Vibration Control and Ride Comfort Analysis of a Full Car with a Driver Model Using Big-Bang Big-Crunch Optimized FLC

Abstract

The main motive of the active suspension system is to enhance the ride comfort by suppressing the vibrations induced due to road irregularities. The actuator is getting more significance in the automotive industry due to its superior ride comfort for passengers. In this study, an eight Degrees of Freedom (DOF) full car with a driver model is considered for the ride comfort analysis (ISO2631 Standard) and vibration control. The real road terrain is not uniform in nature. Hence an effective intelligent control technology is required to improve the quality of travel. Initially, a conventional Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) controller is designed for the system. Then a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is designed for the 8 DOF vehicle model to control the unwanted vibration produced in the vertical and angular directions. The FLC is designed with suitable firing rules, membership functions, and scaling factors using MATLAB/Simulink 2019 environment. The performance of FLC is further enhanced by the Big Bang Big Crunch (B3C) optimization technique, and it can suppress vibrations when the vehicle is travelling over bumpy and imperfect random road terrain as per ISO 8608. The Root Mean Square (RMS), Frequency Weighted RMS (FWRMS), and Vibration Dose Value of seat acceleration are the performance indices to investigate the potency of B3C-tuned FLC against the PID controller, FLC and passive suspension system.