SEMI ACTIVE SUSPENSION CONTROL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR A LIGHT COMMERCIAL VEHICLE

A semi active suspension system for a light commercial vehicle, based on four shock absorbers with continuously adjustable damping characteristics is treated in this paper. Quarter car, half car and full car simulation models are developed. These models are used to develop and test the low level and high level suspension controllers. Several different low level control algorithms like: skyhook, groundhook and hybrid control were considered. The higher level supervisory controller coordinates the operation of the four low level suspension controllers during acceleration/braking, entering curves or evasive maneuvers. The experimental vehicle that is used to test the developed controllers is also presented along with experimental results.