Motion Control of the Vehicle with an Active Suspension System

The control methods of the vehicle with an active suspension system can be conceptually divided into two categories: ride control and attitude control. A new control method (OPCM: Octa-Plate Control Method) is proposed for ride and attitude controls. While most logics for attitude control of active suspension system use lateral/longitudinal accelerations, OPCM makes use of only vertical accelerations of four wheels which are commonly used for ride control. OPCM is based on the superposition of four 1/4 car controls and four 1/2 car controls. In order to verify the performance of the new method, a 7-dof-full-car model including control elements has been built in MATRIX_x. The frequency responses and time responses to the bump, cornering/braking inputs have shown that OPCM can reduce heave, roll and pitch motions of the vehicle with good results.