Kalman Filtering for Sprung Mass Velocity Estimation of Magnetorheological Suspension for All -Terrain Vehicle

The vibration control efficiency of automobile semi-active suspension system depends on the accuracy of information from sensor installed on the vehicle, including the sprung mass acceleration and deflection of the suspension system. The control algorithm for vibration attenuation of the vehicle body takes into account sprung mass velocity and relative velocity of suspension. In this paper, a new method for estimating sprung mass velocity using Kalman filter is presented. This method is compared with a typical solution in which the sprung mass velocity is calculated by integrating the signals obtained from the accelerometers placed on the vehicle body. Experiments for All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) confirmed that using Kalman filter for sprung mass velocity estimate can significantly improve ride comfort by better vibration attenuation of the vehicle body, compared with that of using typical integrating method.