Modeling and control of active susnensions for MDOF vehicle

The conventional method for analyzing active suspension control for a vehicle is only to analyze a quarter or half car with a lower order degree-of-freedom (DOF) model, but such models do not actually model practical applications. Accurate models of a suspension control system require a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) vehicle model with a detailed model of the controller. An MDOF model was developed including the influence of factors such as the engine, the seats, and the passengers to describe vehicle motion using a reduced order model of the controller designed by using the H ∞ control method. The control system performance has been investigated by comparing the H ∞ controller with a linear quadratic (LQ) controller.