Modeling and design of an active suspension system with maple and maplesim

In this contribution we present new type of modelling tool taking full advantage of symbolic computing. Physical components are described from block libraries and a fast developing physical language. Directly from the block diagram description the analytical equations of the system are automatically generated and simplified with a powerful symbolic engine. On different kind of suspension systems with increasing complexity, we show how the system is described and how easy it is to get access to the equations. Automatic generation of equations is used in a math tool to analyze the systems and carry out control design steps. Besides traditional analysis based on numerical computing, several symbolic techniques are used.