SAE INDIA - 0301037

Active Suspension System with Preview Control - A Review

K. Arunachalam, P. Mannar Jawahar and P. Tamilporai
Department of Automobile Engineering, Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chromepet, Chennai 600 044.
Copyright 2003 SAE International

ABSTRACT
The design of Automotive Suspension has been a compromise between the three conflicting parameters of road holding, load carrying and passenger comfort. For the past three decades, the introduction of increasingly sophisticated electronically controlled components into automotive suspension, redefines the boundary of the compromises. In this paper, the first part describes the various suspension systems. The second part describes the road disturbances caused by the road followed by the need and history of preview system. It is also specified the necessary hardware required for the system along with two different preview sensor configurations. It is also explained how to generate the road surface from preview sensor. From the various literature results, it is conclude that active suspension with preview control will suit Indian road conditions.

In a slow active system or Low Bandwidth system (Fig. 1b), the actuator will be placed in series with a road spring and (or) a damper. It aims to control the suspension over the lower frequency range specifically around the rattlespace frequency. It can achieve a significant reduction in body roll and pitch during cornering and braking, with lower energy consumption. In a high bandwidth active system (Fig. 1c), an actuator connects the sprung and unsprung mass of the vehicle along with the parallel spring. The spring will take the static load of the vehicle. It aims to control the suspension over the full bandwidth (i.e.) it aim to improve the suspension response around the rattle-space frequency (10-15 Hz) and tyre-hop frequency (1 2 Hz). A fully active system (Fig. 1d) will consume significant amount of power and will require actuator with relatively wide bandwidth. The actuator will alone connect the sprung and unsprung mass. It has the ability to store, dissipate and to introduce energy to the system. Their parameters are suitably adopted upon the operating condition.

INTRODUCTION
If the civil engineers were capable of constructing perfectly flat roadways there would be little need for the automotive engineers to provide a suspension system. The suspension system must support the vehicle, provide directional control during handling maneuvers, to maintain constant ground clearance of the body, effective isolation of passenger payload from road disturbances and to maintain solid tire contact with the ground. Good ride requires soft suspension, load carrying capacity requires stiff suspension and good handling requires an intermediate of stiff and soft suspension. A conventional passive suspension system (Fig 1a) has the ability to store energy via a spring and to dissipate it via a damper. Its parameter are generally fixed, being chosen to attain a certain level of compromise between the above three conflicting parameters.

ROAD DISTURBNESS
There are two different range of disturbance for an automobile. They are 1. Small amplitude of high frequency component due to road unevenness. 2. Large amplitude of low frequency component due to pit, bump etc. A pneumatic tire and wheel acts as a first stage filter of roadway unevenness. High frequency components of the roadway unevenness are filtered out directly by the tire while low frequency components are followed and transmitted to the main suspension. Since the tire has very little damping (almost negligible) the main suspension must provide the damping for wheel motion.

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the wheel with frequencies above (K/M) and must follow the low frequency inputs. The choice of 1 2 Hz of for the main suspension is far away from arbitrary. A higher frequency results in poor filtering and a harsh ride. A lower frequency gives a smooth ride but large suspension dynamic deflection and poor control of rigid body motions of vehicle during braking, acceleration and steering maneuvers.

NEED FOR PREVIEW

Even with active suspension, the limitation remains that the servo control system must react quickly to suppress disturbances that already have been encountered by the vehicle. In those cases, whose transient occur faster than the rate of response, hence some form of preparation strategy is clearly essential. This preparation strategy implies the need for information describing disturbances before they are encountered by the vehicle. Use of this information has become known as preview control. In a preview system, it aim to increase the bandwidth of slow active suspension system generally by using feed forward or knowledge of future road inputs. It senses road disturbances ahead of the vehicle by using look-ahead sensor for front wheel, and it is same as front deflection with some delay for rear wheel. The preview information is obtained by reconstruction from online measurement of acceleration and suspension deflection. Fig. (1c). High Bandwidth Active System Fig. (1d). Fully Active System In addition to the potential improvements in ride quality and handling performance preview control offers lower power consumption, reduced requirement for internal sensor, and simplification of the feedback control structures. A drawback of look-ahead sensor is that they recognize a heap of leaves as a serious obstacle, while a pothole filled w ith water, will not detected at all. Moreover, if we assume that road surface at the rear wheel is same as front wheel, then a brick detected by the front wheel might be pushed away, so it will not enter the rear wheel and also the track of rear wheel can differ from that of front wheel especially during cornering. However, the wheel base preview is relatively reliable and cheap when compared with look-ahead sensor. Generally stochastic road input only is considered for studies, but also if incidental inputs (eg. Traffic bumps) are included, results will be more severe with respect to the performance measures and peak value of the controlled quantities.

Fig. (1a). Passive System

Fig. (1b). Slow Active System

The wheel frequency is not much affected by the main suspension. The dynamic tire deflection is needed to absorb the high frequency components because the amplitude of disturbance components tends to fall. Hence the input velocity o r unevenness slope is nearly a white noise process. To the extent that high frequency components are filtered out, the tire must deflect and hence the tire-road contact force must vary. If the tire follows the low frequency components faithfully, there is little corresponding tire deflection and thus the tire roadway force must vary little. The main suspension damper should if possible control the tire resonance so that no amplification occurs for disturbances with frequencies near wheel hop (ie 1015 Hz). Conventional main suspensions are decoupled from the dynamics of the wheel. The main spring constant K defines a frequency of the order of 10 times lower that the wheel frequency and although an active suspension need not have decoupled nature. Th e main suspension must have enough travel to filter out the input disturbances from

BACKGROUND OF PREVIEW SYSTEM

In 1966, Sheridan [1], proposed three models of preview control. Two of these were error correcting where conventional feedback control theory is used to correct for -2-

a predicted error, one based on extended convolution and the other on fast time trials with a dynamic model of the process within the plant. Based on preview information, initial conditions and a cost function governed by error and control effort, the optimal control is computed. The idea was first proposed by Bender [2], who showed that the use of preview information may substantially improve suspension performance. He assumed an integrated white noise road elevation applied to single degree of freedom vehicle model and wiener filter techniques to produce a transfer function between road elevation and actuator force for the optimal preview suspension system. In this simplified case, the results showed that very short preview times (say 50 ms) could be useful if the ratio of road roughness parameter to suspension working space available were very high but a more practically representative ratio, about 300 ms, preview is needed before the returns for additional preview diminish. Since the resulting transfer function has poles with positive real parts, the author concluded that it is not realizable in a straight forward manner. The problem formulated by Bender was so complex and Tomizuka [3] reformulate the problem in a discrete time domain and derived the solution by dynamic programming. His optimal control scheme involved both feed forward and feedback components; the feed forward part requiring sample values of road elevation, the feedback part needing body elevation and velocity. He also explained how his control could be realized in practice by moving previewed samples through shift registers. Thus Tomizuka avoided potential problems with implementing unstable transfer function in the controller. Thomson. et.al. [4] considered the case of two degree of freedom system, with a body mounted road elevation sensor looking ahead of the wheel and providing preview information for the ideal actuator connecting sprung and unsprung masses. Using the linear quadratic technique, a control scheme was derived for deterministic system inputs and applied to the stochastic case using the analogy between a delta function and a white noise process. Feedforward control utilizing the preview information was derived by supposing it to be known that the road profile is represented by the impulse response of a known linear system but this effectively circumvents the preview problem as opposed to solving it. For a step input applied to the quarter car model, the requirement of the theory is met and simulation of step responses for different preview times led to the conclusion that preview time of 200 ms is valuable. Pollard [5] studied the role of active suspension system in railway vehicle. He explained the role of comfort curve in the design of the suspension system. He also discusses

the hardware part of the active suspension system. He described the control system that to be implemented in the active system. Fukashi Sugasawa et.al. [6] analyze the optimum damping force of shock absorber for various driving conditions and developed an electronically controlled shock absorber system. He used quarter car model and half car model to study the roll, pitch and bounce characteristics of the vehicle. He also list out the optimum damping ratio required for various running condition of the vehicle. He used supersonic sensor to sense the road profile and result shows that the overall power is reduced up to 13%. Sharp.R.S. [7] studied the various suspension systems with the performance characteristics. He concluded that the adaptation of passive system offers only limited potential, in particular, improved rough road performance, if the adaptation is slow. Louam et.al. [8] optimized the control force required with the help of half car model. He determined how the amount of preview information influences the system performance. He solved the finite preview control problem by combining ideas of overtaking optimality with tracking theory. The road profile involved needs only to be bounded and continuous and no restriction on vehicle speed. As earlier, the control law contains feedforward and feedback part and feedback part being the same as is obtained by applying linear quadratic regulator theory assuming t he road disturbance is white noise for quarter car model and the front and the rear are uncorrelated for half car model. He concluded that the preview time of 300 ms is necessary to achieve good performance. He also suggests that shorter preview time will be sufficient to yield optimal control when the road disturbance is richer in high frequency components. The simulation results shows very marked improvement in performance can be derived from preview. Huisman. R.G.M. et.al studied the performance of the active suspension with the step input. He showed that with a preview time tla = 125 ms, either a 65% reduction of the required suspension working space or a 55% reduction of the maximum absolute acceleration of the sprung mass is possible, compared with a representative passive suspension, without the increase of the dynamic tyre load variation. He extends his work using rounded pulse as a road input and by adjusting the weighing constant for different suspension requirements. He also uses the power spectral density (PSD) function for defining the stochastic road surface. Even though, the rounded pulse does not achieve good result, the performance improvement compared to a typical passive suspension is still significant.

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TYPICAL SENSOR REQUIREMENT

Table 1. Various sensors required for a preview suspension system Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Sensor Preview sensor Load cell LVDT Hub accelerometer CG Accelerometer Speedometer Tachometer Accelerometer Rate gyro Location Front of the vehicle Top mount of each actuator Inside each actuator On each wheel hub CG pack Engine compartment Engine compartment Opposite corner of the chassis Center console Measurement Road profile Actuator force Actuator displacement Axle vertical acceleration Longitudinal and Lateral acceleration Vehicle speed Engine RPM Z-Axis acceleration Pitch and roll rate

Table 2. Comparison of two different preview sensor Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Parameter Range Range rate Resolution Light spot Output Response time FMCW Radar 1.0 5.0 m 0 40 m/s 0.01 m 0.3 0.6 m 2.5 v 7.0 v 1.1 ms LED Optical 0.6 1.2 m 0.02 m 0.02 0.03 m 4 20 mA 5.0 ms

METHOD OF GENERATING ROAD SURFACE

LOOK AHEAD PREVIEW As shown in Fig. 3, a preview sensor is mounted at the vehicle front-end is used to measure the relative distance between the sensor and the road surface. A vertical accelerometer is also installed at the same place as the preview sensor to detect the vertical acceleration at that location.If h0 denote the relative distance to the road surface detected by the preview sensor and be the vertical acceleration detected by the vertical accelerometer. Then, the vertical velocity of the road surface, can be given by

Fig (2). Various Sensor Arrangements DESCRIPTION ABOUT PREVIEW SENSOR For relatively straight path motion for uniform, wide bumps in the road profile it is sufficient to use only angle finding units to obtain preview information, which simplifies the requirements. Two types of preview sensor are available 1. Frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. 2. LED Optical Sensor consists of modulated infrared LED. Since the road surface displacement approximates integrated white noise over the wavelength range 0.01 to 10 cycles/m, it is necessary to augment the suspension system with an integrator, causing the road elevation to become one of the system states rather that input. The requirement for full state information then implies that a body mounted road height sensor will be needed. Finding the optimal control depends then on a suitable state variable transformation and solution of the Non-Linear Matrix Ricatti Equation.

v0 = h0 s

(1)

Fig.(3). Look Ahead Preview Sensor

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WHEEL BASE PREVIEW As shown in Fig. 4, a travel sensor is used to detect the vertical travel of the front wheels, which yields the relative distance of their sprung and unsprung motions. A vertical accelerometer is also attached to the vehicle body to detect the sprung vertical acceleration. If h1 denotes the relative distance of the sprung and unsprung motions of the front wheels detected by the travel sensor and is the sprung vertical acceleration detected by the vertical accelerometer, then the unsprung velocity of front wheels, vf1, can be given by

5. To differentiate the various road height levels like bump, speed breaker, bridge etc. 6. Performance of preview sensor under various road condition like rainy season, mud road etc.

REFERENCES
1. Thomas B. Sheridan, Three models of preview control, IEEE Transaction on human factors in electronics, 1966, pp. 91 102. Bender E. K. Optimal linear preview control with application to vehicle suspension, Trans. of ASME, Journal of Basic Engineering, 1968, pp. 213-221. Tomizuka M. Optimal linear preview control with application to vehicle suspension revisited, Trans. of ASME, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, 1976, pp. 309-315. Thompson, A.G., Davis, B.R., and Pearce, C.E.M., An Optimal Linear Active Suspension with Finite Road Preview, SAE paper 800520, 1980. Pollard M.G., Passenger comfort the role of active suspensions, IMechE, Vol. 198, Part D, 1984, pp. 161 175. Fukashi sugasawa, et.al., Electronically controlled shock absorber system used as a road sensor which utilizes super sonic waves, SAE, 851652, 1985. Sharp R. S ., Crolla D. A. Road vehicle suspension system design - a review, Vehicle System Dynamics, vol. 16, 1987, pp. 167-192. Louam N., Wilson D. A., Sharp R. S. Optimal control of a vehicle suspension incorporating the time delay between front and rear wheel inputs, Vehicle System Dynamics, vol.17,1988, pp 317-336. Louam N, Wilson D.A., Sharp.R.S, Optimisation and performance enhancement of active suspensions for automobile under preview of the road, Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol.21,1992, pp.39 63. Husiman. R.G.M. et.al., An optimal continuous time control strategy for active suspensions with preview, Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. 22, 1993, pp.43 55. Husiman. R.G.M. et.al., Preview estimation and control for (semi) active suspensions, Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. 22, 1993, pp. 335 346. Tobata. H., et.al, Advanced control methods of active suspension, Vehicle System Dynamics, vol.22, 1993, pp. 347-358. Langlois, R.G., and Anderson, R.J., Preview Control Algorithms for the Active Suspension of an Off-Road Vehicle, Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. 24, 1995, pp.65-97. Willams.R.A., Automtive active suspensions Part 1 : Basic principle, IMechE, Vol. 211, Part D., 1997, pp. 415 426. Willams.R.A., Automtive active suspensions Part 2 : Practical consideration, IMechE, Vol. 211, Part D., 1997, pp. 427 44

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v f1

= h1 s s

3. (2) 4.

In the frequency range that is the object of control here, the unsprung velocity and the vertical velocity of the road surface at the front wheel contact patch nearly coincide. Consequently, the vertical velocity of the road surface at the front wheel contact patch, vf0, can be given by

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v f 0 h1 s

6. (3) 7.

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Fig (4). Wheelbase Preview

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CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

For the past three decades, based on various experimental results, the preview based active suspension system will yield the most optimum performance and it satisfy the three conflicting parameters. Active suspension system with preview control will suit all our Indian road condition and it will improve the speed of the vehicle for the same ride comfort or for the same speed, it will improve the ride comfort of the passenger. However, following areas are to be answered. 1. Selection of preview sensor. 2. Calculation of optimum preview distance. 3. Reconstruction of road profile from measured vertical acceleration and displacement. 4. Reduction of power consumed by the actuator. 11.

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