Active Seat Suspension with Two Degrees of Freedom for Military Vehicles

The following contribution describes the design and validation of an active seat suspension with two translational degrees of freedom. This seat suspension system is designed to be integrated in various military vehicles to reduce the mechanical vibrations caused by test runs on synthetic test tracks, which affect the human health and condition confidence. The proposed active seat suspension is specially designed to support the drivers during the test drives. In a first step the model of the seat and the driver are derived considering the motions in vertical and lateral direction. To suppress the vibrations a control strategy is presented in a further step. The vibration controller is designed for a 1 DOF model based on a hybrid Skyhook- and Groundhook-Principle and in alternative as a feedforward control using an ideal model for the seat and driver. Finally, the realized active seat suspension is integrated in a military vehicle to prove the amount of vibration suppression in comparison to a common passive seat by road test on synthetic tracks emphasing an improvement of the drivers well-being.