Preview control of a constrained hydraulic active suspension system

This paper analyzes the impact of realistic actuator constraints on the potential performance of a hydraulic active suspension system. The optimal control force, requested by an independent vehicle-level control law, can often not be generated by the hydraulic actuator due to physical constraints, resulting in a significant reduction of the suspension performance. Specifically preview-based vehicle-level control laws are considered, since they could, theoretically, result in a strong performance improvement. An innovative vehicle-level control law, based on hybrid Model Predictive Control (MPC), is proposed to improve the performance of such a constrained hydraulic active suspension. Based on a simulation analysis, the performance of both control strategies is evaluated.