Adaptive Control for Active Suspension System Based on the High-order Fully Actuated System Theory

Active suspension systems are key in improving vehicle comfort and handling stability. However, designing controllers more effectively remains a challenge. Most existing methods are based on the state-space method to design the controller, and each control method has shortcomings. To enhance suspension control performance and damping efficacy under road surface excitation, this paper proposed a novel adaptive control strategy for active suspensions based on the high-order fully actuated (HOFA) approach, anchored in the continuous damping control shock absorber actuator. Firstly, we formulated the dynamical model for active suspension based on Newton’s second law and transformed it into a fully actuated physical model. Subsequently, we proposed a novel controller grounded in high-order fully actuated theory. Through simulation in MATLAB/Simulink, the results demonstrate significant enhancements in ride comfort and road handling using the proposed approach while ensuring robust performance against sinusoidal road excitation. In conclusion, the proposed control method exhibits superior effectiveness to other controllers discussed in this paper.