Hybrid Modelling and Sliding Mode Control of Semi-Active Suspension Systems for Both Ride Comfort and Road-Holding

Rigorous model-based design and control for intelligent vehicle suspension systems play an important role in providing better driving characteristics such as passenger comfort and road-holding capability. This paper investigates a new technique for modelling, simulation and control of semi-active suspension systems supporting both ride comfort and road-holding driving characteristics and implements the technique in accordance with the functional mock-up interface standard FMI 2.0. Firstly, we provide a control-oriented hybrid model of a quarter car semi-active suspension system. The resulting quarter car hybrid model is used to develop a sliding mode controller that supports both ride comfort and road-holding capability. Both the hybrid model and controller are then implemented conforming to the functional mock-up interface standard FMI 2.0. The aim of the FMI-based implementation is to serve as a portable test bench for control applications of vehicle suspension systems. It fully supports the exchange of the suspension system components as functional mock-up units (FMUs) among different modelling and simulation platforms, which allows re-usability and facilitates the interoperation and integration of the suspension system components with embedded software components. The concepts are validated with simulation results throughout the paper.