This paper presents a feedback control performance of a full-car suspension system featuring electrorheological (ER) dampers for a passenger vehicle. A cylindrical ER damper is designed and manufactured by incorporating a Bingham model of an ER fluid which is commercially available. After evaluating field-dependent damping characteristics of the ER damper, a full-car suspension system installed with four independent ER dampers is then constructed and its governing equation of motion, which includes vertical, pitch, and roll motions, is derived. A sliding mode controller, which has inherent robustness against system uncertainties, is then formulated by treating the sprung mass as uncertain parameter. For the demonstration of a practical feasibility, control characteristics for vibration suppression of the proposed ER suspension system are evaluated under various road conditions through the hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS). [S0022-0434(00)02801-X]

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
automobiles, suspensions, vibration control, electrorheology, damping, robust control, controllers
Topics:
Control equipment, Dampers, Damping, Electrorheological fluids, Hardware, Simulation, Suspension systems, Vehicles, Sliding mode control, Roads, Electric fields
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