An Udwadia-Kalaba Equation based active seat suspension controller for mining dump trucks

This work proposes the use of an active seat suspension system to reduce the negative effects of whole body vibrations experienced by mining dump truck drivers during loading of ore at high velocity by large shovels. The control system is developed using the Udwadia-Kalaba equation, a method from analytical dynamics, which does not require linearisation of the system dynamics. A multibody system model of the dump truck with an active seat suspension system and passive hydro-pneumatic suspension struts is developed using a pseudo-coordinate based approach. The control objective is first formulated as a mechanical constraint in order to apply this method. Simulation results are compared with particular focus on the acceleration developed at the mining dump truck's seat, comparing a conventional cushion seat with the actively controlled seat suspension. Hence, validating the effectiveness of this approach.