Force tracking control for active suspensions-theory and experiments

This paper presents experimental results of a force tracking controller for a quarter-car active suspension system. In the authors' previous article (1999), an active suspension architecture was presented. The overall active suspension system was decomposed into two loops. At the main loop, the desired force signal is calculated by using a standard LQ design process. The adaptive robust control design technique is then used to design the force controller such that the desired force signal is achieved in a robust manner when actuator or other plant uncertainties are present. Experimental results of the proposed adaptive robust control force-tracking algorithm are reported. It was found that force-tracking of up to 5 Hz can be reliably achieved.