State of the art survey: active and semi-active suspension control

Abstract

This survey paper aims to provide some insight into the design of suspension control system within the context of existing literature and share observations on current hardware implementation of active and semi-active suspension systems. It reviews the performance envelop of active, semi-active, and passive suspensions with a focus on linear quadratic-based optimisation including a specific example. The paper further discusses various design aspects including other design techniques, the decoupling of load and road disturbances, the decoupling of pitch and heave modes, the use of an inerter as an additional design element, and the application of preview. Various production and near production suspension systems were examined and described according to the features they offer, including self-levelling, variable damping, variable geometry, and anti-roll damping and stiffness. The lessons learned from these analytical insights and related hardware implementations are valuable and can be applied towards future active or semi-active suspension design.

Keywords:

• active suspension
• optimal control
• semi-active system
• suspension control

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank their colleagues Li Xu, Vladimir Ivanovic, and Michael Fodor for their valuable input and feedback on this survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.