On Testing of Vehicle Active Suspension Robust Control on An One-Quarter-Car Test Stand

Between 2010 and 2014, the research team of Josef Bozek ́s Research Center of Combustion Engines and Automobiles at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic, has developed innovations in vehicle suspension technology. The research team has designed a unique innovative suspension system that uses a linear electric motor as a controlled actuator. We have undertaken many experiments on energy management in the system. In order to verify various control strategies and to test different ways of energy consumption optimization we designed and constructed a unique one-quarter-car test stand on which we have tested different control strategies In order to realize simulation and practical experiments at the test stand it is necessary to find a proper experimental road disturbance signal to excite the active suspension system The disturbance signal is applied on a one more linear motor that is placed under a wheel of the one-quarter-car model to excite the active suspension system The paper deals with the way and results of experimental verification of vehicle active suspension behavior when robust control is applied and also with energy management strategy that we used in the system. A modified H-infinity controller that enables to set energy management strategy is mentioned in the paper. At the close of the paper some experiments taken on the one quarter-car model and their evaluation is discussed. . Key-Words: Active suspension, one-quarter–car model, robust control, verification, experiments