Potential of Road Preview for Suspension Control under Transient Road Inputs

:Performance of control systems can be increased significantly with the help of information about future system inputs. Preview control of a vehicle suspension system involves detection of the road unevenness profile ahead of the vehicle. However, preview of the road unevenness through sensors and estimators is a very demanding task. Therefore, the benefit of preview control in suspension control should be investigated in detail in order to justify the need for development of such systems. In this study, the theoretical maximum benefit that can be obtained from a preview controlled semi-active suspension system is calculated through Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach. In addition to this, the accuracy of different road preview techniques is evaluated to demonstrate the state of the art in the road profile preview technology.