Integrated Seat and Suspension Control for a Quarter Car With Driver Model

In this paper, an integrated vehicle seat and suspension control strategy for a quarter car with driver model is proposed to improve suspension performance on driver ride comfort. An integrated seat and suspension model that includes a quarter-car suspension, a seat suspension, and a 4-degree-of-freedom (DOF) driver body model is presented first. This integrated model provides a platform to evaluate ride comfort performance in terms of driver head acceleration responses under typical road disturbances and to develop an integrated control of seat and car suspensions. Based on the integrated model, an H_∞ state feedback controller is designed to minimize the driver head acceleration under road disturbances. Considering that state variables for a driver body model are not measurement available in practice, a static output feedback controller, which only uses measurable state variables, is designed. Further discussion on robust multiobjective controller design, which considers driver body parameter uncertainties, suspension stroke limitation, and road-holding properties, is also provided. Last, numerical simulations are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. The results show that the integrated seat and suspension control can effectively improve suspension ride comfort performance compared with the passive seat suspension, active seat suspension control, and active car suspension control.