Experimental study of semiactive VSC techniques for vehicle vibration reduction

Semiactive vehicle suspension with magnetorheological dampers is a promising technology for improving the passenger comfort of a ground vehicle. In this work we consider the problem of vibration suppression in suspension systems of an experimental platform called semiactive suspension system (SAS). The system under study is equipped with a magnetorheological damper which is used as a semiactive nonlinear device. Three different variable structure controllers are proposed and experimentally tested. Experimental results show that the vibration of the suspension system is well controlled with the semiactive VSC. Furthermore, it is found that the implementation of the controllers implies a better performance than the use of a purely passive device. Despite the performance of all the controllers is comparable, the one based on the updating term yields the best results among them all.