Development of an electromechanical active-cab-suspension

On a typical heavy duty truck, cab-suspensions are installed between cab and chassis-frame of a truck, in order to ensure the riding-comfort. We have studied active control of cab-suspension aiming to improve its efficiency. In this paper, development of an active-cab-suspension actuated by an electric motor instead of hydraulic actuator, is presented. At first, requirements for active-cab-suspension are described. Secondly, we tried to design the new actuating system by simulations using actual vehicle acceleration data. Then, the specifications such as riding-comfort are given in the frequency domain and a controller is designed so that transfer functions are shaped to meet the specifications, using H_∞ control theory. Finally, we performed experiments on full scale experimental equipment and on a real truck. Thereby it is confirmed that vibration is eliminated enough using AC servo motors of only 100 W rating