Power reduction for an active suspension system in a quarter car model using MPC

Abstract

Active suspension uses a powered actuator to provide real-time control of a suspension system to achieve better ride, comfort, and safety for passengers in a vehicle. This study concerns with the design of control schemes for an active suspension system in a quarter car model. In this paper, a quarter car model is presented, and ISO-based road profiles are used as perturbation for the system. Two control strategies, LQR and MPC with reference tracking have been investigated. Quadratic cost function for both the control schemes is optimized for the state and input variables. Simulation is carried out using MATLAB-SIMULINK and a comparison is presented for the ride index and actuator power. Simulations show considerable improvements in the suspension performance and power demand using MPC in comparison with LQR on two road classes. The performance improvements using MPC provides substantial evidence that indicates a reduction in the power requirements, actuator dimension and weight.