Design of a coordinated adaptive backstepping tracking control for nonlinear uncertain active suspension system

Abstract

• The controlled model of nonlinear uncertain active suspension is established. • A model reference system is developed to provide the ideal reference trajectories . • The designed controller can accurately track the trajectories of model-reference system. • The designed controller can stabilize the vertical motion of vehicle body. • The coordination control over sprung-mass acceleration and suspension dynamic displacement is achieved. This paper presents a novel adaptive backstepping tracking control for nonlinear uncertain active suspension system, which can achieve the coordinated control over the sprung-mass acceleration and suspension dynamic displacement for nonlinear uncertain active suspension system based on a developing model-reference system. First, according to adaptive backstepping control principle, this model-reference system is designed with purpose of providing the ideal reference trajectories for the sprung-mass displacement and vertical velocity, respectively. Then, the design of a coordinated adaptive backstepping tracking controller is conducted to make the control plant accurately track the prescribed performances of the model-reference system by virtue of the backstepping technique and Lyapunov stability theory, in which a virtual controller with online parameter regulation rules is designed and implemented to guarantee the stability of vehicle body. Finally, a numerical example is provided to verify the effectiveness of our designed adaptive backstepping tracking controller under various operating scenarios.