Semi-Active Suspension Control Design for Vehicles presents a comprehensive discussion of designing control algorithms for semi-active suspensions. It also covers performance analysis and control design. The book evaluates approaches to different control theories, and it includes methods needed for analyzing and evaluating suspension performances, while identifying optimal performance bounds. The structure of the book follows a classical path of control-system design; it discusses the actuator or the variable-damping shock absorber, models and technologies. It also models and discusses the vehicle that is equipped with semi-active dampers, and the control algorithms. The text can be viewed at three different levels: tutorial for novices and students; application-oriented for engineers and practitioners; and methodology-oriented for researchers. The book is divided into two parts. The first part includes chapters 2 to 6, in which fundamentals of modeling and semi-active control design are discussed. The second part includes chapters 6 to 8, which cover research-oriented solutions and case studies. The text is a comprehensive reference book for research engineers working on ground vehicle systems; automotive and design engineers working on suspension systems; control engineers; and graduate students in control theory and ground vehicle systems. - Appropriate as a tutorial for students in automotive systems, an application-oriented reference for engineers, and a control design-oriented text for researchers that introduces semi-active suspension theory and practice - Includes explanations of two innovative semi-active suspension strategies to enhance either comfort or road-holding performance, with complete analyses of both - Also features a case study showing complete implementation of all the presented strategies and summary descriptions of classical control algorithms for controlled dampers

Semi-active Suspension Control provides an overview of vehicle ride control employing smart semi-active damping systems. These systems are able to tune the amount of damping in response to measured vehicle-ride and handling indicators. Two physically different dampers (magnetorheological and controlled-friction) are analysed from the perspectives of mechatronics and control. Ride comfort, road holding, road damage and human-body modelling are studied. Mathematical modelling is balanced by a large and detailed section on experimental implementation, where a variety of automotive applications are described offering a well-rounded view. The implementation of control algorithms with regard to real-life engineering constraints is emphasised. The applications described include semi-active suspensions for a saloon car, seat suspensions for vehicles not equipped with a primary suspension, and control of heavy-vehicle dynamic-tyre loads to reduce road damage and improve handling.

Handbook of Vehicle Suspension Control Systems surveys the state-of-art in advanced suspension control theory and applications, with an overview of intelligent vehicle active suspension adaptive control systems, and robust active control of an integrated suspension system, amongst many others.

My objective in writing this book was to cross the bridge between the structural dynamics and control communities, while providing an overview of the potential of SMART materials for sensing and actuating purposes in active vibration c- trol. I wanted to keep it relatively simple and focused on systems which worked. This resulted in the following: (i) I restricted the text to fundamental concepts and left aside most advanced ones (i.e. robust control) whose usefulness had not yet clearly been established for the application at hand. (ii) I promoted the use of collocated actuator/sensor pairs whose potential, I thought, was strongly underestimated by the control community. (iii) I emphasized control laws with guaranteed stability for active damping (the wide-ranging applications of the IFF are particularly impressive). (iv) I tried to explain why an accurate pred- tion of the transmission zeros (usually called anti-resonances by the structural dynamicists) is so important in evaluating the performance of a control system. (v) I emphasized the fact that the open-loop zeros are more difficult to predict than the poles, and that they could be strongly influenced by the model trun- tion (high frequency dynamics) or by local effects (such as membrane strains in piezoelectric shells), especially for nearly collocated distributed actuator/sensor pairs; this effect alone explains many disappointments in active control systems.

This book describes the development of a new analytical, full-vehicle model with nine degrees of freedom, which uses the new modified skyhook strategy (SKDT) to control the full-vehicle vibration problem. The book addresses the incorporation of road bank angle to create a zero steady-state torque requirement when designing the direct tilt control and the dynamic model of the full car model. It also highlights the potential of the SKDT suspension system to improve cornering performance and paves the way for future work on the vehicle’s integrated chassis control system. Active tilting technology to improve vehicle cornering is the focus of numerous ongoing research projects, but these don’t consider the effect of road bank angle in the control system design or in the dynamic model of the tilting standard passenger vehicles. The non-incorporation of road bank angle creates a non-zero steady state torque requirement.

This textbook introduces advanced control systems for vehicles, including advanced automotive concepts and the next generation of vehicles for ITS.

Featuring contributions from industry leaders in their respective fields, this volume presents comprehensive, authoritative coverage of all the major issues involved in road vehicle dynamic behavior. It begins with a short history of road and off-road vehicle dynamics followed by thorough, detailed state-of-the-art chapters on modeling, analysis and optimization in vehicle system dynamics, vehicle concepts and aerodynamics, pneumatic tires and contact wheel-road/off-road, modeling vehicle subsystems, vehicle dynamics and active safety, man-vehicle interaction, intelligent vehicle systems, and road accident reconstruction and passive safety.