Control of vehicle vibration using the combined compliant actuator and suspension system

This paper deals with the development of a vehicle vibration control system by integrating a compliant actuator in the existing vehicle suspension system. The compliant actuator is attached to the vehicle body and consists of a servo-motor, a compliant element and a pinion-rack set. A vehicle ride model is developed for the vibration control performance analysis, combining the vehicle suspension system with the compliant actuator model. The investigation results show that the compliant actuator can provide beneficial passive and active vibration control characteristics, particularly at the low frequency region around the vehicle body resonance. The operational bandwidth of the compliant actuator can be adjusted according to the selected compliant stiffness and it has the benefits of protecting the actuator against potential shocks received during vehicle ride. These benefits offer an attractive alternative for the actuator used in vehicle suspension system, compared to the conventional rigid actuator. The active vibration control results using an output feedback control demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in reducing the vehicle body acceleration at important low frequencies.