H∞ robust control of active suspensions: A practical point of view

Control of vehicle suspension systems has been the focus of extensive work in the past two decades. Many control strategies have been developed to improve the overall vehicle performance, including both ride quality and stability conditions. However, the concerns regarding the wheel motions affecting significantly on the handling and steering are ignored by researchers in the control formulation. A H8 control methodology is employed to design an active suspension system so that ride quality and wheel motions are improved simultaneously. In addition, a three-dimensional kinematic model of a specific suspension system, namely Macpherson suspension, is developed to study the alteration of those of kinematic suspension parameters which represent the wheel motions. The results show that the proposed robust design provides superior kinematic and dynamic performances compared to those of the passive system. © 2009 AACC