Semi-Active Heave and Pitch Control for Ground Vehicles

A model is presented which includes both the heave and pitch motions of a vehicle traversing a roadway. Provision is made for testing totally passive, totally active, and semi-active secondary suspensions. Control strategies are developed for the totally active case and vehicle isolation is demonstrated. These active controllers are then modified to be semi-active, i.e., no power is provided from the controller to the vehicle. The semi-active isolation is shown to be comparable to the totally active system and much superior to the passive suspension.