suspensions significantly improve road vehicle’s ride comfort, stability, and handling in comparison with passive suspensions. For rail vehicles, the simulation results indicate that using MR suspensions with an on-off switching control can increase the speed at which the on-set of hunting occurs by as much as 50% to more than 300%.     

Structured H2 Optimization of Vehicle Suspensions Based on Multi-Wheel Models

Summary Various control techniques, especially LQG optimal control, have been applied to the design of active and semi-active vehicle suspensions over the past several decades. However passive suspensions remain dominant in the automotive marketplace because they are simple, reliable, and inexpensive. The force generated by a passive suspension at a given wheel can depend only on the relative displacement and velocity at that wheel, and the suspension parameters for the left and right wheels are usually required to be equal. Therefore, a passive vehicle suspension can be viewed as a decentralized feedback controller with constraints to guarantee suspension symmetry. In this paper, we cast the optimization of passive vehicle suspensions as structure-constrained LQG/H2 optimal control problems. Correlated road random excitations are taken as the disturbance inputs; ride comfort, road handling, suspension travel, and vehicle-body attitude are included in the cost outputs. We derive a set of necessary conditions for optimality and then develop a gradient-based method to efficiently solve the structure-constrained H2 optimization problem. An eight-DOF four-wheel-vehicle model is studied as an example to illustrate application of the procedure, which is useful for design of both passive suspensions and active suspensions with controller-structure constraints.     

Optimal Preview Control of Rear Suspension Using Nonlinear Neural Networks

SUMMARY

The performance of neural networks to be used for identification and optimal control of nonlinear vehicle suspensions is analyzed. It is shown that neuro-vehicle models can be efficiently trained to identify the dynamical characteristics of actual vehicle suspensions. After trained, this neuro-vehicle is used to train both front and rear suspension neuro-controllers under a nonlinear rear preview control scheme. To do that, a neuro-observer is trained to identify the inverse dynamics of the front suspension so that front road disturbances can be identified and used to improve the response of the rear suspension. The performance of the vehicle with neuro-control and with LQ control are compared.     

Application of Nonlinear Control Theory to Electronically Controlled Suspensions

SUMMARY

This paper illustrates the use of nonlinear control theory for designing electro-hydraulic active suspensions. A nonlinear, “sliding” control law is developed and compared with the linear control of a quarter-car active suspension system acting under the effects of coulomb friction. A comparison will also be made with a passive quarter-car suspension system. Simulation and experimental results show that nonlinear control performs better than PID control and improves the ride quality compared to a passive suspension.     

Performance of Low-bandwidth,Semi-active Damping Concepts for Suspension Control

Abstract

Active damping has been shown to offer increased suspension performance in terms of vehicle isolation, suspension packaging, and road-tire contact force. It can even approximate the performance of full state feedback control without requiring the difficult measurement of tire deflection. Many semi-active damping strategies have been introduced to approximate the response of active damping with the modulation of passive damping parameters. These strategies have typically required a relatively high bandwidth for actuator response. This paper investigates the simulation performance and “frequency response” of two concepts in low-bandwidth semi-active suspension control, one that sets a damping force directly and another that sets the damping resistance. The electronically controlled bandwidth of these actuators is approximately an order of magnitude less than other semi-active devices; high frequency control is handled mechanically. A quarter-car model is studied with the controlled damping replacing both passive and active damping of typical control schemes. Both low-bandwidth damping strategies perform remarkably well compared to both active and high-bandwidth, semi-active damping. In certain dynamic performances, the new semi-active strategies outperform active damping and what the author calls “nominal” semi-active damping.     

Theoretical Limitations in Active Vehicle Suspensions

Vehicle suspensions in which forces are generated in response to feedback signals by active elements obviously offer increased design flexibility compared to conventional suspensions using passive elements such as springs and dampers. It is often assumed that if practical difficulties are neglected, active systems could in principle produce arbitrary ideal, behavior. It is shown, using a simple linear two degree-of-freedom suspension system, model that even using complete state feed back and in the case of in which the system is controllable in the control theory sense, there still are limitations to suspension performance in the fully active case. If the ideal suspension performance is defined based on low-pass filtering of roadway unevenness inputs, an active suspension may not offer much better performance than a partially active or adaptive passive suspension depending upon the values of certain vehicle parameters.     

Stochastic Optimal Control of Highway Tractors with Active Suspensions

Stochastic optimal control and estimation theories are used to design an active suspension system for a cab ride in a tractor-semitrailer vehicle. A discrete-continuous vehicle model with eleven degrees of freedom is augmented by a stochastic road excitation model and a human perception of vibration shape filter. Both perfect measurement and estimated state cases are considered. The impact of the measurement noise on the design of the optimal controller is demonstrated. The performance of the optimally controlled system is compared with an optimal passive system. It is shown that significant improvements in ride comfort can be achieved through the use of actively controlled cab suspensions.     

Using the lead vehicle as preview sensor in convoy vehicle active suspension control

Both ride quality and roadholding of actively suspended vehicles can be improved by sensing the road ahead of the vehicle and using this information in a preview controller. Previous applications have used look-ahead sensors mounted on the front bumper to measure terrain beneath. Such sensors are vulnerable, potentially confused by water, snow, or other soft obstacles and offer a fixed preview time. For convoy vehicle applications, this paper proposes using the overall response of the preceding vehicle(s) to generate preview controller information for follower vehicles. A robust observer is used to estimate the states of a quarter-car vehicle model, from which road profile is estimated and passed on to the follower vehicle(s) to generate a preview function. The preview-active suspension, implemented in discrete time using a shift register approach to improve simulation time, reduces sprung mass acceleration and dynamic tyre deflection peaks by more than 50% and 40%, respectively. Terrain can change from one vehicle to the next if a loose obstacle is dislodged, or if the vehicle paths are sufficiently different so that one vehicle misses a discrete road event. The resulting spurious preview information can give suspension performance worse than that of a passive or conventional active system. In this paper, each vehicle can effectively estimate the road profile based on its own state trajectory. By comparing its own road estimate with the preview information, preview errors can be detected and suspension control quickly switched from preview to conventional active control to preserve performance improvements compared to passive suspensions.     

Energy Flow in Active Attitude Control Suspensions: A Bond Graph Analysis

Fully active ground vehicle suspensions which completely replace the passive spring and damper elements with a force generating actuator have required a significant amount of power. Alternative systems which retain compliant elements to handle high frequency isolation but include active elements to control the vehicle body attitude have been developed to reduce the power requirements. These suspensions are called “low bandwidth” or “fast load leveler” systems and they often incorporate semi-active dampers which produce high frequency controllable forces with low power requirements. Here, two contrasting attitude control systems are studied to show that actuator power can be significantly reduced if the actuator is used to vary a lever ratio instead of being used to compress the suspension spring directly. Both types of systems have been successfully implemented in prototype form. Bond graphs for idealized versions of the suspensions show clearly the significant differences in actuator power and energy requirements even though the abstract mathematical structures of the two systems are remarkably similar. Computer simulations confirm the analytical results.     

Vehicle suspensions with a mechatronic network strut

This paper applies a novel mechatronic network strut to vehicle suspensions and discusses the benefits of system performance. The proposed mechatronic strut consists of a ball-screw inerter and permanent magnet electric machinery, such that the system impedance can be realised through a combination of mechanical and electrical networks. Applying the mechatronic strut to vehicle suspensions, we evaluate the improvement of system performance using passive electrical networks. Furthermore, a prototype mechatronic strut is constructed for properties verification. Finally, nonlinearities of the mechatronic strut are taken into account to modify the suspension design. From the simulation and experimental results, the proposed mechatronic network strut is shown to be effective.