HEAVISIDE BASED OPTIMAL CONTROL FOR RIDE COMFORT AND ACTUATION ENERGY OPTIMISATION IN HALF-CAR SUSPENSION SYSTEMS

The objective of this paper is to present a design and implementation of an energy efficient optimal controller for a constructed half-car suspension system. The controller's performance index is designed to optimise actuation energy and ride comfort. The physical constraints of the constructed model are incorporated into the system's states using the Heaviside function. The optimal control signal is achieved through the Hamiltonian optimal condition bounded by the physical constraints of the constructed model such as the suspension rattle space. The optimal control problem is solved as a boundary value problem in Matlab, where the constructed half-car suspension system model is perturbed by a road disturbance for the active and passive testing cases. The experimental results show that ride comfort and energy optimisation is achieved through reduction of the front and rear sprung mass displacement and accelerations.