Research on Vehicle Height Adjustment Control of Electronically Controlled Air Suspension

Electronically controlled air suspension (ECAS) systems have been widely used in commercial vehicles to improve the ride comfort and handling stability of vehicles, as it can adjust vehicle height according to the driving conditions and the driver's intent. In this paper, the vehicle height adjustment process of ECAS system is studied. A mathematical model of vehicle height adjustment is derived by combining vehicle dynamics theory and thermodynamics theory of variable mass system. Reasons lead to the problems of “over-charging”, “over-discharging” and oscillation during the process of height adjustment are analyzed. In order to solve these problems, a single neuron proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is proposed to realize the accurate control of vehicle height. By simulation and semi-physical rig test, the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control algorithm are verified.