Optimal Control of a Vehicle Suspension Incorporating the Time Delay between Front and Rear Wheel Inputs

An optimal control law for a vehicle suspension is developed using a discrete linear quadratic regulator framework. The time delay between the disturbance due to the road at the front and rear wheels is incorporated into the model, and it is shown that the optimal control law requires information gathered at the front wheels. A comparison is made between the optimal control law and a suboptimal one which does not incorporate front wheel road information.