Integrated active and semi-active control for seat suspension of a heavy duty vehicle

Abstract

In this article, an integrated active and semi-active seat suspension for heavy duty vehicles is proposed, and its prototype is built; an integrated control algorithm applied measurable variables (suspension relative displacement and seat acceleration) is designed for the proposed seat prototype. In this seat prototype, an active actuator with low maximum force output (70 N), which is insufficient for an active seat suspension to control the resonance vibration, is applied together with a rotary magnetorheological damper. The magnetorheological damper can suppress the high vibration energy in resonance frequency, and then a small active force can further improve the seat suspension performance greatly. The suspension's dynamic property is tested with a MTS system, and its model is identified based on the testing data. A modified on-off controller is applied for the rotary magnetorheological damper. A H ͚ controller with the compensation of a disturbance observer is used for the active actuator. Considering the energy saving, the control strategy is designed as that only when the magnetorheological damper is in the off state (0 A current), the active actuator will have active force output, or the active actuator is off. Both simulation and experiment are implemented to verify the proposed seat suspension and controller. In the sinusoidal excitations experiment, the acceleration transmissibility of integrated control seat has lowest value in resonance frequency and frequencies above the resonance, when compared with power on (0.7 A current), power off (0 A current) and semi-active control seat. In the random vibration experiment, the root mean square acceleration of integrated control seat suspension has 47.7%, 33.1% and 26.5% reductions when compared with above-mentioned three kinds of seat suspension. The power spectral density comparison indicates that the integrated seat suspension will have good performance in practical application. The integrated active and semi-active seat suspension can fill energy consumption gap between active and semi-active control seat suspension. AbstractIn this paper, an integrated active and semi-active seat suspension for heavy duty vehicles is proposed, and its prototype is built; an integrated control algorithm applied measurable variables (suspension relative displacement and seat acceleration) is designed for the proposed seat prototype. In this seat prototype, an active actuator with low maximum force output (70 N), which is insufficient for an active seat suspension to control the resonance vibration, is applied together with a rotary magnetorheological (MR) damper. The MR damper can suppress the high vibration energy in resonance frequency, and then a small active force can further improve the seat suspension performance greatly. The suspension's dynamic property is tested with a MTS system, and its model is identified based on the testing data. A modified on-off controller is applied for the rotary MR damper. A ∞ controller with the compensation of a disturbance ...

Review on Seat Suspension System Technology Development

“…Based on their study, the MR rotary dampers have many advantages compared with linear MR dampers. As previously mentioned, the main disadvantage of the MR dampers is the high cost of construction because of the price of the MR fluid [15,75]. In linear MR dampers, large amounts of magnetorheological fluids are needed to fill the MR fluid tank, but in a rotary damper, the required amount of MR fluid is much smaller and the cost of construction will be decreased substantially.…”

“…Three methods of vibration isolation are applied to the vehicle's seats in order to decrease transmitted vibration from vehicles seat to operators' body, namely, passive [14,15], semi-active [16], and active [17,18] vibration control systems. Active vibration control is a method for decreasing unwanted vibration where some sort of sensor is adopted to measure the motion, force, acceleration, and other parameters related to vibration signals and a powered actuator is applied to generate a force to resist the unwanted motion.…”

Vibration control of an energy regenerative seat suspension with variable external resistance

“…Comparing with other semi-active seat suspensions such as MR and ER damper seat suspensions, the energy consumption of the proposed seat suspension is much smaller. In [22,23], for controlling a MR damper, the maximum current 1 A is required to energize a coil, while the proposed system just need energy to overcome a small friction torque of the rheostat. The energy storage components and circuit have not been included in this system, because this paper is focusing on investigating the vibration isolation potential of the proposed regenerative seat suspension.…”

A Hydraulic Semi-Active Suspension Based on Road Statistical Properties and Its Road Identification

“…During the driving process, road conditions often change. For vehicles under different road conditions, the focuses of ride comfort and handling stability are different [3][4][5]. The damping characteristics of semi-active suspensions should also be changed along with the road conditions [6,7].…”