Optimization of Ride Comfort and Handling Using Advanced Control Strategies for Semi-Active Suspension Systems

Semi-Active suspensions are decisive for both comfort and handling. This study develops a quarter‑vehicle model that captures pitch and roll and compares control strategies under realistic road inputs. The controller employs an adaptive sliding‑mode design that updates online to reject road‑induced disturbances and parameter drift, while a bio‑inspired optimizer sharpens the gains for robust, deployment‑oriented performance. The framework evaluates seat travel, body and passenger accelerations, suspension deflections, tire deformation at each wheel, and body pitch/roll, with sensor demand kept deliberately low. Across representative road profiles, time‑ and frequency‑domain assessments in MATLAB/Simulink show clear and consistent superiority of the adaptive design—and even stronger performance for the optimized variant—over the conventional sliding‑mode baseline. Vibration is decisively suppressed, suspension and tire‑load excursions are tightly contained, and overall stability and predicted comfort are materially improved. These results substantiate the case for intelligent semi-active suspensions as a ready‑to‑deploy solution for enhancing passenger comfort and vehicle safety.