Recent Researches on Active Suspensions for Ground Vehicles

The increasing demand for safety and ride comfort, especially at high speeds, has led to the development of actively controlled suspensions in ground vehicles such as automobiles, railways and maglev vehicles. The active or semi-active suspension replacing passive elements with controlled actuators or variable elements can theoretically and practically improve vehicle vibration isolation properties, dynamical responses of pitch, roll and yaw motions, and road holding and guideway tracking performances. This paper reviews basic suspension problems, suspension control types, theoretical approaches to active suspension control and applications to practical systems.