This thesis considers the optimisation of vehicle suspension systems via a reinforcement learning technique The aim is to assess the potential of learning automata to learn 'optimum' control of suspension systems, which contain some active element under electronic control, without recourse to system models. Control optimisation tasks on full-active and senu-active suspension systems are used for the feasibility assessment and subsequent development of the learning automata technique. The quarter-vehicle simulation model, with ideal full-active suspension actuation, provides a well-known environment for initial studies applying classical discrete learning automata to learn the controller gains of a linear state-feedback controller. Learning automata are shown to be capable of acquiring near optimal controllers without any explicit knowledge of the suspension environment. However, the methodology has to be developed to allow safe on-line application. A moderator is introduced to prevent excessive suspension deviations as a result of possible unstable control actions applied during learning. A hardware trial is successfully implemented on a test vehicle fitted with semi-active suspension, excited by a hydraulic road simulation rig. During these initial studies some inherent weaknesses of the discrete automata are noted A discrete action set provides insufficient coverage of a continuous controller space so optima may be overlooked. Subsequent methods to increase the resolution of search lead to a forced convergence and hence an increased likelihood of local optima location. Th1s motivates the development of a new formulation of learning automaton, the CARLA, which exhibits a continuous action space and a reinforcement generalisation. The new method is compared w1th discrete automata on vanous stochastic function optimisatwn case stui1es, demonstrating that the new functionality of CARLA overcomes many of the identified shortcomings of discrete automata. Furthermore, CARLA shows a potential capability to learn in non-stationary environments. Repeatmg the earlier suspension tasks with CARLA applied, including an on-line hardware study, further demonstrates a performance gain over discrete automata Finally, a complex multi-goal learning task is considered A dynamic roll-control strategy is formulated based on the senu-active suspension hardware of the test vehicle. The CARLA is applied to the free parameters of this strategy and is seen to successfully synthesise improved roll-control over passive suspension.

The design, fabrication, and testing of a quarter-car facility coupled with various control algorithms are presented in this thesis. An experimental linear tubular motor, capable of producing a 52-N force, provides control actuation to the model. Controllers consisting of two designs were implemented: a classical controller employing lead and lag networks and a state-space feedback design. Each design was extensively simulated to screen for receptiveness to actuation force limitations and robustness regarding the inexact tire modeling. The goal of each controller was to minimize the acceleration of the sprung mass in the presence of simulated road disturbances, modeled by both sinusoidal and step input excitation wheels. Different reference velocity inputs were applied to the control scheme. Responses to a zero reference were juxtaposed to those that resulted from tracking a reference built off a model that incorporated inertial-frame damping attached to the sprung mass. The outcome of this comparison was that low-frequency disturbances were attenuated better when tracking a zero reference, but the reference relaxation introduced by the inertialframe damping model allowed for better-attenuated high frequency signals. Employing an inertial-frame damping value of 250 N-s/m, the rejected frequency component of the system response synchronous with the disturbance input excitation of 40 rad/s bettered by 33% and 28% when feeding control force from the classical controller and state-space controller, respectively. The experimental analysis conducted on the classical and state-space controllers produced sinusoidal disturbance rejection of at worst 50% within their respective bandwidths. At 25 rad/s, the classical controller was able to remove 80% of the base component synchronous with the disturbance excitation frequency, while the state-space controller filtered out nearly 60%. Analysis on the system's ability to reject step disturbances was greatly confounded with the destructive lateral loading transferred during the excitation process. As a result, subjection to excitation could only occur up to 25 rad/s. At the 20 rad/s response synchronous to the disturbance excitation, the classical and state-space controllers removed 85% and 70% of the disturbance, respectively. Sharp spikes in timebased amplitude were present due to the binding that ensued during testing.

No description available.

Future railway trends require travelling at high speeds without deterioration in the ride quality, but further improvement of the ride quality by optimisation of the passive suspension components has reached its limits. This suggests that active suspensions should be used. Rigorous studies over the past four decades have shown that this technique is able to overcome the passive suspension limitation in terms of improving the overall ride performance of the railway vehicle with the incorporation of additional active elements i.e. actuators, sensors and processors. The work in this thesis investigates a novel method for controlling the actuators within the suspension system, something which has been neglected in previous studies. It is a particular problem because at higher frequencies, when the suspension is providing isolation of the car body from the track irregularities, the actuator must accommodate the suspension movements whilst producing very small forces, otherwise the ride quality substantially deteriorates. Instead of considering more complex active suspension control strategies, which tend to be complex and may be impractical, the performance of the actuator across the secondary suspension is investigated. This research looks into improving actuator technologies for railway secondary suspensions in order to achieve the full benefits of active control. This thesis explores novel methods to improve the ride quality of the railway vehicle through secondary suspension actuator and controller design, with the ultimate aim of integrating this technology into a fully active railway vehicle. The focus of this active suspension research is therefore upon incorporating real actuator technology, instead of the usual assumption of ideal actuators. For meaningful and reliable research a simple, well established active control strategy is used for assessment to highlight the degradation in the suspension performance compared with the ideal actuators. Preliminary investigation demonstrates significant degradation of the ride quality caused by real actuators in the secondary suspension, and this research looks at methods to reduce this effect. Including actuators within a secondary suspension system is a difficult actuator problem compared to the normal application of actuators such as position control. This is because the actuator controller design process requires the consideration of the interaction of the vehicle suspension. The actuators that have been identified as suitable for the application are the electromechanical and servo-hydraulic types, and these are incorporated across the secondary suspension. The effects of the actuator dynamics have been analysed. Practical classical controllers are used to provide force-feedback control of both types of actuator in the secondary suspension. A variety of actuator control techniques are considered including: optimisation of the actuator controller parameters to solve the multi-objective and multivariable problem, the introduction of feed forward techniques and the use of optimal control approaches.

The characteristics of an automotive passenger seat in response to vibrational excitations are examined and an active vibration isolation system incorporating smart materials is designed, built, and tested. Human sensitivity to vibration is discussed. Characteristics of road roughness are discussed and used to implement a representative test input to a passenger seat system. extsc{Matlab} is used to model the car seat and vehicle system with four degrees of freedom to determine actuator requirements. Selection and implementation of a low--profile, prestressed piezoceramic device into an active seat suspension system is described, and experimental results of the actuator assembly performance are presented. Vibration isolation is realized in an experimental setup representing one quarter of a seat and passenger's total mass, using one actuator assembly (representing one corner of the seat suspension). For an input power spectrum representative of a passenger vehicle environment, the smart material actuator assembly, as applied to a quarter seat experimental setup, is proven to be capable of isolating vibration with an isolation frequency of 2Hz and no resonant peak, versus 6Hz and a resonant peak of 2g/g for an actual passenger seat tested. / Master of Science

No description available.

A well-known challenge in vehicle dynamics is to design a vehicle that will not only keep the occupants comfortable, but will also ensure safe and stable operation during various manoeuvres over multiple driving surfaces. A soft and compliant suspension is generally required for good ride comfort, while a stiff suspension with a low centre of mass is required for improved handling. These contradicting factors in the design process is commonly referred to as the ride comfort versus handling compromise. A newly developed semi-active hydropneumatic suspension system is proposed to reduce or negate this compromise by being able to change its characteristics according to the dynamic state of the vehicle. The unit is equipped with two proportional solenoid valves that can provide continuously variable damping. In addition, the valves are able to completely close off flow to compressible gas volumes to provide four discrete stiffness characteristics. This suspension system is based on a previously developed suspension that had only two state (open or closed) valves, which provided discrete damping characteristics. A thorough investigation of the older system proved that the system was capable of addressing the ride comfort versus handling compromise. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the updated design could deliver improved performance and to recommend focus areas for future research initiatives. The suspension system’s characteristics were determined experimentally by actuating the unit on a test bench. Results indicated that the unit produced the desired stiffness, low damping and response time characteristics. A mathematical model of the suspension unit was developed and validated against experimental data. The model was used in single degree of freedom simulations to investigate both passive and semi-active controlled performance. Results indicated that the suspension could be semi-actively controlled for improve ride comfort. However, the magnitude of improvements with semi-active control, which includes a suitable response time, proved to be rather insignificant compared to the optimum passive suspension. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretora, 2019. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / MEng (Mechanical) / Unrestricted

Traditional vehicle suspension system is equipped with isolated shock absorbers that can only dissipate energy by themselves. Hydraulic interconnected suspension uses hydraulic circuits to connect each shock absorber, so that the energized hydraulic fluid can be utilized to counter unwanted body motion to improve the overall dynamic performance. The hydraulic interconnected suspension is a proven concept that has shown good potential in controlling body rolling and decoupling the warp mode from other dynamic modes. Hydraulic interconnected suspension is still passive and lack of adaptivity, while some active or semi-active suspension technologies allow the shock absorbers to counter the road disturbances using external power input. Active suspensions such as electro-magnetic shock absorbers use the variable viscosity of magnetofluid to alter the damping characteristics of the suspension to adapt to quickly changing road conditions. The energy demand from an active suspension can reach the level of kilowatts in certain cases, which results in lowered fuel efficiency of the vehicle. To find a balanced solution to dynamic performance and energy efficiency, this paper introduces a new form of energy-harvesting suspension that is integrated in a hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) system. The combined energy-harvesting and hydraulic interconnection features provide improved energy efficiency and vehicle dynamics performance. A single cylinder model is built in AMESim for preliminary study and validated in a bench test. The bench test results proved the authenticity of the theoretical model, and the model is then used to predict the system performance and guide the hardware construction. Based on the proven single cylinder model, and a full car model are developed to validate the effectiveness of the overall system design. Different dynamic input scenarios are used for model simulation, which includes single-wheel sinusoidal input, braking test and double lane change test. In the double lane change test, the EHHIS sees averagely 70% improved in roll angle relative to a conventional suspension, and averagely 22% improvement relative to simple hydraulically interconnected suspension. The power generated is found to reach maximum at 4 Ω external resistance and the highest average power generated is more than 70 watts at 2 hz 20 mm sinusoidal input. A road test of a half vehicle EHHIS system is done. From the road test results, the EHHIS meets the expectations of reducing roll angles. The riding comfort is evaluated with the RMS value of the vertical acceleration and is found to have minimum compromise from the greater damping coefficient. / Master of Science / Better road handling dynamics and riding comfort has always been after by the automotive industry. The vehicle body may experience all kinds of movement such as roll, pitch and bounce, every type of these motion can cause safety risks and passenger fatigue. Traditional vehicle suspension system is equipped with isolated oil shock absorbers that can only dissipate energy by pushing the oil through damping valves. A concept called hydraulic interconnected suspension can use hydraulic circuits to connect each shock absorber, so that the energized hydraulic fluid can be utilized to counter unwanted body motion to improve the overall riding experience. The hydraulic interconnected suspension (HIS) is a proven concept that has shown good potential in stabilizing the vehicle body in rough road conditions. Hydraulic interconnected suspension is still passive and lack of adaptivity, while active suspensions such as electro-magnetic shock absorbers can use external power supply to force the to adapt to quickly changing road conditions. The energy demand from an active suspension can reach the level of kilowatts in certain cases, which results in lowered fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Additionally, actively supplying power to the system always have the risk of functional failure due to power loss. To find a balanced solution to dynamic performance and energy efficiency, this paper introduces a new form of energy-harvesting suspension that is integrated in a hydraulically interconnected suspension (EHHIS) system. The combined energy-harvesting and HIS system provide improved energy efficiency as well as vehicle dynamics performance. Each system is composed of four connected hydraulic cylinders on each wheel and other auxiliaries. To investigate the effectiveness of the entire system, a single cylinder model is first built in AMESim for preliminary study and validated in the experiments. The bench test results proved the authenticity of the theoretical model, and the model is then used to predict the system performance and guide the hardware construction. Based on the proven single cylinder model, and a full car model are developed to validate the effectiveness of the overall system design. Different road condition scenarios are used for model simulation, which includes single-wheel sinusoidal input, braking test and double lane change test. In the double lane change test, the EHHIS system sees averagely 70% improved in roll angle relative to a conventional suspension, and averagely 22% improvement relative to simple hydraulically interconnected suspension. In the breaking test, the EHHIS-equipped vehicle experiences smoother pitching behavior and less oscillations. The power generated is found to reach maximum at 4 Ω external resistance and the highest average power generated is more than 70 watts at 2 hz 20 mm sinusoidal input.

Vehicle suspension systems have been extensively explored in the past decades, contributing to ride comfort, handling and safety improvements. The new generation of powertrain and propulsion systems, as a new trend in modern vehicles, poses significant challenges to suspension system design. Consequently, novel suspension concepts are required, not only to improve the vehicle’s dynamic performance, but also to enhance the fuel economy by utilizing regeneration functions. However, the development of new-generation suspension systems necessitates advanced suspension components, such as springs and dampers. This Ph.D. thesis, on the development of hybrid electromagnetic dampers is an Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) collaborative project sponsored by Mechworks Systems Inc. The ultimate goal of this project is to conduct feasibility study of the development of electromagnetic dampers for automotive suspension system applications. With new improvements in power electronics and magnetic materials, electromagnetic dampers are forging the way as a new technology in vibration isolation systems such as vehicle suspension systems. The use of electromagnetic dampers in active vehicle suspension systems has drawn considerable attention in the recent years, attributed to the fact that active suspension systems have superior performance in terms of ride comfort and road-handling performances compared to their passive and semi-active counterparts in automotive applications. As a response to the expanding demand for superior vehicle suspension systems, this thesis describes the design and development of a new electromagnetic damper as a customized linear permanent magnet actuator to be used in active suspension systems. The proposed electromagnetic damper has energy harvesting capability. Unlike commercial passive/semi-active dampers that convert the vibration kinetic energy into heat, the dissipated energy in electromagnetic dampers can be regenerated as useful electrical energy. Electromagnetic dampers are used in active suspension systems, where the damping coefficient is controlled rapidly and reliably through electrical manipulations. Although demonstrating superb performance, active suspensions still have some issues that must be overcome. They have high energy consumption, weight, and cost, and are not fail-safe in case of a power break-down. Since the introduction of the electromagnetic dampers, the challenge was to address these drawbacks. Hybrid electromagnetic dampers, which are proposed in this Ph.D. thesis, are potential solutions to high weight, high cost, and fail-safety issues of an active suspension system. The hybrid electromagnetic damper utilizes the high performance of an active electromagnetic damper with the reliability of passive dampers in a single package, offering a fail-safe damper while decreasing weight and cost. Two hybrid damper designs are proposed in this thesis. The first one operates based on hydraulic damping as a source of passive damping, while the second design employs the eddy current damping effect to provide the passive damping part of the system. It is demonstrated that the introduction of the passive damping can reduce power consumption and weight in an active automotive suspension system. The ultimate objective of this thesis is to employ existing suspension system and damper design knowledge together with new ideas from electromagnetic theories to develop new electromagnetic dampers. At the same time, the development of eddy current dampers, as a potential source for passive damping element in the final hybrid design, is considered and thoroughly studied. For the very first time, the eddy current damping effect is introduced for the automotive suspension applications. The eddy current passive damper, as a stand-alone unit, is designed, modeled, fabricated and successfully tested. The feasibility of using passive eddy current dampers for automotive suspension applications is also studied. The structure of new passive eddy current dampers is straightforward, requiring no external power supply or any other electronic devices. Proposed novel eddy current dampers are oil-free and non-contact, offering high reliability and durability with their simplified design. To achieve the defined goals, analytical modeling, numerical simulations, and lab-based experiments are conducted. A number of experimental test-beds are prepared for various experimental analyses on the fabricated prototypes as well as off-the-shelf dampers. Various prototypes, such as eddy current and electromagnetic dampers, are manufactured, and tested in frequency/time domains for verification of the derived analytical and numerical models, and for proof of concept. In addition, fluid and heat transfer analyses are done during the process of the feasibility study to ensure the durability and practical viability of the proposed hybrid electromagnetic dampers. The presented study is only a small portion of the growing research in this area, and it is hoped that the results obtained here will lead to the realization of a safer and more superior automotive suspension system.

This thesis has been performed at Öhlins Racing AB which is known world-wide for its high quality racing shock absorbers. Öhlins have been developing shock absorbers for more than 30 years and in addition to this they also develop a technology for semi-active suspension. Semi-active suspension technology makes it possible to achieve an intelligent and dynamic vehicle chassis control. Compared to standard passive suspensions, semiactive dampers allow improving vehicle cornering performance while still providing good comfort when cruising. This is achieved by a real time adjustment of the suspensions damping characteristics. Öhlins system for semi-active suspension is called CES (Continuously controlled Electronic Suspension). The systems consist of electronically controlled hydraulic valves for uniflow dampers. These valves are mounted on all four dampers of the vehicle and are controlled individually to provide the desired ride quality. The valves are configurable to suit many types of vehicles by changing internal parts. The first goal of this thesis project was to study the behaviour of the CES valve and uniflow damper. In order to achieve this a simulation model was created using Hopsan which is a 1-dimensional multi-domain modelling tool developed at the division of Fluid and Mechatronic Systems at Linköping University. The model considers mechanical forces from for example springs together with hydraulic forces. It was validated against static and dynamic measurements made in a flow bench and a dynamometer. The second goal was to use the simulation model as part of a tool that configures the CES valve according to a requirements specification. To achieve this goal a method of estimating the characteristics of the internal damper valves was developed. This estimation method, together with the simulation model, was used to choose the best valve configuration by using weighted least-squares. The result is presented in a Matlab-based graphical user interface.