Active Suspension Design Research Articles

Design of Automotive Active Suspension System and Simulation for Intelligent Control Strategy

<p>This article focuses on the main suspension systems of current automobiles and the problems existing in active suspension systems. Firstly, the working principle of electromagnetic active suspension systems is explained, and the system design of active suspension is completed. In order to facilitate analysis, a mathematical model of active suspension is built. Then, under the same road parameters, the model is simulated and verified to verify the improvement of structural performance. Secondly, for the control strategy of vehicle stability, a PID controller is adopted, with vehicle acceleration, suspension travel, and tire dynamic load as the input objectives of the controller. The input parameters are automatically tuned and optimized using a bee colony optimization algorithm, and a mathematical expression for the optimization objective is designed. Finally, the optimal solution of the optimization objective is obtained through simulation. Through the method presented in this article, a better design and control scheme for active suspension systems can be obtained, and the practical results have strong guiding significance.</p> <p> </p>

Active and Semiactive Suspension Systems for Minimizing Tire Wear in Articulated Vehicles

ABSTRACT Electric and hybrid propulsion systems for articulated vehicles have been gaining increased attention, with the aim to decrease exhaust particle emissions. However, the more environmentally-friendly electric or hybrid articulated vehicles are expected to have increased nonexhaust pollution-related sources because of their significantly increased mass compared with conventional vehicles. One of the main sources of nonexhaust pollution is tire wear, which could potentially cancel the benefits of removing the exhaust through electrification. Tire wear is mainly affected by internal (tire structure and shape) and external (suspension configuration, speed, road surface, etc.) factors. This work focuses on suspension systems and, more specifically, on the ability of active and semiactive suspensions to decrease tire wear in an articulated vehicle. In this direction, an articulated vehicle model that incorporates the tread in its modeling is built to study tire wear during cornering over a class C road. A novel active suspension design based on the H approach is suggested in this work and is compared with passive, semiactive, and other active suspension systems. The suspension systems are also compared mainly with regard to tire wear levels but also with other vehicle performance aspects (i.e., comfort and road holding). The H∞ active suspension design is the most effective in decreasing tire wear, with decreases of about 8% to 11%, but without neglecting the rest of the objectives.

Influence of Nonlinear Characteristics of Planetary Flywheel Inerter Actuator on Vehicle Active Suspension Performance

The planetary flywheel can significantly reduce the weight of the flywheel, allowing the inerter to be lightweight. When a planetary flywheel ball screw inerter-based active actuator is used in a vehicle suspension system, the nonlinear features of the actuator affect vehicle performance. The planetary flywheel inerter actuator’s nonlinear dynamic model is constructed in this study based on the dynamic features of the planetary flywheel ball screw inerter and the electromagnetic torque generating mechanism of the permanent magnet synchronous motor. The impact of ball screw–nut friction, transmission clearance, planetary gear friction, and gear backlash on the performance of an active tuned inerter damper suspension is then investigated. As a result, the impact and sensitivity of numerous nonlinear parameters on suspension performance are shown, providing a theoretical foundation for the design of planetary flywheel inerter actuator and active inerter suspension.

Fuzzy logic and proportional integral derivative based multi-objective optimization of active suspension system of a 4×4 in-wheel motor driven electrical vehicle

This paper considers fuzzy logic and proportional integral derivative based multi-objective optimization of a non-linear active suspension system of a 4 × 4 in-wheel motor-driven electric vehicle by using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II. The active suspension system of the electric vehicle and its controllers are optimized to achieve International Organization for Standardization2631-1 ride comfort and health criteria, also providing the actual working conditions such as roll angle and tire load transfers simultaneously for driving safety. In this regard, a non-linear full electrical vehicle model with quadratic tire and cubic suspension stiffnesses with 11 degrees of freedom and a seat-driver model with 5 degrees of freedom are implemented and optimized regarding seven objective functions determined from the root mean square of head and seat accelerations, crest factor , vibration dose value , the ratio of head and seat accelerations, the ratio of the upper torso and seat acceleration, root mean square upper torso acceleration, and root mean square of suspension, tire, and in-wheel motor displacements. The design variables of the optimization problem are chosen as the stiffnesses and damping coefficients of the suspension, in-wheel motors, and seat, as well as the parameters of the proportional derivative and fuzzy logic controllers. The obtained results demonstrate that significant improvements can be achieved by using a controller over the passive systems. It is also noted that the fuzzy logic controller improves ride comfort and the health criterion over proportional derivative system up to 13%, while the load transfer ratio index showed no adverse change between models concerning the rollover condition. The outcomes of this work clearly state that significant improvements, in terms of vibration exposure, can be achieved with the help of reducing the vibration amplitude of an in-wheel motor-driven electrical vehicle active suspension system by using multi-objective optimization considering a non-linear full vehicle model and realistic working conditions such as tire load transfer and vehicle body roll during cornering circumstances. Thus, obtained results are of utmost importance for manufacturers about the active suspension design process providing both a safe and comfortable driving of in-wheel driven electric vehicles.

Observer-based multi-objective integrated control for vehicle lateral stability and active suspension design

This paper investigates an observer-based robust gain-scheduling integrated control strategy to improve the maneuverability, stability and ride comfort of vehicle by coordinating direct yaw moment control and active suspension system. The uncertainty of tire cornering stiffness, the actuator saturation and the hard constrains of suspension design are taken into account. The longitudinal velocity is considered time-varying which makes the designed controller more practical, and a polytope with trapezoidal structure is used to describe the velocity-dependent parameters. An observer is designed to estimate the vehicle sideslip angle, suspension deflection and tire deflection simultaneously. Based on it, a robust saturated gain-scheduling H∞/GH2 controller is obtained by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which guarantees that the sideslip angle and yaw rate tracking error are minimized, the vertical acceleration and pitch acceleration are attenuated, and the suspension deflection, tire deflection are bounded. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed integrated control strategy under different road profiles and maneuvers.

H∞ optimal control of vehicle active suspension systems in two time scales

In this paper, a novel H∞ control method in two time scales is proposed for active suspension systems. Two time scales are considered based on the natural time scale separation existing in the active suspension systems, i.e. the sprung mass part corresponding to the fast dynamics and the unsprung mass part corresponding to the slow dynamics. Singular perturbation theory is used to establish a dual time scale active suspension model and design a H∞ controller. Compared with the commonly used H∞ controller, the time-sharing dynamic characteristics make the proposed two time scales H∞ controller have better dynamic response when encountering dynamic road input, so as to better meet the control performance requirements of active suspension. The effectiveness of the proposed H∞ control method in two time scales is illustrated through co-simulations.

Design of Constrained Robust Controller for Active Suspension of In-Wheel-Drive Electric Vehicles

This paper presents a constrained robust H∞ controller design of active suspension system for in-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicles considering control constraint and parameter variation. In the active suspension system model, parameter uncertainties of sprung mass are analyzed via linear fraction transformation, and the perturbation bounds can be also limited, then the uncertain quarter-vehicle active suspension model where the in-wheel motor is suspended as a dynamic vibration absorber is built. The constrained robust H∞ feedback controller of the closed-loop active suspension system is designed using the concept of reachable sets and ellipsoids, in which the dynamic tire displacements and the suspension working spaces are constrained, and a comprehensive solution is finally derived from H∞ performance and robust stability. Simulations on frequency responses and road excitations are implemented to verify and evaluate the performance of the designed controller; results show that the active suspension with a developed H∞ controller can effectively achieve better ride comfort and road-holding ability compared with passive suspension despite the existence of control constraints and parameter variations.

Modelling and Control of Air Bellow based Active Suspension System

This paper presents a complete design and simulation of active suspension actuated using pneumatic air bellow. The electronic controlled active suspension will control all vertical force acting from road surface by regulating the air mass of bellow. Quarter car active suspension is modelled and analysed using Matlab-Simulink. The output of designed active suspension system is simulated under standard road input that gives the response of the suspension to varied roughness of road surface. From the results it is evident that proposed active suspension system can suppress more than 60% than standard passive suspension system.

Fault-tolerant design and evaluation for a railway bogie active steering system

ABSTRACT Active suspension system can drastically improve dynamic behaviours of the railway vehicle but will also introduce safety-critical issues. The fault-tolerant analysis, therefore, is essential for the design and implementation of active suspension. However, this issue did not receive enough attention so far and only few papers can be found related to the fault tolerance of active steering for the railway vehicle. In this work, an approach based on Risk Priority Number is established to present quantitative assessment for fault tolerance of actuation system. Then this method is adopted to compare nine different active steering schemes resulting in a novel, comprehensive approach that enables a quantitative evaluation of different designs of the actuation system and of different principles to improve the fault tolerance. The impacts of typical failure modes are investigated through multi-body simulation and quantified by severity factor. Finally, the fault tolerance of different actuation schemes is evaluated by RPN values.

Optimization design of active suspension of vehicle based on LQR control

In this article, we take the 1/4 vehicle model as an example, according to the requirements of the driving performance of vehicles. We establishes the dynamic model of the vehicle, and use the linear quadratic optimal control theory to design the LQG controller of the active suspension, and use MATLAB/simulink to simulate the vehicle dynamic model. The results show that the active suspension with LQG controller has a good effect on the improvement of vehicle running stability and riding comfort.

Effective Design of Active Suspension System using Fuzzy Logic Control Approach

The study deals with the light passenger vehicle suspension system design to improve the ride quality. The fuzzy logic control approach is applied to the half car suspension system model by adjusting the control parameters and properties using online adaptation with a minimized cost function and reduced hardware complexity. The performance of resulting model is tested under the influence of trapezoidal and triangular membership functions using the 9, 25 and 49 rules-set. The controller robustness is observed at different performance indices. Road excitations in the form of disturbance input are modelled as the sinusoidal function of a speed bump to reveal the transient response of the automotive body. Ultimately, the performance of active suspension system has been improved in terms of displacement and acceleration of seat, heave, pitch, and roll by the application of proposed fuzzy logic controller. Results reported that the trapezoidal shape 25 rules set membership function based fuzzy logic controller gives the best performance between the investigated systems.

Model Predictive Control Based Kalman Filter for Active Suspension Design of Light Rail Vehicles

Model Predictive Control Based Kalman Filter for Active Suspension Design of Light Rail Vehicles

Passivity-Based Nonlinear Active Suspension Control Utilizing Relative Information

In this paper we present the design of active suspension system by using a kind of passivity-based control method, where the proposed suspension system provides the good ride comfort and the good road holding simultaneously and only uses relative displacement and velocity. We show that the proposed method can be extended to nonlinear case easily. The robustness of proposed method is also analyzed.

Upgrading seat suspension of tractor Belarus 1221

Ways to reduce vibrations at the tractor operator’s workplace in the unit with a trailer by improving the design of the suspension cushioning system are considered. Analysis of existing types of suspension systems shows that the most effective, in terms of reducing vibration loading, are active and semi-active systems. To reduce the vibration level at the tractor operator’s workplace in an aggregate with a trailer, an active seat suspension design has been developed. It includes a system of sensors and actuators that allow the current stiffness and damping of structural elements to be highly efficient in controlling the tractor operator’s workplace. To assess the effective use of the developed design, and compare it with the efficiency of the serial seat suspension, road tests were carried out. The tractor-transport unit in the tractor Belarus-1221 and the trailer 2PTS-4.5 with the serial and experienced suspension design were chosen as the object of research. During the field tests, the acceleration values were determined for the operator’s seat, the cab floor, the front and rear axles of the tractor. The test results showed that the developed technical solution allows reducing the vibration acceleration levels by 12-18% in comparison with the serial design.

Multi-objective optimal sliding mode control design of active suspension system with MOPSO algorithm

In order to improve the ride comfort and driving stability of the vehicle, a design method of sliding mode controller based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed for the vehicle active suspension. Based on the model of 1/4 vehicle active suspension system, the sliding mode controller is designed by using sliding mode control method. The stability of the sliding mode surface is verified by using Lyapunov stability theory. The stability conditions of the sliding mode surface are obtained by combining Hurwitz stability criterion. The particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to optimize the multi-objective optimization of the active suspension and the numerical simulation is carried out. The results show that after multi-objective parameter optimization, the ride comfort and driving stability of the vehicle are significantly improved, which provides a theoretical basis for the research of the vehicle active suspension system.

Vehicle Optimal Control Design to Meet the 1.5 °C Target: A Control Design Framework for Vehicle Subsystems

Current studies have achieved energy savings of vehicle subsystems through various control strategies, but these control strategies lack a benchmark to measure whether these energy savings are sufficient. This work proposes a control design framework that uses the 1.5 °C target in the Paris Agreement as a benchmark to measure the adequacy of energy savings of vehicle subsystems. This control design framework involves two points. One is the conversion of the 1.5 °C target into a constraint on the energy consumption of a vehicle subsystem. The other is the optimal control design of the vehicle subsystem under this constraint. To describe the specific application of this control design framework, we conduct a case study concerning the control design of active suspension in a battery electric light-duty vehicle. By comparison with a widely used linear quadratic regulator (LQR) method, we find that this control design framework can both ensure the performance comparable to the LQR method and help to meet the 1.5 °C target in the Paris Climate Agreement. In addition, a sensitivity analysis shows that the control effect is hardly changed by battery electric vehicle market share and electricity CO2 intensity. This work might provide insight on ways that the automotive industry could contribute to the Paris Agreement.

Design and experiment of electro hydraulic active suspension for controlling the rolling motion of spray boom

Boom sprayer is one of the most commonly used plant protection machinery for spraying pesticide. Studies have shown that the efficiency of chemicals is highly correlated with the uniformity of spray distribution patterns. As the boom is a large and flexible structure, boom rolling leads to overlapping and leakage of the pesticides. In order to improve spray uniformity, the boom attitude should be kept parallel to the ground slope or to the crop canopy beneath the boom. Passive suspension can attenuate frequencies above its resonance frequency, but nothing can be done to align the boom to the sloping ground. Therefore, an active suspension system is designed, which includes DSP-based controller, a servo valve, a hydraulic cylinder, two ultrasonic sensors, one inertial attitude sensor, and the developed control procedures. In order to prevent the wrong response of the control system caused by the high frequency component due to uneven crop canopy or rough ground. A special signal processing algorithm was proposed, including the limiting filter, smoothing algorithm and data fusion algorithm based on optimal weight. The transient and steady-state performances of the boom control system using velocity feedforward PID algorithm were tested on a six DOF motion simulator. It can be seen that the low-frequency tracking performance of the boom was greatly improved after the electro-hydraulic active suspension was added. At the resonance frequency, the peak angle of active suspension and passive suspensions are 0.72° and 1.29° respectively, and the resonance peak is greatly reduced. The controller was implemented on a self-propelled boom sprayer and validated under field conditions, the standard deviation of the roll angle of the boom with active suspension is 0.40°, compared with 1.04° of the sprayer chassis. Experimental results show that the active suspension control system can effectively reduce the effect of ground excitation disturbance on the application process, and has good tracking performance for low frequency terrain change. Keywords: boom sprayer, active suspension, electro-hydraulic servo system, six DOF motion simulator, signal process, motion control DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191204.4648 Citation: Cui L F, Xue X Y, Le F X, Mao H P, Ding S M. Design and experiment of electro hydraulic active suspension for controlling the rolling motion of spray boom. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(4): 72–81.

Optimal Control Design of Active Suspension System Based on Quarter Car Model

The optimal control design of the ground-vehicle active suspension system is presented. The active suspension system is to improve the vehicle ride comfort by isolating vibrations induced by the road profile and vehicle velocity. The vehicle suspension system is approached by a quarter car model. Dynamic equations of the system are derived by applying Newton’s second law. The control law of the active suspension system is designed using linear quadratic regulator (LQR) method. Performance evaluation is done by benchmarking the active suspension system to a passive suspension system. Both suspension systems are simulated in computer. The simulation results show that the active suspension system significantly improves the vehicle ride comfort of the passive suspension system by reducing 50.37% RMS of vertical displacement, 45.29% RMS of vertical velocity, and 1.77% RMS of vertical acceleration.

Design and experiment of electro hydraulic active suspension for controlling the rolling motion of spray boom

Design and experiment of electro hydraulic active suspension for controlling the rolling motion of spray boom

Application of Accelerometer in the Design and Adaptation of Active Suspension in Automobile

Upon the pedigree of technological advancement till our contemporary world, there has been an immense increment and improvement in the automotive industry like the development of vehicle suspension systems to suit the need of their customers whether it is soft (for comfort) or stiff (for good road holding capability for sports vehicle) or even a vehicle suspension system that can switch between these two modes. This research work focused on the effect and application of accelerometer in the design of an active suspension system using a microcontroller. It presents the control method implemented to keep the model vehicle leveled over pitching motions of the vehicle and the design of its component parts as well as the computer program to perform this action. The result showed that over different inclined surfaces the actuator was able to change the wheel–travel of both the rear and front wheels to keep the vehicle chassis leveled. These suggest possible adaptation of the design and improvement efforts which has capacity in addressing challenges of vehicles plying different road surfaces.