Proceedings of the American Control Conference
Chicago, Illinois June 2000
Active Suspension Control of Ground Vehicle
based on a Full-Vehicle Model*
S. Ikenaga, F. L. Lewis, J. Campos and L. Davis
Automation and Robotics Research Institute, The University of Texas at Arlington,
7300 Jack Newel1 Blvd, South, Fort Worth, Texas 76118-7115, USA.
Emad: sikenaga @ arri. uta.edu, jlewis @ control.uta.edu
Abstract
An active suspension control approach combining a filtered
feedback control scheme and an input decoupling
transformation is given for a full-vehicle suspension system.
Motions of the sprung mass (car body) above and below the wheel
frequency modes are mitigated by using active filtering of spring
and damping coefficients through inner control loops (ride
controller) plus skyhook damping of heave, pitch and roll
velocities through outer control loops (attitude controller). The
inner ride control loops and the outer attitude loops are blended
with the input decoupling transformation. The performance of the
active suspension control is demonstrated in simulations.
1 Introduction
Vehicle suspension system performance is typically rated by
its ability to provide improved road handling and improved
passenger comfort. Current automobile suspension systems using
passive components can only offer a compromise between these
two conflicting criteria by providing spring and damping
coefficients with fixed rates. Sport cars usually have stiff, harsh
suspensions with poor passenger comfort while luxury sedans
offer softer suspensions but poor road handling capabilities. The
traditional engineering practice of designing spring and damping
functions as two separate functions has been a compromise from
its inception in the late 1800s. Poor road handling capability and
decreased passenger comfort are due to excess car body vibrations
resulting in artificial vehicle speed limitations, reduced vehicle-
frame life, biological effects on passengers, and detrimental
consequences to cargo. Active suspension control systems aim to
ameliorate these undesirable effects by isolating the car body from
wheel vibrations induced by uneven terrain.
Passenger comfort in ground vehicles usually depends on a
combination of vertical motion (heave) and angular motion (pitch
and roll). Suspension elements between the car body and wheels
generate forces that excite heave, pitch and roll motions. Although
fully active suspension system are generally prohibitively
demanding of power, passive suspension systems are incapable of
providing reduced sprung mass motions at frequencies both above
and below the wheel frequency modes and do not facilitate
independent control of heave, pitch and roll motions. Attempts to
improve performance using passive suspensions require hanging
extra sprung masses off the wheels, or the complete redesign of
the mechanical suspension system [12].
The main objective of suspension system is to reduce
motions of the sprung mass. It is well known that motions of the
sprung mass at the wheel frequency modes cannot be reduced if
the only control input is a force applied between the sprung and
unsprung masses (as is the case for vehicle suspension systems).
Many control approaches have been investigated for the quarter-
*Research supported by Texas ATP Grant 003656-027 and
ARO DAAD19-99- 1-0137
0-7803-551 9-9/00 $10.00 0 2000 AACC 4019
vehicle case such as nonlinear control [ l , 21, optimal control [6]
and backstepping control [9]. Additionally, optimal control
approaches have been applied to the full-vehicle case as well [4,
51. An active suspension system should be able to provide
different behavioral characteristics dependent upon various road
conditions and be able to do so without going beyond its travel
limits.
In this paper we propose an active suspension control
approach that consists of inner control loops that reject terrain
disturbances, outer control loops that stabilize heave, pitch and roll
responses, and an input decoupling transformation that blends the
inner and outer control loops in a formal mathematical fashion.
The input decoupling transformation is formally determined as the
right inverse of a certain input mapping. Improvement in
performance above and below the wheel frequency modes is
accomplished by frequency-dependent filtering of spring and
damping coefficients in the inner control loops. Rolling off
damping coefficients at high frequencies can easily mitigate
sprung mass motions above the wheel frequency modes while
rolling off spring coefficients at low frequencies mitigates motions
below the wheel frequency modes. Sprung mass motions below
the wheel frequency modes are also mitigated by skyhook
damping in the outer control loops.
The inner and outer control loops proposed in this paper are
respectively similar to the ride and attitude control loops presented
in [4]. The ride control loops isolate the car body from wheel
vibrations induced by uneven terrain while the attitude control
loops maintain load-leveling and load distribution during vehicle
maneuvers. The overall active control scheme is similar to the
stability augmentation system (SAS) used in aircraft control [ 111
and heave-pitch control presented in [3]. The feedback control is
designed to increase the relative damping of a particular mode of
motion in the system by augmenting one or more of the
coefficients of the equation of motion through actuating the
control signals in response to motion feedback variables. The
natural frequencies of heave, pitch and roll are determined from
vehicle suspension dynamics and moments of inertia. Their
damping is determined from the rate-dependent dynamics and
moments. Automatic control SAS gives heave, pitch and roll
modes the necessary damping and natural frequencies to enhance
ride quality in a manner that minimize the effects of road
excitation or other disturbances upon the vehicles motion.
2 System Model and Dynamics
The model of the full-vehicle suspension system is shown in
Fig. 1. The full-vehicle suspension system is represented as a
linearized seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) system. It consist of a
single sprung mass (car body) connected to four unsprung masses
(front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right wheels) at each
comer. The sprung mass is free to heave, pitch and roll while the
unsprung masses are free to bounce vertically with respect to the
sprung mass. The suspensions between the sprung mass and
unsprung masses are modeled as linear viscous dampers and
spring elements, while the tires are modeled as simple linear
springs without damping. For simplicity, all pitch and roll angles
are assumed to be small. This model is similar to those used by [4]
and [SI.
After applying a force-balance analysis to the model in Fig.
1 ., the equations of motion are given as

m,z= -m,g -( 2K,, + 2K,, )z -(2B,/ +2B,, )i+(2aK., -2bKs,)e+...

+(=,/ -2bBS,)8,+K,/z", +B,/i, +K,Z", +B&, +..e

+K,. z., + 4,iu,+ Ks,ZU" + 4,iu, +f p + ff,+ f d + f"

I,B =(2 n ~ , -, B K , , ) ~ +( - B B , , ) ~ -( 2 a ' ~+BzK,,)e+.
~ ~ ..
-(2a2B, +2b2B,,)8-aK,zufl -aK,,z,, +..
+bK,. z., +4,i",+bK,, Z"" +bB,, i,- afJ - aff,+bf, + bf"
I,@= -0.25d( 2K,, +2K,,)p-O.253( 2B,, +2B,,)Q+. ..
+OSWK' I z "I +OSwB,/i, -0.5wKs/z,, -0.5wBs,i, +...
+ O S W K , , ~+0.SwB,,iud
~ -OSWK,Z, -O.SwB,,i, +...
+O.SWr;, -OS@) -0.5wf,
s =x10
m& =-mug + K., z + BSIi-aK,/B-UBs,8,+0.5wK,rp+ 0.5wB,9+. ..
- (K., + K")Gfl- B., i,+ KJ,! - f p
muzu,= -mug + K., z + B., i- OK,, 0 - &$8, - OSwK,,p- OSwB,! Q + .. .
4, =-

i l
m*

= Xl2
K,,x,

[-(q
+ B,,x, -aK, s -~B,,x,
+K")x,-B,/%o-f,,-m"g+K"z,~
- wK,,x, - wBS,x6 +...
I
-(K/ +K")z,r -B.,i., + K A , -ff,
+ K , z + B,, i + bK+B+bB,b +OSWK,,p+OSWB,Q + ...
"ti;.,= - q g
-(K. +K")Z""- 4 2 % + Y Z , - A XI3 = XI,
K , X, + B$,% + bKa,s + bBs,X, + w K , X, + w B , X, + ...
-(K,+ ~ " ) x , , - B , x , * - f , l - ~ " ~ + K " z , ~ i
+ B,,x, + b K , % + bB,,x4 - w K , x , - w B , x , +...
muzun=-mug + Ks,z + B , i +bK,,e+ bB,,8,-0.SwK,,p-0.5wBs,@+.

-p,*+K")Z"" -Bs,z"" +K"Z," -f,.

(2.1)
.. 4, =-
mu
1

i
K,,x,

-(Ks, +K~)x13-B,x14-f,,-m~g +KuZr,,

(2.3)
1.
The system states are assigned as The state space equations in matrix form are given by
x, = z heave position (ride height of sprung mass) x( t ) = Ax(t) + Bf ( t ) + B,d(t)
(2.4)
x? = i heave velocity (payload velocity of sprung mass) y ( t )=C x ( t ) ,
x, = 0 pitch angle with the control input f ( t ) defined as the force generated at the
x4 = 8, pitch angular velocity front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right suspensions
x, = p pitch angle respectively as f ( r ) = [fp fil f, f-1' , and the disturbance
x, = @ pitch angular velocity
x, = zUb front-left wheel unsprung mass height input d ( r ) defined as d ( t )= [g zrb z , z , ~ z," 1 where

x, = zuj front-left wheel unsprung mass velocity
x, = zuJ, front-right wheel unsprung mass height
x,, = iU/. front-right wheel unsprung mass velocity
x,, = zud rear-left wheel unsprung mass height
xI2= iy,, rear-left wheel unsprung mass velocity
x,, = z,,, rear-right wheel unsprung mass height
x,, = i," rear-right wheel unsprung mass velocity.
This results in the system state equations below:
(2.2) g is the acceleration due to gravity. Signals z,) , z,, , z,, and
z,,, are the terrain disturbance heights at the front-left, front-right,
rear-left and rear-right wheels respectively. The output y ( r ) will
change; it is selected for specific performance-analysis objectives.
The full-vehicle model parameters selected for this study are given
as

4020
 b
- --
sprung mass, m, = 1500 kg
2(a+b) 2(u+b) 2w
unsprung mass, m, = 59 kg
front suspension spring stiffness, K,, = K,, = K,, = 35000 N/m - b -- 1 -- 1

[;fJ; j
rear suspension spring stiffness, K,, = Ksd = K," = 38000 N/m 2(u+b) 2(u+b) 2w
fs(t) ' (3.3)
tire spring stiffness, K , = KM,= Ku, = K., = Ku, = 190000 N/m
(2.5) -U - -1 1
front suspension damping, B,, = E,, = E", = 1000 N / d s 2(u+b) 2(a+b) 2w
rear suspension damping, E,, = = 3", = 1100 N / d s -
U 1
- -L]
roll axis moment of ineflia, I , = 460 kg-m' 2(a+b) 2(u+b) 2w
pitch axis moment of inertia, I , = 2160 kg-m' This yields the input decoupling transformation (IDT) scheme
distance between front of vehicle and C.G. of sprung mass, U = 1.4 m shown in Fig. 2 that blends the inner and outer control loops.
distance between rear of vehicle and C.G. of sprung mass, b = 1.7 m
3.2 Inner Loop Design (Ride Control)
width of spmng mass, w = 3 m.
It is well known that motions of the sprung mass at the wheel
3 Active Control System Design frequency U, cannot be reduced if the only control input is a
In this section, we consider the proposed closed-loop system force applied between the sprung and unsprung masses (as is the
given in Fig. 2. It consist of inner loops to reject terrain case for vehicle suspension systems). This is because selecting this
disturbances, outer loops to stabilize heave, pitch and roll input places a zero near the wheel frequency U , , resulting in an
responses and an input decoupling transformation that blends the uncontrollable mode due to effective pole-zero cancellations. It is
inner and outer control loops. The inner control loops provide the difficult to reduce motions above the sprung mass without
ride control that isolates the car body from wheel vibrations elaborate control schemes such as backstepping [9] or hanging an
induced by uneven terrain and the outer control loops provide the extra damper off each wheel [12]. It was shown by [9] that for a
attitude control that maintains load-leveling and load distribution quarter-vehicle model, the wheel frequency mode could be
during vehicle maneuvers. approximately computed as
3.1 Input Decoupling Transformation WO =JaK (3.4)
Inspection of (2.3) indicates that one has only four control In the case of the full-vehicle model, there are four distinct wheel
inputs ffl, ff,, f, and f,, but wishes to control seven variables, frequency modes, but for simplicity we will assume that all four
wheel-frequency modes are approximated by (3.4).
namely heave, pitch, roll, front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-
It is possible to improve performance both above and below
right body motions. One can solve this under-actuation problem
by using an inner control loop to affect ride comfort and road the wheel frequency U, by rolling off the damping constant
disturbance rejection, and an outer control loop to control heave, B, above U, and rolling off the spring constant K , below the car
pitch and roll. The inner and outer control loops are analogous to body frequency . This cannot be done using passive feedback
U,,,
the ride and attitude control loops presented in [4].
The key to successful design of a control system such as the but is possible with an active suspension control design.
one in Fig. 2 is correct blending of the controls generated by the To roll off B, at high frequency for each wheel one may
inner and outer loops. This requires an understanding of the introduce low pass filters (LPF) by defining
system dynamics in the previous section.
From (2.3), equivalent forces for heave, pitch and roll can be
defined by
f,( t ) = f/l ( t )+ ffi( t )+ f d (I+
) f ,(t)
f s ( t ) = -uf/, ( t ) - affr ( t )+ Mr,( t ) + bf,, ( t ) S+U,
(3.1)
f&) = 0 . 5 W ( f , (t)-fr,(t) + f,r ( t )-f&)).

]I!].
x20= -
@brt ( Z s d - i.,,) =-(x2
@b,, + b ~+ ,O . ~ W X ,-xI2)
This input transformation is + +

(&,, - i",,)= A + bx, -

I: .:[
1 1 xz2=- Ub,r ( x z 0 . 5 ~ ~ ~
-xI4)

I
+ @b,, + @b,,
fs(t) = -U -U b b (3.2)
(3.5)
0 . 5 ~- 0 . 5 ~ 0 . 5 ~- 0 . 5 ~
fr,
where wbP, U,, , U,,) and u,,~are the roll-off frequencies for the
Recall that for a linear system of equations y = Wx , if W E 9lx"""
front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right damping constants,
has full row rank, then there exists a right inverse (pseudo-inverse)
respectively. These can be realized by adding the state equations
W' such that WWt = I""". One can compute the right inverse
i16 = U,, ( 3- U,+ O . ~ W X-x8
, -xI6)
using W' = W T ( W W T ) - IThus,
. one can express the inverse
- 0 . 5 -xl0
i,*=U,/, ( x -a4
~ ~ ~ -xI8)
~
relationship of (3.2) as (3.6)
Xz,,= wb, (xZ + bx4 + 0 . 5 -~xI2
~- ~q 0 )
XZ2 =U,,, (++ bx4 - 0 . 5 ~-xi4
~ -~x ~ ~ ) .

4021
 To roll off Ks at low frequency for each wheel one may
introduce a high pass filter (HPF) by defining

1
hf
l

xw, = A ( z s , -z.,)="- (X, - ag + 0 . 5 -~x,) ~ ~ -K,p -B,p 0 0 0 0 0 0

+ @kP + +,.

XW, =-
.Si + @kc
(ZV, - z v r 1 = +- (XI -q -0.5wx5 -xg) fd=[!]-[

frr
0
0
0
0
0
0
-K,,,
0
0
-Bs,,
0
0
0
-Ksd
0
0
-E,
0
0
0
X",, a,"
Xzo

xwd = --"-( zsd - zu,, ) = ---"-( x, + b ~+,0 . 5-~

x,I ~) ~ XW,,

' + - x22

xW,, =L(~s,, - z",,) = L ( x , +bx3 - 0 . 5 -xI3)

~ ~ ~
+ + Ok?, The variables selected to study ride quality were heave, pitch
(3.7) and roll accelerations due to road excitations at each whetl. With
K3p = Ks,, = K., = 35000 N/m , Ks,u = K,, = K , = 38000 N/m ,
where U,, , ukP
, ukdand U,,, are the roll-off frequencies for
B., = B., = B., = 1000 N / ~ sand B , , = BI,,= B,, = 1100 N l d s
the front-left, front-right, rear-left and rear-right spring constants,
respectively. These HPFs are washout circuits like those used in as in the original damping system, and choosing damping roll-off
aircraft control. To realize the HPFs as a state system one may frequencies ub,= wbP= wb,,= wb,, equal to the wheeI frequency
write U,, and spring constant roll-off frequencies
, x (G,
:= -ar, +O.5wx5 -+) uk,= U,,, .= ukd
=U,,, equal to the body frequency (ob&, results
+ @kfl
in improved system performance as seen in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Each
(
= I-- s;;kp)(x, -ax, +0.5WX, -4
figure shows the original Bode plot for passive damping using the
original parameter values given above (solid line), and the new
Bode plot (dotted line) obtained when filtered feedback is
implemented in the inner control loop. The new Bode plot shows
the improvements due to the effects of rolling off of spring
constants at low frequencies, and rolling off of damping
coefficients at high frequencies. Note that such improvements
cannot be obtained using passive damping since active filters are
required. This performance is similar to that in [9] where a
backstepping scheme was used. The roll-off above U, has also
xw, =&(XI +bX, +0.5wx5-x,l)
s + mkd been achieved by other workers using complex mechanical
schemes that involve hanging extra damping masses off the
=( 1 - 5 ) + b%~ +0.5wx5-.ql)
~ unsprung masses. It can be seen that the wheel frequency mode is
an invariant.
Rolling off the spring constants K s p ,K,,,, K s , , Ks,, at
&,, = Z ( x , + b s -o.5wx5 -X,3)
+ uk,, frequencies below the body frequency ubody
reduces disturbance

(
= 1- s p ; k , , ) ( x l +bx3 -o.5wX5
effects at the body vibration modes, but may be undesirable since
the soft springs may hit their travel limits. Soft spring constants
require motion limiting logic (or hard springs at the travel limits)
and define additional states so that as well as ride height control to center the suspension travel
excursions.
i15 = u ~( X,
, -a3 + 0 . 5 -~X, ~- xI5)
~
xWp = X , - ~ X , + O . ~ W X ~ - X , - X , ~ 3.3 Outer Loop Design (Attitude Control)
Performance below the wheel frequency U, can also be
X17 = U ~ , , ( X ~ - M , - ~ . ~ W X ~ - X , - X , , )
improved by using skyhook damping [7]. Skyhook damping is the
X, = X, - 0 . 5 ~ ~ -~x,,
- X, term used to describe the feedback of absolute heave, pitch and
roll velocities of the sprung mass. It is used to generate the heave,
X19 (X,
= ukd + bx3 + 0 . 5 -~x,,~- xI9)
~
pitch and roll equivalent forces. It can be seen from Figs. 3 , 4 and
xWd = X, +b s + 0 . 5 -~X, I ~- x~, ~ 5 that additional low frequency improvements are obtained when
skyhook damping is implemented as an outer control loop along
XZl =uk,,
(xI+bx, - 0 . 5 -x13
~ ~ -x2,)
~
with the filter feedback scheme. These figures show the original
G,,
=X~+~X,-~.~WX~-X,,-X,,. Bode plot (solid line) for passive damping, the Bode plot (dotted
The filtered feedback scheme is shown in Fig. 2. Note that line) when only filtered feedback is implemented in the inner
this scheme cannot be implemented using passive feedback, since control loop and the Bode plot (dashdot line) with filtered
the damping coefficients and spring constants are being feedback in the inner control loop and skyhook damping in the
dynamically filtered. outer control loop. Skyhook damping improves heave, pitch and
The desired damping coefficients and spring constants are roll accelerations at all frequencies below the wheel frequency
provided through the inner feedback loops 0 0.
4022
4 Simulations
In the following results, the system (2.3) was simulated for
three different values of frequency for the input terrain
disturbances zrfl( t ) , zrf, ( t ) , z , (~t ) and zr,, ( t ). We selected
U =8 radsec , U = 57 radsec = U, and w = 150 radsec . The
input terrain disturbances at the rear wheels zq ( t ) and zr,, ( t ) are
relatively identical to the input terrain disturbances at the front
wheels zrJ ( t ) and z,/, ( t ) , except for a pure time delay. We have
defined the input terrain disturbances to be sinusoids given by
zrfl( t ) = A,] sin ( M )
z,,, (t)=A/,sin(wt)
(4.1)
zr,( (t)=A,/sin(w(t+T))
z,, ( t) = A,, sin (w ( t + T))
where w is the terrain disturbance frequency and A,, , A / , , A,!
and A,, are the terrain disturbance amplitudes at the front-left,
front-right, rear-left and rear-right wheels respectively. The time
delay is given by T = L/v = ( a + b ) / v where L is the distance
between the front and rear axles of the vehicle, and v is the speed
at which the vehicle travels. The simulation parameter values were
selected as A,, = A,/ = 0.05 m , Ab = A,, = 0.15 m and
v=22m/s.
From Fig. 6 and 8, it can be seen that active damping
improves heave, pitch and roll accelerations at the low and high
frequencies. Note that a phase shift is introduced by rolling off the
spring constant at low frequencies. Improvement in performance is
also achieved when skyhook damping is added. No significant
improvements are obtained at the wheel frequency as shown in
Fig. 7. These results are consistent with the Bode plots given in
Section 3.
5 Conclusion
An active suspension control approach combining a filtered
feedback control scheme and an "input decoupling
transformation" was proposed for a full-vehicle suspension system
in order to reduce heave, pitch and roll accelerations and improve
ride quality of the vehicle. It was shown that motions of the
sprung mass above and below the wheel frequency could be
mitigated by using active filtering of spring and damping
coefficients through inner control loops (ride controller) plus
skyhook damping of heave, pitch and roll velocities through outer
control loops (attitude controller). Performance of the active
suspension control was demonstrated in simulations.
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'ie-,+\ I'
$ 2;
Figure 1. Model of full-vehicle system.
 Figure 5. Effects of active damping on roll acceleration.

Figure 2. Active filtered feedback control system.

n
-- "4.IWMM.nX
a,
-.a Imm*vltLI.~-

Figure 6. Simulation results for w = 9 radsec

Figure 3. Effects of active damping on heave acceleration.

Figure 7. Simulation results for U = 57 rad/sec

Figure 4. Effects of active damping on pitch acceleration.

Figure 8. Simulation results for U = 150 rad/sec

4024