Development of a new Automotive Active Suspension System
Yousef Abdulhammed
German University in Cairo, Mechatronics Engineering Department, Cairo, Egypt
[email protected]
Prof. Dr Eng. Hisham Elsherif
German University in Cairo, Head of Industrial Automation Department, Cairo, Egypt
[email protected] Abstract. The main objective was to develop a smart new vehicle suspension system that
minimizes the road irregularities impact on the driver. The central idea is based on adding a
new component such as a hydraulic cylinder on a normal passive system to apply a new
passive and active suspension system economically to be wildly used in consumer’s cars with
low prices. The new added components was analytically tested and modeled according to
different parameters. A new test rig was implemented to simulate a real quarter suspension
system. The new suspension model was controlled by feedback controller according to the road
conditions; the controller output controls the cylinder actuator to minimize the road oscillation
and increases the vehicle stability for the passenger. Finally, to maximize the aerodynamics
coefficients of the vehicle during high speeds by controlling the vehicle clearance level from
the ground to achieve full stability, steering and fuel economy.
1. Introduction
Suspension system is the most significant part which heavily affects the vehicle performance and ride
quality. Traditional suspension systems use a combination of sets of springs and sets of dampers to
decrease the vehicle vibration called passive suspension system as shown in figure 1. [1-5]
For the active suspension systems depicted in figure 2 can automatically vary its height to maintain
the vehicle steady have been an active area of research over the last two decades to achieve a better
compromise during varying driving conditions. The active suspension system involves numerous
complex technical problems, such as mechanology, electronics and materials science. [6]
Figure 1. General Suspension System
Figure 2. Active Suspension Systems
An active suspension more effectively and react to the change in speed and while the car is cornering
too, so that to make the ride to be more comfortable and steady, however it is more expensive than the
passive suspension system [7-9].
This paper aims to develop a new suspension system to achieve passive and active suspension system
advantages such as performance efficiency and cost.
2. The Design of the new Suspension System
Passive suspensions as illustrated in figure 3 achieves good ride comfort or good road holding since
these two criteria conflict each other and necessitate different spring and damper characteristics[10-
11].
A significant improvement can be achieved by using of an active suspension system presented in figure 4 which
supplied a higher power from an external source (Hydraulic Cylinder) to generate suspension forces to achieve
the desired performance. The force is a function of several variables which can be measured or remotely sensed
by various sensors, so the flexibility can be greatly increased.
Figure 3. Passive suspension system
Figure 4. The New Designed Active Suspension System
To understand the new suspension system in a fundamental and quantitative way, a mathematical
model shown in figure 5 must be obtained to represent the real world problem in mathematical form
with some simplified assumptions. The mathematical model is also important to make sure that the
new suspension system is controllable and observable.
Figure 5. The New Designed Active Suspension System Mathematical Model
Automotive companies are competing to make more developed cars, while comfort of passengers is an
important demand and everyone expects from industries to improve it day by day. Therefore, in order
to provide a smooth ride and satisfy passengers comfort while maintaining the high performance of a
vehicle designing a modern suspension system is mandatory. A good and efficient suspension system
must rapidly absorb road shocks and then return to its normal position, slowly, during low speeds
however at high speeds the suspension system should increase the stability and performance by
lowering the vehicle’s clearance level from the ground [12-15].
3. Suspension System Control Mechanism
In order to fulfill the objective of designing a new active suspension system i.e. to increase the ride
comfort, road handling, and performance, two control systems are developed.
The first is the disturbance road absorption control system that absorbs the oscillation on the vehicle’s
passenger from the road irregularities to increase the ride comfort. The other is the height adjustment
control system that adjusts the clearance level from the ground of the vehicle according to its speed to
increase the stability and the performance.
The Disturbance Absorption Cylinder control system consists of PID Controller, Ultrasonic Sensor,
and an interface circuit.
The PID Controller input signals are the Ultrasonic Sensor and the Wheel Speed Sensor output signal.
The error signal shown in figure 6 of the PID controller is the difference between the output signal of
the Ultrasonic Sensor to the reference set point. Then according to the calculated error the PID
Controller outputs a signal shown in figure 7 to the disturbance absorption cylinder’s solenoid valve
accordingly through the interface circuit, an Amplifier.
Figure 6. PID Controller error elimination: The blue line is the optimum error signal and the yellow
line is tuned the error of the PID Controller
Figure 7. PID Controller Step Plot: Reference Tracking
The red line is the reference tracking constant meters and the blue line is the tuned response of the PID
controller.
In the new active suspension system the ultrasonic sensor function is to measure the distance from the
damper to the road disturbance absorption cylinder. The Ultrasonic Sensor readings output signal is
shown in figure 9. The position of the ultrasonic sensor on the new suspension system is shown below
in figure 8.
Figure 8. Passive suspension system
Figure 9. Displacement position of m c
In figure 9 the blue line is the optimum position of m c , vehicle’s displacement position which is 1.05
meters and the yellow line is the actual displacement position of the mc , the Ultrasonic Sensor
readings output.
For the Height Adjustment control system, to prove the fact that lowering the vehicle’s height as the
speed increases maximizes the vehicle’s efficiency by decreasing the lift and drag coefficients; three
Solid Works flow simulation tests are performed on a vehicle, shown in figure 10, designed according
to the specifications of the minimum and maximum clearance level from the ground.
Figure 10. Solid Works Flow Simulation Test Vehicle
After applying the flow Solid Work simulation test on the vehicle at different clearance levels from the
ground, comparisons of the lift and drag coefficients are shown in table 1 and in figure 11 to prove
that as the clearance level from the ground decreases the lift and drag coefficients decrease thus
increasing the vehicle’s performance, stability, and fuel economy.
Table 1: Comparison of the Lift and Drag Coefficients for Normal, Mid, and Low Modes
Vehicle’s
clearance level Lift Drag Comparison
from the ground
Normal mode
(clearance 6.5 169.29 266.11 Low
inches)
Mid mode
(clearance 5.5 132.94 262.69 Lower
inches)
Low mode
(clearance 4.8 26.91 176.06 Lowest
inches)
Figure 11. Solid Works Flow Simulation Test Vehicle
The height Adjustment Control System consists of an Arduino Controller, Wheel Speed Sensor, and
an interface circuit.
The Arduino Controller input signal is the wheel speed sensor output signal. This signal is digital
pulses with different frequencies according to the speed of the vehicle function. Then according to this
output signal the Arduino Controller outputs a signal to the disturbance absorption cylinder’s solenoid
valve through the interface circuit, an Amplifier, and a Low pass filter.
In the height adjustment controller, the road disturbance absorption cylinder interface circuit connects
the Arduino to the Directional proportional control valve. The interface circuit consists of an amplifier
and a low pass filter.
4. Conclusion
A unique automotive active suspension system design, control, and implementation was the main
thesis objective, to go through this task, the following research was covered through the thesis
chapters.
Firstly different suspensions were analyzed from pervious researches. According to the variable gain
for the car body velocity and acceleration, the combined suspension system with a hydraulic cylinder
shows the best performance.
Then the PID controller was applied to let the suspension system with hydraulic actuator track the
ideal force generated from the combined suspension system with hydraulic actuator. The performance
of the four states including sprung mass position, velocity, unsprung mass position and velocity are
worked on.
After that the electrical model control is applied to the suspension system with the hydraulic actuator.
The control input is designed based on the model of PID control principle to minimize the tracking
error between the actual force generated by hydraulic actuator and ideal force obtained by the
combined suspension system with hydraulic cylinder.
Finally the practical implementation of the whole new suspension system was tested and compared to
the theoretical results of the passive suspension system and new suspension.
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