Bandwidth-limited active suspension controller for an off-road vehicle based on co-simulation technology

This paper presents the design process of a controller for bandwidth-limited active hydro-pneumatic suspension employed by an off-road vehicle based on co-simulation technology. First, a detailed multi-body dynamic model of the vehicle is established by using the ADAMS/View software package, which is followed by validation using a vehicle field test. Second, a combined PID and fuzzy controller is designed for the bandwidth-limited active suspension system and then programmed by means of S-functions in Matlab/Simulink, to which a data exchange interface with ADAMS/View is also defined. Third, the proposed control algorithm is implemented on the multi-body dynamic vehicle model to enable the co-simulation to run repeatedly until a more practical controller is achieved. In the end, the proposed active suspension system is compared with a conventional passive system. Simulation results show that the proposed active suspension system considerably improves both the ride and handling performance of the vehicle and therefore increases the maximum traveling speeds even on rough roads.