Controller Design for an Active Anti-roll Bar System

Most passenger and heavy vehicles today are equipped with passive stabiliser bars (also called passive anti-roll bar [ARB]). However, these conventional passive stabiliser bars cannot satisfy the requirements of ride comfort and handling stability and are unable to adjust the roll stiffness of suspensions in real time. Vehicles are prone to rolling when they are cornering at high speeds. To overcome the drawbacks of passive ARB systems, several schemes with possible active intervention into the vehicle dynamics have been proposed. One of these schemes uses an active ARB, that is, a pair of hydraulic actuators that generate a stabilizing moment to balance the overturning moment. This study aims to present a brief overview of an active ARB system based on modelling and controller designs that have been proposed by various researchers. Prior to the main discussion, certain background information on the active ARB (AARB) system will be presented. This study was conducted to further improve the performance of the existing controller in the AARB system.