Adaptive Backstepping Control Design for Semi-Active Suspension of Half-Vehicle With Magnetorheological Damper

This paper investigates the problem of controlling half-vehicle semi-active suspension system involving a magnetorheological(MR)damper.This features a hysteretic behavior that is presently captured through the nonlinear Bouc-Wen model.The control objective is to regulate well the heave and the pitch motions of the chassis despite the road irregularities.The difficulty of the control problem lies in the nonlinearity of the system model,the uncertainty of some of its parameters,and the inaccessibility to measurements of the hysteresis internal state variables.Using Lyapunov control design tools,we design two observers to get online estimates of the hysteresis internal states and a stabilizing adaptive state-feedback regulator.The whole adaptive controller is formally shown to meet the desired control objectives.This theoretical result is confirmed by several simulations demonstrating the supremacy of the latter compared to the skyhook control and passive suspension.

A new controller for the semi-active suspension system with magnetorheological dampers

A new sliding mode controller for semi-active suspension system with magnetorheological (MR) damper is presented in this paper. In the proposed sliding mode controller, a semi-active suspension based on the skyhook damper system is chosen as the reference model to be followed, and the control law is so determined that the asymptotically stable error dynamics occurs between the controlled state and the reference model state. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the performance of the new sliding mode controller. The results show that the proposed controller yields almost perfect tracking to the reference model and has a high robustness against model parameter uncertainties and disturbances.

Semi-active Sliding Mode Control of Vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Damper

The vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-theological damper（MRD） has been a hot topic since this decade, in which the robust control synthesis considering load variation is a challenging task. In this paper, a new semi-active controller based upon the inverse model and sliding mode control （SMC） strategies is proposed for the quarter-vehicle suspension with the magneto-rheological （MR） damper, wherein an ideal skyhook suspension is employed as the control reference model and the vehicle sprung mass is considered as an uncertain parameter. According to the asymptotical stability of SMC, the dynamic errors between the plant and reference systems are used to derive the control damping force acquired by the MR quarter-vehicle suspension system. The proposed modified Bouc-wen hysteretic force-velocity （F-v） model and its inverse model of MR damper, as well as the proposed continuous modulation （CM） filtering algorithm without phase shift are employed to convert the control damping force into the direct drive current of the MR damper. Moreover, the proposed semi-active sliding mode controller （SSMC）-based MR quarter-vehicle suspension is systematically evaluated through comparing the time and frequency domain responses of the sprung and unsprung mass displacement accelerations, suspension travel and the tire dynamic force with those of the passive quarter-vehicle suspension, under three kinds of varied amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and real-road measured random excitations. The evaluation results illustrate that the proposed SSMC can greatly suppress the vehicle suspension vibration due to uncertainty of the load, and thus improve the ride comfort and handling safety. The study establishes a solid theoretical foundation as the universal control scheme for the adaptive semi-active control of the MR full-vehicle suspension decoupled into four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems.

Skyhook-based Semi-active Control of Full-vehicle Suspension with Magneto-rheological Dampers

The control study of vehicle semi-active suspension with magneto-rheological (MR) dampers has been attracted much attention internationally. However, a simple, real time and easy implementing semi-active controller has not been proposed for the MR full-vehicle suspension system, and a systematic analysis method has not been established for evaluating the multi-objective suspension performances of MR full-vehicle vertical, pitch and roll motions. For this purpose, according to the 7-degree of freedom (DOF) fullvehicle dynamic system, a generalized 7-DOF MR and passive full-vehicle dynamic model is set up by employing the modified Boucwen hysteretic force-velocity (F-v) model of the MR damper. A semi-active controller is synthesized to realize independent control of the four MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension systems in the full-vehicle, which is on the basis of the proposed modified skyhook damping scheme of MR quarter-vehicle sub-suspension system. The proposed controller can greatly simplify the controller design complexity of MR full-vehicle suspension and has merits of easy implementation in real application, wherein only absolute velocities of sprung and unsprung masses with reference to the road surface are required to measure in real time when the vehicle is moving. Furthermore, a systematic analysis method is established for evaluating the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of both MR and passive full-vehicle suspensions in a more realistic road excitation manner, in which the harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time are employed as different road excitations inserted on the front and rear two wheels, by considering the distance between front and rear wheels in full-vehicle. The above excitations with different amplitudes are further employed as the road excitations inserted on left and right two wheels for evaluating the roll motion property. The multi-objective suspension performances of ride comfort and handling safety of the proposed MR full-vehicle suspension are thus thoroughly evaluated by comparing with those of the passive full-vehicle suspension. The results show that the proposed controller can ideally improve multiobjective suspension performances of the ride comfort and handling safety. The proposed harmonic, rounded pulse and real road measured random signals with delay time and asymmetric amplitudes are suitable for accurately analyzing the vertical, pitch and roll motion properties of MR full-vehicle suspension system in a more realistic road excitation manner. This research has important theoretical significance for improving application study on the intelligent MR semi-active suspension.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS:PART Ⅰ——CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION

A modified skyhook-based semi-active controller is proposed for implementing an asymmetric control suspension design with symmetric magneto-rheological （MR） dampers. The controller is formulated in current form, which is modulated by integrating a continuous modulation and an asymmetric damping force generation algorithms, so as to effectively minimize switching and hysteretic effects from the MR-damper. The proposed controller is implemented with a quarter-vehicle MR-suspension model, and its relative response characteristics are thus evaluated in terms of defined performance measures under varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and random excitations. The sensitivity of the semi-active suspension performance to variations in controller parameters is thoroughly evaluated. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active MR-suspension controller has superior robustness on the system parameter variations, and can achieve desirable multi-objective suspension performance.

SEMI-ACTIVE CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUSPENSION WITH MAGNETO-RHEOLOGICAL DAMPERS PARTⅡ——EVALUATION OF SUSPENSION PERFORMANCE

The design and analysis of an intelligent vehicle suspension with MR dampers should address hybrid semi-active control goals, such as rejection of current-switching discontinuity and MR-damper hysteresis, asymmetric damping from the symmetric MR-damper design, robustness on the vehicle operation parameter uncertainties and consideration of essential multiple suspension goals. Following the proposed skyhook-based asymmetric semi-active controller （Part I ） for achieving the above goals, herein, a set of suspension performance measures and three kinds of varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and really measured random excitations are systematically defined, and the sensitivity of quarter-vehicle MR-suspension performance to variations in operating conditions is thoroughly analyzed. The results illustrate that the proposed skyhook-based semi-active MR-suspension in the asymmetric mode yields relatively superior dynamic responses to meet the multiple suspension performances of ride, rattle space, road-holding and dynamic tire force transmitted to the pavement, and has desirable robustness on variations in operating conditions of vehicle load and speed and the road roughness.

Experimental Investigation and Semi-Active Control Design of A Magnetorheological Engine Mount

In this paper;the dynamic characteristics of a semi-active magnetorheological fluid(MRF)engine mount are studied.To do so,the performance of the MRF engine mount is experimentally examined in higher frequencies(50~170 Hz)and the various amplitudes(0.01~0.2 mm).In such an examination,an MRF engine mount along with its magnetically biased is fabricated and successfully measured.In addition,the natural frequencies of the system are obtained by standard hammer modal test.For modelling the behavior of the system,a mass-spring-damper model with tuned PID coefficients based on Pessen integral of absolute error method is used.The parameters of such a model including mass,damping ratio,and stiffness are identified with the help of experimental modal tests and the recursive least square method(RLS).It is shown that using PID controller leads to reducing the vibration transmissibility in the resonance frequency(=93.45 Hz)with respect to the typical passive engine mount by a factor of 58%.The average of the vibration transmissibility decreasing is also 43%within frequency bandwidth(50~170 Hz).

Investigation of Semi-Active Hydro-Pneumatic Suspension for a Heavy Vehicle Based on Electro-Hydraulic Proportional Valve

Hydro-pneumatic suspension is widely used in heavy vehicles due to its nonlinear characteristics of stiffness and damping. However, the conventional passive hydro-pneumatic suspension can’t adjust parameters according to the complicated road environment of heavy vehicles to fulfill the requirements of the vehicle ride comfort. In this paper, a semi-active hydro-pneumatic suspension system based on the electro-hydraulic proportional valve control is proposed, and fuzzy control is used as the control strategy to adjust the?damping force of the semi-active hydro-pneumatic suspension. A 1/4?semi-active hydro-pneumatic suspension model is established, which is co-simulated with AMESim and MATLAB/Simulink. The co-simulation results show that the semi-active hydro-pneumatic suspension system can significantly reduce vibration of the vehicle body, and improve the suspension performance comparing with passive hydro-pneumatic suspension.

Electrorheological Damper and Its Application for Semi-Active Suspension System

A semi-active control of vehicle suspension system with eleetrorheolngieal （ER） damper is presented. ER fluid characteristics are introduced based on the Bingham plasticity model first. Then ER damper working force is given. Finally a quarter car model with ER damper is constructed. The skyhook control strategy is adopted to simulate the amplitude-frequency characteristics and the vibration of suspension system under random road excitation on the basis of ER damper characteristics. The response curves of the vertical acceleration, the suspension dynamic working space and the tyre dynamic loading are obtained. Simulation results show that the acceleration is reduced effectively and then the ride comfort is improved by the skyhook control law.

Delay-dependent H_(2)/H_(∞) Control for Vehicle Magneto-rheological Semi-active Suspension

The exist researches of the magneto-rheological semi-active suspension(MSAS) control mainly focus on the design of control laws,which aim at obtaining an optimal control strategy to improve the ride comfort and handling stability.In the controller design,the stability of the MSAS system cannot be confirmed owing to the control input time delay considered little.In this paper,a quarter vehicle MSAS model with time-delay is built.Therefore,through formulating the sprung mass acceleration suitably as the optimization object,suspension deflection and tyre dynamic load and coulomb damping force as the constraint objects,with considering the control input time-delay,a delay-dependent state feedback H2/H∞ controller is designed.According to Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional theory,the sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability and the existence of delay-dependent H2/H∞ controller are obtained,and the controller design is transformed into the minimization problem for linear function through linear matrix inequality(LMI).Random road excitation simulations and experiments are carried out.The simulation and experiment results show that the design can preserve the closed-loop stability and achieve the performances for MSAS system in spite of the existence of the control input time-delay.The present study can provide an important basis and method for research on time-delay problem in MSAS and other chassis subsystems.

The Model Reference Adaptive Fuzzy Control for the Vehicle Semi-Active Suspension

The LQG control system is employed as vehicle suspension's optimal target system, which has an adaptive ability to the road conditions and vehicle speed in a limited bandwidth. In order to keep the optimal performances when the suspension parameters change, a model reference adaptive fuzzy control (MRAFC) strategy is presented. The LQG control system serves as the reference model in the MRAFC system. The simulation results indicate that the presented MRAFC system can adapt to the parameters variation of vehicle suspension and track the optimality of the LQG control system, the presented vehicle suspension MRAFC system has the ability to adapt to road conditions and suspension parameters change.

Fuzzy Logic Control for Semi-Active Suspension System of Tracked Vehicle

The model of half a tracked vehicle semi-active suspension is established. The fuzzy logic controller of the semi-active suspension system is constructed. The acceleration of driver's seat and its time derivative are used as the inputs of the fuzzy logic controller, and the fuzzy logic controller output determines the semi-active suspension controllable damping force. The fuzzy logic controller is to minimize the mean square root of acceleration of the driver's seat. The control forces of controllable dampers behind the first road wheel are obtained by time delay, and the delay times are determined by the vehicle speed and axles distances. The simulation results show that this control method can decrease the acceleration of driver's seat and the suspension travel of the first road wheel, the ride quality is improved obviously.

Novel Magnetorheological Suspensions Based on Co-Phthalocyanine/Fe Nanocomposite Particles

A novel magnetorheological (MR) suspension was based on methyl silicone oil and cobalt-phthalocyanine (Co-Pc)/Fe nanocomposite particles, which were synthesized by thermally decomposing liquid carbonyl Fe in the solution of Co-Pc in N, N-dimethyl formamide. The nanocomposite particles were fully characterized by XRD, SEM and HREM, and the thermal, magnetic and MR properties of nanocomposite particles were measured. Such factors as weight percent of particles (w), magnetic field strength (H), temperature (T) and shear rate (gamma) etc influencing on MR properties were investigated. The results indicated that Co-Pc/Fe nanocomposite with density of 3.66 g/cm(3) was almost micro-sized regular spheroids consisting of tens of Co-Pc coated alpha -Fe nanoparticles in inner and Co-Pc layers on surface of the spheroids. They showed good characteristics of anti-oxidation and soft magnetic. Increment of w increased field-induced shear stress (Delta tau) and zero-field viscosity (eta (0)) of MR suspensions monotonously, and improved anti-settlement stability, but eta (0) increased more markedly than Delta tau with increasing w. Delta tau was basically independent on T and gamma while increased obviously with increasing H. With increasing T, response time of the MR suspension to external magnetic field seemed to decrease. As a result, MR suspensions with satisfactory stability and rapid, completely reversible and significant MR effect can be obtained from Co-Pc/Fe nanocomposite particles.

Skyhook Surface Sliding Mode Control on Semi-Active Vehicle Suspension System for Ride Comfort Enhancement

A skyhook surface sliding mode control method was proposed and applied to the control on the semi-active vehicle suspension system for its ride comfort enhancement. A two degree of freedom dynamic model of a vehicle semi-active suspension system was given, which focused on the passenger’s ride comfort perform-ance. A simulation with the given initial conditions has been devised in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simula-tion results were showing that there was an enhanced level of ride comfort for the vehicle semi-active sus-pension system with the skyhook surface sliding mode controller.

Study on semi-active control of mega-sub controlled structure by MR damper subject to random wind loads

The recently proposed mega-sub controlled structure （MSCS）, a new type of structure associated with the design and construction of super-tall buildings, has attracted the attention of designers for use in enhancing the control effectiveness in mega-frame buildings. In this paper, a dynamic equation and method to assemble parameter matrixes for a mega-sub controlled structure under random wind loads is presented. Semi-active control using magnetorheological dampers for the MSCS under random wind loads is investigated, and is compared with a corresponding system without dampers. A parametric study of the relative stiffness ratio and relative mass ratio between the mega-frame and the substructures, as well as the additional column stiffness ratio that influences the response control effectiveness of the MSCS, is discussed. The studies reveal, for the first time, that different control mechanisms exist. The results indicate that the proposed structure employing semi-active control can offer an effective control mechanism. Guidelines for selecting parameters are provided based on the analytical study.

Trust-region based instantaneous optimal semi-active control of long-span spatially extended structures with MRF-04K damper

In the field of civil engineering, magnetorheological fluid （MRF） damper-based semi-active control systems have received considerable attention for use in protecting structures from natural hazards such as strong earthquakes and high winds. In this paper, the MRF damper-based semi-active control system is applied to a long-span spatially extended structure and its feasibility is discussed. Meanwhile, a _trust-region method based instantaneous optimal semi-active control algorithm （TIOC） is proposed to improve the performance of the semi-active control system in a multiple damper situation. The proposed TIOC describes the control process as a bounded constraint optimization problem, in which an optimal semi- active control force vector is solved by the trust-region method in every control step to minimize the structural responses. A numerical example of a railway station roof structure installed with MRF-04K dampers is presented. First, a modified Bouc- Wen model is utilized to describe the behavior of the selected MRF-04K damper. Then, two semi-active control systems, including the well-known clipped-optimal controller and the proposed TIOC controller, are considered. Based on the characteristics of the long-span spatially extended structure, the performance of the control system is evaluated under uniform earthquake excitation and travelling-wave excitation with different apparent velocities. The simulation results indicate that the MR fluid damper-based semi-active control systems have the potential to mitigate the responses of full-scale long-span spatially extended structures under earthquake hazards. The superiority of the proposed TIOC controller is demonstrated by comparing its control effectiveness with the clipped-optimal controller for several different cases.

HYBRID FUZZY CONTROL FOR ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC ACTIVE DAMPING SUSPENSION

A new control scheme, the hybrid fuzzy control method, for active dampingsuspension system is presented. The scheme is the result of effective combination of the statisticaloptimal control method based on the statistical property of suspension system, with the bang-bangcontrol method based on the real-time characteristics of suspension system. Computer simulations areperformed to compare the effectiveness of hybrid fuzzy control scheme with that of optimal dampingcontrol, bang-bang control, and passive suspension. It takes the effects of time-variant factorsinto full account. The superiority of the proposed hybrid fuzzy control scheme for active dampingsuspension to the passive suspension is verified in the experiment study.

STATISTIC LINEARIZATION CONTROL FOR HYDRAULIC ACTIVE DAMPING SUSPENSION

A statistic linearization analysis method of bad nolinear hydraulic active damping suspension is provided.Also the optimum control strategy of semi active suspension and graded control strategy based on it are puted forward.Experimental researches are carried out on a 2 DOF(degree of freedom) hydraulic active damping suspension test system.The results showed that an excellent control effectiveness could be obtained by using statistic linearization optimum control which unfortunely requests continuously regulationg the damp in an accurate way and costs much in engeering application.On the contrary,the results also showed that graded control is more practicable which has a control effectiveness close to the optimum control and costs less.

Improved ON-OFF Semi-active Control Algorithm and Its Performance Simulation Analysis

To improve the switching time of the control force in standard sky-hook ON-OFF semi-active control algorithm,a stateadjust coefficient was adopted in the improved ON-OFF( ION-OFF)algorithm. In considering of the riding comfort and the handling stability of vehicle, a comprehensive performance assessment criterion on suspension system was established with the utilization of the corresponding passive suspension system. Several simulations and analyses were conducted on improved ON-OFF semi-active suspension system with the comparison of passive suspension system and ON-OFF semi-active suspension system. The simulation results showed that the optimal comprehensive performance of the improved ON-OFF suspension system could be achieved when the state-adjust coefficient equalled 0. 6 as the vehicle running on C level road with the speed of 10 m/s,and the comprehensive performance was better than ON-OFF suspension system. Conclusions could be drawn from the frequency domain analysis that the performance of riding comfort and handling stability were both improved in the low resonance frequency and the mid-frequency range. The fact could be known that the comprehensive performance of the suspension system was associated with the frequency of the riding road and the sprung mass( SM) with the analysis of affecting factors.

Seismic protection of frame structures via semi-active control:modeling and implementation issues

Theoretical and practical issues concerning the multi-faceted task of mitigating the latero-torsional seismic response of a prototypal frame structure with asymmetric mass distribution are approached, Chevron braces with embedded magnetorheological dampers acting on the interstory drift are used to ensure additional energy dissipation. The semi-active control strategy employed to govern the modification of the damper characteristics via feedback is based on the selection of optimal forces according to a H2/LQG criterion, with respect to which the actual forces are regulated by a clipped-optimal logic. A dynamic observer is used to estimate the state through a non-collocated placement of the acceleration sensors. Several aspects to be addressed throughout the complex process including the design, modelization, and implementation phases of semi-active protection systems are discussed. Finally, experimental results obtained to mitigate the motion induced by ground excitation in a large-scale laboratory prototype, simulating the seismic response of a two-story building, are summarized.