Design, Analysis and Experimental Validation of a Fractional Order Terminal Sliding Mode Controller on Active Suspension System

ABSTRACT

The vibrations in the vehicles are one of the discomforts to the passengers. The reduction of vibrations is a challenging task in the suspension system of the vehicle. The researchers are proposing different types of control strategies in the active suspension system to reduce the vibration and increase the ride comfort of the passengers. In this paper, Fractional Order Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (FOTSMC) is proposed to reduce the vibration and it is implemented with the Quanser experimental active suspension system (EASS). To validate the performance of the proposed controllers, its performances are compared with FOTSMC, terminal sliding mode controller and sliding mode controller. The designed controllers are tested with four types of road inputs with the Quanser EASS. Furthermore, the ride comfort is analyzed as per the ISO 2631–1 standard and the stability of the Quanser EASS with the designed controllers is tested. The power spectrum density is plotted to test the performance of the deigned controllers in the human-sensitive frequencies. The proposed FOTSMC outperforms other controllers in all aspects of the analysis considered in this paper.

KEYWORDS:

• Fractional order terminal sliding mode controller
• ISO2631
• Quanser experimental active suspension system
• Vibration control

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore for providing laboratory support to the conduct experimental analysis for this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

T. Yuvapriya

T Yuvapriya received her BE electronics and instrumentation engineering degree from Thangavelu Engineering College, Chennai, ME control and instrumentation engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai and she is currently pursuing PhD in EEE Department, College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She published papers in international conferences and journals. Her areas of interest are vibration control, control systems and optimization techniques.

P. Lakshmi

P Lakshmi received her BE from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, masters and PhD degrees from College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai. Presently, she is working as a professor, EEE Department, College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She published papers in many national and international conferences and journals. Her areas of interest are intelligent controllers, process control and power system stability. Email: [email protected]

S. Rajendiran

S Rajendiran received his BTech in electrical and electronics engineering, from Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India, in 1997 and post-graduation in control and instrumentation from Anna University in 2003. He completed PhD from Anna University in 2018, and is currently working as an assistant professor in Pondicherry Engineering College. His research interests are in the areas of vibration control, sliding mode control and intelligent control. Email: [email protected]