Control of an Active Suspension System for a Wheeled Vehicle

An active suspension system with an actuator in parallel with a spring and a shock absorber is designed for a wheeled vehicle. The passive elements in the mechanism reduce high frequency vibration. A possible implementation with a DC torque motor and a pseudo-straight line mechanism is illustrated. A simple analysis of the kinematics of a wheeled vehicle with an active suspension is also discussed. A control method based on sliding mode control is developed for a two-wheeled two degree of freedom model of the vehicle. Simulation results show that, in the sense of root-mean-square vibration reduction, active suspension is superior to passive suspension and that proposed approaches are effective when applied to a nonlinear system.