Analyses of Inverse Model Based Semi-Active Control of Vehicle Suspension with Magneto-Rheological Dampers

On basis of a modified "on-off" damping law, an inverse model based semi-active damping controller is proposed for implementing an asymmetric control suspension design with symmetric MR dampers. The inverse model control has potential to compensate the hysteresis effects of MR-damper and realize the semi-active force tracking control. The controller is formulated in current form by integrating a continuous modulation and an asymmetric damping force generation algorithms, so as to effectively minimize the switching transient effects and to realize asymmetric damping forces in compression and rebound from the symmetric MR-damper design. The proposed controller is thoroughly evaluated in terms of defined performance measures under varying amplitude harmonic, rounded pulse and really measured random excitations. The results illustrate that the proposed inverse model based asymmetric semi-active MR-suspension has superior robustness against variations of vehicle load and speed, and the road roughness, and can thus achieve desirable multi-body vehicle suspension performance.