Active Vehicle Suspension Control using Electro Hydraulic Actuator on Rough Road Terrain

Abstract

Vehicle suspension system main purpose is to keep the main body of the vehicle apart from any geometrical road irregularities thereby improving passenger comfort and also maintain good handling stability. The present work proposes a design of a two loop PID controls of generated force (inner loop) and suspension parameters (outer loop) for a four degree of freedom, nonlinear, half vehicle active suspension system model. The two loop arrangements are made up of an inner hydraulic actuator PID force control loop and an outer suspension parameters PID control loop. Simulation using the same parameter model for both systems was carried out; a comparison was made between the nonlinear active PID based suspension systems with a nonlinear passive system. Obtained results show a better performance in the active system when compared to the passive system even though the earlier was more costly and power consuming.