Optimal control of semi-active suspension systems with preview

SUMMARY Controllers for semi-active suspensions have to account for constraints on damper range, tire force and suspension travel. Two approaches to incorporate these constraints in the design of controllers to minimize peak values in the chassis acceleration are considered. It is assumed that information on the oncoming road elevations (preview) is available. In the soft constraint approach, the constraints on tire force and suspension travel are included in a quadratic performance index. Two clipped optimal control laws, which deal with preview in a different way, are presented. Simulation results with a 2-DOF vehicle model on some rounded pulses show that these laws do not work satisfactorily with respect to the constraints. Therefore, the control problem is reformulated as a constrained optimization problem with hard constraints on tire force and suspension travel. Simulations with the same model on the same rounded pulses show that the hard constraint approach handles the constraints more properly.